Uncategorized

On August 7, 2010, some “devout” Muslims in Badakhshan, Afghanistan dragged 10 Christians out of their vehicle, robbed them and shot them one by one. The victims of this brutal “spirituality” included three women. They were returning from mountainous Nuristan after completing an eye-camp for poor Muslims. The ladies had joined the medical team to make it possible for Muslim women to receive treatment without having to see a male doctor, nurse or translator. They were “guilty” of walking miles and miles in hilly terrain, offering free treatment and surgery to those who suffered from various eye-diseases. The murderers did not blame their victims of converting Muslims, because everyone knew that they did not convert anyone. The Christians were blamed for carrying Persian (Farsi) Bibles! It was their Christ-like, self-sacrificing service that became a serious threat to Islam. I knew two of the victims – Dan Terry and Tom Little. They were the team leaders. Our daughters studied with theirs and for two years our families lived next door. I talked more with Dan because he was more talkative. Dan, 64, first went to serve Afghanistan in 1971, much before the Soviet invasion or the Taliban takeover. Their organization, International Assistance Mission (IAM), was registered with the Afghan government as a Christian group. It had signed the “Principles of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Response Programmes”. One of these “Principles” stipulates that aid will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint. IAM was strict about following the “No Preaching” policy. That is why many Muslims invited them to their towns and villages and protected them. The team travelled unarmed and without security. Why would devout Muslims fear such dedicated public servants? Dan explained the puzzle to me: “We do not preach,” he said, “but everyone knows that we serve because we follow Christ. Therefore, many intelligent Afghans come to us privately and say, ‘Our land is under a curse – the curse of Islam. We want freedom to seek truth. But we are kept in bondage at gun-point.’”  Opposition to Truthseeking  So, why does Islam deny individuals the freedom to seek and find truth? It is because Islam is not public truth. It is based on private revelations of an individual and private revelations cannot be cross-examined.  Even though four centuries after Christ, Roman paganism injected intolerance and bigotry into the church, Christianity was able to resist it and institutionalize religious liberty because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a private revelation: It is public truth; many eye-witnesses saw Jesus die for our sin and rise again. But why is Hindutva scared of giving to individuals the freedom to investigate truth and choose their own religious or non-religious beliefs? Why does it see individual liberty as a grave political threat to its existence?  Through an advertisement in Hindustan Times (July 27, 2010, Page 4) the Law Commission of the Government of India has notified the public that it is considering a national legislation on conversion. Some people suspect that the legislation under consideration may be a subtle avatar of the law that was first proposed in late 1970s, during Morarji Desai’s rule, to restrict an Indian individual’s freedom to choose his or her faith. The Commission, however, says that its primary reason for considering this legislation is a formal request by Kerala High Court. The court has found it difficult to resolve divorce cases that involve inter-religious marriages. For example, if a Hindu marries a Muslim, should the divorce be according to Hindu Marriage Act or Muslim Marriage Act? The High Court feels that resolving such cases will be simplified if one of the spouses “legally” converts to another’s faith. The problem is: requiring truth-seekers to file legal papers declaring their new faith will endanger their businesses, inheritance and even life. If a Brahmin woman filed legal papers that she had become a Muslim, Hindutva forces might even start a riot. Kerala High Court’s suggestion then may solve a few technical problems in a private case, but create umpteen public problems.  The Truth Behind Myths So, why is Hindutva so opposed to our religious liberty?  I understood Hindutva’s problem during a winter vacation in Tamil Nadu. We were visiting the world-famous Meenakshi temples in Madurai. Our guide was enjoying lecturing to us, since our host, the principal of a local woman’s college and her daughter, had accompanied my wife, our young (minor) daughters and me. After learning much about the grandeur of ancient Hindu religion, culture and architecture, I asked the guide, “Isn’t this a tantric temple? Isn’t this a platform where sexual orgies would have happened in this holy temple?” The guide blushed and took me away from the ladies. He began to point out the mini erotic sculptures that are easy to miss seeing in that huge temple complex. “This temple had bigger and better erotic sculptures than Khajuraho,” said the guide, “but they have been vandalised and stolen. Yes, that platform is where the priests and royalty had sexual orgies with devadasis (female “slaves of gods”). I left the temple saying to myself, “Indian women have such a strong sense of modesty: how did these brahmacharis (celebate priests) get the women to have sex with them in public?” From Madurai we went to Madras (now Chennai) to see the famous Mylapore temple. Before we got off the bus, the guide told us the story behind the temple: “Shiva and Parvati were sitting here. A peacock came and Parvati got distracted. Shiva was angry and cursed Parvati. Immediately, she became a peacock. She was terrified and began to worship Shivalingam (Shiva’s penis) morning and evening, until Shiva was pleased and turned her back into a woman.” “What a crazy story!” was my spontaneous reaction, “Why would anyone build such a magnificent temple to commemorate such an absurd story?”  It so happened that I was using that winter vacation to read Greek philosopher Plato’s famous book Republic. On the way from Madurai I

Raise a New Generation of Nation-Builders Imagine . . . 100,000 churches in America Invite students to come to Church, Monday to Friday, for 2-4 Years, To get an Accredited, Online A.A. or B.A. in Nation-Building At 1/3 the Cost of a Private College  INTRODUCTION What if students were able to receive A.A. (Associate of Arts) or B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) in Nation-Building through a unique program designed to equip them to think critically about their culture, seek truth, and walk with God as they discover their calling and develop their potential to become servant-leaders in their professions and communities? What if this curriculum were developed by specialists with help from some of the world’s leading thinkers who understand how ideas transform individuals and societies? What if this curriculum were offered largely online and administered by accredited colleges and universities qualifying students to get into technical schools or postgraduate studies almost anywhere in the world. What if local churches served as extension centers for universities, bringing students under the guidance of Academic Pastors and visiting experts? What if they became intentional about developing students’ minds and leadership skills as well as their character and compassion? What if this high-quality degree program were offered for a third of the cost of traditional university degrees, opening the door of college education to multitudes of students who otherwise might be deprived of the opportunity to become the best that they could be? What if every college student was required not only to study, but to serve the broken and needy in his or her community under the supervision of a local church? What if the program encouraged and enabled students to go as student missionaries to another continent for one or more semesters. What would be the long-term impact of such a program on the lives of students, host churches, communities, and the nation? How would America be changed as a new generation of nation-builders begins to exert influence in every sphere of society? Half of America is Protestant, yet the Supreme Court does not have a single Protestant Judge– let alone an evangelical!  Why? Because Pessimistic, Premillinial Dispensationalism decided that we were living in the age of Grace and Spirit, not law. Therefore, evangelical colleges did not even have law faculties during most of the 20th century. Evangelical missiology was not interested in saving America.  At present over 100 Christian colleges are discipling a total of 200,000 students per year. This program would enable American Church to disciple 4.5 million students per year [100,000 churches, enrolling 15 students each for (2 or) 4 years means 100,000 x 15 x 3 = 4,500,000) What would it take to make this dream a reality? Vision To see America renewed as new generations of students become servant leaders with a commitment to see God’s will done in their lives as well as on earth. Plan Need Impact Young people will be equipped to take up responsible roles in their preferred vocations with a view to reforming and building their nation, starting with their families, churches and communities, and ultimately influencing every sphere of society in ways that are consistent with godly character, wisdom, and a biblical worldview. They will then go out to bless all the nations of the earth. Local churches will become primary centers for learning and cultural development where students as well as communities discover transforming truth. As such, the church will regain its God-ordained role as God’s agent in the advancement of His Kingdom. Higher education will be impacted as increasing numbers of students opt out of conventional universities in favor of this program. There are three principal incentives for this decision. First, the program will offer a quality education specifically designed to prepare young people to be nation-builders—to follow Christ in every area of life and society. Second, rather than taking up residence in a university environment marked by hedonism and moral decadence, students will learn in the context of their host families and local churches where character development and principles of biblical self-government will be prioritized. Third, because the degree program will be administered online, tuition fees will be significantly less than those of most conventional residential universities, thus opening the door of access for many not otherwise able to afford a college degree.  Students will come to the participating university campuses for short periods for specific training that cannot be imparted on line or in their local environment. The Nation will be positively impacted as a new generation of Christ-like, courageous, self-governing and self-giving leadership, armed and equipped with secular knowledge and biblical principles for nation-building, assumes responsibility in every area of society.  Project Development Phase 1 – Build a Grassroots Movement Create a virtual community on www.RevelationMovement.com that will mobilize prayer and pledge financial support to sustain a core team devoted to revolutionizing American education. Generate a grassroots movement by establishing Transform America Study Groups (TASGs) and supplying resources for their weekly meetings. Identify competent advisors and stakeholders in several areas, including:  denominational and local churches, higher education, and donors/investors. Solicit their input and involvement. Refine plan and prepare for Phase 2 by beginning work on the curriculum, identifying and preparing selected churches, colleges and universities that will train Academic Pastors and administer the program. Prepare a manual for Academic Pastors Prepare a long-range plan (though 2030).  Frequently Asked Questions:  Q: Why work with local churches? A: The Church’s Founder commissioned her to “Go . . . and make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”  Since teaching is central to making disciples, education is an inescapable part of the church’s mandate. In the West, education (religious as well as secular) was once exclusively the church’s domain. Martin Luther – a university professor as well as religious and social reformer) urged Christian nobility and merchants to help educate the masses because he felt that his contemporary church (by itself) could not fulfill the divine mandate to educate all. Unfortunately, now public education has become the domain of the state, and secular pluralism has made it impossible for public education to remain faithful to what is true, beautiful, good

Part –I: Thy kingdom come . . . in America Part – II: Your Church Can Disciple America Part – III: A Doable Proposal Part – IV: America’s failed god needs retirement  Last week Ruth and I were on our way to Northfield, MA, to pray with Campus America on D. L. Moody’s campus, now being developed by my prayer-partner Dr. Stan Mattson as the C. S. Lewis College. We were inspired by Trent Sheppard’s powerful book God on Campus (IVP 2009) to pray for the campuses of America. Among other things the book tells the story of how in 1886 a student led prayer conference on that campus began America’s greatest missionary movement. Driving from Boston to Northfield we passed the exit for Harvard University and then stopped in a small town for dinner. The headline in the local newspaper said that the police had busted a prostitution ring. Among those arrested were five prostitutes: Three of whom were “homeless” young women! The newspaper did not say that this homelessness was after more than a trillion dollars spent by American banks and Wall Street corporations such as AIG, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to fight homelessness in America; after secular capitalism’s compassion that sent the world into recession through liberal financing of homes for the homeless; after Wall Street had surrendered completely to secular economists, managers and lawyers that graduated from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford MIT etc. Indeed, America (and the world) needs to save these corrupt financial institutions and corrupting academic institutions: here’s how your church can help save America.  Part II – Your Church Can Disciple America “I feel as if I’m sending my teenage boy to live, not in a college, but in a red-light district,” complained Anne. “But why do you have to send him to that college?” I was curious.  “Well,” answered Anne’s husband, Ted, “my grandfather was one of the founders. He built a steel factory here to supply the railways. He made a small fortune and built our church and that college. He believed that in order to build our nation it was more important to build churches and colleges than to build railways, which would be replaced by another mode of transportation anyway.” “Ted’s father,” added Anne, “was the chairman of the college board when we studied there. He became a pioneer in making our city the Mecca of medical equipment. He wasn’t trained for it, but stumbled into that line after the railways went out of business and steel had no market.” “Anne’s father also served on the college board,” Ted added. “He was a pastor, and the college belonged to our denomination.”  “My parents,” Anne continued the story, “had no problem sending their daughters to the college. All my siblings graduated from there. That’s why we want John to continue our family tradition. The college still has a good reputation, especially in sports . . . but things have also changed.” “Sexual permissiveness is not my primary concern,” Ted said, distancing himself from his wife’s thinking. “We’ve made our mistakes, and the children will make theirs. Hopefully they’ll learn, as did we. I have done stupid things. Anne and I have had our struggles like every other couple, and our failings have hurt our children. They know our weaknesses, but John doesn’t seem to appreciate God’s grace that made it possible for us to repent, forgive, and grow together as a family.”  “Then why are you reluctant to send John there?” Anne asked. “My problem,” Ted explained, “is that the college no longer turns the hearts of the children to their fathers. It undermines the important values of marriage and family. In our day the college promoted missions. Now, legalizing same-sex marriage seems to be the most important mission on campus. I’m not homophobic. My complaint is that the college no longer builds character, virtues and skills that are necessary for succeeding as a family, a business, or a nation.” “John is a born manager—” Anne tried to turn the conversation in a positive direction, but Ted interrupted.  “Management is in his genes. However, my father always said that managerial leadership is not merely talent and skills. It’s also character. Your team, your clients, your church, your family have to be able to trust that you’ll always act in the interest of your common vision and mission; that you’ll put people above profits; that you’ll act justly and love mercy. Your team will follow you if they know that you’re for them. When you have to act against one of them, the rest of the team doesn’t need to know all the reasons; they have to have the confidence that you discipline your subordinates only because you walk the path of righteousness and expect your team to do the same. That’s lovin’ your neighbor as yourself. That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Your team and your community tend to trust you when they know that you are following the Lord with a clean conscience. That’s what made American management so successful and attractive, but these days education discourages children from trusting and following the Lord. No wonder the world is losing its confidence in our banks, institutions, and economy! Our managers are more educated than ever, but colleges no longer care about character. The church does, but the university drives students away from the church.” “That’s the issue,” Anne said, putting the finger on the problem. “It will cost us $100,000 to see John through that college. This money will come from a family trust that Ted’s mother created when John was born. But we’re afraid this money will be spent only to help John lose his faith and the values that have been important to our family and its success. In Africa, $100,000 might see several dozen kids through college. Are we being wise stewards? John’s grandmother was very strict. She never would’ve given her money to send her grandchildren to the red-light district.”  “Surely the professors know,” I said to the couple, “that

Why Are We Backward? Part XIV  Every Indian’s heart should bleed for Kashmir. As I write this article, innocent blood is once again flowing on the streets of Srinagar, taking the total number of casualties (civilian, militants and Forces) to around 80,000 since 1988. Families are desperate: Many had borrowed money to get ready to serve the anticipated 350,000 pilgrims-tourists. They were looking forward to earning honest money, repaying their debts and moving one step FORWARD by investing surplus income in their homes, businesses and state. Instead, the streets are deserted; houseboats are empty; enraged locals are indoors; while a few of their neighbors battle 500,000 Indian soldiers. Everyone is mourning the fact that the state is moving backwards.  In June I was in Srinagar when the current tourist season began. Among other engagements, I gave a lecture at the University’s postgraduate department of Business Management on the question: Does Hindu Capitalism have a Future? Bollywood could have made Kashmir its number one destination for outdoor filming. That alone would have drawn all the capitalists that my students would want to meet. But given what we have done to keep Kashmir backward, Bollywood invests all its black money in Switzerland. In Srinagar, my most moving encounter was with Mr. Verma. I was climbing up the steep steps of the 1000 feet high Shiva Temple – the most spectacular “High Place” in Srinagar. It is called Takht-e-Suleiman (The Throne of Solomon). Mr. Verma, an average, educated businessman was coming down. Yet, he stopped to catch his breath. Clutching his heart with his right hand, he explained his embarrassment: “I do not have one lung. Your lung holds your heart; but my heart is hanging. Therefore, I am not allowed to climb steps. I had to climb this hill because they say that you will not earn all the available merit from this pilgrimage unless you pay homage at this shrine. I want better karma for my next life. Therefore, I had to ignore my cardiologist and take this risk.” I could not help but respect Mr. Verma’s deep devotion. But, to be honest, I was also furious at the myths that enslave our people. Takht-e-Suleiman is magnificent. A revolving restaurant on top along with ski facilities for winter will bring all the tourists Srinagar wants. That brief encounter with Mr. Verma explained why most of the Kashmir Valley had renounced Hinduism and converted to Islam by the 17th century. The Shiva Temple became a side show a century ago when a Muslim shepherd discovered the 60 feet long, 30 feet wide and 15 feet high Amarkantak cave 12,729 feet above sea level. The cave about 86 miles northeast of Srinagar, is now the prime pilgrimage site where our people go to worship the Shiva-lingam (Shiva’s penis), made of natural ice. The penis “pulsates”. Every month it increases and decreases in size, apparently following the monthly cycle of the moon. Why would devotees donate hundreds of millions of rupees annually for the privilege of worshipping a penis, whether made of ice or stone? The power is in the myth.  Lord Shiva is an eternal Brahmachari (celibate) and therefore he does not have a wife. Parvati is his “consort” or sex-partner who helps awaken his enormous sexual energy called Kundalini, symbolized by hooded cobras. Sitting in this cave, Parvati urged Shiva to explain why she had to die while he was immortal (=Amar). Shiva said that the story of immortality is too long. But Parvati sat down, determined to listen. Shiva closed his eyes in meditation and summoned the demon Kalagni Rudra. He ordered the demon to burn up all living things within audible distance to ensure that no one hears the secret of immortality. The story was really long, but Parvati kept saying “hun” (yes) until she fell asleep. A parrot appeared from under Shiva and began to mimic Parvati’s “hun.” When Shiva opened his eyes he asked Parvati if she now knew the secret of immortality. “No,” She said, “I fell asleep.” “Who then was saying ‘hun’?” Shiva was enraged at the prospect that someone mortal may have heard the secret reserved for gods. The parrot realized that he was in trouble and flew off. As Shiva chased the parrot, it found the wife of Vyasdev sitting at the entrance of her cottage with her “mouth” open. The parrot flew into her and she became pregnant. She gave birth to Shukradev who was born with the knowledge of the secret of immortality. The sages gathered around Shukradev, flattered and pressed him to tell them the secret. Once he agreed, the gods became extremely nervous. They urged Shiva to prevent Shukradev from this reckless act of revelation. Shiva too was angry, but how could he kill someone who received the secret of immortality from Shiva himself. The best that Shiva could do was to put a curse: “No one who hears the secret will become immortal. He will only enter Shivlok – the realm of Shiva’s (sexual) bliss.”  I did see the inside of the temple, but decided to sit outside, on the “Throne of Solomon” and meditate as I took in the breath-taking beauty. I didn’t need a guru to explain the myth. The puzzle that I wanted to figure out was: Why is this “High Place” called the Throne of Solomon? It is of course possible that the mountain is named after a local Muslim nobleman called Suleiman. But history records no such nobleman; Also, the High Place has had that name from before Islam came into existence. Is it then possible that some Jews travelled up the Silk Route and settled in that beautiful valley, naming that mountain after one of their most famous kings? Against the commands of God, Solomon had also made shrines for his pagan wives some of whom may have belonged to fertility cults. The theory that some inhabitants of Kashmir were originally Jews is a strong possibility. The Bible records that after Israel split into two nations the ten northern tribes of

35th Wedding Anniversary Reflections on Theistic Evolution  Frank, an intimate American friend, is a brilliant neo-evangelical. He has been trying to evolve my simplistic faith that God made Adam and Eve to a more sophisticated theory of theistic evolution. Why? Because highly respected, born-again, scientists such as Francis Collins advocate the God-directed-gradual-evolution of man from lower species. During a long and lonely flight from Delhi to Los Angeles on June 21, 2010, when I was more or less asleep and trying hard to stop thinking, I told Frank that if he wanted me to follow his “scientific” faith then he had to first convince my wife and my daughters. I was mostly asleep when I heard him trying to convince my wife, who responded to him by saying: Look I don’t know anything about Theistic Evolution. But I’d like to know which god is directing evolution? And why did he stop? I can’t believe that the loving, kind and almighty God of the Bible has been guiding evolution because I don’t see your friend evolving. In fact, sometimes it feels that he may be getting harder to live with. Frank, being a faithful friend, tried to cover me: Your husband must be good at camouflaging his character because I haven’t noticed any devolution.  You’d know better, if you had to live with him. He is not loyal to me. When I say white, he always says black. So what? When both our daughters are also seeing something as white, and he still insists that it is black, then how do you expect me to believe that he is evolving into wisdom? May be he has not evolved as much as you have. But why give up on him? Given enough time he may evolve to a point where he sees things as clearly as you see them. He is a hypocrite. He doesn’t just insist that white is black. He actually thinks that I am stupid because I say white. That really hurts. But how does that make him a hypocrite? Shouldn’t he say black when he sees black? He is a hypocrite because immediately after suggesting that my perception is wrong, (i.e. I am stupid), he goes on to assert that he loves me with all his heart; that I am his sweetheart; that he is totally devoted to me. How could God be evolving a hypocrite? If God was guiding my husband’s evolution, he would be humble. But he insists that he has the authority to say white or black because he is the head of our house. Do your daughters agree with your perception? Absolutely! Just three weeks ago he was on his way to our older daughter’s home in North India. He hadn’t seen two of her four children for two years. Yet, our daughter had to tell him not to come. She is so scared of him. She knows what an insensitive monster he can be. And you know what? Your friend even agreed to cancel his trip. He went only because I told him that he had to go and love his daughter. In the end, of course, she was very pleased that he spent a week with her. So, what’s her problem with him? My daughter’s husband is even more difficult than mine. And she feels so frustrated that her father would support her husband instead of supporting his own flesh and blood. His support for her husband encourages him to be mean to her. Her husband is a pastor but shows no sign of mature leadership. In what way? In everything she has to lead proactively, otherwise nothing gets done. But her husband doesn’t follow her. Frank was lost. He had no clue how to answer. So he turned back to me. His exasperated looks inquired: What do you have to say about your serious character flaws? Yes, I have often been at odds with my beloved women. But today is my 35th wedding anniversary. So, for matrimonial harmony as well as for the sake of intellectual integrity, at least today I have to say white. I have to follow my wife into questioning your theory of God-controlled-and-directed evolution. Don’t be ridiculous, Frank was beginning to lose his patience. Intellectual integrity means following the evidence, not your heart or your love. I’m following my sweetheart because she has described our problem accurately. More than once I have wounded her by insisting that something was black, when it was white. But sometimes she was actually right and the disputed subjected was in fact white even though it took me years to come around to see that her perception was right. In those instances, my poor wife has had to put up with my follies for years; all the time loving me, serving me, and being loyal to me even when I kept arguing that it was black. But your wife is no scientist. She just admitted that she doesn’t even know what Theistic Evolution is. Wait a minute! My wife dived back into the discussion: I don’t know what observing genes taught Francis Collins. But I’ve not only observed my husband for thirty-five years I have endured his foolishness, stubbornness, anger and insensitive tongue. Does that not count as observation of facts? Okay! So what? Those facts make it much easier to believe the Bible that man has fallen – not evolved. Often the forces at work in your friend seem to be demonic, not divine. It is much more rational to believe that the devil has been guiding and directing man’s devolution? Exasperated, Frank turned to me again. Look man (I had to respond even though I was really asleep), my wife has solid grounds for doubting that God is guiding my evolution. Given what your “Evolution” has done to me, God is someone I desperately need. I believe that I am a fallen, not evolving, creature because so often I have to cry out to God for His forgiveness, His grace, His Word, His Spirit and His Church so that I

Obama IS Trapped… But He Can Become a Great President ? Ghana dashed America’s hopes for World Cup! As a disappointed President watched the game last Saturday, his PR team may have breathed a sigh of relief: the loss in football diverted the attention away from the much greater loss of his leadership of the G-20 and G-8 nations. Obama had gone to Canada with great confidence. House and Senate Democrats stayed up the night before his departure finalizing 2,000-page bill to reform America’s financial sector. Media outlets hailed their achievement as Obama’s second biggest legislative success after Health Care Reform. The president looked forward to a triumphant return to sign that bill into law prior to the Fourth of July weekend. The bill is an admission that America’s Secular Capitalism has become a moral-economic mess. Given his falling popularity at home, the President needed the world’s leading economies to endorse his strategy of injecting more money to increase consumption, demand and therefore production. This will stimulate the sluggish economy, create more wealth, increase tax revenues, and (if everything goes well) reduce the deficit. His European allies, however, were already dizzy from gazing into a terrifying abyss. They realize that one wrong pass could send the euro, if not the EU itself, tumbling into the dustbin of history. They are more anxious than Obama to try and prevent the Third Global Depression, after 1873 and 1929-31. Therefore, they could not fathom why President Obama can’t understand that our times call not for more Government spending but for reigning in the political-bureaucratic beast; for tightening the belt; for slashing spending and deficits, if not for also lowering taxes. As a disappointed Obama returned home, he had several reasons to be scared: Obama is strong: he could have borne the insult of a world doubting his ability to understand our economic crisis. The problem is, now his buddies are questioning his intellectual aptitude. They are scared that he might yield to Glen Beck’s Conservatism and abort their opportunity to stimulate the economy, serve the poor and save the planet. Therefore, these compassionate liberals denied their deflated President even a Sabbath rest. The New York Times used Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman to pressure Obama to disregard the world’s economic common sense and find more money for liberals to spend. After all, they sent him to the White House to regulate Wall Street; not to reign in their ambitions to save the world. Obama is trapped: you may disagree with Professor Krugman’s prescription, but you have to concede that his analysis could be correct; we may have entered the first stage of a Depression. A dear friend of mine is 53. He is single, skilled, capable, responsible – and unemployed. His unemployment benefits have been renewed three times. Now he has received the notice that he is no longer eligible for an unemployment check (unless Obama comes through with another stimulus package).  What is Depression? Unemployment, indebtedness, and hopelessness are descriptive words; suicide is an irreversible and tragic end. In my country of India thousands of peasant farmers commit suicide every year. Others sell their children into sexual slavery. Unemployed youth form gangs, if not militias. Ordinary people go rioting and looting. That is economic Depression. Obama cares. He would like to help my unemployed friend. His problem is: how to find the money to help my friend and millions like him? For centuries America’s education, character, work-ethic, inventiveness, entrepreneurship and adventurous spirit generated the wealth that cared for the poor around the world. During the last few decades, America’s secular compassion was also able to care for the poor because it turned Wall Street into history’s greatest gambling casino. First, the casino lured Saudi Sheikhs into paying for America’s poor. They exchanged oil for dollars, but since Islam neither developed modern banking nor a predictable political system, the Sheikhs invested their dollars into the glitter of gambling casinos on Wall Street and the World Trade Center. Al-Qaeda hated this cozy arrangement especially because it was not the free market, but American military that protected the oppressive status-quo in the Middle-East. Easy wealth from the Gulf enabled Americans to reject their own soul – the Bible and the inventive-productive culture it had created. Notions such as “Whoever does not work should not eat” seemed outdated because Casinos make it possible for a few to fan covetousness in many so that they can play golf and eat luxuriously. Why should smart Americans work if the Indians can answer the calls? And why should they sweat, invent and manufacture if others can sweat and make things they need? Why should Americans create the wealth to serve the poor if the Chinese can be conned into investing $650 billion in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae . . . to provide homes to America’s homeless? Prof. Krugman should worry: He is about to lose his most important follower, Barack Obama.  He should be upset because even if Obama remained a believer, come November “stupid” American voters will deprive the President of his legislative power to practice liberal, debt-ridden, Saudi/Chinese-financed compassion.  Obama’s Economic Trap It is sad to see Obama’s supporters, such as Rolling Stone, back-stab him when he needs them the most. They think he is incompetent, while in reality he is trapped on multiple fronts: economically, he is trapped between his buddies who want him to spend more and the voters who no longer trust Government spending. If he follows Krugman he will lose voters: If he loses votes he will lose his buddies. Obama needs the money to spend, but his Financial Regulation Bill is sending a clear message that America’s financial sector is no longer worthy of world’s trust. True, the bill is promising to regulate Wall Street. But the non-western world is already acquainted with corrupt politicians regulating corrupt businessmen. Having outsourced inventing, manufacturing and serving, America has little to sell besides dollars and bonds. But what is a dollar or a Government issued bond? It is a mere piece paper with a promise. Who can trust the

Why Are We Backward? – Part XI Knowing English language can get one a job but the best of English literature can eradicate our backwardness Many Indians think that Shakespeare’s Romeo is like Laila’s Majnu, driven crazy by erotic love (in Greek, a language that distinguishes between different types of “love”, the word for “sexual love” is Eros). The reality is that Shakespeare wrote his play Romeo and Juliet in England at a time when the two major Christian sects, Protestants and Catholics hated each other enough to prevent their children from marrying each other, just like the play’s two warring households in the Italian city, Verona. Juliet enabled Romeo to transform sexual infatuation into Christ-like love (Agape) for her and her household (caste). Their love made it possible for them to lay down their lives for each other and to reconcile their warring castes. Shakespeare states the point of his play in the opening lines: Two households [castes], both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life; Whole misadventured piteous overthrows  Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.  My previous article entitled ‘Backwards Can Be Better than British’ suggested that we are “backward,” in part, because no Hindu, Buddhist or Muslim scholar, religious leader or king loved us enough to make sustained effort to develop our vernaculars. Our religious cultures conspired to ensure that classical languages – Pali, Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian – would be used to exclude us from power that comes from knowledge. During the British era, reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy and rulers such as Lord Macaulay felt that the English language could enrich India’s vernaculars. However, the upper castes who learned English used it to advance their own interests, rather than the interests of the common people. The Bahujan “creamy layer” would do exactly what every other “creamy layer” does unless the spiritual force that reformed Europe and created English language and literature – the force that enabled Romeo to love his enemies (i.e. Juliet’s family) – liberates us from our religious culture of discriminating and disliking people of other traditions and castes. When the Government of Tamil Nadu began erecting along the beautiful Marina Beach in Chennai the statues of the creator of modern Tamil, it honored three Christian missionaries: Italian Jesuit Constanzo Beschi, English Missionaries Bishop Robert Caldwell, and Dr. G. U. Pope and only one Brahmin, Subramanya Bharathi, who renounced his Brahmin identity – just as Romeo renounced his Montague identity, in order to love those considered enemies by his caste. An important question is: Why didn’t English missionaries just teach us English? Why did they take the trouble to develop our languages? Was it just to convert us? If so, wouldn’t the objective of conversion have been served better had they taught our leaders English, hired them in their businesses and institutions and made promotions conditional on conversions? Why did they not do that? Unless we study the Bible and the literature that it shaped, we cannot understand the Agape (divine) love that drove Christian missionaries to serve us, including studying our dialects in order to turn them into literary languages. Their labors made it possible for Hindi, Urdu and Bengali to become national languages of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. As mentioned in the previous article, it is not possible to have a “government of the people, for the people and by the people” unless the language of the people is made the language of learning and governing. Our own religious scholars did not love us enough to take the trouble to do this for us because it is hard labor – especially if the beneficiaries are not even paying the scholars to undertake this trouble.  William Tyndale, who translated and published the first Bible (New Testament) into English, deeply offended the ruling elite. He was taking the very source of their power – knowledge – and giving it to the common man. The rulers convicted him and strangled and burned him at the stake. Yet, Tyndale’s labor created modern English and reformed his nation, including by producing writers such as Shakespeare. These writers were nurtured on Tyndale’s language and the Bible which was incorporated into the Geneva Bible before Shakespeare, and into the King James Bible soon after Shakespeare retired from the Globe Theatre. English speaking missionaries came to India to do for us what our own socio-religious leaders did not do, because the Bible taught them that God is love and that the Divine love (Agape) gives itself sacrificially without conditions and without expectation of reward, simply for our good. The Bible’s most famous verse is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Jesus demonstrated God’s love not simply by serving the poor and the sick who were victims of the beastly kingdoms of this world but most supremely by sacrificing his own life to reconcile God’s enemies – sinners – with God and human enemies with each other: the Jews with non-Jewish Gentiles, Greeks and Barbarians, slaves and free, upper castes and lower castes. In Shakespeare’s hands, Romeo’s love for Juliet grows to become like Christ’s love for us. Romeo’s spiritual transformation happens in the famous Balcony scene, when Juliet says to him that he cannot marry her unless he forsakes his name: that is, his family identity (caste). Nothing else but their names (family identity) separated them from each other, because their family identities had become inextricably intertwined with their hatred for the other family. Romeo agreed that his family was defined and controlled by hatred for Juliet’s family and, therefore, his name (i.e. family’s hatred) would never allow him to marry into her family (caste).  If you study the Bible you would understand that Juliet asked Romeo to do exactly what the Lord

Maoist War Against India’s Criminalized Capitalism  On Saturday June 12, 2010 at 10 o’clock in the morning, army-trainedSpecial Forces launched the massive Operation Hawk. Its objective: to capture a hilltop on the Jharkhand-Orissa border that had become a Maoist camp. At 4 p.m. the next day, after sixteen hours of gun, grenade and mortar battle, the Special Forces declared victory, claiming that 300 Maoists had fled the camp. Indian forces airlifted their wounded away from the battlefield for medical help, admitting one casualty. They asserted that the Maoists must have carried their dead away on their backs, since no dead bodies were found. Four days later, in a different operation in West Bengal, our Special Forces returned from their triumphant hunt of wild pigs, parading on a pole the dead body of a young Indian woman. Militant Hindu parties are not the only ones calling for an all-out military action against the Maoists. But the army has declared its preference not to get involved directly – at least not for now. Why? To begin with, the pain of widowhood seems to have taught India’s de facto ruler, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, that it was not a female Tamil suicide–bomber but the arrogance of power that took her husband’s life. Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers also humbled the army he was using to establish peace in civil-war-torn Sri Lanka. Our generals understand that no army can win this war against India’s poor. To fight 100,000 Maoists moving freely in a terrain more than a thousand miles long, the army would have to deploy a million men. In response, the Maoists would need to do nothing except shoot down one helicopter and then disappear into towns. “Heroic” Indian soldiers would harass, kill and rape innocent civilians, as they did in Sri Lanka and Kashmir, while CNN-IBN cameras would follow, capturing horror stories for audiences all over the world. Since the many-sided cost of army action would be astronomical, our rulers are bound to use their capitalist buddies (who know how to buy politicians in India and America) to purchase Maoist leaders and make them our MLAs, MPs, and ministers. Maoist leaders would consider such offers if enough of their comrades were hauled as dead pigs on poles. However, such solutions would work only until other comrades labeled For Sale leaders as betrayers and filled vacated positions with more committed revolutionaries.  The Case against Criminalized Capitalism  During the last Parliamentary election, the Aspirant-in-Chief, Mr. L. K. Advani, promised that if the nation elected him as Prime Minister, he would bring back to India the $1,400 billion of Black Money hidden in secret Swiss accounts. Secular Americans have only $14.5 billion in similar secret accounts. The contrast suggests that India’s Hindu Capitalism, America’s Secular Capitalism and the original Christian Capitalism are entirely different ethical-economic systems. Hindu Capitalism is a “Free Market” economy that worships Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth) and is guided solely by its dharma (moral duty) to pursue wealth by hook or by crook. In other words, Hindu Capitalism is unrestrained by a Holy God who commands, “Thou shalt not covet,” “Thou shalt not steal,” or “Thou shalt not kill.” The phrase Hindu Capitalism is not meant to imply that every Hindu businessman is a lawbreaker or that Muslim, Christian or Buddhists do not criminalize capitalism. The phrase is meant to describe India’s current economic system produced by a Hindu ethos that rejects the biblical idea that God is Holy and that his moral law is binding on all spheres of our lives, including the way we make and use money. How did Hindu capitalists generate such sums? Well, to mention just one source: in states where Operation Hawk took place, as many as sixty percent of all mines are illegal. That has made it possible for Maoists to radicalize the poor and fight criminal capitalists who are plundering our nation’s wealth. Some of these mines have been operating for as many as 20 years without even applying for a license. Some miners who did apply for licenses did not bother obtaining them because legal mining and banking require them to keep accounts, get them audited, and pay taxes. How can one keep honest accounts, finance a corrupt democracy, and maintain private militia (“Security”)? It is much easier to mine if you can keep politicians and bureaucrats in your pocket (and harem). The Maoist case against Hindu Capitalism is simple: A significant number of our miners, industrialists, democratically elected politicians, Gazetted officers (Administrative and Police), and their un-“holy” godmen have joined hands to become criminal mafias. Their power is reinforced by official militias called “Special Forces” and unofficial militias such as Selwa Judum that started the present round of tragic violence. But why can’t the poor participate in our free-market economy and benefit from it? Hasn’t the government spent thousands of Crores of rupees to educate and equip these backward STs, SCs and OBCs? Well, the British media is currently reporting that (while Indian capitalists hide their wealth in not-so-secret Swiss accounts) the British taxpayers have donated 340 million pounds (Rs. two thousand crores) to educate India’s poor through the Education for All Campaign, called Serva Shiksha Abhiyan. Allegedly, most of this money has either vanished or been misused. The Auditor General of India has admitted that at least 14 million pounds have been used to buy things like air conditioners for village schools that have no buildings or electricity. Understandably, tightly squeezed British taxpayers, already burdened with the responsibility to save Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Afghanistan, et cetera, are upset at the Hindu Compassion that loves to keep Lakshmi donated for the poor. In order to appease his taxpayers, Andrew Mitchell, the recently appointed British Secretary of State for International Development, has promised a full investigation into this allegation. He is promising to institutionalize zero tolerance for the abuse of the generosity of British Capitalism.  But Why Can’t Indian Maoists Follow Chinese Marxism?  Hindu Capitalists often argue that India should adopt China’s Marxist-Maoist capitalism because China’s  economy is beating India’s. Indeed, the Communist

“Dr. Vishal Mangalwadi’s intelligent and refreshing insights peel back the political, social, and moral issues of America and reveal a deception that runs deeper than our sociocultural roots. No longer can we take America’s goodness for granted. In four lectures originally given at our church in May 2009, Mangalwadi left us asking if we will allow America to become a nation seduced by Satan or if we will learn from the past and take a stand for righteousness.” —Pastor Duane Vander Klok, PhD, Resurrection Life Church, Grandville, Michigan “Vishal has the courage to ask the tough questions and the rare ability to make the complex accessible to the masses. It is telling when I struggle with my kids over first dibs to his materials!” —HankHanegraaff, President of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible AnswerMan broadcast The world is witnessing how amoral secular economics turned the government of Greece into a gambling den. The same invisible force has also blinded Wall Street and the government of the United States into gambling away the future of America’s children. Who listens when America’s most respected investor, Warren Buffett, calls “derivatives” the “economic weapons of mass destruction” that would devastate New York in a way the 9/11 terrorists could not even imagine? The utterly insecure subprime mortgages that government-sponsored economic enterprises (AIG, Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae) sold as “high value securities” were “derivatives.” President Bush forced honest, hard-working, tax-paying Americans to bail out corrupt gamblers that should have been thrown in prison. Future Commanders-in-Chief may need the military to squeeze bailout dollars from uncooperative Americans. For those who can see behind the screen, film Slumdog Millionaire gives a frightening glimpse into the intellectual bankruptcy of Western secularism. Why is it that secular reviewers of Slumdog Millionaire don’t even notice that the film’s scriptwriters and director have no clue why life is so miserable in that slum in Mumbai, India? What causes such brutalizing poverty? Or what can be done about it? Why is the film totally devoid of any meaningful notion of heroism and of a hero who has any idea of what to do about evil and poverty?  Viewers feel good at the end of the movie because the slumdog wins the cash and the girl he loves. Who cares that the lead character displays no particular wisdom, virtue, or strategy that contribute to his victory? Or that his success does nothing to the slum? Secular gamblers are pleased that the slumdog is favored by the god of luck; that his awful life experiences happened to have given him the answers to the questions the quizmaster happens to ask. Not too long ago, Mumbai was a “garden” where the wealthiest Indians liked to live. Secular experts can’t understand what turns gardens into slums because they choose to ignore the most important dimension of reality – the supernatural. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke give us the clue as to why Jesus’ life and work were focused on the kingdom of God. While he fasted and prayed for forty days, Jesus faced three temptations. In one them, “The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, ‘I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.’” Was Satan bluffing Jesus? The New Testament indicates that he wasn’t. In John 12:31, Jesus acknowledges Satan as “the prince of this world.” In Ephesians 2:2, the apostle Paul refers to the devil as “the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” “The Rule of Law” was said to be a cardinal principle of the Roman Empire. How then could the Roman Emperor Nero burn his own citizens alive as torches for his garden parties?  The apostle John explains in 1 John 5:10, “We know that . . . the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” If there is a chance that evil has a supernatural dimension that seeks the glory, authority and splendor of the kingdoms of this world, than it is time that we get serious about the question: Will America become a kingdom of darkness? When a court rules the National Day of Prayer as “unconstitutional;” when senior citizens in a state subsidized retirement community in Georgia are not allowed to thank God for their meals; when evangelist Franklin Graham, the chairman of the National Day of Prayer, is not allowed to pray at the Pentagon; it is time to ask: as America ceases to be a nation under God, will it become a nation under Satan?

Could America Collapse Like A House of Cards? Yes, it can. More suddenly than many would want to believe! Can Glenn Beck save America? No! America cannot be conserved by Conservatism alone. Her cancer has gone much deeper than political economy. Postmodernism has turned America’s foundational, “self-evident” truths into modernist myth.  America’s Foundation: Truth or Myth? Roman Governor Pilate acknowledged that Jesus was innocent: yet, it wasn’t “self-evident” to him that Jesus had an inalienable right to life. Every judge that heard Paul’s case admitted that the charges against him were baseless: yet, it wasn’t “self-evident” to even one of them that Paul had an inalienable right to liberty. Why? Because the truths on which America was founded have never been self-evident to human reason in any culture. Jefferson would have been honest had America’s Declaration of Independence affirmed, “We hold these truths to be divinely revealed that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights (such as) life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” The Enlightenment’s misplaced confidence in human reason undermined America’s real foundation – God’s revelation; the Bible.  Now, as America amputates its soul, everything built on that foundation is crumbling. America’s civilizational superstructure of freedoms, justice and prosperity cannot be “conserved” without recovering their true foundation. Nineteen centuries before German philosopher Nietzsche was born, Pilate demonstrated that when truth is dead what rules is brute force. Pilate boasted that he had the power to crucify Jesus after acknowledging publicly that Jesus was innocent.   Truth liberates: but after demolishing truth only the naive would take liberty for granted. The Titanic is sinking —— So What? “My wife stood in the middle of the living room with her hands on her hip” narrated my friend . . . his voice choking. “She looked straight into my eyes and said, ‘I want to have sex with him. What’s wrong with that? Don’t I have a right to pursue my happiness? Who gave you the authority to take away my rights?’” “Tears were streaming down my eyes,” my friend’s voice cracked with emotions, “and I couldn’t say a word. Everything that she was saying, I had taught her. I grew up in a Christian home, but my professors seemed better educated than my pastors: therefore, I gave up my childhood faith. I believed what the university taught; what Hollywood taught; what the media taught. I followed the world’s wisdom and my marriage collapsed like a house of cards. “The emotional cost of the divorce was as heavy as economic. We lost our home. Now, she is without medical insurance, because her boyfriend won’t marry her. My new wife is wonderful with my kids, but by court’s order they have to spend so many days with their mother. My 12-year old daughter is very uncomfortable having to live with a man who is not her step dad. The emotional, educational and the social price that our kids will pay for our divorce is still unknown: this morning she woke up crying and could not be consoled. She dreamt that mummy had killed her boyfriend by pushing him off a cliff. I don’t know how to interpret her dreams . . . but we know that her mother feels trapped: She cannot leave him because then she wouldn’t have a house. . . In the university, Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son seemed childish . . . but now I know that Jefferson knew that the pursuit of pleasure was the pursuit of unhappiness. Jefferson read the Bible because he knew that happiness comes from a pursuit of virtue as taught in the Sermon on the Mount.”  Margaret Thatcher —— Why Conservatism Can’t Save The best known British Conservative, Margaret Thatcher, UK’s Prime Minister from 1979-1990, explained why Conservatism was insufficient. On May 21, 1988 she said to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, “We are a nation whose ideals were founded on the Bible. Also it is quite impossible to understand our literature without grasping this fact. That is the strong practical case for ensuring that children at school are given adequate instruction in the part which the Judaeo-Christian tradition has played in moulding our laws, manners and institutions. How can you make sense of Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott, or of the constitutional conflicts of the seventeenth century in both Scotland and England, without such fundamental knowledge? But I would go further than this. The truths of the Judaeo-Christian tradition are infinitely precious, not only, as I believe, because they are true, but also because they provide the moral impulse which alone can lead to that peace, in the true meaning of the word, for which we all long.  “To assert absolute moral values is not to claim perfection for ourselves . . . one of the great principles of our Judaeo-Christian heritage is tolerance. People of other faiths and cultures have always been welcomed in our land, assured of equality under law, or proper respect and of open friendship. There is absolutely nothing incompatible with this and our desire to maintain the essence of our own identity. There is no place for racial or religious intolerance in our creed. . . “Ideally, when Christians meet, as Christians, to take counsel together, their purpose is not (or should not be) to ascertain what is the mind of the majority but what is the mind of the Holy Spirit——something which may be quite different. Nevertheless, I am an enthusiast for democracy. And I take that position, not because I believe majority opinion is inevitably right or true – indeed, no majority can take away God-given rights – but because I believe it effectively safeguards the value of the individual, and more than any other system, restrains the abuse of power by the few. And that is a Christian concept. “But there is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves. Political structures, state institutions, collective ideals