Image of drinking, smoking Jesus offends in India
Christians in India are outraged after a picture showing Jesus Christ holding a beer can and a cigarette was discovered in primary school textbooks, Agence France-Presse reports.
The French news agency reports that the image was used in a handwriting book for children in church-run schools in the Christian-majority Indian state of Meghalaya, where it was used to illustrate the letter "I" for the word "Idol."
"We are deeply shocked and hurt at the objectionable portrayal of Jesus Christ in the school book. We condemn the total lack of respect for religions by the publisher," Shillong diocese Archbishop Dominic Jala told AFP.
Police now are looking for the owner of the New Delhi-based publisher, Skyline Publications, who faces charges of offending religious sentiment, police superintendent A.R. Mawthoh told AFP.
The Roman Catholic Church in India has banned all textbooks by Skyline, while Protestant leaders called for a public apology, AFP reports. The state government also denounced the publication.
Comments
There have been Christians in India who have had their houses burned and who have been killed by anti-Christian Hindus. I dont know if there is any connection to that in this case or not.
Posted by: Clay | February 22, 2010 11:51 AM
Clay - The Christians who colonized India were equally guilty of many similar against Hindus as well. You might want to wait until more is found out before making any prejudgements.
Posted by: ravensfan | February 22, 2010 12:44 PM
The full story (see link) does allude to such incidents.
Posted by: BankStreet | February 22, 2010 3:37 PM
Christians and Hindus just get along fine in India--they intermarry frequently and usually the Hindus are the ones who convert to keep parochial and dogmatic Christian in-laws happy. Yes, there have been incidents incited by Hindu incendiaries. But conversion is an inflammatory issue in India--the Hindus do not have a formal conversion process and they regard both Muslim and Christian efforts at conversion as sinister anti-Hindu phenoms. Try telling them the lord commands it in Christianity and Mohammed wanted it in Islam--they will blast the lord and prophet arguments as fallacious, devious and deadly weapons in the hands of the monotheists. Ordinarily tolerant Hinduism, where even Jesus is regarded as a reincarnation of Vishnu, is now in the throes of unwelcome and repugnant changes. One of them is the birth of the extremist Shiv Sena. And the bad taste of British colonialism lingers on--the Christian missionaries with their know it all attitude about eternal damnation and salvation have given many a heartburn to the resilient Hindus.
In Christian schools across India, attended mostly by Hindus, mainly because Hindus have no qualms about sending their children to schools run by other religious denominations, Christian teachers mock Hindu deities, assiduously try to convert attending Hindu students to Christianity and disparage Hindu customs. Is this tit for tat? Who knows? The religious will bring this world to WW 3 and decimation anyway.
Ravensfan Anon
Posted by: Anonymous | February 22, 2010 10:39 PM