Televangelism and ...

(This is a mail to one of my buddies, during Jan 2008)

Dear ....

Hope you people are doing well, including the junior. Ok, directly into your questions…. Yes, televangelism is one of the multi million business. And yes, the man you saw on the television had something to do with me.

No, I wasn’t his student at any point of time. If I remember correctly, my Bible teacher’s name was Matthew (may be a Pastor, not sure). But during my ‘Christianity era’, I used to subscribe some magazines other than the books written by my teacher. And there comes this televangelist. That time he wasn’t a televangelist. But it was ‘radiovangelism’. I might have written to him in response to something and he might have suggested his magazine. Coz, I don’t think my teacher will suggest somebody else’s books since even in faith groups, there exists ego problems.

Now that guy has grown big. He comes in TV. He travels abroad for evangelism. He travels to the US very often. This is a mutual benefit thing by these people’s syndicate. That is people from this place goes abroad and people from abroad (mainly from the US, Italy, Philippines, etc) comes here. Its kinda exchange programme. Yes, he might be very rich by now. His children might have got settled in the US.

I told you sometime ago, how Benny Hinn got exposed in my city. He made an escapade act. He did not even provide the financial help he said he will be providing for the Tsunami victims. Not just that, he even killed a man during his ‘miracle act’. But as you can think, it is not easy to book him for murder in India, where he can buy lots of corrupt and pseudo secular politicians. Thus the police did not take up the complaint filed by a doctor. According to him, idol worship by Hinduism is like prostitution !! He is mum about Christians who keep the idol of Jesus in churches. He is mum about people who keep the picture of Jesus at homes. Why didn’t he go to Philippines where prostitution a big business? Why didn’t he go there and ask the people to close the bars and ask them to stop sex tourism? There he doesn’t have to face any problem since it has more than 95% Christians. He says Jesus talks to him. And I think that will be the last thing Jesus might do. Checkout this:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-999340,prtpage-1.cms

And check out what even Christians themselves say about Hinn, here in Christian Research Service, you get lots of stories about the fake claims by Hinn:

http://www.christianresearchservice.com/Benny_Hinn.htm

He and his ‘gang’ came here in a chartered flight, exclusively for them. He is just one example who is in the multi billion God business. These guys are filthy rich. They think they can do any dirty thing to spread Christianity and spread the good news. That is wrong and Jesus never wanted to force it onto others (especially to India, from where he gained all his knowledge). And if there is the judgment day (which I don’t believe), these evangelists who thot they did a good deed will be in big trouble and most of them will get a seat in the hell.

If Jesus comes right now and see all these godly work, he will say “Thank God, I am not a Christian!.

You might have heard of a TV show called “Out In the Open” by Rick Sanchez, in CNN. Sometime ago, he brought this issue in his show. And it was exposed that most of these televangelist own Rolls-Royce , many of them shit in a $23,000 toilet, the suits they were costs thousands of dollars. Some of them own airplanes. They truly live in super-luxury, yes by cheating people. But it is just like many TV commercial that comes(eg. Fairness creams, where fair models comes with a ‘dark’ makeup first and then they show their original skin), if you got tricked, it’s your problem and not theirs. Coz, its their profession and business.

You can get full transcript of Sanchez’s show in the transcript section of the CNN. You can refer (you must refer) the following link and there, they provide links to that CNN transcript.

http://tabacco.blog-city.com/televangelists_exposed_would_jesus_behave_like_this_do_you.htm

Last year, six such ministries got investigated (owned by Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn ) in connection with misappropriation, availing illegal tax exceptions etc.

As you know, there is only one Bible and one Jesus. But you can see more and more ‘ministries’ coming up. Why? More and more faith groups coming up, why? Does it mean that Vatican don’t know anything about Jesus? Pope doesn’t know Bible? Ever heard of Jesus talking directly to Pope? But you hear Jesus talking to many of these new breed of faith group people, who are mostly eccentric. Some of them pretend and fake to sell their idea and some of them have troubled minds.

I have lots of Christian friends. Or I better say, most of my friends are Christians…. Roman Catholics, Latin Catholics, Marthoma, Syrian Catholics, CSI, Pentecost….. Jesus never spoke to any of my proper RC or SC friends, why? Are they not faithful? Why He talks ONLY to the new breed? I think you got it….

(well, if somebody is a hardcore believer and he/she want to do something and he/she asks God what to do and gets the obvious answer which they prefer. Why? These Godly talks are nothing but the conscienceless splitting into two and one playing the God. These are different from sometimes (to some people) getting some ‘clues’ or signs from an unknown force)

There is this published speech by Ole Anthony of Trinity Foundation available. You can go through that too to get an idea how these cheaters really care for humans…

http://www.trinityfi.org/trinity/investi.html

As you know I spent some time with Christianity. You had seen my house that time, there were ‘Jesus saves you’ , ‘ Jesus is the Lord of this House’ kinda stickers stuck on the door/wall of my house. There was this ‘Praise the Lord’ sticker stuck on my two wheeler, even after my marriage. But believe me, I wasn’t part of any evangelism. I never asked anybody to experiment with what I did. It was just my personal choice. I wasn’t part of any such group, though my then best friend was part of some Pentecostal activities. For a Hindu, there is not need to change the religion. It is like searching for a drop of salt when you own an ocean.

Hmmmm I think those people quote something from ‘Bhavishya Punara’ to get a solid grip on Jesus’ birth. I think they are just using that conveniently and I haven’t read any comment from any Indian spiritual teachers on that issue. Jesus did not try to teach Indians, did you observe that? He knew that we don’t need that. He came here (during his ‘missing period’ of 12 years to 30 years) to learn and not to teach. His showing of yogic mudra, walking on water, escaping the crucifixion all these points to India. As you know, Padmapadar walked over water, his guru, Shankaracharya left his body for a short period (entered a dead )and came back (well, Chattambi swami also had this ability), and even in the modern era, that is during Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s time (1836-1886), there were people who could walk over water (even now, there are lots of yogis who can do many such things).

And finally where did Jesus spent rest of his life and die? He came back to India, or at least that is what some people believe, though this is against the Discovery Channel’s feature ‘ The Lost Tomb of Jesus’, where they say they have found Jesus’s tomb in Jerusalem. They say that Jesus had a son with Mary of Magdalene named Judah. I did not see the movie. Now the DVD is available.

So far, the following site is one of the best which provides some info on “Jesus in India’ . Obviously the Vatican and the US (which is behind almost every evangelical work) will not accept these things since that might uproot all their beliefs. Even if they get evidence, they might not publish it, they will try to fake it, they will try to destroy it and they will try every possible thing they can do…

http://www.tombofjesus.com/2007/home/welcome.html

Don’t forget to explore every tab. There are many videos too, one even about the death of Jesus. But don’t ask much questions about it now..hehehe coz, I am yet to go through everything, when I write this.

You are right about what you heard. Now Jesus is being promoted as a Guru here in India. Old wine in a new bottle. Cos the evangelists fond that that is the best way to sell. The evangelists who come to Punjab, for example, promote Jesus as ‘Satguru’, which is very much appealing for the Sikh community… ….the chorus is called ‘Satsang’ … ever seen a church painted in ‘kavi’ color? Well, goto Punjab… no , I am not joking. And yes, then the money flows… many poor Sikhs became rich by over night…..what they wanted was money and these evangelists gave them money in exchange of faith….. Anything sells here in India, my dear….why? coz, we don’t have even the basic knowledge about our own scriptures…there are millions among us who are ready to do any circus for money, anything at all.

Yes, not even 10% of the Hindus don’t know the basics of our ‘faith’ and that ignorance can be easily used. And you need to understand that these conversions are not purely a change of faith. But people change their religion to get material benefits like money, free education, food, cloth etc etc… These evangelists perform fake dramas too to convince people. They target mostly the illiterate villagers and not educated people like you and me. It is easy for them.

India still have many villages where there is no power and water supply or modern health care system. Many of these evangelists use modern medicines to ‘heal’ the ill and then they say ‘ Jesus healed you’. These poor people don’t know what exactly happened. When this news spreads, sometimes the whole family changes faith…Then why are they doing that? The answer is simple, the coming generations…they will be Christians by default… there are many such ‘stunts’ performed by these people. I don’t know whether these evangelists have got some targets fixed by their sender. Many people come here on visit visa and do evangelism (not religious visa like the one obtained by your neighbor)…..

What happens after conversion? Just have a look at those countries that has a majority of Christian population and you will get an idea. One such nation became a top place for sex tourism and another one is world’s leading consumer of sex toys… you can see all other sorts of crimes in these countries too… and in India, it will take some time…. Some time ago, Tamil Nadu was the main target in the south for evangelism. They had some excellent local evangelists too. (Even my mom attended some speeches by one of them. Then I too listened to him…he speaks beautifully and I still like his presentation skills..these guys are usually very good at speaking…he then became rich, millionaire…then his brother too entered into the business and now it’s a family business for them. You can see them in ‘God TV’)Lots and lots of Dalits got converted .

But sometime ago, a group of 3000 such people threatened the church for returning back to Hinduism. Why? The evangelists did their job and returned (or moved on to catch another set of scape goats)but the already existing church did not considered them as equals and there was discrimination (the RC and SC considers themselves as high caste among Christians) and their life became back to square one or even worse…

May be it is the ‘other side is green’ phenomena. Coz, Buddhism and Hinduism is picking up very fast in the west and at one time, Buddhism was the fastest growing religion in Australia. Yes, it is the Christians who change their religion, AT THEIR WILL. Usually the church is not a supporter of ‘read other scriptures too’ policy. Coz, if they read, well, its trouble for them. Only the Hindu gurus ask us to read other scriptures too and take the good from it.

About that book. That book was first published in 1988 and I still have a copy with me. May be I am lucky. Coz, the author, Father Samuel Nettiyadan got excommunicated. His book got burned, His press got destroyed and the church did whatever thy can to destroy him. But he got support from the society. I don’t know his whereabouts now.

He was part of Mar Thoma Syrian church and a priest for 17 years.

A small interview with the author can be found here:

http://www.hvk.org/articles/0201/115.html

Ok, back to the book. The book has 176 pages and hence it is not easy for me to give a translation for you. I will give you a summary later, after me reading it once again. But what made a priest to write such a novel? In the preface he says something like this (translated in my words, not easy as he writes beautifully):
“
I became very sad when my search about the ‘missing years’ of the Son of God went in vain. At the end of thoughtful hours, I became desperate. I lost my consciousness. I was taken to somewhere. It was bright there but the sun was not there. He welcomed me there…

‘Welcome, why are you sad? ‘ He asked me.

‘The testaments/scriptures are not telling anything about you when you were between 12 to 30.
Why this long 18 years did not get recorded?’

I asked

He smiled. It was a friendly, comforting smile. Then He replied

Teenage was tempting, slippery steps. Shaky legs. Suffocating temptations. I walked through all these. At the start of youth, wandering for the search started. A search for the Rishi traditions and prophet linage. Only the essence of the search got manifested in the open service. And only that part got recorded by those who spread the Good News. The secrets and confusions of the teenage and the search during the youth will only be revealed to you through dream.

His smile stayed like the daylight.

‘Please reveal me those’ I said

Then he took me with Him. We walked backwards in the time. We reached in the beginning of all/everything…..

"
It goes like that…..That means, Fr. Samuel really searched a lot to find out where Jesus was during his 12-30 age period. And finally Jesus gave him an answer… I don’t know, but the preface of the novel makes us think in that direction. If Jesus can talk to hundreds of faith sellers, why can’t he talk to a proper priest? It is very much possible.

In that novel, it is said that Mary got conceived by a Roman soldier (that time, Palestine was under the rule of Roman emperors). When the ‘society’ came to know that Mary is pregnant, the then ‘religious setup’ gave her a death verdict. They decided to stone her to death. On that day, people gathered with stones and they were about to kill her. Then a brave man came forward and grabbed Mary’s hand. It was Joseph. The religious head asked him who he is and he replied

‘ I am the father of the child who this woman is going to give birth’

That is how Mary became Joseph’s wife. She was pregnant when she became his wife. Joseph is considered as the stepfather of Jesus, in that book.

And in the novel, as you saw, Jesus comes to visit Rishis too….

Well, its getting very late for me…. Sorry for the abrupt end of this mail….

I know I still need to comment on many other minor things pointed out by you….. may be next time… bye for now and do take care… God bless !

With prayers,