Home > 2009 Issues > November 08, 2009

Spreading evangelism through gossip From Bharat Kumar in Guwahati While taking treatment at Ernakulam, Kerala, I had a discussion with Shri ED Paul who is a resident of Kerala, aged about 60 years. He was in New Jersy, USA for seven years and was attending weekly church services in Malayalam language (of Kerala) there. He revealed that there were three churches in New Jersy (in his locality) and each of them was headed by a priest from Kerala, because the American churches don’t find White men to become priests. So the American churches are calling Fathers and Sisters from India to take care of their churches there. He said, "there are only a few to attend weekly church services and so, the churches are being converted into clubs and toga centres." I asked him about preservation of culture by the Christians in Kerala. He said, "as our forefathers were all Hindus, we practice everything. We are Hindus by blood; we have to follow our traditions. We read Ramayana, Mahabaharata and Gita to learn the knowledge therein. I have grown old now, not thinking much of such things. To my knowledge there was a circular from Pope to follow local culture and traditions. We are having such things in our church also. We put earthen pot with rice and coconut on it as a sign of well-being and prosperity." "Though we are getting old but our progeny will be surviving here, so we should show them a true path", I said. Mr. Paul said, "you see all of us have got converted from Hinduism only; we are not Christians from Europe or America. Originally we were Hindus by blood." I said, "you have a good emotion; but you see if the church is not allowing the natives to follow their own culture and traditions, then people are bound to leave the church. Now there is a call from the Mother Culture world-wide, which marks a symbol of identity. In India, nobody wants to give up his identity as it has happened in western countries where church destroyed everything. People don’t even know what they were previously. We should not think that church has developed a liking for it. It is a compulsion for its own survival as a religious sect. But we should be cautious of the western lifestyles that are invading our Indian society through church and its culture here."

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