The apogee of Hinduism extends far beyond the borders of India. And
though Hindus do not proselytize (most believe you need to be born
Indian to be Hindu), the religion is exported with the emigration of its
adherents. Our church is nestled near the epicenter of the largest
population of Indians outside of India—Durban, South Africa. Hinduism is
not monolithic, it is a chaotically diverse kaleidoscope of beliefs,
attitudes, and practices. It is mystical and enigmatic, but it does
contain certain threads of commonality woven throughout its diversity.
These threads reveal a religion that is fundamentally flawed as a deadly
trap of false hope, with tragic results in this life and the life to
come. I wanted to share one tenant which makes this religion harmful to
its adherents, namely the famishing fetish they have with the sacred
cow.
Most Westerners can hardly tell the difference between any old cow and the sacred cow of India. This
ignorance is excusable when one considers how ordinary the holy cow
seems. It grazes, chews the cud, and after allowing for the masticated
mess to move through the seven sacred stomachs, it fertilizes the field
just as any other cow would. If one were tramping through that field—or
were a pedestrian in Delhi—and happened to plant your foot in that
freshly fertilized spot, you might fail to appreciate the privilege of
encountering a holy cow pie. And every report I’ve heard from visitors
to India include a special mention for the ubiquitous postprandial
packages strewn all over the city streets. So holiness is often in the
eye of the beholder. To a Hindu Indian the cow represents something
wholly different than it does to, say the average MacDonald’s customer. Keep Reading...
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