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| But I don't want to hear it. |
Yes I know I met you yesterday. And I met you today as well. Or rather, you woke me up from my pleasant snooze, to berate me for falling asleep during your sermon yesterday morning, while praising your god for giving me a 'second chance' to be 'saved'.
First things first Bus Evangelist, I am a Hindu. As is the case with most people of my religious belief, I esteem religion in general, and I am always free and open to talk about it. I am sincere, and non-judgmental towards your beliefs. I openly admire certain things that your people practice, including your disciplined adherence to ritual, and your emphasis on community work.
Is it too much to ask that you reciprocate the same respect? I understand that you are required to save souls under your own religious dogma. But that said- is:
- Criticizing my faith and pointing out what you see as the worst aspects of it based on a cursory glance at cliff notes, crazy televangelists and suicide cults
- Persistently nitpicking on points of theology where we clearly disagree (my Brahman, your Jesus)
- Telling me that I should abandon my old way of life and social circles to embrace your way of life
- Condescending to me
- Informing me that I'm going to go to hell
- Shoving random christian ideas into poorly understood, badly translated versions of Hindu scriptures
- Expecting me to hold your hand and renounce my faith after your 15 minute pitch
the best way of going about it?
At the end of the day, my dear evangelist you may leave with a sense that you've won an argument by showing me how my religion and my beliefs are wrong, but you are definitely not winning this Hindu into your religious dogma.
And please don't mistake my silence as a sign that I'm even agreeing with what you said. My silence had its roots in shock and disgust. From your opening gambit, the frankly nausea inducing proclamation that Hindus worshiping on the banks of the Ganges are actually bathing in the sperm of Shiva to your assertion that Hindu idol worship is the root cause of poverty and disesase in India, and finally your tale of converting an entire village in Kal-nal-taa-ker (its Karnataka you ignorant boob) after a 5 minute sermon had crossed the line from offensive to farcical.
But for future reference, please don't approach me to chat if you want to convert me because I'm not interested. Because the next time, I'm going to say, "Yes I want to be saved-- take me to your church on Sunday"- take down your name and mobile number, and go straight to the Online Citizen. And the cops of course.
Or I may just give in to the dictates of my Dharma (divine law) and pitch you out of the window. What's one minor murder if it will create untold good for future generations of bus passengers?
At least my gods rewarded me for my forbearance, by having you get out of the bus some 10 stops before mine, allowing me to enjoy a 20 minute uninterrupted snooze. They also decided I was in need of a cosmic joke, and sent you to entertain me.
Hey Bhagvaan... I'm having a good laugh. Thank you. I will come to the temple and break 5 coconuts in your son's name. ;)
~deviousDiv
16 comments:
"Ignorant boob"- couldn't have put it any better. :D
My friend was caught by one of these people on the way to the YIH study room IN YIH. This person was not a student. Should this be allowed on campus during exam time when people are at their most vulnerable, and are far more likely to make a not-very-well-thought-out decision to cling on to a certain faith for moral support?
What's wrong with bathing in Shiva's sperm? Don't Catholics eat the body of Christ and drink his blood at mass? When it comes to religion, stupidity attacks indiscriminately.
BTW, the wafer at mass is worse than matzo - could they not develop something tastier?
@Neeti- BTW- the university does not allow evangelizing on campus (we are a secular school) so go ahead and report the person.
In fact- if this person is not a student as you guys suspect you can actually call the cops- because he/she is trespassing.
On a side note, tell your friend that the best response is, "Jesus was a jew- so I'm going to covert to Judaism- Buh-bye"
As for making a rash decision when down- when she comes back up again, she'll regret it, rather than cling to it. Not much of a convert then eh?
~Div
@CY- Who cares if the bodily emissions of god can cleanse our souls? That is just not an image I want in my head before I've had my first dose of caffeine. Urgh
If evangelizing is not allowed, why does NUS (and I am sure other schools here) have a club called Campus Crusade for Christ?
Is it still there?
I campaigned hard as an undergrad to have it removed.
Those cheebyes always used to find me during finals week or mid-terms week and preach. The even had the nerve to preach to a Muslim woman who was happy to take up arms with us.
Hmmph. It appears that all we managed to accomplish is to disallow the group a public cork-board to post group meeting schedules. Dammit. I don't want my youthful illusions burst in such a cruel way. :(
Oh I do not know if they are still there, and if you managed to get them canned, great.
BTW, you realize how subliminally victimizable you (and all of the rest of us pagans) are: you say "they *even* had the nerve to approach a..."
So we have all come to accept that some communities have the right to be more sensitive than others and to be left (more) alone from being offended...
You were unsuccessful. Do you know a good lawyer:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/NUS-Campus-Crusade-for-Christ/345193017393?sk=info
Yeah I thought so too! I wanted to report the person, but my friend said Campus Security and OSA wouldn't care (might also be true).
And the person wasn't a student, he said so. He was sitting in the study room for a while, I was afraid that he was looking for some stressed person to go preach to- if he had done it, rest assured I would have called authority straightaway.
Yup that group is still around, but I don't think they have noticeboards- so yeah you probably succeeded in that. Though nowadays with Facebook... word gets around anyway.
But you see Neeti, if the complainant was as D noted of a persuasion not known to take it lying down, the authorities would care.
Like I've said before you can't live and let live unilaterally, if others don't let you. You can bet that if it had been me in any of these situations, I would have escalated it. One of me would have been laughed at, maybe - but a dozen won't.
If people want to be taken seriously, then they - we - have to show we're serious. I am not suggesting anything stupid, dramatic or illegal - just pressing for my rIght not to be insulted, which is granted with alacrity to others.
Let's face it - most people in "our camp", offended by all this, will roll their eyes at my position and move on. Maybe even you.
We only get what we ask for, no more no less.
Correction - in my earlier reply to N I meant if "just one of you". Appreciate your intent.
@CY- Not offended at all, I see where you're coming from, and maybe I should have done just that. The Office of Student Affairs was just 10 metres away, it would have been easy to inform them. I guess in my exam-related haze, I let it go, but if I'm ever in this situation next time, I won't.
Let me end with a long thought piece on the psychology of communal offense and defense.
Recently, a billboard campaign in the US was taken down due to complaints of anti-Semitism. It went "Christmas quality at Hanukkah prices". I can assure you that most of my Jewish peeps would have laughed hard at the slogan, and it could have been easily a line from, say, a Woody Allen movie. Allen is Jewish. The point is most Jewish people - and I admit I am extrapolating, maybe speculating - would not care about this, but there are organizations like the Anti Defamation League that will not let the smallest perceived transgression slip through, and those very same liberal Jews are likely to be subconsciously glad that it does that. It is about posture, about drawing a line in the sand so far out that people think very hard before trying to figure out where it is, and thus don't come near crossing it. And remember, this is solely defensive - Judaism does not proselytize.
The Danish cartoon saga was another example of a similar attitude that resulted in kid glove sensitivity. Likewise, no one is in any doubt of China's might and its de facto domination - rightly or wrongly - of Tibet or Taiwan, but China bristles reflexively to prove a point, and it works very well at keeping other nations on their toes when it comes to criticizing China.
The above three examples are not to criticize a particular ideology - they are not even all the same, as two were religio-ethnic, one was politico-ethnic - but to show a different pattern: ideologies and peoples which sometimes take (seemingly) absurd positions to defend themselves do fabulously well at it. Let us set aside the rightfulness or wrongness of these examples and look at what is emulable - in two words, it is "doing something".
This goes for offense as well. I have friends and colleagues who do not bat an eyelid telling me in person or posting on Facebook about their latest mission trip. Implied in that statement is the position that "My belief is superior to that of those I seek to convert (including yours) and I will proselytize. I feel no shame, in fact somehow I have a right to be proud". If my friend can be so open about their religious intentions in a secular setting, one would think I should be able to post a comment on their wall and say "Buddy, you may be my friend, but I find it offensive that you are doing exactly what, say European colonists, did in the name of superiority of race or religion, and therefore is equally reprehensible". We've seen this movie and let us just count the casualties: Meso-American cultures, Native American cultures, aboriginal cultures in general across the Americas, Africa and Australia to name a few.
But we know that the instant I express my view on his/her religion I will be a pariah, even he/she is getting away with it.
Why these double standards, these different lines in the sand? Because we allow it. Jews for a long time were passive and came to the verge of extinction. It was only after Israel was created and Hagana and Eli Weisel and all those things that they fought back and over decades they have redrawn the lines that everyone else - Europeans, Arabs, Ottomans, Persians - had drawn for centuries.
We too can, the pagan and atheistic collective persecuted by well-funded and unapologetic aggressors. We just have to try. Every small act therefore counts.
well the atheists haven't been quiet from what I hear. Just read about how The Freedom From Religion Foundation took offense with a nativity scene displayed outside a courthouse in downtown Athens, Texas.
The foundation apparently said, either remove the scene, or put up a sign next to the Baby Jesus' crib that would read:
“At this season of the winter solstice may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”
I like that statement tremendously I must say. ;)
~deviousDiv
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