From: Ravi
Date: Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 3:49 AM
Subject: (Nagaland) Catholics persecuted by Baptists
To:
From Baptists' website:
http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/5374/53/
| Catholics in Nagaland claiming persecution at hands of Baptists |  |  |
| By Bob Allen | |
| Tuesday, July 27, 2010 |
Baptists in the Indian state of Nagaland are defending themselves against charges of anti-Catholic bigotry after villagers tore down a Catholic church because the town allows only churches of the Baptist denomination. The controversy has generated widespread media attention, pitting Catholics against the Nagaland Baptist Church Council.
Iringtie Kauring — the council's acting general secretary while his boss, Anjo Keikung, traveled to attend this week's Baptist World Congress in Hawaii — released a statement saying the crisis in the village of Anatangre had been "blown out of proportion by people without studying the ground realities and listening to both parties in conflict."
"The conflict is not between Catholics and Baptists, but between Catholics and Anatangre Village Council," Kauring said. "The Village Council has considerable authority in solving any problem within its jurisdiction for the welfare of the people. Therefore, NBCC appeals all concerned to address the crisis in the right perspective for the sake of peace and harmony in our land."
Catholic and media critics said the statement was too slow in coming and could have been more conciliatory in tone. The controversy occurs at a time when Baptists are taking a leadership role in opposing an effort to lift Nagaland's prohibition on liquor, established in 1990.
Catholic priest Abraham Lotha penned a column in The Morung Express comparing the Baptist leaders' statement to "refusing to see the elephant in the room." While Baptists and Catholics coexist peacefully in many Nagaland villages, Lotha lamented, "The truth is that anti-Catholicism is still the staple food for many people in Nagaland."
Majority-Baptist state
Nearly 150 years after the first American Baptist missionaries arrived, 65 percent of Nagaland's 1.9 million citizens are Christians, according to the council. Among native Nagas, whose ancestors were headhunters, the figure is 90 percent.
The vast majority of Nagaland's Christians are Baptists, creating an irony that in India — a country often known for persecution of Christians by Hindus — Baptists are being portrayed as oppressors.
Catholic schools across the state shut down to protest what the Catholic Association of Nagaland called a denial of "basic human rights."
The deputy commissioner in Kiphire district ruled July 23 that an Anatangre Village Council resolution passed in 1991 prohibiting the establishment of churches of denominations other than Baptist had no legal standing. That resolution, passed in an attempt to prevent Baptists from converting to Catholicism, was behind a vote in March imposing fines and seizure of property against persons bringing other religions into the community.
Villagers constructing a Catholic Church in Anatangre were stopped July 9. The building was dismantled and construction materials were confiscated.
Ken Sehested, co-pastor of Circle of Mercy Congregation in Asheville, N.C., said there is no doubt that tension exists between Catholic and Baptist communities in some locales in Nagaland. "The anti-Hindu prejudice is even worse," Sehested said in an e-mail July 27.
Sehested, former director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, has traveled overseas with Daniel Buttry, an American Baptist missionary, to work on conflict resolution between various Naga factions.
Buttry, global consultant for peace and justice with International Ministries of American Baptist Churches USA, circulated an e-mail denouncing the actions taken against the Catholics in Anatongre.
"This is not in keeping with basic Baptist principles about freedom of religion and freedom of conscience," Buttry said. "Our Baptist forebears suffered under this kind of religious exclusion, and it is both ironic and shameful when Baptists treat others like they themselves don't want to be treated."
"Catholics are not our enemies but are part of the Body of Christ even if we disagree with some of their teachings and practices," Buttry said.
Settled in northeast India for centuries, the Naga people wanted their independence after the fall of British control over the region. Instead they were established as an Indian state.
An article in the Indian Constitution grants Naga villages jurisdiction to pass resolutions to protect "traditional culture and practices," but Catholics say that doesn't mean they can deny fundamental rights like freedom of religion.
Kauring defended the Nagaland Baptist Church Council's response and said July 27 it appeared that the village council in Anatangre was taking steps to resolve the situation.
3 comments:
Religious persecution of Hindus and Buddhists, specifically at the hands of Naga christists is rampant in Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. Naga christists basically view Manipur & Arunachal Pradesh as their colonies.
Naga christists are to the North-East what the Kerala christists are to the South (and pretty much the rest of India) - spearheads of christist terror and footsoldiers in the
war to harvest souls & gain dominion over India.
I guess we have waited too long to remedy the situation and it is getting out of control. (if it has already not gone out of control !)
Like the rest of us, this guy finds Paul Krugman's NY Times column highly repetitive. I wonder how his students and readers can stand this Prof.
Meet Punxsutawney Paul
First, I'm getting pretty tired of reading the same article over and over again. Mr. Krugman, please try a fresh angle.
Second (and far more significantly), while I fully believe that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, I, like most rational observers, also believe that no one can possibly know everything there is to know about something as complex as the U.S. economy.
Overconfidence in action
While Krugman is more qualified than most to provide commentary on the subject (at least, he is if you're swayed by a long career spent in classrooms), he seems to lack the basic intellectual humility necessary for effective thinking and writing.
No one -- even economists -- fully understands how a complex, adaptive system like the U.S. economy really works. Yet that's precisely what Krugman is selling here with his excessively definitive stance on the issue.
How many times do we need to be burned by economists (of any political stripe) and their lousy, confidence-laden predictions to learn that economists don't really know what they're talking about? How is it possible that Krugman can analyze the same economic history everyone else is looking at and come to the right conclusion, while everyone else is dead wrong?
Answer: It's not a science
The answer lies in the core of what an economist really studies. A science, by definition, is a body of knowledge that can provide the requisite conditions to replicate certain results repeatedly. If I mix two vials of this green stuff with one vial of the blue stuff, I know I'll get three vials of purple stuff … and so forth. But that isn't how economic theory works. If anything, economics is a pseudo-science that offers results that are only occasionally predictable, but never certain.
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