Why Don’T Christian Missionaries Target Britain Rather Than India?

[dsd108]

When Christian missionaries target India they are bringing discord to a highly religious and spiritual country, where most people believe in God and at least value a moral life. They bring division to a society where generally religions are inclusive and accepting.

In Britain a small number of people are religious. The exact number is hard to say, when asked if they “know that God exists without a doubt” 23% say yes, but when asked “which comes closest to your belief” 56% responded with an answer that indicated that they had some belief. Even if this number have some belief, most don’t act on it, regular religious involvement is only 7.5%. You only have to go to a city centre in Britain at night to see that many young people regularly get drunk and live only for sensual pleasure.

A few weeks ago my wife and I attended a “Gouanga (ISKCON) festival” at our Hindu temple. There we met a young woman who had joined ISKCON after attending one of these festivals, where she realised that there was more to life than getting drunk. She now works for ISKCON in the UK. She said a couple of years ago she would have probably been drunk in the gutter. At the festival she contemplated Krishna for the first time, and felt that there was something spiritual inside her.

Why, with so many people living a non-spiritual life, don’t Christian missionaries target the UK? Surely this is a country where spirituality could bring great benefit?

I believe that it is because they know that they cannot easily offer bribes and inducements in a relatively rich country. This is the reason that they oppose laws in India that ban forced religious conversions. They know that this is their easiest way to success. For them religion is not about improved behaviour, spirituality or social adhesion, they would willingly sacrifice those to win in the numbers game. All that matters is the number who say they are Christian. That is enough. The fact is that despite the lack of belief, 71% of the British population say they are Christian is enough for them.

A Christian who is violent to members of other faiths, rarely thinks about God, acts immorally and is drunk in the city centre every night is saved. There is no point in missionaries taking notice of them where there are peaceful and tolerant members of other faiths to target. If only they could get them all to be like the Christians!

[shaheediyan]

"When Christian missionaries target India they are bringing discord to a highly religious and spiritual country".

Lol, have you been to Indian cities lately!

Rural areas, of course, poverty and lack of education are easier targets.

But truth is, Muslims and Christians have both historically (and still do) have a high success rate amongst shudrai jaathan and Dalits - and in my opinion rightly so, as Indians still treat these people worse than animals (esp in rural areas) to this day.

These optional dharm at least afford them a basic level of respect/equality amongst their own community.

[shaheediyan]

Ideally, Sikhi could have a higher success rate than any one else with the low castes/Dalits, but Sikhs haven't bothered to target this huge audience for some reason, maybe because they will ask for equal rights... and we can't have that can we.

Castism needs to be sorted out within the extant Sikh community before good promotion can be done - as it was in the early 1700s when these low castes made up the bulk of the Khalsa Fauj i.e. Banda Bahadurs army.

[Kaljug]

It's because we've already had the Enlightenment. We've had people like David Hume and Bertrand Russell reveal Christianity's logical failings and books like Frazer's The Golden Bough which showed us that Christianity is an ancient sun God myth wrapped up in new packaging and sold to us as being new rather than the second- and third-hand myth that it is.

It's a level of education that you average rural Indian just hasn't has. When they do, they will shed themselves of Christianity like the UK already has.

The Catholic Church is basically just a corporation whose profits are in souls, and the British people don't trust big business.

K.

Edited October 19, 2009 by Kaljug

[HSD1]

Because uneducated masses in South America, Africa and South Asia are easy pickings.

Mind you, most of them say that they fill a gap in those people's lives as we sikhs and hindus spend more money on our gurudwaras/mandirs than we do on infrastructure back home. If you really wanted to stop the baptists, help east punjab out of the gutter (both economically and mentally).

[jaikaara]

Here is somewhat of an eye opener. Please go through the passage below.

http://readerswords.wordpress.com/2006/10/14/dr-ambedkar-and-sikhism/

there is more to the relationship between Dalits and Sikhism. The founder of the Dalit movement Dr. Ambedkar had once himself seriously considered conversion to Sikhism at one point. His interest then waned, though the reasons are not known, and he finally converted to Buddhism with half a million of his followers.

***

By 1935, Dr. BR Ambedkar’ s disgust with Hinduism and its caste system was complete. His patience at reforming Hinduism from within by securing for the untouchable castes the right to drinking water from public places, using metal utencils and receive education, was wearing thin. Earlier in 1929, he had advised his followers to embrace any religion that would give them respectability. Following this advice, some of his followers took to Islam.

Referring to his own personal decision in the matter, Ambedkar said that unfortunately for him, he was born a Hindu Untouchable. It was beyond his power to prevent that, but he declared that it was within his power to refuse to live under humiliating and ignoble conditions.

“ I solemnly assure you that I will not die a Hindu”, he thundered.

He called for an end to the decade long struggles he had led for temple entry and which was brutally opposed by caste Hindus. Ambedkar’s call to the Untouchables to stop frittering away their energies over fruitless attempts and to devote themselves to carve out an honorable alternative for themselves shocked the nation, especially the caste Hindus.

As to conversion, he said it will be done in five years and he would reconsider his decision if caste Hindus assured him by positive results. He added that he wanted to absorb his community into some powerful community and was thinking of embracing Sikhism.

On April 13-14 1936, Dr. Ambedkar addressed the Sikh Mission Conference at Amritsar. He had earlier indicated that this would be his last speech he would deliver as a Hindu. The main feature of the conference, however, turned out to be the conversion of five prominent Depressed Class leaders of the Thiyya community of Kerala headed by Dr. Kuttir and 50 others from UP and Central Provinces to Sikhism.

In May 1936, he called a conference of the Mahar community to which he belonged, and his abominations and the condemnation of Hinduism was biting, coarse and yet smashing and dissecting. He ended his speech with a quotation from the lips of the dying Buddha- he asked his people to seek refuge in Buddhism. This quotation from the Buddha led to speculations that Bhimrao was veering towards Buddhism. He himself, however, avoided a straight answer. A few days before, however, he had sent his son and nephew to Harminder Sahib as a gesture of goodwill towards Sikhism. They stayed there for over one and half months.

By June of that year, Ambedkar after consulting his colleagues decided to embrace Sikhism- his friends and colleagues felt that he should seek the support of the Hindu Mahasabha leaders in their conversion to Sikhism, for the Mahasabha leaders believed that Sikhism was not an alien religion. It was an offspring of Hinduism and therefore the Sikhs and Hindus were allowed to intermarry and the Sikhs were allowed to be members of the Mahasabha. In his proposal, Dr. Moonje agreed to the inclusion of these neo- Sikhs in the list of Scheduled Classes and enjoy the benefits under the Poona Pact, if Ambedkar preferred to embrace Sikhism in preference to Islam and Christianity and that he agreed to counteract the Muslim movement to draw the Depressed Classes into the Islamic fold.

Ambedkar said that he preferred to embrace Sikhism which offered less than social, political and economic power than Islam and less material attractions than Christianity (western nations). He favoured Sikhism in the “interests of Hindus”.

Dr. Moonje and Dr. Kurtakoti (the Shankracharya) in giving their blessings obvioulsy chose the “least evil”. In choosing thus, they also showed their belief that Sikhism is another branch of Hinduism and that it owed the same culture and principles.

Gandhi voiced concern over the proposed conversion, but Ambedkar continued to increase his contacts with the Sikh Mission. There was even a proposal to start a college in Bombay for the proposed neo- Sikhs. 13 of his followers who were asked to study the Sikh religion at Amritsar actually converted to Sikhism and returned to Bombay, where, writes Ambedkar’s biographer Dhananjay Keer, they were coldly received as they had only been asked by Ambedkar to study and not to convert.

Soon, Bhimrao went on a tour of Europe. It seems after returning in 1937 his love for Sikhism had evaporated. He continued to talk of his proposed conversion though, and in 1955 along with half a million adherents went over to Buddhism.

(Much of the above I had written in 1997, and as far as I recollect is mainly based on the notes I took from the wonderful biography of Dr. Ambedkar written by Dhananjay Keer.)