Turning points.

Is there a thing like a “turning point” in life? I guess so, since I can name at least one or two instances. However, usually the life-changing experiences are through a process of time; which make me hesitant about a moment of transformation, a decision that changed it all. Yet somehow, right now, I’m in that space. Experimenting with a “turning point”. Could this be it? I guess, only time will tell.

An Indian Christian response to Republic Day: (from the archives)

The following is an excerpt from an article by Chenchiah in the Guardian. He bemoans how Republic Day has lost its fervour and is simply celebrated by officials. An important message for today, for both Christian and non-Christian Indians.

“My total impression is that real India has shown very little spontaneous joy at the coming of the Republic. I wonder why Republic means so little change. Wherever I went I observed the celebrations were official and paid as in the British days. The Railway stations, the schools, post offices, police stations were conspicuous and each of them received Government grants for celebrations. Every where the Government officials were in evidence as leaders of the celebrations. In a stretch of on hundred and seventy-four miles there was not a single instance of spontaneous celebration. Only in one house I say Indian decoration–thorannams. I did not see decorations in private houses. I cam to Madras. A traveller in the tram observed that he did not see one smiling face on the Republic Day in Madras. That is my experience also. The wine of liberty has not reached the main in the street. The joy of liberty is mostly an official joy that has not yet reached the proletariat in terms of more tolerable existence. This is a portent which the Government has to note. This may prove in the end a greater danger to the Congress than to the Communists. Independence has not been translated into popular speech.” P. Chenchiah, “A Laymen among theologians,” The Guardian, 16 February, 1950, 103

Hurt.

What do you do, when things end rightly, but the process is wrong? What do you do when you are hurt, by the ones you have earlier hurt? Right now I’m dealing with pain caused me, by one that I caused pain. Neither pain is justified, but it is certainly understandable. My approach has been to confront the pain, both within and to the one who inflicts it. Hopefully it will not all end negatively. Need God’s grace to make things good.

Blocks.

There’s a difference between blocks and self-control. Blocks avoid the issue. Self-control confronts and overcomes. Obvious that self-control is better? Yes. But certainly blocks seem to be the more practical solution in the short term.

Failure.

What a “wonderful” word that perfectly encapsulates the human condition. Or at least from my current perspective, the word that most aptly describes what I feel. Can Christians feel like failures, though? I mean, Jesus has won the victory. We have hope. We have a reason to live. We have the Holy Spirit’s assurance. What a wonderful life! So why does failure still haunt. Still torment. Still exist?

Psalm 51… points to an admission for failure. And there is certainly something commendable about that prayer, for Christians… in that shows how a man reaches out to God in the midst of failure.

But the kind of failure that is most disastrous for Christians, is one the leads us away from God. Where we only look to ourselves, our weaknesses. And not to God, who is (who can be) our strength.

Right now I oscillate. But more towards the non-God type.

Oh, God. Even as I currently lay low in failure, make it turn out that I am actually lying in front of you, at your feet.

India losing, again :( theology of cricket

Watching India get creamed in a do-or-die cricket match (against Australia in Guwahati, 8 Nov, 2009), I wonder why India losses affect us so much, even Christians. I mean, I know sport is just a game. But that it affects moods, is unquestionable.

But why should it affect me as a Christian who understands that all this is just a game… and there are more important things in life?

I know I could answer this by saying that I’m still human, I’m still Indian, and thus being an Indian remains the core of my being and thus I will remain attached to my context (and rightly so) even while also existing as a Christian.

Yes, that’s fine. But I don’t want losses in a cricket match to bother me so much.

I mean, why doesn’t the Narmada Dam bother me so much? Or the Kashmir problem, Naxal problem, Corruption, and … etc etc etc.

I’ve become desensitized to India-problems, and yet remain deeply attuned to the sporting fate of the cricket team.

Hmmm! So there does seem something wrong here.

And yet this post is a confession rather than an actual answer. And so with this I go back to feeling bad that the Indian cricket team is losing!

Christmas, Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize

A wonderful cartoon from Daryl Cagle’s Political Cartoons

link: http://www.cagle.msnbc.com/news/ObamaNobelPrize/images/allie.jpg

Police Commissioner Bans Gandhi Jayanti Celebration (From the archives)

October 2 is Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday. It’s a holiday. We know it. We love it. Today, no Indian Police Commissioner would dare ban any Gandhi celebration. But there was a time when celebrating Gandhi’s birthday was an offence and was banned by the (British) Indian Police Commissioner of Madras, a few years before India won her independence. In those days, some people even fought to celebrate Gandhi Jayanti! At least that’s according to the excerpt from The Guardian, the Christian newspaper published during the Indian independence struggle that I’ve been reading over the past month. The following excerpt is from an editorial written in 1943, after the Quit India movement started. And it tells briefly how the British Government wanted to ban all Gandhi Jayanti celebrations. Today (October 2) we have the freedom to celebrate, but that celebration is usually left to officials. I want to celebrate Gandhi’s birth by posting this for others to see and remember.

October 2 was the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi Jayanti week celebrations… have been an institution for many years. the Commissioner of Police, Madras, has prohibited processions and meetings arranged in this connection. The organisations that jointly arranged these are well known in the City and the programmes they planned did not savour of a political campaign. The topics of lectures for the week were ‘Gandhi and Harijans’, ‘Gandhi and Unity’, ‘Gandhi and Khadhar’ and such like. The occasion is usually availed of to review what the life and leadership of Gandhiji has meant to India. It relates to many other fields besides politics and men of all communities and races join in paying homage. To the Government and the Commissioner of Police, Mahatma Gandhi is only an undesirable political figure and they may see sinister meaning in the notice taken of a man whom they have found fit only for the prison. They law and order maintained by prohibition of this kind is only apparent. It is an exhibition of authority which will not win the respect of the people. Students turned away from this programme are collecting funds for Bengal Famine Relief.

No author (editorial), “Notes” The Guardian, October 7, 1943. p. 469

Indian Christian Politics: Chenchiah’s vision for Social Revolution (from the archives)

In continuation of my attempt to resurrect some articles from The Guardian,, the following is an excerpt from an article titled “Indian Christian Politics” in The Guardian, October 11 (1945) 325. The scheme for ’social revolution’, which Chenchiah proposes, was actually formulated at the Bangalore Conference Continuation held that year, 1945 (note the pre-independence date). Here’s the concluding part of the article:

At the Bangalore conference Continuation held last summer a group of Christians who had the tragedy of our political life on their minds pondered deeply over the issue of their deliberations ended in a call to the youth of the country to lead a social revolution as well. They formulated a programme of action and recommended the technique of ‘cells.’ This has the advantage of putting action before talk and service before power. It links religions in patriotic endeavour. It puts the revolutionary leaven right into the masses. In their scheme the cell is the actor and not the audience. This scheme is as follows:

1. No caste–members of the cell should express their renunciation of caste by eating together, openly.
2. No class–members of the cell, those who are in position to do so, should set apart a portion of their net income as a fund to be owned by the members of the cell in common for meeting unemployment and ill health.
3. Productive work. Every member of the cell to devote himself every day to the production of food by gardening or of cloth by spinning.
4. Common Ownership–The essentials of life, food, clothes, should be lifted from the category of private ownership and experiments should be made in the enjoyments of these as common property.
5. Cooperation–The members should extend the principle of cooperation to every friend of economic activity.
6. Replacement of Money–Money should be replaced whenever possible by the social and moral effort which it represents.
7. Religious Unity–Members to secure harmony among followers of different religions by bringing to bear their religious inspiration on the furthering of social revolution.

This article is written in the hope that the adoption of this programme will bring all cates and classes into a fellowship of brotherhood and break the ground for larger programmes of the people’s government. Should we desire to avoid the bloodshed and red trail which revolutions find inevitable in their opponents, we have to prepare the people for the changes that are decreed and ordained for the political evolution of the world.

Death of Praise and Worship? (article watch)

The following are excerpts of interesting articles on praise and worship today, which even though primarily from a non-Indian perspective, still deals with issues close to my heart. Follow the links below to read the whole thing (and also read the comments, they are quite helpful as well.

I have witnessed the death of praise and worship twice now. Once in the 80s and more recently around four years ago. The first time around, there was an explosion of authentic “scripture songs” in the 70s that were central to the rise of the charismatic movement. Since this was the first contemporary praise music, no one had taught courses on “how” to create a worship song. Most of the songs were taken straight from the scriptures. In the late 70s/early 80s, contemporary Christian music (CCM) came along as well. At first it seemed a match made in heaven. Not only did you have juggernauts like Keith Green tearing it up – inside every Petra, Evie, Amy Grant, Allies, and Russ Taff album there were scriptures listed to “support” each song’s message…

read the full post here: http://samnunnally.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/the-death-of-praise-and-worship/

The other article called “New Song and American Idol(atry)”

…But what does the Bible really say about “new songs”? In the Old Testament, “new song” was “always an expression of praise for God’s victory over the enemy, which sometimes included thanksgiving for his work of creation.1 In Exodus 15:1, Moses sang a new song of praise to God because God saved Israel from Egypt. In Psalm 40:3, David wrote a new song because God heard his cry for help. Psalm 33:3, 96:1, 98:1 and Isaiah 42:10 command God’s people to praise him for his marvelous works in creation and salvation, while Psalm 144:9 and 149:1 tell people to sing a new song because of God’s victory over his enemies…

For whole article click on the link: http://www.twoagespilgrims.com/doctrine/?p=2162