Freedom of Religion

1. There is doubt & debate within the Hindu community, about the conversion enterprise of the Christian Missionaries. Concepts of freedom of religion, civil liberties, and constitutional rights are all under review. These are not remote or abstract concepts, they outline practical problems & the challenges that we Hindus face. We Hindus desire to live in peace with Non-Hindus, even though we & our Hinduism are reviled daily by Non-Hindu religions & dressed down by our Phoney-Liberal politicians. Phony-Liberal politicians claim to be secular, but they are really not secular, they are pseudo-secular & beggars of vote & power. That is why they practice the game of vote-bank politics.

2. What exactly is the freedom of religion ? Freedom of religion implies not only the freedom to practice one's own religion, but the duty to respect the freedom of all other people, to practice their own faiths. When any group breaks this rule, it sets in motion a whole set of un-dignified & unsavory consequences. Organized religions, such as Islam & Christianity ( Note: Islam & Christianity are really not religions, they are ideologies ), have become totally oblivious & indifferent to this basic rule of freedom. This is due to, their ideology of expansion, as a result of which they are strongly committed to seek power & influence, to enable them to control things in the world. Because of this expansion-objective, religion to organized religions has become an industry, a big business enterprise rather than a vocation, and like all big businesses, is driven by profit-motive. Acquisition of X number of converts means that much more new wealth, that much more profit. Harvesting of souls ( a term used by the Pope ) means harvesting of profit, and increase in the number of followers of Christianity ( likewise Islam ). That is why they are always looking for fresh pastures.

A Short History of Christianity

The Christian mission equates the expansion of Christianity in different parts of the world with the march of the Holy Spirit. The history of Christianity helps us in understanding what the Holy Spirit really stands for-the march of European military machines, the forcible occupation of other people's motherlands, the massacre of heathens or their conversion at the point of the sword, the exercise of political pressures by imperialist establishments, the use of money and manpower and the mass media on a large scale, and the perfection of a scholarship which excels in suppressio veri suggestio falsi (suppressing truth and spreading falsehood). Christianity was a state enterprise for all European countries, some of which became imperialist powers from the sixteenth century onwards. The record of Christianity over the last nearly two thousand years provides no evidence that it ever prevailed over paganism by the moral or ethical or spiritual superiority of its teachings.

Origins of Secularism

The real secularism was born in France to stop Christian aggression and not to help its ferocious expansion. How was born originally this idea in France?On 9 th December 1905, a law was passed in France with the sole aim of separating the church and the state. Prior to this law, State funded churches and helped them financially. Like many European nations, France had a long tradition of government-established religion. Through out much of the nation's history, the Roman Catholic Church received official preference. But, the luxurious life led by some of church's clergy showed that they had lost touch with the needs of the common person and this gap was at the origin of an anti-clerical backlash. This law is the essence of French principle called "laiciité". Translating it as "secularism" may not be quite correct. Because, in India secularism tends to tarnish exclusively the image of only one religion: Hinduism. But, in France, secularism was born in reaction to the ever-growing Christian interference in the social and political realms of the nation. This law states solemnly that "The Republic neither recognizes, nor salaries, nor subsidizes any religion". The 1905 law ended state endorsement and direct funding of religious groups. Another important point is it prevents intervention of VATICAN in the internal matters of France. Arisitide Briand, author of the law, succeeded in negotiating an agreement with Vatican to let the French government name its own diocesan bishops. We need to erect a legislative fortress inspired by this courageous attempt of the French in preventing the Christian Church from spreading it's tentacles in the political domain, against the continuous onslaught of Christians. But, even this separation is incomplete because French government pays, even today, salaries of teachers in private religious schools. But, the idea of "laicité" got deeply entrenched in the French mind and became stronger than ever with the country's present constitution adopted in 1958 which contains a guarantee of secularism which the French call "laicité". It states, "France shall be an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic. IT should ensure the equality of all citizens before the law, without distinction of origin, race or religion." Thus the monopole of catholic religion was dismantled by the proposal of a "neutral nation" which gives more importance to the freedom of conscience.Thus, the French used the concept of "secularism" to break the backbone of Christianity in France.