By Ramesh Kallidai
I remembered that when I had written a story in this column in November 2002 about the Christian Medical Fellowship, Sunil Raheja an Evangelist convert to Christianity had sent me an email. Raheja claimed he was sorry I had such a negative image of Christianity.
I had been a bit upset with good reason. I mean – if Juge Ram’s descriptions of Hindusim as a false religion and all Hindus as being lost and blind, was not negative, what else was?
And here I stood, belligerently accused of holding a negative attitude towards Christianity – and that too for merely pointing out a negative attitude towards Hinduism held by one of Raheja’s pastors – an opinion made public in a fit of probable evangelical frenzy. Give me a break
When I did eventually speak to Raheja, I found him a pleasant and friendly man – much different from the tone of his email.
Raheja thought that the Earl of Mar and Kellie should have been more circumspect in use of language and words. Nevertheless he defended Juge Ram’s words, and said, “I could see why you were offended. Pastor Juge Ram’s statement is the normal Christian line. When Christians say that Hindus are in darkness they mean that the whole world is in darkness. The Bible says all people are in darkness regardless of their backgrounds. This means all English people are in darkness just as much as Hindus are.”
“Erm..” I hummed with embarrassment and amazement. “Is’nt the Bible being sweepingly judgemental against all of humanity?”
“No,” he replied. “The Bible says that we are all sinners because we fall short of God’s Law. It says that even to think of sinning is as good as committing it. If I feel anger, it is as good as committing murder.”
I shook my head in disbelief.
If I get angry with someone who broke my favourite watch, is that equal to committing murder?
Something did not quite add up in Raheja’s theological equation.
Raheja claimed that it all depended on the emotion at the time one felt angry.
“If you are from a lower class you might end up easily punching someone when you get angry,” he said in a rather class-conscious way. “But I am from a middle-class background and I may not immediately punch someone. I could however entertain bad thoughts toward someone.”
I smiled smugly as I thought of our Honourable Deputy Prime Minister throwing a much-admired and well-deserved pre-election punch at a spectator who had been nasty to him. Clearly Raheja was not aware that John Prescott defied his theory that people from higher classes were not capable of throwing perfectly poised punches.
Raheja believes that ultimately each person is judged by God on how much they have met Jesus of the Bible.
“The question that decides your entry to heaven is how good you are in front of God,” he continued. “You can say that Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussain are pretty low down and are destined for hell. Others like Mother Theresa and Gandhi are way ahead of us. If anybody deserved heaven they would. But what about everybody else in the middle?”
So what about them? I never found out what happened to the rest of the world for
Raheja cut in quickly. He informed me that the Bible’s revelation of God was higher than the revelation of the Torah, the Quran or the Gita.
“There is a lot in the Old Testament that shows that Jews failed in their role as the chosen people of God. The Quran on the other hand does not have a critical analysis like the Bible does. I don’t agree that Mohammed is the last prophet and he has the highest revelation of God – otherwise I would have been a Muslim,” he laughed.
In the same breath, he also said that with respect for each other, the different faith communities in the country could learn about different traditions.
I was a bit confused.
If we do respect each other, would we also claim that one’s own scripture was better than that of others?
“From my reading of the Bible and reading of Hindu books, I have come to the conclusion that Christ is the ultimate revelation,” Raheja concluded. “And er…” he continued nervously. “I am always afraid talking to journalists because they twist things out of context.”
I hoped I had not been too cruel to him – he did sound like a decent man, despite holding impeccably strong opinions about who goes to hell and who doesn’t.
What a strong sense of eternal judgement from an Evangelical perspective – whew!