| How I Became A Hindu - My Discovery Of Vedic Dharma |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| THE DEBATE GOES ON | |
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a follow-up to my debate with Archbishop Arulappa, Pope John Paul II
visited India in November 1999, about the time that I was finishing
this book. Ashok Singhal, head of VHP, and other Hindu leaders asked
the pope to declare that "all religions were equal and that
Christianity was not the only path to salvation." The VHP also
asked him to apologize for Christian conversion efforts done by
force or intimidation.
The pope’s spokesman in India, Archbishop Alan de Lastic, president of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, refused on both counts, citing that it was a matter of freedom of religion that allowed for conversion. He made no statement that other religions like Hinduism were valid, nor did he question the conversion process as did Archbishop Arulappa. There was no recognition of past wrongs nor any courtesy at all for genuine Hindu concerns given Christianity’s past and its ongoing doctrines of exclusivity. Clearly this Christian Forum for Human Rights is really a forum to promote Christianity. Typical of the pro-Christian media bias Singhal was called a "Hindu hardliner" for questioning the pope, though Singhal made a statement affirming religious pluralism, which involved accepting religions other than Hinduism as valid. The pope, meanwhile, was not criticized, though his refusal to accept other religions as equal to Christianity is clearly intolerant.About the same time the United States government released a paper on religious freedom in the world, prepared by Robert A. |
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