10AR15-17

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Apologia Report 15:17 (1,022)

May 5, 2010

Subject: Hinduism vs. western missionary "asymmetrical force"

In this issue:

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM - Do Hindus view all conversions as a form of "violence"?

SCIENTOLOGY - Is an exodus gaining momentum?

UNIFICATION CHURCH - A family operation profile by Forbes

YOGA - Hindu leaders encourage the faithful to "take back yoga"

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RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

"The Violence of Conversion" by Aseem Shukla -- from the April 4 Hindu Press International wire: "[A]dherents of the pluralist religions - Dharma religions, paganism and native religious traditions - have long argued that there is a very basic asymmetry at play rendering the [U.N. Declaration of Human Rights] deeply flawed. Abrahamic religions - the non-pluralist traditions - claim exclusivity in their belief system's legitimacy as the only religious and spiritual path and demand absolute adherence. In contrast, pluralist religious traditions subscribe to a more expansive ethos - that one's religion may not be the exclusive source of Truth and which acknowledge the potential of multiple legitimate religious and spiritual paths. Most pluralist religious traditions allow for the assimilation of beliefs and traditions of another religion without demanding repudiation of one's own religion or conversion to the other.

"This fundamental difference - that a pluralist accepts the injunction of the ancient Rig Veda that, 'Truth is One, but sages call it by various names' while the non-pluralist demands that there is only One Truth and all others are false and dangerous - renders the pluralist vulnerable to the asymmetric force of the proselytizer. ...

"The evangelical community can only 'pick on' the pluralist [e.g., Hindu] societies. The 'Muslim world' rewards conversion away from Islam with death, and in China, Russia Burma and others, autocracy, the Orthodox Church or military junta proscribe missionary work. And so, the very democracy and openness of pluralistic societies becomes their vulnerability - a poison pill as they face the onslaught of the proselytizers. Today, the Native Americans of the U.S. and Canada, the indigenous progeny of Latin America and Mexico, the Aborigines in Australia are silent witness to lost religions and decimated traditions that fell historically to earlier iterations of these onslaughts.

"It is in this spirit that many human rights activists and academics today argue for an overdue amending of [Article 18 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights]. The Hindu American Foundation proposed in a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that Article 18 be amended." <www.tinyurl.com/25ef4ny>

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SCIENTOLOGY

"Breaking With Scientology" by Laurie Goodstein -- profiles recent defectors Chris and Christie King Collbran as examples of a trend - namely, that more and more people are leaving the group, often under extreme duress.

"Fifty-six years after its founding by the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, who died in 1986, the church is fighting off calls by former members for a Reformation. The defectors say Sea Org members were repeatedly beaten by the church's chairman, David Miscavige, often during planning meetings; pressured to have abortions; forced to work without sleep on little pay; and held incommunicado if they wanted to leave. The church says the defectors are lying. ...

"But recently even some celebrities have begun to abandon the church, the most prominent of whom is the director and screenwriter Paul Haggis, who won Oscars for 'Million Dollar Baby' and 'Crash.' Mr. Haggis had been a member for 35 years. His resignation letter, leaked to a defectors' Web site, recounted his indignation as he came to believe that the defectors' accusations must be true.

"These were not the claims made by 'outsiders' looking to dig up dirt against us,' Mr. Haggis wrote. 'These accusations were made by top international executives who had devoted most of their lives to the church.'"

When asked about the church's membership, church spokesman Tommy Davis said, "'I couldn't tell you an exact figure, but it's certainly, it's most definitely in the millions in the U.S. and millions abroad.'

"He said he did not know how to account for the findings in the American Religious Identification Survey that the number of Scientologists in the United States fell from 55,000 in 2001 to 25,000 in 2008." New York Times, Mar 6 '10, <www.tinyurl.com/yjvnab4>

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UNIFICATION CHURCH

"Sons Rise in a Moon Shadow" by Donald Kirk -- Forbes Asia profiles the Sun Myung Moon empire with this update on family members as operations officers as well as a review of assets and corporate entities. Kirk notes that "much remains of a movement that had peaked by the time the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis devastated the Tongil Foundation, the core Moon business group in Korea. ...

"Brother Hyung-Jin maintains an office for his Family Federation for World Peace & Unification and publishes a magazine, Today's World, all with Tongil money, two floors above Kook-Jin [chairman of Tongil and the Kahr Arms pistol manufacturer]. Hyung-Jin, a.k.a. Sean from his days getting degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School, was consecrated in his father's church. He is international president of the Unification Church and now officiates Sundays at the new chapel after packed weeks of organizing and proselytizing. 'I don't know anything about business,' he says. 'My brother helps us a lot. Finance and ministries are totally separate.'

"But even as the last son dons his father's ministerial robes, the activities of the eldest surviving son, Hyun-Jin, are a source of confusion and strife: Confusion not only in the similarity of the given names but the use of 'Unification Church' by both; strife in that Hyun-Jin (also known as Preston) appears distanced from the clan in Korea while doing business there as well as in America.

"Preston, 41, was noticeably absent from the February festivities in Seoul, skipping his father's birthday bash even as UCI's JW Marriott hotel catered the dinner for more than 1,000 people at a 'training center' on the palace grounds. He has been locked in his own business struggle, trying to revamp one of dad's most visible assets, the Washington Times newspaper in the U.S. capital, and rubbing up against family sensitivities in the process."

In a side note, Kirk mentions that "in 2008 the Rev. and Mrs. Moon and 14 others had a brush with death when their helicopter made an emergency landing on a mountainside near Seoul. The helicopter exploded minutes after they got out - 'not by luck,' says Hyung-Jin, 'but because he has a mission to bring salvation for all mankind.'" Forbes Asia, Apr 12 '10, <www.tinyurl.com/yzagqgx> News Flash: "Unification Church will put Washington Times up for sale" by Ian Shapira (Washington Post, May 1 '10, pA11, <www.tinyurl.com/2dyto2p>

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YOGA

"The Theft of Yoga" by Aseem Shukla, Associate Professor in urologic surgery at the University of Minnesota medical school, co-founder and board member of Hindu American Foundation. We learned of this item via the April 24 Hindu Press International wire. Given yoga's popularity in the West, "It would seem that yoga's mother tradition, Hinduism, would be shining in the brilliant glow of dedicated disciples seeking more from the very font of their passion.

"Yet the reality is very different. Hinduism in common parlance is identified more with holy cows than Gomukhasana, the notoriously arduous twisting posture; with millions of warring gods rather than the unity of divinity of Hindu tradition....

"The Los Angeles Times last week chronicled this steady disembodying of yoga from Hinduism [www.tinyurl.com/28hq6u7]. 'Christ is my guru. Yoga is a spiritual discipline much like prayer, meditation and fasting [and] no one religion can claim ownership,' says a vocal proponent of 'Christian themed' yoga practices. Some Jews practice Torah yoga, Kabbalah yoga and aleph bet yoga, and even some Muslims are joining the act. They are appropriating the collective wisdom of millennia of yogis without a whisper of acknowledgment of yoga's spiritual roots. ...

"The Hindu American Foundation ... released a position paper on this issue earlier this year [www.tinyurl.com/2g25wta]. The brief condemns yoga's appropriation, but also argues that yoga today is wholly misunderstood. Yoga is identified today only with Hatha Yoga, the aspect of yoga focused on postures and breathing techniques. But this is only one part of the practice of Raja Yoga that is actually an eightfold path designed to lead the practitioner to moksha, or salvation. Indeed, yogis believe that to focus on the physicality of yoga without the spirituality is utterly rudimentary and deficient. ...

"Yoga, like its Hindu origins, does not offer ways to believe in God; it offers ways to know God. ...

"Expect conflicts if you are sold on the exclusivist claims of Abrahamic faiths - that their God awaits the arrival of only His chosen few at heaven's gate - since yoga shows its own path to spiritual enlightenment to all seekers regardless of affiliation. "Hindus must take back yoga and reclaim the intellectual property of their spiritual heritage - not sell out for the expediency of winning more clients for the yoga studio down the street." <www.tinyurl.com/y2a8mvl>

The above article has sparked an energetic debate on the Washington Post web site, host of the original piece. In strong disagreement is none other than New Age luminary Deepak Chopra. Here is the link: <www.tinyurl.com/35mmsxw>

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