As we meet and greet in the world as evangelists for a strategic management approach to incorporating social media into business, you readily identify other folks who “get it”. They describe themselves as “get it” people and they describe others as part of the club. The other two camps can be described as the “I think I get it” folks and the “I don’t get it” translated into the I don’t get it and really don’t care.

“Get it” – Already have prior experience in social media, probably understand digital marketing, it, software, etc. They have seen the power of social networking; may or may not play with twitter, but understand that social media must mature to satisfy the other camps. They are usually early adopters or visionaries, but definitely social media evangelists. They don’t need a business case to see how this applies to their jobs and their companies. Not a generational characteristic. We see more mature senior executives who are already there with their subordinates playing catch up. The younger generation gets the social media interaction thing much easier because they have entered the business world with these tools. Their challenge is that they do not have the business experience to craft corporate strategy so they tend to be focused on the tools and tactics. ROI gets mapped at the business functional and strategy level which is hard for them to develop the business case to sell the rest of their organizations.

“Think I Get It” – Generally more mature (not necessarily older) business executives who probably would “get it” if they had the time to research and play with it. We find this to be the case with mid to senior level executives who were laid off. They gravitate to it and are becoming proficient out of necessity and the luxury of free time. The employed people in this group are savvy business people, but are buried under with management and business responsibility. Probably have personal responsibilities so playing online if they are not naturally inclined to do so is pretty difficult with their schedules. Amazing how this group activates with a really tangible business case that applies to their company and market. They already have the business acumen and the web disruption experience so it becomes a translation exercise for them to “get it.” 

“Don’t Get It” – this group has probably thought briefly about it and then moved on as they haven’t seen the relavence of social media to them; either personally or professionally. We many times see the pride in this statement. We see the “my kids are on it” or “I played with it” or “I am on Linkedin, but don’t really use it.” In truth, it is generally due to indifference versus ability to get it. However, when we present the business case for a strategic approach to social media, they intuitively see the value. The skepticism turns to intuition as they map this back to their mid-90’s web experience. They then figure out that they need a proactive plan and delegate to someone in their organization or realize that they have no one and figure they will get to it when it reaches a level of criticality that forces them to react.

As you have surmised, I am describing any new technology adoption. Social media is not some exotic, weird “kid” thing. Social media will be a business disruption due to the simple fact that it is a reflection in the change of buyer behavior. Buyers are doing research by reaching out to other buyers and market influencers because they do not want to wade through the pages and pages of junk search engine results. Much easier to find an expert and see what they say. Simple, but extremely disruptive to traditional business; marketing, sales, customer support, service delivery, billing, employee relations. All of these functional areas are being impacted with this level of transparancy.

Whether you “get it”, “think you get it”, or “Don’t get it”; you had better believe that some portion of your market and customer base already does…

2010 California Marriage Protection Act | Safeguarding marriage from the evils of divorce.

Best. Cause. Ever.

Seems some would like to choose from the scriptures like it was a buffet.

2010 California Marriage Protection Act | Safeguarding marriage from the evils of divorce.

Best. Cause. Ever.

Seems some would like to choose from the scriptures like it was a buffet.

and He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists,

and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service,

to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the

knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs

to the fullness of Christ.

Who Killed Christ?

That question still is wet on the lips of hatemongers. They salivate with the anticipation of their roar. The glint of pleasure is in their eyes. It’s a glint of a self convinced self evident truth. They think there’s still one historical fact they can unabashedly guilt freely blame on their phantoms – The Jews.
Few of us are exposed to religious criticism by Biblical  scholarship and especially archaeological disputation. The media stays away from these sacrosanct subjects. They fear the fury of the religious. But much of the Bible stands on a fast eroding beachscape. Some of the OT or the Torah has been demystified due to historical evaluations. But the power of the Old Testament is still pretty much retained. Its strength is in the literature. Facts are not important there but the value is. Its quality over quantity.

But the New Testament is another matter. Its is accepted as fact that much of the Gospels have been forged, edited and rewritten. The Gospels written by Hellenic converts to Saul of Tarsus/St. Paul’s version of magical paganized Judaism. The original Evangelists had varying degrees of hostility to their former comrade religion. They needed to support Christianity and distance themselves from Judaism. Blaming the Jews or blaming the victim started here. transforming Judas from the Beloved disciple to the great traitor symbolic of all Jews. There is much accepted evidence that Jesus never fought verbal battles with the Pharisees. In fact once studied you see that Pharisees are applauded in the Gospels and the word Pharisee is substituted for Sadducee. The Sadducees were a small sect of strict scripturists that were quisling for the Roman occupation force.
St Paul heard everything second-hand. Christianity is Judaism by a few degrees of separation. It began as hearsay or rumour of what St. Paul thought Judaism was. Through Hellenistic pagan eyes St. Paul, a Greek fan or fanatic summed up Judaism. He made Jesus Christ out of Yeshua Ben Joseph,  The fossilization is so complete we can detect practically nothing of the flesh and blood of the historical Jesus. We only see, whats left, a frozen stone image of Jesus on a crucifix. Exposed to mystery religions and the Gods who were sacrificed for world continuance he could only relate to those ideas.
He was never a Pharisee. He was minimally exposed to the secretive and promising Sadducees who he worked for. Until of course the vision of Christ in his mind.
Yeshua who likely survived the crucifixion was a candidate for Messiah. He was possibly a descendent of David. But he was a learned man, therefore a rabbi and Pharisee. Even today the Roman Catholic Church begrudgingly accepts he was NEVER a Christian. The sand beneath the foundations of these orthodox beliefs are draining away. Time shall reveal all even after 2000 years. Yeshua was on the cross only a few hours. All crucified men were removed on the Sabbath.  That was easily survivable. Yeshua seeing his crucifixion did not incite  a Judaic Revolution had to leave. But he promised his disciples he would return. Tales of Jesus returning as ghost, avatar or God were added in later Gospels. It was a great tale meant to entrance half Judaized followers. There is even speculation Jesus/Yeshua did return at the beginning of the Jewish War in 66 CE. Where was he? France? maybe. But many accounts in Persia, India and Tibet put him there as Saint Issa. As he travelled, Paul invented his Jesus as Zeus religion  to the aggravation of Judeans and irritation of ther Church of Jerusalem.
 But the colouring of Jews did not end with the Evangelists. Eventually Christianity became the religion of Rome. It has to be accepted by Rome. and sacrifices were made. Women were demoted and Jews were demonized. Even more distance had to be placed between  the Jews and the new faith. With the power interlocked with Rome could the Romans be blamed for the GREAT GODS death?? And so the rewriting continued. The Jews had to be blamed and re-editing would accomplish this. It had already begun with the Evangelists of the Gospels.

The Jews had to be made the scapegoats. Im sure that whoever reworked the NT never in their wildest dreams imagined this would end in massacres throughout the Middle Ages and continuing into a near extermination of the Jews! Biblical scholarship has seen  to some scholars dismay, the evidence of this great forgeries. And these evaluations are slowly leaching into popular culture. The Ages of Reason and Enlightenment have made superstition and abracadabra and presto chango into entertainment.
Still many still cling to magical irrational beliefs.
 There is nothing more magically irrational than to blame groups of people for what their ancestors allegedly did. This type of thinking that flees away from reason and deduction is welcome on the internet today. Conspiracy theory is usually devoid of rationality and is similar to what religion is losing – the faith.
So even today there are fundamentalist Christians who still actually blame the death of the candidate for Messiah on the Jews themselves. So it must be pointed out that Jesus died on a cross. And the Judean form of execution was NOT that but stoning. And the evidence is there to be seen as Jesus/Yeshua himself saves a young woman from stoning. Its right there in the adulterated Gospels.It couldn’t be changed that Jesus  died on a Roman cross. The cross by 330 CE was too important.
Despite the obviousness, the blame was irrationally affixed in the New Testament. The crowds HAD to be turned against Jesus even though they cheered him in his entry into the city on the back of a donkey.
With all these deductions there are still those who love to chew on the nugget of hate and bigotry will still not spit the vile element out. They are too addicted to its demonic pleasure of hatred.

Author: Chris Hedges

Publisher: Vintage

Date Published: 2007

Pages: 254

The Christian Right and the War on America

They disseminate their ideas on the alternative broadcasts networks and through their own publishers and schools. Their intellectual leaders demand the complete dismantling of the secular state; their followers have been roused to a fever pitch of resentment and despair. Describing themselves as true patriots, they wrap themselves in the flag – but all it might take is one more September 11 for the Christian Right to seize power and reveal themselves for what they really are: The American heir of Fascism.

I initially came across Chris Hedges at Truthdig,  in ‘Celebrating Slaughter: War and Collective Amnesia‘, an article about war memorials sanitizing the true nature of war, causing them to be an effective form of  propoganda for future conflict. I was skeptical and prepared to read a disenfranchised university student’s attempt at being controversial, however it turned out to be a very interesting piece. It was this article that caused me to research Hedges publications and purchase ‘American Fascists’ (it sealed the deal when I saw that he had written a book called ‘I Don’t Believe In Atheists’. Personally, I’m intrigued by an author who is willing to make enemies with everyone.)

Chris Hedges is a journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner, a senior fellow at the National Institute and authored ‘War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning’ and ‘What Every Person Should Know About War’ amongst other books. He was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades and has covered conflicts in Latin America, Africa, The Middle East, The Balkans and The Gaza Strip. Hedges is also a Christian and he speaks of his upbringing in detail. His Father is a Presbyterian Minister and Hedges attended Harvard Divinity School (he graduated, but was not ordained).

Hedges’s Christianity is extremely important in ‘American Fascists’. Despite its bold title and blurb, Hedges doesn’t attempt to simplify the extremely broad range of religious institutions in America, nor does he lump them together. Hedges thesis of fascism rising amongst Christian America is referring to Dominionists:

These values, democratic and Christian, are being dismantled often with stealth, by a radical Christian movement, known as Dominionism, which seeks to cloak itself in the mantle of Christian faith and American Patriotism. Dominionism takes its name from Genesis 1:26-31, in which God gives human beings “dominion” over all creation. This movement, small in number but influential, departs from traditional evangelism.  

He outlines his discussion, as well as how Dominionism effects the rest of America and how it is perpetuated,  in ten chapters:

• Faith
• The Culture of Despair
• Conversion
• The Cult of Masculinity
• Persecution
• The War on Truth
• The New Class
• The Crusade
• God: The Commercial
• Apocalyptic Violence

Hedges not only deconstructs how the desires and traits of Dominionism align with fascism, he attacks the real causes and dangers this form of fascism presents, as well the events that have already occurred – including the secret meetings of the Council of National Policy (CNP), the Bush Election voter fraud through the Diebold Election Systems, diversion of secular public money toward often ineffectual faith-based organisations and the public acceptance of the ‘War on Terror’.

Particularly worrying is the way people within the Dominionist movement’s reach are enclosed in a reality separate from the rest of the world.

Tens of millions of Americans rely exclusively on Christian Broadcasts for their news, health, entertainment and devotional programs…during the rest of the year [churches] demand nearly all their social, religious and recreational time. These believers are encased in a hermetic world…There are anywhere between 1.1 million and 2.1 million children, nearly all evangelicals, now being home-schooled. These children are not challenged with ideas or research that conflicts with their biblical worldview. Evolution is not taught…These young men and women are often funnelled into Christian colleges and universities, such as Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, Pat Robertson’s Regent University. They are discouraged from critical analysis, questioning and independent thought. And they believe, by the time they are done, a host of myths designed to destroy the open, pluralist society.

This closed circuit of learning, the ridiculous and disturbing development of creationist ‘museums’, the advent of  Intelligent Design and the fallacious redefinitions of excepted scientific theories such as Evolution, creates an environment of ignorance that is appalling and hardly imaginable to other western nations. I have witnessed the results of this education online – through blog posts, blog comments and you tube videos by Christian Fundamentalists. This has caused a backlash amongst humanist and atheist communities, with many blogs springing up to ridicule and deconstruct Dominionism and creationism in the public sphere (the famous youtube ‘Why Do People Laugh At Creationists?‘ series by thunderfoot comes to mind).

Also important to ‘American Fascists’ is Hedges understanding of why people are drawn into the influence of Dominionism and the root causes of fundamentalism in history. Hedges describes the role of vulnerability, poverty and despair in the conversions. People are not drawn to fundamentalism from irrationalism alone, but are ‘love bombed’ by manipulative people praying on the state of despair in others – he tells their stories honestly and without the impulse to deride – an impulse a secular author may have given into. He is not compassionate towards those that benefit from treading on others,  including the rich backers of mega churches and other charlatans such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

Though Hedges’ language is direct, it is not slanderous. However, there are problems with ‘American Fascists’ – Hedges has a tendency to repeat himself and his intensity should have been softened due to the length of the book. The definition of fascism by Umberto Eco is a bit lofty, including it’s ur-fascism title, and because of its placement at the beginning of the book it could cause the reader to think twice about continuing. I believe a more suitable definition of fascism could have been found.

‘American Fascists’ is an extremely important read for Americans as well as other nationalities. Although George W. Bush and the Republican Party, and by association the Dominionists, have been voted out at the moment, the effects of their policies are long reaching and are felt worldwide. Hedges has created an extremely effective snapshot of this movement – from its roots to its capabilities – and identified the real threats, as opposed to the generalisation that all Christians, moderates included, support a fundamentalist worldview.

♥♥♥♥½ – 4½/5

You may have seen the shocking youth message that Paul Washer preached a few years ago doing its round on the internet but you may not know WHY he preached it. Below is an interview which will give you the background as to why he preached this message.

And if you havent heard the message, then please listen to it below. Youth leaders especially, please take note.

Swami Chidananda Saraswati, another loose-cannon from something called ‘Divine Life Society, Uttaranchal’ who will also be present at the table today, was also present in Advani’s house last year with the Archbishops of Orissa and Delhi, and penned his name to the declaration called infamously, the Delhi Declaration, which the BJP proudly mentioned in its election manifesto. The Delhi Declaration stated that Swami Chidananda Saraswati would re-build the churches burned down by angry tribal communities after Christian terrorists gunned down the venerable Swami Laxmananda Saraswati. This Chidananda Saraswati signed the Delhi Declaration which also stated that he deplored not only “unethical religious conversion” but also “unethical re-conversion”. He deserves nothing but the strongest condemnation not only for his pathetic understanding of religious conversion but also for his poor understanding of the critical necessity for re-conversion on Hindu bhumi to the parent religion. – RR

The Vatican wolf is at our doors again playing grandmother and perhaps hoping that the Hindu religious leadership with whom it wants ‘dialogue’ and the de-Hinduised political leadership which permitted its entry into the nation will play naive Red Riding Hood. Among the several individual Hindu religious leaders who will be meeting the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for inter-faith dialogue in Mumbai on the 12th and 13th of June 2009, will be the senior Mathathipathi of the Kanchi matham, monks of the Ramakrishna Mission, Sri Sri Ravishankar and one Swami Chidanand Saraswati from Divine Life Society, Uttaranchal.

Hindu nationalists know and understand the political objectives of the Church and Islam; the outcome of the meeting on the 12th and 13th of June notwithstanding, we firmly dismiss the very idea of inter-faith dialogue because, by the Vatican’s own admission, dialogue is only Church ploy to seek accommodation in non-Christian, non-Islamic nations and societies to carry out its only mission – to Christianize the world. Hindu nationalists will be compelled to publicly reject any joint declaration, or resolutions adopted at these dialogue meetings if they in any manner compromise the interests of Hindu dharma on Hindu bhumi. Knowing what they do, Hindu nationalists therefore consider the very presence of Hindu religious leaders at such dialogues with the enemies of dharma to be an affront to the dignity of our sanyasis and to the honour of all dharmis.

The Christian church and the Muslim mosque are not sacred places like the Hindu temple. These are places for the faithful to congregate for prayer and politics while our temples are abodes of the divine; the Divine, in supreme compassion for the bhakta, consents to reside in the structure raised by the bhakta. Hindu temples are therefore the sacred and divine core of Hindu society and all activities of society are governed by the consciousness that the divine is residing in our midst. The village and village temples were therefore self-governing autonomous units linked by a common worldview defined by dharma, karma and the purusharthas to the larger pradesa, desa and rajya.

The Church however is both the small ‘c’hurch building in the locality where the Christian faithful gather and also the big ‘C’hurch which is the entire edifice of the religion called Christianity; and this includes its headquarters in the Vatican and the Catholic Hierarchy – the Pope, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Pastors, Monks, Nuns and Priests. The Vatican is a State, its purpose is political and militarist and its Religious Hierarchy constitutes the government (Cardinals), the diplomats (Cardinals), the bureaucracy (Archbishops and Bishops) and the local municipal councilor (Monks, Nuns, Pastors and Priests). All of them are also collectively the Army of Christ driven by the mission to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. Christian theology is therefore also replete also with militarist jargon.

The Anglican Church and the Protestant Churches outside the UK also have their own Capitals and well-organized centralized, hierarchical edifices like the Vatican. And they are all expansionists by nature and have the same single-pointed objective of christianising the world. To the Hindus and other targeted victims of the Church therefore, there is no redeeming distinction among the denominations; Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, New Life, Adventist or Jehovah’s Witnesses, they are all the same.

The Church is a self-perpetuating creature; it has to keep reiterating its raison d’etre or its mission for existence periodically for sheer survival; and these statements of intent and objectives have come at more frequent intervals in the last five decades, signaling the challenges to the survival not only of the Christian religion but also its expansionist edifice. The Second Vatican Council declaration Ad Gentes, Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Redemptoris Missio and Cardinal Ratzinger-authored (the incumbent Pope before he became the Pope) Dominus Jesus, all reiterate the agenda and the mission of the Catholic Church.

We are concerned in the main with the Catholic Church for two reasons: one, the intended inter-faith dialogue in Mumbai is a Catholic-Hindu dialogue; and two, the Catholic Church or the Vatican has written and documented statements on its website of its intent and its mission which prove its guilt. We have it on the best authority that this dialogue was sought by the Vatican and also that the Vatican has taken the position that the escalating disharmony between Hindus and Christians in India has been caused by some of the new denominational churches with their brash conversion methodology. In essence, the Vatican has absolved itself of ‘offensive and unethical’ religious conversion. It is our responsibility to prove that the Vatican is lying through its teeth in the hope that it can still get away behind the veil of Hindu ignorance/tolerance and its own notorious secretive modus operandi.

We will refer to only two important documents to expose the Vatican for the fascist state that it is – the mission statement Ad Gentes from the Second Vatican Council and ‘Challenges Today to Mission “Ad Gentes” – Meeting of the Superiors General of Societies of Apostolic Life, Maryknoll, NY, USA, 1st May, 2000’. Fascism is not a word to be used lightly or loosely; political fascism derived from a monotheism which is only religious fascism. While the original Ad Gentes stated the mission of the Catholic Church in the brevity of a couplet, the statement of the Superiors General states the same in epic format.

• “The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father”
• “Then, when He had by His death and His resurrection completed once for all in Himself the mysteries of our salvation and the renewal of all things, the Lord, having now received all power in heaven and on earth (cf. Matt. 28 18), before He was taken up into heaven (cf. Acts 1:11), founded His Church as the sacrament of salvation and sent His Apostles into all the world just as He Himself had been sent by His Father (cf. John 20:21), commanding them: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19 ff.). “Go into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe, shall be condemned” (Mark 16:15ff.).” (Ad Gentes, Second Vatican Council).

Fascism is inherent in Christ’s proclamation that it is not enough to believe, but the faithful have to be baptized (self-perpetuating church) and also that while he who believes and is baptized will be ‘saved’, those who do not believe and who reject the church will be condemned. This fascist exhortation rooted in the intolerant Christian God the Father and in the intolerant Son, Jesus Christ created the fascist Church which caused genocide of entire non-Christian nations, civilizations, peoples, faiths and religions. It is this Catholic Church which is seeking to sweep its bloody past history away from sight and is seeking dialogue with Hindu religious leaders in the backdrop of angry Hindu reaction to frenzied religious conversion undertaken by the Church across India.

• “Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Redemptoris missio, subtitled “On the Permanent Validity of the Church’s Missionary Mandate”, was an eloquent appeal to renew missionary fervor within the Church.
• “The very need for an encyclical such as Redemptoris missio was indicative that a problem existed. There had been an acute questioning of the purpose of mission immediately after the Council even by missionaries themselves. The crisis of the 1960’s and 1970’s was not just a theological one; the decolonization and new statehood of many mission lands had led to calls — especially in Africa — of a “moratorium” on mission.
• “The second shift has to do with the forms of evangelization. Most important here is the introduction of dialogue alongside proclamation. Redemptoris missio tries to address the relation between dialogue and proclamation; the Vatican document Dialogue and Proclamation, issued jointly by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Council on Inter-religious Dialogue just a few months after Redemptoris missio, tries to go even further. Mission had been rather clearly understood as proclamation of the Gospel to those who had not heard it. The importance given to dialogue by Nostra aetate at the Vatican Council raised a new set of issues. By according respect to other religious traditions, and by promoting dialogue with them rather than an apologetic to prove their errors, how to relate the aims of proclamation and dialogue to each other becomes problematic. While both Church documents and theological publications have tried to explicate and clarify the relationship between them, the confusion continues. If dialogue (or at least certain kinds of dialogue with certain aims of respect of the other) is an end in itself, then what happens to proclamation as traditionally understood, and a fortiori to mission ad gentes?” (Statement of the Superiors General in NY, USA, 2000)

Now let us take these documents apart to clearly see what the Vatican stands for and what our Hindu religious leaders have to confront when they sit across the table with these diabolic agents of destruction of other religions.

Ad Gentes says the Church is missionary be nature. This means the Church’s whole purpose of existence is only its mission to take the Gospel to those who have not heard it. In brief, Christianize the world.

The core of the Christian faith is that it ‘saves’ all humans who believe and who are baptized, This is a two-in-one proposition – ensures the relevance of the persona of Jesus Christ and also ensures the continuity of the Church edifice. This is salvation or the salvific nature of the Christian religion and the Church. Like Allah and the Prophet Mohammed who cannot be separated as two entities by the Muslim faithful, belief in Christ as the Son of God and the Church are two in-severable entities. They go together and sustain each other.

The mission of the Catholic Church to Christianize the world, in the beginning, was effected by weapons that suited the fascist agenda in a world disarmed and subjugated by White Christian colonialism – genocide, war, forcible conversion, separation of children from parents in non-Christian colonized nations when the children were brought up as Christians. Second World War and the ugly truths of Christian roots of Nazism, fascism and colonization made such ruthless methods increasingly untenable and so the Second Vatican Council crafted its modified weapon – inter-faith dialogue. Now, the Church will not ram the Christian faith down the throats of non-believers by hectoring to them about ‘satan worship, false gods and barbaric, pagan superstitions’ but will approach them respectfully for dialogue and tell them politely that the Catholic Church is the sole repository of truth, Jesus Christ is the only Lord and the Church the only way to salvation. The agenda remains the same – Christianize the world but the words, on the surface will be polite but the execution of the mission will be just as ruthless and as determined.

Inter-faith dialogue is the weapon of the Catholic Church crafted in the Second Vatican Council for easy penetration not of societies but penetration of Hindu and Buddhist religious leaders through access during these dialogues. The Pontifical Council on Inter-religious Dialogue is in Mumbai now to meet with our religious leaders. Hindu religious leaders must understand that inter-religious dialogue by the Church is cancer, like Sufism in Islam – intended to disarm the gullible with sweet talk. Our leaders must prove equal to the task.

The Second Vatican Council exhorted the faithful, clergy and laity alike to reach out to non-Christian peoples to engage them in dialogue. This Council made the startling submission that the Catholic Church acknowledged that while all religions had some elements of truth in them, only the Christian faith had all the truth and that the Catholic Church alone was the repository of that truth. The Catholic Church states that the essence of the Christian faith is its salvific quality – the power to ‘save’. It accepts that all religions may have some salvific capacity in them but only the Christian faith is wholly salvific.

Hindus who promote inter-faith dialogue must know what they are getting into when they sit across the table with an intolerant, fascist religion. They must know the enemy before them for what it is, as it is, in its own words. Hindus go to the table with absolutely no knowledge of the nature of the enemy and go to these meetings with no prior planning and equipped with little besides their smug tolerance and pacifism. At the end of all such ‘dialogues’ Hindus have either failed to assert their position or ended up signing documents and resolutions most insulting to Hindus. These inter-faith dialogues, because Hindus did not care to know the enemy, have always ended favorably for the Church. This of course is not to say that these resolutions and declarations are in any way binding upon Hindu society which knows exactly how to deal with jihad and the evangelising missionaries. The problem is with idiot Hindus who think there is an intellectual and pacifist way to deal with issues of survival.

Non-resident Hindus and Hindu PIOs living in Europe and America, and globe-trotting gurus and sanyasis with growing numbers of foreign bhaktas and foreign funds have been guilty of drawing Hindus at home and high Hindu religious organizations into the vortex of inter-religious or inter-faith dialogue with foreigners. Growing NRI Hindu and non-Indian Hindu influence on a section of Hindu religious leaders and formerly Hindu political leaders has made these leaders look more and more at overseas Hindus and their interests to the detriment of Hindu interests in the country. It must be emphasized that in all these dialogues Hindu religious leaders have belonged to non-traditional, new cult, or neo-vedantin sects. The Mumbai inter-faith dialogue for the first time will have the high-voltage presence of the senior pontiff of the Kanchi matham while all other Hindu sanyasis at this meet come from the non-traditional stream.

This point deserves close attention for only one reason. Religious leaders of traditional mathams are rooted in centuries-old tradition and are the living symbols of a timeless heritage with the extraordinary responsibility not only to preserve that heritage but to hand it down to the next generation. This is a mind-boggling and breath-taking responsibility. Mathathipathis, Adeenams and Mandaleshwars do not act as individuals driven by personal beliefs or fleeting interests and are therefore very unlikely to give in to any demand from the Church and even more unlikely to make any concession harmful to Hindu dharma or dharmi. And that is why at all these dialogues we find only Hindu religious leaders from non-traditional streams engaged in a dialogue with the Church, in the Church’s own territory or in territory loyal to the Church. Hindu religious leaders knowingly and willingly start with this disadvantage. One does not meet the enemy on his territory unless one is Sri Krishna.

The intense discussion of the Superiors General in New York in 2000 points to an existential dilemma among a section of the Catholic Hierarchy – if religious conversion or ‘taking the gospel to those who have not heard it yet’ is the Church’s whole and only mission, then what is the purpose of inter-faith dialogue and what is the relationship between Proclamation and Dialogue? Good question; and it has been answered unambiguously by Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger. Pope John Paul II declared on Indian soil in November 1999 that he intended to plant the Cross in Asia in the third millennium; what he did not say explicitly was that ‘Dialogue’ was all bunkum and that Dialogue and Proclamation were the classic good cop-bad cop ploy by the Church. Cardinal Ratzinger declared in Dominus Jesus that Christ was the path and the destination; what he did not say explicitly was that the soporific, all religions have some elements of truth in them and all religions have some salvific power in them was bunkum too.

When Hindus sit down to ‘dialogue’ with the enemy, they must keep the following in mind –

• The Church, as it is understood and as it is in reality, is the White Church. The coloured drops in the Hierarchy of the Church are only permitted colour and flavour.
• The White Church is racist and has expanded across what were once non-White continents only by brute force.
• The White race’s religion, trade, history, politics and science all share the same characteristics – exploitative, avaricious, intolerant, brutal and destructive whose only objective is to wield absolute control over all things in Creation
• The White Church began by first controlling the Sovereign (King) and then expanded its horizons by controlling/converting peoples, then nations and then continents
• The Catholic Church was assisted in its mission to convert the world to Christianity by Sovereigns and freebooters alike, by armies and traders alike, by the clergy and laity alike
• The Church’s expansionist path in the beginning took the “trade-routes and highways” of the Roman Empire and then took the trade-routes and highways of expanding, colonizing Spanish and Portuguese Empires and then the trade-routes and highways of British, French and Dutch Empires
• The White Catholic Church, White Christian Empires and White agents of Trade have not just worked in tandem but have walked hand in hand to the mutual benefit, growth and entrenchment of all three
• A Christian King, politician, shop-keeper, smuggler or academic, serves his religion first and always

This much is White Christianity’s distant and recent history. This should be kept in mind of all those who think the Church is the padre in popular Hindi and vernacular films and who maintain in public discourse and private conversations that the only mission of the Church is to provide education, healthcare and beatific smiles for those in distress. Those desirous of indulging in religious diplomacy (or so they think) by sitting across table with the White Church must also keep in mind what the White Church has said in New York in May 2000.

For better understanding of what follows, it must be borne in mind that Christianity and Islam have NO native land because they are both only derivatives of the parent religion – Judaism. Therefore they do not subscribe to concepts like matrubhumi, and pitrubhumi (not fatherland but land of our pitrus or ancestors). They also reject Hindu nationalist assertion that the Hindu nation, religion, culture and dharma, while it is universal and may exist anywhere in the world with no conflict, tension or disharmony with other ways of life and worldview because of its very nature, Hindu nation, religion, culture and dharma was born on a specific territory and the sense of nation, nationhood and nationalism is only territorial even when the nationalism is narrowly construed as being only religious, only cultural, only civilisational or only dharmic.

Hindu nationalists assert that the Hindu nation is all these. This is the territory of Bharata, Hindusthana, India and it is a nation or territory with well-defined borders even from historic times. This is the territory of sanatana dharma. Sanatana dharma may be universal but it is not amorphous that predatory religions can deny the territorial content of Hindu nationhood so that this territory too may be Christianized.

Our religious leaders and non-sanyasi vacuous ‘scholars’ who advocate inter-faith dialogue with the Church as some defining gesture of Hindu tolerance must keep all this in mind to understand what the White Church is saying about its mission, its new goals and new opportunities and the methods that these opportunities provide. The White Church has always converted every social, economic, political trend in the world to its benefit and advantage. In the following excerpts from the statement of the Superiors General in New York in May 200, which is of critical importance to understand the Church, the White Church has a name for the two fascist, expansionist, and genocidal Abrahamic faiths – Islam and Christianity; the name is ‘great translocal religions’. The name is pregnant with all kinds of possible interpretations. Non-Christian, non-Islamic faiths and religions which have existed for millennia before these two religions are simply “local, oral traditions”. Not religions mind you, not civilizations, not worldviews, and above all, not universal; just simply “local, oral traditions”. This is what it is saying now -

• “One thing that globalization is changing (we will return to others in the final part of this presentation) is the meaning of territory and the nation-state. Because the information and capital flow made possible by communications technology, boundaries of the nation-state, which have been a staple of political economy since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, have ever decreased significance. With the flow and migration of peoples, as well as the incursion of global cultural forces on local communities, “culture” as territory has ever decreasing significance. While neither nation-state nor cultural territory will completely disappear (as was the fear in earlier stages of discussion of globalization), its significance is greatly diminished. What does this mean for a mission that defines itself as ad gentes, if the world is no longer so neatly divided into cultural and ethnic groups? Missionary institutes ad gentes have tried to redefine ad gentes as ad extra (that is, simply going out from where one is), or more recently, as ad altera (that is, to those who are made “other”).
• ” The first is that the converts who join the great translocal religious traditions (such as Christianity or Islam) come largely from local, oral traditions. Indeed, history would seem to indicate that people in local, oral traditions (sometimes called indigenous religions) shift rather readily to join a translocal tradition such as Christianity, Buddhism, or Islam. But once having done so, they are unlikely to move from one translocal tradition to another. Only those who have not yet been fully integrated into the translocal tradition or those who have been alienated from it are likely to change their affiliation. If that is indeed the case, then mission ad gentes will end for Christianity (and Islam) when the final indigenous peoples have been reached.”

Hindus generally being idiot Hindus, let us break this astounding presumption into small parts. Hindus and tribal communities “readily” convert to Islam or Christianity and these Christian and Muslim converts do not abandon the religion to which they have converted to re-convert to Islam or Christianity. That is, when a Hindu converts to becoming a Christian, then that same converted Hindu Christian will not convert again to becoming Hindu Muslim convert; not unless the Hindu who converted to the Church has not been integrated fully with the Christian community. Read this, understand this and beware. This is full of significance for the way the Church in India operates to pressure Indian polity for concessions for so-called dalit and BC Christians. Ditto with how the Muslims pressure Indian polity to keep the Muslim flock contented in the pen. And that is why the Sachar Committee report assumes significance for Hindu nationalists.

• “The story of empire and mission has been told often, by opponents and defenders of mission alike. It is not my intention to recount that history here once again. Rather, I would like to focus on one aspect of that history: namely, that the expansionist designs of Europe provided the infrastructure for an organized and concerted mission ad gentes. Empire not only provided a necessary infrastructure for transportation, protection, and even fiscal support for missionaries, but no doubt figured into the thinking of how mission itself was to be organized, both on the home front and in the distant lands. Individual efforts of missionaries can be traced through history. But the mobilization of religious institutes — and later the founding of institutes specifically for that purpose — followed the pathways and even assumed the military rhetoric of the empire-builders.”

Now, the Church admits to how it has always played both sides of the game in any conflict to the advantage of its expansionist designs. Do Hindus who engage in inter-faith dialogue at the behest of the White Church have the sense to know the enemy with whom they are “engaged” from its own words, from its own description?

• “In saying this, I do not wish to reduce organized mission ad gentes to a byproduct of empire. That would be simplistic and inaccurate. Missionaries often became the opponents of empire, siding with local people against their colonizers. Missionaries preserved local culture through writing down indigenous oral languages even as empire was crippling or destroying it. What I am trying to do here is trying to indicate some factors arising from this convergence of empire and mission ad gentes which may be instructive for our own time.
• “The convergence of mission ad gentes and empire created a powerful way of thinking wherein the notion of mission ad gentes became bound up with territory. One sees this as early as the founding of the Propaganda Fide in Rome in the seventeenth century and as late as the establishment of the “jus commissionis“ in the twentieth century. Rather than models (of religious conversion) wherein going ad gentes meant going to the sovereign (the King) to effect his conversion, mission was seen as Christianizing a territory. The convergence of empire and mission provided models of mission which were derived from the empire and colonizing process.
• “Most prominent throughout the period of European empire was the civilizing model, which meant bringing European education, technical training, and health care ad gentes. Put in late twentieth century terms, models of human promotion go hand in hand with mission. Today we would think more in terms of social justice or the defense of human rights. In both the earlier and more recent models, what evangelization is becomes extended in terms of an infrastructure which supports mission.
• ” Two characteristics of globalization today which are of significance here are its homogenizing power, whereby it interlinks the world and communicates the same message throughout this network; and its fragmenting power, which in local settings disrupts social arrangements, creates resistance, and heightens the sense of the particular and the local. How does this aspect of globalization interconnect with mission ad gentes?
• ” In responding to the interlinkage through communication as a form of homogenization, missionary institutes and the Church itself should utilize its resources as a transnational and non-governmental organization to bring people together in the solidarity of the human family, and form networks of support and advocacy. Missionary institutes should show by how they live and operate that transnational organizations need not be oppressive, but can bring together human and material resources for the betterment of life for humankind. They should use their resources to reach the gentes, who are now scattered throughout the world, as a result of migration and refugee status, those gentes who drift into our huge cities and lose their identities in the process. We need to think through as missionaries and missiologists how the homogenizing factors in the world today are shaping our thinking and our relationships.
• ” Globalization also fragments the world. Here it seems to me that the mission ad gentes is called to address the consequences of that fragmentation, where people reshape and construct new identities to resist the encroachments of globalization, where refugees and displaced persons have to rebuild lives and heal memories. The work of mission here is a work of reconciliation; that is, restoring human dignity and healing a broken society. It is about telling the truth, seeking justice, and creating a new moral vision. Indeed, it seems to me that reconciliation may well be the metaphor for mission as we enter the twenty-first century.”

The Superiors General, the White Catholic Church has nothing to hide because there are in effect, no real challenges to their agenda, which they have articulated with an openness that is insulting but which is a commentary on Hindu powerlessness to deal with this agenda. The Church is backed and supported thoroughly by the US and the EU. The US and the EU will first create, trigger and nurture conflicts around the world (and these are always countries and regions where the Church has not been successful so far) and once the people have been devastated by prolonged conflict, then the Church will step in to administer the healing touch!

US and European aid agencies and funding agencies – USAID, DFID, Red Cross, World Vision, these are the foot-soldiers of the White Church. Human rights, religious freedom, freedom of conscience, social justice, justice with peace are the new weapons of war in this war-by-other-means. Truth and Reconciliation is the new Church Opening Gambit in this great chess game between the Church and its victims; and we the idiot Hindus mindlessly parrot the slogans the White Church has coined for entrapment, and which have been legitimised by the supporting White Christian nations as the new liberal universal political ideology for the world. The globe-trotting Sri Sri Ravishankar is one of the “spiritual” (not religious, by his own admission) leaders who will be sitting across the table today and he conducted with much media fanfare his own variation of the (in)famous “truth and reconciliation” circus with the dalits in India.

Swami Chidananda Saraswati, another loose-cannon from something called ‘Divine Life Society, Uttaranchal’ who will also be present at the table today, was also present in Advani’s house last year with the Archbishops of Orissa and Delhi, and penned his name to the declaration called infamously, the Delhi Declaration, which the BJP proudly mentioned in its election manifesto. The Delhi Declaration stated that Swami Chidananda Saraswati would re-build the churches burned down by angry tribal communities after Christian terrorists gunned down the venerable Swami Laxmananda Saraswati. This Chidananda Saraswati signed the Delhi Declaration which also stated that he deplored not only “unethical religious conversion” but also “unethical re-conversion”. He deserves nothing but the strongest condemnation not only for his pathetic understanding of religious conversion but also for his poor understanding of the critical necessity for re-conversion on Hindu bhumi to the parent religion.

The presence of the revered mathathipathi of the Kanchi matham is the only saving grace in this whole disgraceful event. Hindu nationalists and Hindu bhaktas are hoping passionately that the Pujya Kanchi seer will tell the White Church on its face that until the Church declares that it will no longer undertake or countenance religious conversion in India, this will be the last inter-faith dialogue with the Church on Hindu bhumi.

A somewhat romaticised view of old Germantown, Philadelphia

Gospel Unity
We’re often told about how fragmented the Christian Church is. But actually, the true, final and eternal basis on which people will be united is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Although we live in a fallen world, the reality of this unity can be experienced even now. And even though we are not unrealistic about our differences, every Christian at one time or another has known the joy of this unity in Christ.

American Unity
On Tuesday 27 November 1739, George Whitefield visited Germantown, Philadelphia. What is inspiring here is that Whitfield’s visit drew together individuals, denominational leaders and people of varying ethnic backgrounds into a united experience of worship.

This kind of evangelistic moment prefigures the coming reality of Rev 7:9-10 (NIV) which says,

‘After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb…they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God!”’

Unity because of the Power of the Holy Spirit
Whitefield records the following:
‘Tuesday Nov 27 – According to appointment, I preached at German Town, seven miles from Philadelphia, from a balcony, to above six thousand people.

God strengthened me to speak nearly two hours, with such demonstration of the Spirit, that great numbers continued weeping for a considerable time.

I have not seen a more gracious melting for a considerable time. After I had done, people came to shake me by the hand, and invited me to their houses, and fresh places…

I had sweet converse, and felt a blessed union and communion with many souls, though of different nations and professions.

I think there are no less than fifteen denominations of Christians in German Town, and yet all agree in one thing, that is, to hold Jesus Christ as their Head, and to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

I talked with one who had been banished from Switzerland for preaching Christ. Numbers are scattered round about the town, who were driven out of their native countries for the sake of their holy religion.’ (George Whitefield, Journals, Banner of Truth edition, p.358-9)

The gift of the Evangelist, as described in Ephesians 4, is a means of bringing the church to maturity and to unity. Our efforts to produce unity apart from the gifts listed in Ephesians 4 (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, and Pastor/Teachers) will always fall short of our hopes.

The ascended Christ gives these specific gifts to cause the church to grow and to bring her to maturity and unity. Whitfield continues to serve as an inspiration to all who would seek such gospel unity.

For more on Apostles today click here

© 2009 Lex Loizides

Today, I finished The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels. Here’s an excerpt from the conclusion.

To pray for one’s enemies suggests that one believes that whatever harm they may have done, they are capable of being reconciled to God and to oneself. Paul, writing about twenty years before the evangelists, holds a still more traditionally Jewish perception that Satan acts as God’s agent not to corrupt people but to test them; at one point he suggests that a Christian group “deliver to Satan” one of its errant members, not in order to consign him to hell, but in the hope that he will repent and change. Paul also hopes and longs for reconciliation between his “brothers,” “fellow Israelites,” and Gentile believers.

Many Christians, then, from the first century through Francis of Assisi in the fifteenth century and Martin Luther King, Jr., in the twentieth, have believed that they stood on God’s side without demonizing their opponents. Their religious vision inspired them to oppose policies and powers they regarded as evil, often risking their well-being and their lives, while praying for the reconciliation–not the damnation–of those who opposed them.

Pagels suggests that the traditional Jewish view, prevalent throughout most of the OT and much of the NT, holds that Satan is not the arch-rival nemesis of YHWH, engaged in an epic, dualistic battle. Rather, Satan is an agent or servant of God, an antagonist sent to test God’s subjects, as in the case of Job.

Today’s popular views of Satan as the ultimate rival of God, embodiment of evil, became popularized in the couple centuries before the life of Christ with the Essenes. In the face of persecution during the early centuries of the Christian movement, many Christians adopted this perspective. Married to such beliefs is the systematic identification of one’s enemies as agents of or embodiment of Satan and his foes.

Jesus’ teaching of nonviolence and love for neighbor radically challenges the Christian dualistic beliefs. Our foe should not be one whom we demonize and seek to eradicate. We should not accept or permit violence and oppression. We should not under any circumstances, wish damnation on our enemies. Rather, we should, above all else, seek reconciliation.

John the Baptist, taken by John Larsen/The Volante

A sequence of events occurred this weekend that I will always remember. The weekend was made complete by a plague of car troubles, a road trip accompanied by Arlo’s plethora of NOW compilations, and car dancing. All of which I could have done without, but it wouldn’t be memorable without.
I spent the weekend in the Minneapolis area where I visited friends from St. John’s, St. Ben’s, and (although briefly) Carleton. Arlo, Molly, and I picked up Corbin and James Darcy (Yes, Austen fans, his name is actually James Darcy) from St. John’s and went to Northfield where we ate at Chapati, a fabulous Indian restaurant. After dinner we went to St. Olaf where The Hold Steady concert took place.
It seemed as though I was the only one who wasn’t crazy about The Hold Steady. Molly had said they were fantastic live and I was excited to go even though I have only listened to The Hold Steady briefly on their Myspace page. There music wasn’t striking to me, but the man who resembled the Argentinian from Moulin Rouge in a brown three piece suit and handlebar mustache looked gave the band the edge I needed to keep my eyes on the stage.
The rest of the experience isn’t worth retelling except for the moment when I drunkenly proclaimed I was a “loose cannon” at Corbin’s apartment later that night and then when Molly got pulled over on the way home from Minnesota without her driver’s license, a broken tail light, open containers somewhere in the car, and a slightly inebriated me (I couldn’t resist having some cider and rum at Carleton). The highway patrolman directed us back to the highway (He said Molly was driving like she was drunk, stoned, or really confused- she was just really confused.) and we got away without a ticket or being incarcerated.

The more interesting things happened once I was back in the 605, of course. Upon arriving home, I had the incredible urge to write and to read through my journal entries from last fall. The entry that struck me was written August 28, 2008. It was a reflection on belief and truth. I remember feeling incredibly lost that day, but I have no idea what events inspired those reflections.

I wrote “Give me your painted signs that won’t change my mind and raise your voice to my deaf ears, for my truth does not remain in you. Use your belief as your armor and your sword to fight a war you will never win. I will continue to seek my truth, because unlike you, I will learn to go quietly without imposing my beliefs on you.”

The entry stayed with me until I fell asleep and came back to me the next day when I experienced one of the most interesting things I’ve ever seen on campus. I walked by Shawn Holes and his friend John who were preaching and handing out information cards on the walk way between the library and the university center. The two men are Baptists who read the bible literally.

They held up a sign condemning pot smokers, partiers, feminists, sex freaks, liars, sodomists, music idolators, “evilutionists,” pagans, immodest women, abortionists, drunkards, and all non-christians. The bright yellow sign read, “Judgment is Coming.” A second sign by the soap box read,”Evolution is a lie.”

It was quite exciting. At first.

This never happens at USD. There are hardly ever protesters on campus, much less, preachers. Over the course of the day many people came and went. Some came to just listen, watch, and be entertained. Others came to yell louder than Shawn the Baptist and his sarcastic friend, John. A couple remarks I still remember (forgive me if they’re not quite exact, but they were said.)

John: You must be born again.

College student: I can’t find a vagina large enough to crawl back into.

John: Little girl, be glad you have little feet so you can stand closer to the sink while washing dishes.

Shawn: I’m a saint. We are all saints. But we all deserve to go to Hell

College student: Shut the fuck up.

I’m sad to say it was a bad showing for both sides. While standing and listening I witnessed an argument that went nowhere. Hardly anyone listened. The preachers wouldn’t allow the students to be heard fully and the students wouldn’t allow the preachers to be heard. The things the men said were outrageous at times. Shawn told women they must learn in silence, be submissive to men, and stay at home. According to him, women should never wear pants either. Yet, the majority of the crowds response was “fuck you,” which Shawn and John would reply to with “Excuse me, you must go wash your mouth out with soap before I address your question.”

It was absolutely ridiculous and somewhere in the middle of the show, I thought back to my reflection from August 28, 2008. The argument was a contest in which the supposed winner was the one who could yell loudest. Neither side heard each other, nor did they want to.

If Shawn the Baptist would just look around him and listen to the students and observers yesterday, he would realize his method is not working. Shouting and condemning those who surround you works just as well as raising faith in a garden of fear. Offending a Baptist preacher with “fuck you” and “suck a dick” will not make him listen nor understand that the people around him don’t need his salvation.

YSR "Samuel" Reddy the late chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

“With YSR’s advent in 2004, evangelical activities increased alarmingly and mass conversions were witnessed in rural areas on a large scale. His open pandering to Church and missionaries emboldened evangelists to go all out in their conversion activities. They dared focus on Hindu pilgrimage sites such as Badrachalam, Simmachalam, Srisailam, Ahobilam, Mangalagiri, Kalahasthi, and didn’t spare Thirumala-Thirupathi! YSR aided the Church and missionaries in many ways.”

Political career

In a career spanning over three decades, YSR as he was popularly known, was elected to the Lok Sabha four times from Kadapa (Cuddappa) constituency and five times to the State Assembly from Pulivendula constituency of Andhra Pradesh. At a time when the state Congress was feeling the pinch of the non-availability of a charismatic leader, YSR pitched in and made full use of the opportunity. He served as president of APCC twice (1983–1985 and 1998–2000) and as minister from 1980-1983. He was Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly during Chandrababu Naidu’s tenure as Chief Minister from 1999 to 2004.

YSR undertook a massive padayatra (1500 kms) across the state in 2003, covering many villages and rural areas, and led his party to a grand victory in the 2004 elections to both Parliament and Assembly, to the shock of the TDP and surprise of the Congress high command. His party won 185 assembly seats and he became Chief Minister. In the 2009 elections for Parliament and Assembly, he led from the front on a plank of “Development and Credibility” and won 33 Lok Sabha and 156 Assembly seats, becoming Chief Minister again. But barely three months late, travelling by helicopter from Hyderabad to Chithoor, he suddenly closed his life story as his chopper crashed on a hilltop in Nallamala forest area.

Welfare Schemes for the masses

During his first term as Chief Minister from 2004 to 2009, YSR implemented many new welfare schemes apart from the usual freebies such as free power for farmers, waiver of loans, Rs 2/kg rice, which have become the order of governance in the country now. Some schemes, launched with fanfare, include “Jalayagnam” (water conservation), a programme of more than 50 large, medium and small irrigation projects worth more than Rs. 50,000 crores; “Arogya Shree,” a community health insurance scheme for BPL families; “Pavala Vaddi” or interest subsidy, a programme to provide loans to people, particularly women SHGs, at 3% per annum to encourage them to take up small entrepreneurial businesses; “Indiramma illu,” a programme for construction of houses for the rural masses, the major share of which is borne by the government.

Though the Congress party claims these schemes and many others have been a success, the opposition parties have alleged rampant corruption in implementation of the schemes. Probably a change of regime in future might bring out the facts regarding implementation of these much hyped schemes. Also, if the schemes prove really “remunerative,” succeeding regimes may continue with them, perhaps under a different name!

However, Rajasekhar Reddy was termed a pro-poor leader and the rural masses loved and adored him, particularly as he periodically increased the procurement price of paddy, which reduced farmer-suicides to a huge extent to almost nil status.

Corruption charges

YSR and his family were in the thick of controversies during his tenure. The leader of the opposition, Chandrababu Naidu, accused him of amassing huge wealth through companies like Sandur Power Company, Jagathi Publications, and Bharathi Cement Corporation, which were owned by his family members.

As the allegations gained momentum and featured in the assembly, YSR accepted holding Government and forest lands and returned 614 acres at Idupulapaya estate in Vempalli mandal to the government. Still, media reports said he could be tried under AP Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Act, 1973 & Rules, 1974, AP Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act, 1977 and AP Forest Act, 1967.

Almost all opposition parties and the media alleged his family’s involvement in the multi-crore ‘Satyam’ scam. He was blamed for the government’s granting of huge contracts to ‘Maytas’ of the Satyam group. He was severely attacked in and out of the assembly for his ‘specific’ assaults on Ramoji Rao and his companies.

• http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=3157&pg=1&mod=1&sectionId=9&sectionname=MEDIA%20RESEARCH&valid=true

During his tenure, Thirumala Thirupathi Devasthanam was always in the news for all the wrong reasons, from appointment of Chairman (once his own step-brother and another time a liquor baron), to mismanagement, to lack of transparency, to abuse of power, to shortages of jewels and gold coins, to sacrilege of Thirumala by evangelical activities and ant-social elements. The total abuse of TTD was attributed only to YSR and just some days ago Dr. Chandrababu Naidu demanded dissolution of the TTD Board.

The New Indian Express dated 4 September 2009 said, “Charges of massive corruption in irrigation projects and other big ventures dogged him throughout his first innings, so much so that he was described as the chief fund raiser for the Congress at the national level.”

State’s insecurity

YSR’s tenure blundered on security. Apart from the anti incumbency factor for TDP, YSR’s understanding with Maoist and PWG (Naxal) groups allegedly helped in his victory in the 2004 elections. As per the understanding, he stopped the anti-Naxal operations in the name of ‘peace-talks’ and allowed them to regroup and roam the state freely with arms and ammunition. The Naxal and PWG utilized this huge opportunity to establish contacts with Maoists in other states and Nepal.

As a result, the Red corridor spread to over 15 states across India, from Nepal to Andhra Pradesh. The unholy nexus extended to LTTE cadres and Jihadis, resulting in smuggling of different kinds of arms and ammunition, including rocket launchers, and parts for making bombs, etc. The huge cache of arms and ammunitions captured by Tamil Nadu police during their regular arrests of LTTE cadres established the Naxal-LTTE nexus.

His tenure also witnessed two huge bomb blasts in Mecca Masjid and Lumbini Park areas, resulting in immense loss of life and property. So far investigations have not yielded any results. The state still reels under the Naxal menace! The general law and order situation is not up to the mark, as evidenced by regular occurrences of political murders.

The christianization of Andhra Pradesh

With YSR’s advent in 2004, evangelical activities increased alarmingly and mass conversions were witnessed in rural areas on a large scale. His open pandering to Church and missionaries emboldened evangelists to go all out in their conversion activities. They dared focus on Hindu pilgrimage sites such as Badrachalam, Simmachalam, Srisailam, Ahobilam, Mangalagiri, Kalahasthi, and didn’t spare Thirumala-Thirupathi! YSR aided the Church and missionaries in many ways.

Eating the Baby: YSR taking communion from a Christian priest.

He sanctioned Rs. 80, 000/- per church for repair works in August 2006 as per GO MS. No: 21 dt 22/08/2006 (“CM Reddy okays public money for churches”, Deccan Chronicle, 23 August 2006) and an aid of Rs. 1.5 lakhs for the construction of each church.

This is done while the government is controlling over 30,000 temples and taking all their revenue. Only 15% of temple revenue is given back for temple maintenance and salaries of priests. Over 40,000 Priests earn a salary of only Rs. 500/- to Rs. 1000/- per month. The rest of the revenue is being used for other government schemes and minority welfare schemes, as in Tamil Nadu.

The AP government is also auctioning cows and calves donated by devotees to Bhagwan Narasimhar Temple at Simhachalam to owners of abattoirs. With so much of revenue from temples, it is unfortunate that the government has not bothered to maintain a decent Goshala respecting the sentiments of Hindu devotees.

• http://www.hindujagruti.org/activities/campaigns/religious/save-temples/templesact/misuse.php

The state government identified 7000 acres of temple lands for sale to raise revenues of Rs. 20, 000 crores. In many places, those lands have been allegedly encroached upon by churches and missionaries with the connivance of government officials. Some have been given for construction of churches and mosques.

Thousands of churches have been planted by missionaries throughout the state totally disproportionate to the Christian population – one church for every seven Christians! The number of churches stands at 148,000; the temples are 190,000 (one for every 350 Hindus) and Mosques figure at 176,000 (one for every 40 Muslims)

• http://www.drthchowdary.net/index.php
• http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HkPage.aspx?PAGEID=7317&SKIN=C

The pastors of the planted churches straightaway started their ‘harvests’ particularly in rural areas, where mass conversions have been rampant for the last five years. While the government figure of Christian population is 1.5% (2001 census), the Church itself puts the figure at 10 to 12%, which could certainly be more in view of the large scale conversion in the state. Most converts are Scheduled Castes who pretend to be Hindus to enjoy reservation benefits, while they practice Christianity at home. The AP Assembly passed a resolution for SC status for Christian and Muslim SC converts.

Emboldened by the government’s attitude, missionaries made a focused assault on Thirumala Thirupathi. The YSR government facilitated such activities by releasing a GO saying Bhagwan Venkateswara’s assets were only two hills covering an area of 27.5 sq. kms., and the other five hills would be taken over by the government for converting them into a picnic spot with multiplexes, food courts, commercial, sports and entertainment infrastructures including a rope-way to reach the top of the hills.

The pastors of the planted churches straightaway started their ‘harvests’ particularly in rural areas, where mass conversions have been rampant for the last five years. While the government figure of Christian population is 1.5% (2001 census), the Church itself puts the figure at 10 to 12%, which could certainly be more in view of the large scale conversion in the state. Most converts are Scheduled Castes who pretend to be Hindus to enjoy reservation benefits, while they practice Christianity at home. The AP Assembly passed a resolution for SC status for Christian and Muslim SC converts.

Emboldened by the government’s attitude, missionaries made a focused assault on Thirumala Thirupathi. The YSR government facilitated such activities by releasing a GO saying Bhagwan Venkateswara’s assets were only two hills covering an area of 27.5 sq. kms., and the other five hills would be taken over by the government for converting them into a picnic spot with multiplexes, food courts, commercial, sports and entertainment infrastructures including a rope-way to reach the top of the hills.

From conspiracy to murder, serial molestation, indecent assault, battery, child pornography, fraud, extortion, money laundering, tax evasion, soliciting prostitutes, drug talking and the list goes on. I think the words arrogance and irony sum up this list, but maybe not in all cases ……

1)    Cardinal Groer & Bishop Kurt Krenn [1936-].

Groer was Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna from 1986 – 1995. Just as he was about to retire Greer was engulfed in a sex scandal when 13 young men lodged charges of sexual abuse against him. He refused to make any comment and left to become a Prior of a Benedictine Abbey. Krenn ran a priests seminary – Sankt Polten Diocese – near Vienna. Both men were controversial for their ultraconservative views Krenn defended Groer during his abuse allegations and later refused to appoint an independent ombudsman to investigate any future cases. In 2003 the body of a church seminarist was found floating in the Danube. Following which police seized a computer from the church and found immoral videos and 40,000 disturbing images of child pornography, bestiality and photos of seminary priests in homosexually suggestive poses.  Krenn downplayed the whole uproar and called the poses childish pranks. Krenn very reluctantly resigned in Oct 2004.

The Roman Catholic Church officially requires its clergy to be celibate. The religion deems homosexuality – including between consenting adults – to be a sin.  At the US conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002 Bishops voted for all allegations of a sex crime, by a priest against a minor, to be reported to the police. They also voted that anyone found to have committed these acts should not be given a ministry although they were not to be defrocked.

2)    Henry Lyons, born in 1942 a former president of the National Baptist Church 1994-8 the largest Afro-American religious group in America.  Problems began for Lyons in 1997 when his then wife set fire to a $700,000 house he owned with another woman. From here investigations were made into his finances and in 1998 he was charged with 1 count of racketeering 2 counts of grand theft, fraud, extortion, money laundering and tax evasion. He initially protested his innocence and claimed the charges were racially motivated. However in 1999, he was sentenced to 5 ½ years for misappropriating over 4 million dollars from the NBC. After 4 months of his release in 2003 he returned to preaching and has repeatedly tried to regain his position of president of the NBC with his latest attempt in Sept 2009; when Lyons was in office at NBC he had made it an infringement for anyone to sue the church, however he brought a law suit against the 2009 election due to its alleged violation of the group’s constitution.

In 2007 he was a founding member and subsequently president of the General Baptist State Convention of Florida. One of the core value statements listed on their web site is credibility; we value the need to restore credibility to the church’s work to bring salvation and healing to the world with pure hearts and motives.

3)    Jimmy Swaggart, born in 1935 a Pentecostal Preacher and Televangelist Swaggart started preaching from a trailer in 1955, became a licensed preacher in 1959 and by the 80’s had grown his following by way of radio and TV to a peak of 8 million weekly viewers across the globe. Swaggert spoke very forcefully against sexual sins and gave his own particular thoughts on what the bible was saying by way of what he called ‘divine revelation’ stating “That which the Lord gave to me, which I believe sheds more light on that which was originally given to Paul, pertains to the manner in which the Holy Spirit works within our hearts and minds.

In 1988 he was accused of soliciting a prostitute which he vehemently denied until the evidence was so strong that he admitted to some of the claims. Seemingly overwhelmed by remorse he gave a tearful 1,900 word apology speech on a TV broadcast. Swaggart left the church he was with and after a 3 month break from preaching returned declaring “if I don’t return to the pulpit this weekend, millions of people will go to hell.”

In 1991 he was again caught with a prostitute but this time rather than apologise he took to his pulpit and said “the Lord has told me it is flat none of your business.”

4)    John Geoghan 1935-2003 a former Roman Catholic priest in Boston Mass. Geoghan was defrocked in 1998 after a 30 year career and in 2002 found guilty of indecent assault and battery. The scandal surrounding the case was very much concerned with how Catholic dioceses throughout the USA had covered up a serious number of cases of sexual abuse on young boys. In the case of Geoghan he had been sent to 6 new parishes following accusations of child molestation, with his past hidden and victims secretly paid off. Although he was sent for counselling and rehabilitation during this time he had an estimated 130 credible accusations against him by the end of his priesthood. In Sept 2003 the newly appointed Archbishop in Boston authorised payment of $85 million to 552 victims of molestations by priests in the Boston Archdiocese.

Geoghan was murdered in his prison cell by a fellow inmate.

5)    Mary Sue Hubbard 1931 – 2002 Mary Sue was the 3^rd wife of L Ron Hubbard marrying him in 1952. She was a leading figure in the Church of Scientology which Hubbard founded in 1953. In 1966 in response to extreme negativity from press and government officials Hubbard created the ‘Guardians Office’ [GO] whose job it was to tackle any “threat of great importance” by way of gathering intelligence from perceived enemies taking legal action and balancing public relations. Mary Sue was enlisted as controller and issued hundreds of writs against the media, raised a campaign against psychiatry, Interpol the IRS, numerous other government agencies and dissident scientologists. In 1976 in an operation named ‘Snow White’ Mary Sue wrote a letter approving the theft, by one of their agents, of IRS files regarding litigation strategy and non FOI [freedom of information] data regarding the Church of Scientology and tax exemption claims. The agent was caught and later made a full confession. This led to a raid on GO by the FBI and subsequent conviction on the grounds of conspiracy to 9 members of the Church of Scientology including Mary Sue who received a 5 year sentence eventually only serving 1 year and a $10,000 fine.

Mary Sue remained as controller of GO until 1981 when a Messenger of her estranged husband told her that her position was untenable.

6)    Prem Kumar later ‘Swami Premananda of Trichy’ born in Sri Lanka in 1951.  Kumar was a well known spiritual teacher in Sri Lanka starting his 1^st Ashram there in 1972 before moving to India and setting up an Ashram in Tamil Nadu, India in 1989. The Ashram declared itself to be a place where anyone could qualify for the spiritual life and learn to live simply, giving service and doing good to fellow human beings. For the next 5/6 years the Ashram welcomed many spiritual seekers and visitors, it also took in several hundred destitute children who lived and studied there. However in 1997 after an investigation and trial Kumar and 6 others were convicted of several counts of rape and a single count of murder. Kumar was given a double life sentence.

Kumar maintains his innocence and it is claimed by some eminent officials that the judgement is highly controversial.

7)    Rabbi Fred Neulander born in 1941 a 6^th generation Rabbi and founding member of M’Kor Shalom Reform Temple in New Jersey which opened in 1974. A husband, father of three and respected member of the community Neulander returned home from his synagogue on Tuesday 1^st November 1994 to find his wife Carol beaten and lying in a pool of blood. He called 911 but at no time made any attempt to go near his wife or help her. A lengthy investigation ensued with Neulander as prime suspect, eventually he was brought to trial on the grounds that a woman with whom he had been having an affair testified that she had insisted that Neulander leave his wife but that he had complained that divorcing his popular wife would compromise his credibility and authority as a spiritual leader even possibly causing him the loss of his job as a Rabbi.

On the eve of the trial the actual killer confessed stating that Neulander had paid him $18,000 which he had divided between himself and an accomplice. Although always claiming his innocence in 2003 Neulander was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to 30 years life imprisonment.

8)    Sun Myung Moon born in North Korea in 1920 also known as Father Moon, Rev. Moon & Dr Moon. In 1954 Moon founded the Unified Church and declared that – he is the Messiah and the 2^nd coming of Christ and is here to fulfil Jesus’ unfinished mission. He teaches the ‘Divine Principle’ which is his own interpretation of the Bible. He also states that he is the True Father that his [3^rd] wife is the True Mother and his children are the True Children. He is described as massively wealthy to the tune of 3 billion dollars, but with no obvious means of obtaining this much income.  In 1971 he moved to the USA and was considered somewhat of a religious lunatic / cult leader of the ‘Moonies’ – who allegedly brainwashed teenagers & college students draining their funds and cutting them off from their families. There are also suggestions that some were beaten. In 1982 he was jailed for 18 months for tax evasion and conspiracy. In the same year he started the right wing conservative Washington Times newspaper which he owns and funds. Controversy has always surrounded Moon but this hasn’t deterred congressman and presidents [Nixon Bush Clinton ...] from engaging in his company with father Bush going on a ‘world tour’ with him in1996.

In 2004 at an Ambassador for Peace Dinner a coronation of himself and his wife was held with both being [literally] crowned and Moon donned the King of Peace. In his speech he said “…..have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity’s saviour, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent.

9)    Ted Haggard was Head of the National Association of Evangelicals from 2003 -2006 and senior Pastor for the New Life Church. Haggard it appears was clear about his position on many issues of morality including homosexuality declaring “we don’t have to debate about what we should think about homosexual activity. It’s written in the bible.”  In Nov 2006 he was leading a charge to ban gay marriage in Colorado when the gay prostitute he had been seeing for the previous 3 years stepped forward apparently having just become aware of who his client was and being appalled by his hypocrisy. Initially Haggard denied all allegations against him including taking methamphetamine until the evidence was overwhelming. At this point he resigned all his positions of power and agreed to undergo counselling for his sexually ‘deviant’ behaviour. In 2007 Haggard sent an email, where he asked for donations to be made on his behalf to ‘Families with a Mission’ this was to help him support his family whilst he and his wife were pursuing degrees.

On a CNN interview in 2009 Haggard admitted to having had a second sexual relationship with a male church volunteer. When asked whether he considered himself to be heterosexual or gay he said that his therapist had described him as a heterosexual with complications.

10) Warren Jeffs born in 1955 and former president of the Fundalmentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints based in Utah. Jeffs followed the FLDS tenet of ‘Celestial Marriage’ and taught that a church member needed at least 3 wives to get into heaven and that the more a man had the closer he was to heaven. It is claimed that Jeffs had around 70 wives some of which were as young as 12 when they married. In addition Jeffs was the only person in the church allowed to perform the marriage ceremony and was responsible for assigning wives to husbands plus he had the authority to reassign wives and children to other families if the men did not fully conform to the church beliefs. In 2006-7 he was charged with allegedly arranging marriages with adult men and underage girls and 8 additional counts of sexual misconduct with minors. He was found guilty of 2 counts of rape as an accomplice and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. Jeffs later admitted to committing immoral actions with a sister and a daughter.

In 2007 he resigned as leader of the church and confessed to his followers that he in fact was not the chosen prophet.

Ephesians 4:7-16

PURPOSE:  To teach that those who are in the one Body [the Church] are recipients of grace, demonstrated and shown through ministry gifts, also of grace, for the purpose of bringing the total Body to the maturity of Jesus Christ.

Grace does not stop with our initial repentance, faith, and confession of Christ.  Grace continues with every breath we breathe; every step we take; every morning we rise from our beds.  Grace is the continuing work of God in the Christians life.

The following are some works of grace which God has bestowed upon us.

THE WORK OF GOD WHICH DELIVERED US FROM THE CONDEMNATION OF SIN AND DEATH (v. 7).  Grace is the means by which we are delivered from the condemnation of sin and its death.  It is provided for us through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This is only the propitiation or appeasement; God judging our sin [all sin] by placing it on the sinless, guiltless Jesus Christ.  Grace continues and becomes efficacious [effective] when we respond  to His grace by faith in Him.  That same grace provides not only salvation, but also gifts distributed by the Holy Spirit as He sees fit, for living by grace in His power.

“But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” 1 Corinthians 12:11 (KJV)

Just as every individual who is born again, by faith in Jesus, is in the one Body, so too, has everyone received a grace-gift(s) in which to serve the Body.  There is no one who is in Christ who is not also gifted to live for and serve Him.

All this is the “gift of Christ”.  We are brought into one Body by Christ; we are gifted by Him to serve in the Body as He [the Head] directs and leads by the person of the Holy Spirit.

THE WORK OF GOD ON THE CROSS WHICH DELIVERED US FROM CAPTIVITY (vv. 8-10).  Because of the cross on which Jesus bled and died God the Father was and is able to deliver us from the captivity of sin.  His resurrection gave us victory over hell and death.

If you watch  people; as I have a tendency to do; you will see many enslaved by sin.  Illegal and legal drugs, like cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, prescription drugs, etc., and you know what I mean.  You see some captive by other things in their lives.  Men and women, married and unmarried, are enslaved to their lustful desires; whether those desires are greed for wealth, or sex; makes little difference; they are none the less enslaved.  Some are enslaved to their comforts and entertainments.

When Jesus arose from the grave He led those who were Old Testament  saints out of captivity.  I believe this is vividly illustrated in Matthew 27:51-53:

“And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”

He then placed into captivity everything that places man in bondage – sin, hell, death, and Satan.

By ascending into heaven He opened the avenue for the Holy Spirit; in fact sent the Holy Spirit; to come and dwell within all who trust Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  The Holy Spirit would not have come to abide in all who know Jesus except He [Jesus] ascended into heaven first.  By ascending He not only gave us the person of the Spirit, but He also gifted us; gave us tools for ministry, and the Holy Spirit is the power of the gifts.

His descension is His incarnation [Jesus coming as God in flesh].  Because of His death, burial and resurrection His mortal body was changed into an immortal body.  The Scriptures  declare that there is a man (in bodily form) in heaven:

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”  1 Timothy 2:5 (KJV)

Because of and by the ministry of the Holy Spirit the Church is the Body of Christ on earth.  It is being made more and more into the image of Christ in heaven, in every individual who abides in His Body  on earth.  This by no means implies that individual’s in His Church are sinless, but contrary to that, His working in us shows that we are needy of Him.

Jesus’s desire, His heart is to be the FULNESS of everyone who will come to Him.

THE WORK OF GOD IN THE GIFTS WHICH HE GIVES US; CONTINUING THE WORK (vv. 11-12).  God desires, and Jesus desires to continually be at work in us; fulfilling His will and glory.  The reason for the gifts of the Spirit is His grace.

The gifts listed are not natural talents, but special gifts of the Spirit for glorifying Jesus in the ministry.  The apostles and prophets are the one’s upon whom the church is built (2:20).  There is no such thing as “apostolic succession”.  At least not in the sense of the Roman Catholic religion.  Apostles are not declared or made by a local congregation, but they are called out individually by God for the purpose of going to an unchurched, unevangelized area, and doing the ground work; preaching the word and the gospel of Christ to establish a local congregation.  In the truest New Testament sense an apostle today could be a missionary.  There can be no more apostles because the foundation has already been laid; there are no more eye witnesses of Jesus Christ risen from the grave; there are no more disciples who personally walked with Jesus in the land where He walked.  Missionaries do the work that the original apostles did in going about, preaching the gospel to people groups who have not heard, and showing them the love of Jesus Christ.

The prophets were preachers who were gifted with a special understanding of the Old Testament Scriptures, and given the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit for the New Testament Church and Scriptures.  They were and are those whom are sensitive about sin and its destruction in human life.  They have a heart for hearing God and His Word.  The Church is built on the apostles and prophets.  The prophet today would probably be better known as  “Preacher”.  This is still how local churches begin.  The local church is where the gifts and power of the Spirit are demonstrated.  The Body of Christ is manifest in the local church.

Evangelists are gifted by God to seek out the lost and are particularly gifted at presenting  the gospel of Jesus Christ in a clear and understandable way.  They are also gifted to teach others how to be soul-winners.

Where the previous three are itinerant [traveling] messengers the pastor/teacher is one who sticks around awhile.  He loves the people as his own family.  He preaches the Word of God to them and teaches them how to apply  the Word to their lives.  He is one who is really more concerned about their spiritual walk, spiritual growth than numerical growth.  The pastor will leave the numerical growth up to the Lord.  The pastor simply sows the seed of the Word and the gospel and leaves the increase up to the Holy Spirit.  He teaches by word and example.

In verse twelve we see a twofold purpose for these spiritual gifts;

1. The perfecting of the saints to do the work of the ministry;
2. Edifying the Body of Christ.

Number one, the ministry of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor/teacher is to equip the believers to do the work of the ministry.  These four are the equipping/leadership gifts of the Spirit.  There are other gifts listed in Romans 12:3-8;  1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 27-31; and here in Ephesians 4:11.  Each of these gifts of the Spirit are needed in the local church to for the people to grow and be healthy and powerful for the glory of Jesus Christ.  Number two, the equipped Body will be operating in the unity of the Spirit and truly “building up” the Body of Christ.  When everyone “in Christ” recognize their place of service, then, the Church has been built up and is honoring and pleasing to Jesus.

THE WORK OF GOD AND THE FRUIT OF THAT WORK (vv. 13-16).  When the Body of Christ is being equipped and built up there are four evidences of spiritual growth.

1. We become more Christlike caring for the needs of others, experiencing others hurts and sorrows.  We grow in knowledge of Him and His Word and work of His Spirit.  We reach a place of maturity where we are not offended by truth; or the color of the carpet.  This lever of maturity is still seeking the fullness of Christ.
2. We begin developing a stability of faith.  We begin to understand truth and are not tossed around by false doctrines and teachings.  We are learning to test all teachings by the Word of God.
3. We have a love for truth, coupled with a lover for people, the lost, and even backsliden  When others are confronted with the truth love will not permit us to condemn, but we will admonish them by pointing to their real need; realizing from whence we have come.
4. We realize that there must be a unified work.  We have purpose through cooperation.  By joining our hands, prayers, finances, families, ministries, and our hearts we are in cooperation with one another and ‘building up’ the Church.  That means we would be the most powerful force on earth; through Jesus Christ.

When you have grace working in you  through  Jesus Christ you will be the better for it, and the world will benefit from it.  Grace works everyday in the lives of those who follow Jesus Christ.  Let each of us submit to the work of grace and the Spirit of God every day.

-Tim A. Blankenship