13AR18-45

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Apologia Report 18:45 (1,181)

December 11, 2013

Subject: India asks, "Is yoga religious?"

In this issue:

DISCERNMENT - what happens when spiritual authority is up for grabs?

UNIFICATION CHURCH - monitoring the collapse of Moon's empire

WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT - summary of Pentecostal history offers balanced concern

YOGA - Supreme Court of India asks: "Is Yoga Religious?"

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DISCERNMENT

"In the endless fight against superstition and fakery in India,

campaigners for rationalism have to use every trick in the book to beat so-called holy men at their own game." So begins writer Amrit Dhillon's profile of volunteers working with the Mohali, Punjab office of The Indian Rationalist Association (IRA, <www.ow.ly/rEjks>) titled: "Who ya gonna call? Gurubusters!"

One of the IRA volunteers, Satnam Singh Daun, "is using [magic tricks] to expose the godmen, gurus, astrologers, charlatans, soothsayers, palmists, charm sellers, quacks, and humbugs who are so popular in India.

"[H]e pours scorn on superstition [and] performs the same tricks that are used by holy men to exploit the gullibility of Indians and project themselves as possessing supernatural powers. ...

"The Indian Rationalist Association was founded in 1949, with the good wishes of British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Its first members belonged to the educated elite. It has rarely had more than 100,000 members - mainly teachers, students and professionals - but they have been vigorous in publishing pamphlets and deriding the Indian penchant for superstitious nonsense. ...

"[T]he evidence suggests Hindu charlatans predominate (Hinduism in the largest religion in India), partly because there is no organised structure to the religion nor an established hierarchy, making it easy for anyone to set himself up as a guru offering spiritual advice.

"Invariably, the majority of the controversial godmen who end up in the news for amassing millions, owning fleets of Mercedes and Audis, for being involved in prostitution rackets or are charged with sexual abuse or rape, are Hindu." However, Dhillon notes that "Christian faith healers" are also a concern, albeit far from the most urgent.

"Dr Narendra Dabholkar, a prominent anti-black magic campaigner in Pune, near Mumbai ... was murdered on August 20. Known for his lifelong campaign against superstition, Dabholkar, 70, was gunned down during his morning walk.

"Dabholkar estimated that several hundred women are killed every year after being branded 'witches' by so-called godmen. He also pointed out many children also were killed as part of 'human sacrifices' ordered by godmen to resolve their followers' problems." The Age (Melbourne), Oct 31 '13, <www.ow.ly/rBh4K>

Most likely, guru scams had long been firmly in place and grew even more common in the 1960s as starry-eyed young adults began to arrive from the West in ever-increasing numbers seeking eastern wisdom and enlightenment. Where the standard for spiritual authority isn't well-established and crystal clear, aberrations will bloom - whether in Hinduism, its New Age spawn, or in our own back yard neoPentecostalism ... and now, perhaps, in the emergent church movement. Plan on it.

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UNIFICATION CHURCH

Since the mid-1970s, I (RP) have followed the increasingly bizarre history surrounding the UC. Writing for The New Republic, Mariah Blake has managed to collect much of it in chronological order with "The Fall of the House of Moon" (Nov 12 '13). She reveals a complicated saga - "one that involved illegitimate children, secret sex rituals, foreign spy agencies, and the family of Vice President Joseph Biden. Even by [founder Sun Myung] Moon’s famously eccentric standards, the collapse of his American project would turn out to be spectacular and deeply strange." Included are reports of billions of dollars in assets, epic hypocrisy, and the support of Capitol Hill politicians and that of evangelicals like Jerry Falwell and Tim LaHaye. Lengthy. <www.ow.ly/rziNT>

And more from journalist Blake: "Meet the Love Child Rev. Sun Myung Moon Desperately Tried to Hide" brings us the sad, strange tale of Samuel Park, allegedly born to Moon concubine Annie Choi and raised in the family of Moon's henchman Bo Hi Pak. Mother Jones, Dec 9 '13, <www.ow.ly/rEmdk>

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WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT

"Where Did All These Pentecostals and Charismatics Come From?" by Mark DeVine -- a brief background overview that's both interesting and sympathetic. A historical summary begins with the 1900 revival at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. The 1906 Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles is described as a second pivotal event. Thereafter "hundreds of Pentecostal denominations arose," including the Assemblies of God in 1914. DeVine notes: "Of the some 280 million Pentecostals worldwide, more than 67 million belong to the Assemblies of God. ...

"The roots of the so-called prosperity gospel and health-and-wealth gospel that grew up out of Pentecostal soil trace back to the Great Depression of the 1930s. ...

"By the 1980s the conviction that God wills the physical health and the material wealth of every follower of Jesus Christ essentially supplanted preaching about much of anything else within many Pentecostal churches. ... From the ecclesial soil of Pentecostalism grew first the prosperity gospel and then the Word of Faith movement. Many academic Pentecostals decried such displacement of the heart of the gospel, and older, more confessionally rooted Pentecostals often avoided the worst excesses of these sub-movements. But the majority of the Pentecostal world flourishes in essentially independent communities of faith, allowing the prosperity gospel and its Word of Faith counterpart to spread with little real resistance. Can orthodox and evangelical Christianity survive where a robust prosperity gospel takes hold? On this point Pentecostals disagree among themselves. ...

"Pentecostals are charismatics in that they pursue and report experience of the charismatic gifts. But the modern global charismatic movement exploded in the 1970s among Roman Catholics and within Protestant denominations as 'the gifts' prized by Pentecostals appeared among them. The Vineyard Church is widely viewed as the first charismatic denomination. The charismatic movement emerged apart for Pentecostalism, but these communities cross-pollinated with their gift-practicing siblings in significant ways. ...

"The modern charismatic movement provided an unexpected and fairly astonishing validation of Pentecostal theology as practice of the gifts spread within the established, non-restorationist Christian world. But these new charismatics also posed a challenge to Pentecostals, who seemed to have something of a corner on both teaching and experience where the gifts were concerned. Significantly, the new charismatics rarely treated tongues or any other outward manifestation as the necessary sign of Spirit baptism, making them immediately more compatible with others inside and outside their denominations who did not manifest the gifts. ...

"What should those of us who do not speak in tongues and do not witness regular healing miracles make of these growing movements? Where 'Jesus Only' denial of the Trinity or the quest for health and wealth supplants the gospel itself, our duty seems clear. We must declare, 'That is not Christian.' Like Paul, love sometimes demands divisive dogmatism: 'If we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him' (Galatians 1:8)." The Gospel Coalition Blog, Nov 9 '13, <www.ow.ly/rB7hF>

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YOGA

"Is Yoga Religious?" by Vishal Arora and Anuradha Sharma (RNS, Oct 28 ’13) -- "The Supreme Court of India is weighing whether yoga has a religious element, as it decides if public schools may teach the ancient discipline in the country where it originated.

"India's school policy considers yoga an integral component of physical education. But the court has expressed caution, and is considering arguments that yoga has a religious component. The issue is complicated because India is a secular democracy but has pockets of Hindu nationals who would like to foce their way of life on others. ...

"The issue is affecting other countries too. In July, a California judge ruled that the teaching of yoga in public schools does not establish a government interest in religion. The decision came after parents sued the Encinitas Union School District to stop yoga classes introduced to elementary schoolchildren in the upscale suburb just north of San Diego. ...

"Of India’s 1.2 billion people, 80 percent are Hindu, 13 percent are Muslim and 2 percent are Christian. The Indian Constitution guarantees a certain autonomy to minorities to administer their institutions. Many students from minority communities go to schools run or aided by the government, which account for about 80 percent of all schools in the country."

Adding fuel to the debate, "India’s most popular yoga guru Baba Ramdev <www.ow.ly/rEmyy> is accused of promoting Hindu nationalism alongside yoga." <www.ow.ly/rzkJi>

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