By M L Satyan
Bengaluru, April 3, 2023: I received the below mentioned WhatsApp message: “Kindly do not miss WATCHING & SHARING this powerful documentary in Easter times, illustrating how persecutors are embracing the faith they tried to banish from Kandhamal.
Christ is indeed ALIVE at the ground zero of the worst persecution in Indian history.
1) Cross-desecrator dies of Paralysis
2) Cross desecrator hangs on tree
3) Urinated on Tabernacle, dies of urine blockade
4) Tabernacle desecrator commits suicide
5) Cross desecrator dies hitting tree
6) Untimely deaths for assailants of priests
7) Accidental deaths for acquitted murderers
8) Thou shall not bear False Witness – Saffron worker’s false testimony results in loss of speech
9) Christian Funeral for a Hindu
10) Assailant turns Church Protector
Bear witness to the Truth! Sender: Anto Akkara
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrhQ2c2m308”
I watched this video. I found that the focus of this video is on the “punishments” that God seems to have given to those who “desecrated church buildings.” Maybe, some of those who desecrated the church might have repented and an inner conversion took place in their lives.
The spontaneous questions raised in my mind were: Does God Love or Punish? Do I believe in a loving God or a Punishing God? Based on my spiritual experience my answer is: I BELIEVE IN A LOVING GOD.
Remember the parable of the “Prodigal Son” in which we see the father receiving him with immense love and affection. His acceptance was followed by a grand feast. The notorious thief who was hanging on the cross on the right side of Jesus at Calvary experienced the love of Jesus who said to him, “I promise you that today you will be in Paradise with me.”
Today, as before, the church hierarchy focuses more on SIN and PUNISHMENT. This is vigorously expressed during the Lenten season. Most of the Christian preachers keep emphasizing Sin and Punishment repeatedly. They continue to make the people feel “guilty” all the time. They present God as the one who punishes and hence the people are made to live with fear. They rarely focus on a “loving God”.
Desecration of any worshipping place is indeed a crime. But such places are just buildings built with bricks and stones. What about the desecration of human bodies/lives? Today there are millions of people in India whose human rights are violated. They are exploited and oppressed in innumerable ways. Almost 40 percent of India’s population lives below poverty line, deprived of one square meal a day. They cannot access to other basic needs of clothes, shelter, health and education. They are hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and imprisoned on false accusations. There are unending atrocities on women. Rapes continue to occur in every nook and corner of the country. Does the church bother about these types of desecration of human lives?
The history of the church reveals that since the ecclesiastical practice of commercializing miracles could be turned into a most gratifying source of money, it soon appeared that the more spectacular the miracle the more spectacular the profits to its promoters. Miracles thus became a kind of religious investment yielding a steady flow of revenue. Their profitability depended, not only upon the spectacular nature or uniqueness of the portents, but also upon the advantages gained by those who believed in them, the combination of these ingredients being the cement with which both Church and its faithful could identify themselves in partaking of the visible results of God’s generosity. If the selling of indulgences was a most lucrative method of amassing wealth, the exploitation of the individual was no less profitable. SIN and PUNISHMENT formed the basis of exploiting the individual.
From the early Christian community, the church has travelled a long way to reach this stage. To a very great extent the church has deviated from the teachings of Jesus in many ways. Roman Catholicism, which claims to be His church, is one of the wealthiest institutions on earth. How come, that such an institution, ruling in the name of this same itinerant preacher, whose want was such that he had not even a place to lay his head, is now so top-heavy with riches that she can rival the combined might of the most redoubtable financial trusts, of the most potent industrial super-giants, and of the most prosperous global corporation of the world? It is a question that has echoed along the dark corridors of history during almost 2,000 years. It is a question that has puzzled, bewildered and angered in turn untold multitudes from the first centuries to our days.
From the time the hierarchy sided with the kingly tribes, they rarely focussed on the “Washing of the feet”, meaning, authority is meant for service. Today this symbolic gesture has been converted into just a ritual and not more than that. The church keeps the laity under the “opium” of religiosity. Jesus wanted the people to FOLLOW him and not Worship him. Following Jesus is the narrow path and worshipping him is the broad path. Are we following Jesus or just worshipping Jesus??
As we are in the Holy Week, commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus, can we hear him saying:
“I am hungry… and you eat varieties of nutritious food.
I am thirsty… and you take expensive drinks.
I am naked… and you wear costly fashion dresses.
I am homeless… and you live in luxurious and comfortable houses.
I am sick…. and you thank God for your good health.
I am in prison… and you seriously discuss my morality.
I am an orphan longing for your love… and you take special care of your pets.
I am lonely… and you leave me alone to say your daily prayers.
My human rights are violated… and you fight for your rights.
Shall we recognise Jesus among the needy and wash their feet, meaning, be at their service? Jesus said: “I have come to serve and not to be served.”
Very well articulated.
I totally agree to the views expressed in this article, the same type of feelings run in my veins when I watched this clip, wrong interpretations were given, our God is shown as God of Punishments and revengeful…! Those who like to use religion, find this presentation is welcoming as it serves their purpose. Our God is God of Love, Merciful and forgiving!
I fully agree with you dear Mr Satyan. I too believe in a God of LOVE. He is not a policeman always on the look out to catch us when we sin. He patiently waits for us to return and accepts us just as we are, with all our faults and failings. He continues to love all of us unconditionally, even when we stray far away from Him. My God is a loving God and this has been my experience all through life’s journey for God walks closely beside me carrying me in His strong arms when the going is tough or when I am weak and tired.
Mudita Menona Sodder rscj
M.L. Satyan has written very lucidly on the ethos of Christ and how the Church has twisted His teachings and commercialised it. So much so the Indian Church of today is one of the richest entities which can beat the government and corporate houses of many countries! Today Christ’s teaching of serving the needy has been sacrificed on the altar of the Mammon and political expediency. Admission rackets are rife in Church-run schools, colleges and universities. Christian students with less than ten per cent representation are treated like migrants in their own institutions. Archbishops/ Bishops are now coming in the political arena with the assurance of votes (Archbishop Pamplany of Tellicherry,Kerala). Both washing of the feet and `Servant-Leadership’ have gone for a six! Those heading the Hierarchy do not respond to communications, they decline to meet the faithful without prior appointment. This includes the current Archbishop of Calcutta.
M.L. Satyan is absolutely right in his assessment that the Church thrives by instilling guilt consciousness in the mind of Laity and that in light of Christ’s dying on the cross for us, God is all loving-and-forgiving and certainly not a punishing God.
It is said that the God of the Old Testament is a god of wrath, whereas the God of the New Testament is a god of love.
The God of the Old Testament is a god of wrath but he also cares for the welfare of his people in the present word. He delivered his people from slavery in Egypt and brought them to a land flowing with milk and honey. He gave them laws to follow so that they will never again fall into poverty and become slaves.
The God of the New Testament is a spiritual God who will come again to take his people to heaven. The Church teaches that Jesus came to this world to die on the cross and be raised again in order that our sins may be forgiven. He will come again to give the Last Judgement. The gospel that the Church preaches is about faith in Jesus. The Church really is not bothered and only pays lip service to such issues as poverty, unemployment and other miseries.
I fully endorse the views expressed by Satyan. In fact I am inclined to believe that the non-existence of Hell is God’s best kept secret, to keep wayward ones in check.
We also need to remember that from the desert temptations right up to the Cross the Temptor tried to portray Jesus as a miracle worker, an image that he stoutly resisted.