| Awaken Bharata |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| HINDU POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS CRITIQUES | |
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| Political
Tolerance of Religions
In a free society people must be allowed to follow whatever religion they like as long as long as it does not become a means of antisocial or antinational activities. The government should not officially endorse any religious belief as the ultimate truth. Yet this does not mean that political leaders cannot demonstrate any religious activity or show any concern for the majority religion of their land. In Western countries secularism, or a free society, does not prevent political leaders from extolling or espousing their majority religion of Christianity, but only that they should not use it as a political plank. It is part of their personal lives, which they can demonstrate in public, but it should not be used to create religious favoritism by law or policy. A secular based society has not prevented Western countries from supporting or defending their religious groups in their international policy. Western countries commonly defend Christian groups on an international basis. For example, when Russia recently tried to ban the Mormons, a unique American form of Christianity that they regarded as a cult, the American government issued a protest. Yet the government of Hindu majority India has not similarly defended overseas Hindu groups from such charges, like the cases against the Hare Krishna movement (ISKON), a Hindu movement in the United States, which has been the object of attack by American religious groups as a cult. |
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