i dont understand why gullible people are making a big fuss about this guy hart.
i have an advantage: i have actually met this fellow while i was on a train from trivandrum to calicut. i chatted with him for a while. it's not at all impossible that he is a 'mole'. for instance, his associates run the 'satya veda institute' in kerala somewhere, which, no prizes for guessing, is a bible study entity. a truthful name would be 'asatya durveda'.
i harangued the guy about the fact of the non-arrival of 'saint' thomas in india. he was amazed that i knew so much about his religion. i told him i made it my business to know about it 'because it is an important religion'. damning with faint praise, you see.
his book -- he gave me his card and a blurb for the book -- seemed to have on its cover a christist image, a buddhist image, and a mohammedan image, but no hindu image. that gave me an inkling on how much importance he gave to hinduism.
there have been others who claimed to be close to hinduism but they were fifth columnists, for instance:
a) bede -- who set up a christist 'ashram' somewhere in tamil nadu
b) de nobili -- who claimed he was a 'brahmin' and went around in saffron clothes attempting to subvert the brahmins of madurai almost 200 years ago
c) sarah caldwell -- she was welcomed into a devi sect in kerala; she later wrote about them in demeaning terms
d) jeffrey kripal -- another of 'wendy's children' who was given a lot of support by the ramakrishna mission, and he later turned around and humiliated them
i suspect hart is yet another 'harvester' of hindu ideas. i may be being unfair to him, but it's best to be suspicious of these characters until proven innocent.
also, note that the news article is by 'sangeeth kurian', this is a stealth christist. since most of the readers dont know that 'kurian' is a christist name, they will be taken in by the hindu first name. christists in kerala, who used to go around with names like john and thomas, all of a sudden in the 1970s switched to giving their children hindu first names (for stealth purposes) while retaining their christist last names which would be obvious only to their own. names like manoj mathen and shobha anthraper only keralites would know were christists. the fact that this happened practically overnight shows it was a deliberate, planned thing -- just like practically overnight
a) all christist churches in kerala covered their walls with propaganda material from their books -- much like selling soap and other such consumer goods
b) all chrisist churches in south india started sporting giant red neon crosses (freudian slip suggesting these were red-light districts, maybe, given the many assaults and rapes that happen between the 'holy fathers' and their flock?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: viji
British priest in Kerala in conversion debate
PHOTO: C. RATHEESH KUMAR
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THE PUJA: David Hart offering puja to Ganesha in front of his house in Thiruvananthapuram last month.
Sangeeth Kurian
| Rev. David Hart finds no contradiction in being identified as a "religious pluralist" |
THE PUJA: David Hart offering puja to Ganesha in front of his house in Thiruvananthapuram last month.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A controversy has broken out in the U.K. and the U.S. with the media reflecting a debate over an Anglican priest who converted to Hinduism in Kerala where he has now stayed for nearly a year, and where he regularly offers ritual prayers in a temple.
Rev. David Hart, 52, who has a fascination for Lord Ganesha, celebrated Vinayaka Chathurthi in front of his house here last month. Mainstream newspapers, church journals, popular websites and radio stations in the U.K. and the U.S. are now debating the propriety of allowing Rev. Hart to continue his "pluralist religious identity" while remaining a priest of the Church of England.
The Times, of London, in a report headlined `Hinduism no barrier to job as priest in Church of England' (September 8), published a photograph of Rev. Hart offering prayers to Ganesha and quoted from a report in the Kerala editions of The Hindu on August 27. Church Times, of the Church of England, launched a poll on whether Rev. Hart, "who recites the Gayatri Mantram with the same devotion with which he celebrates the Eucharist or offers namaz in Muslim prayer halls" should be allowed to continue as a priest.
The Times' report by its religion correspondent Ruth Gledhill quoted Pauline Scott, the team vicar of the St. James' Parish Church, Stretham, Cambridge, where Rev. Hart offers communion while in England. The vicar said she would now oppose Rev. Hart celebrating the Eucharist in Ely diocese. It was under the Bishop of Ely that Rev. Hart renewed his orders for priesthood nearly two months ago. The Times on September 8 said the Bishop's office had denied knowledge of Mr. Hart's conversion. However, a letter written by the Communications Officer of the diocese, published by The Times on September 11, said Rev. Hart's permission to officiate was under review.
The religion correspondent of The Times triggered a debate in her weblog by seeking comments on whether "this Hindu convert should remain as a `C of E [Church of England] priest'?"
Church Times, in an article headlined `Ely diocese finds out that one of its priests is a Hindu,' on September 8, quoted the Bishop's lay chaplain, Dr. Bridget Nichols, as saying that the news of Rev. Hart's conversion was "a complete revelation to us."
She said: "The first time we had heard that David Hart had converted to be a Hindu was yesterday... We cannot keep an eye on all our non-resident clergy who have permission to officiate... We take an application for permission to officiate in good faith."
Rev. Hart, an Associate Professor in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Winchester, mentions his conversion in a book Trading Faith: Global Religion in an Age of Rapid Change. Focussing on a new model for understanding religious practice and faith, it was released here earlier this year. A follower of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Rev. Hart has changed his middle name from `Allen' to `Ananda Krishna Das.'
He is unruffled by the debate. On September 10, the BBC's Radio 4 did a live telephone interview with Rev. Hart for its `The Sunday Programme.' Around 20 U.S.-based online discussion groups have sprung up debating the controversy.
Defending his decision not to inform the Bishop of Ely about his conversion while renewing his orders, Rev. Hart told The Hindu : "Becoming a Hindu has not brought about any change in my spiritual status. The act has not shaken my Christian beliefs by even one per cent."
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Also the international secretary of the World Congress of Faiths based in London, he does not find any contradiction in being identified as a "religious pluralist."
He said: "Asking me to express my preference for any particular faith is like asking me to choose between an ice-cream and a chocolate. Both have their own distinct taste."
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