Firstly, Buddhist ‘converts’ don’t like the word ‘conversion’. They think it’s too ‘Christian’ (it probably is). Secondly, Buddhists can ‘convert’ formally in what’s known as ‘taking refuge’. This is a short ceremony where a person takes refuge in the Buddha (the historical Buddha and/or an ideal that he represents), the Dharma (the teachings, specifically the Four Noble Truths), and the Sangha (the community of Buddhists in a tradition of your choice). This is like a confession of faith. This ceremony can double up as an entry rite for ordination too. However, thirdly, most don’t formally ‘convert’ at all: they simply ‘start practising’. Counting people who ‘practise’ Buddhism can be problematic. Practice is usually meditation, or a new ethical way of being, often following 5 key precepts: abstain from taking life, abstain from taking that which is not given, abstain from sexual misconduct, abstain from false speech, and abstain from intoxicating drinks.

The ‘why’ of conversion is complex, but many perceive Buddhist meditation offers a peacefulness they cherish in this noisy and mixed up world. Many appreciate the community they’re in. Many have had a long circuitous route through the sorrows of life, including poor experiences of Christianity.

As a Christian, I’ve been challenged by the ‘belief, belonging, behaving’ trio. It seems that often for my new Buddhist friends behaving (meditation and ethics) offers a path way into belonging (the community of practitioners). Belief doesn’t seem so important in the first instance, but often comes later. I’m wondering if they have something to offer in reminding me that belonging in a community, and maintaining spiritual disciplines, are in themselves worthwhile?

I took up the invitation to sit in a Zen session. The practice was simple, yet disciplined. The form is similar (both Buddhism and Christianity have meditation traditions), but the content is very different: Buddhist meditation is premised on no-god, even no-self. Christian meditation is premised on one God who exists.

Will I ‘convert’ to Buddhism? It’s highly unlikely. I’m totally convinced that the resurrection of Jesus utterly transformed the cosmos we live in. Have I come to appreciate and respect the practices of the Western Buddhists around me? Yes. (And by the way: sitting zazen for 20 minutes is excruciatingly painful).

Dr Prabhudas, Lecturer in Buddhism and Intercultural Studies

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One of the spiritual ancestors of HFJ, Sadhu Sundar Singh, in his book With and without Christ distinguished between “Christians with Christ”, “Christians without Christ”, “Non-Christians with Christ”, and “Non-Christians without Christ”.

In his perception, what was important was not whether one is a Christian or a Non-Christian, but whether one is with or without Christ.

The Sadhu argues from experiences he had with each of these categories of people. Though naturally I cannot improve on his book or add to it on that basis, what I can try to do is to distinguish between ‘Christians’ and ‘Hindu followers of Jesus’ in perhaps a more systematised way:

1.  Many Christians largely reject Indian tradition, whereas HFJ respect and retain all Indian traditions unless there are very good reasons to question them. For example, many Christians eat meat, while HFJ are usually vegetarians.

2.  Most Christians believe it is essential to belong to a ‘Church’, whereas HFJ reject this idea, and focus on their personal relationship with Jesus the Lord, on family worship, and on studying and discussing with (and helping) friends, strangers and even (if possible) enemies.

3. Christians have, from a HFJ point of view, a strange belief in the idea of ‘sacraments’.  HFJ reject the idea of ‘sacraments’ and believe that all of life is a ‘sacrament’ (if that term must be used).

4. Some Christians have icons or images representing Jesus the Lord, Mary his mother, saints and angels. HFJ reject all such images as blasphemous.

5.  Most Christians celebrate Christmas, Easter and some also various ‘saints’ days’.  HFJ are happy to celebrate these in the same way as we celebrate Diwali, Dussehra,  Id or Holi - as social festivities, providing one does not indulge in idolatry, immorality and so on (regretfully, some of our festivals are associated with such things).

6.  Christians are religious, while HFJ are anti-religious (we regard all organised religion as systematic attempts to fool people into submitting to the power and exploitation of religious leaders). Moreover, HFJ are specifically anti-Christian, because we consider all forms of Christianity as systematic attempts to prevent people from understanding the person and teachings of Jesus the Lord.  We have this understanding from Jesus the Lord who was Himself quite anti-religious (He was crucified at the instigation of religious people, on the basis that He was anti-religious).  While, it is of course true that some Christians are followers of Jesus the Lord (and we are happy to recognise them as such), we are sure that Jesus the Lord is horrified by the ‘Churches’’ transmogrification of Him, His work and His teaching into ‘Christian’ religious structures and obscurantism.

Professor Prabhu Guptara

For more on the terms ‘Christian’ and ‘Followers of Christ’ click here

‘Western’ and ‘irrelevant’ is how many South Asians regard Christianity. Some churches might unintentionally reinforce this view by expecting people to conform to ways of doing things that are not necessarily Biblical, but cultural. This can add to the pressure felt by new believers from other cultural or religious backgrounds, who may feel they have to give up their roots, or even their family, to fit in.

It is not only ‘mainstream’ churches. Asian Fellowships do not always recognise the issues faced by their young people, as they balance cultures.

“Growing up in an Asian Church I didn’t think the church gave me answers to any problems or struggles I had.” - Susheel

Notes for the Journey: following Jesus, staying South Asian, a new book from South Asian Concern, explores what it means to follow Jesus as a young South Asian. Is it necessary to give up parts of your culture? Will faith in Christ impact your relationships with friends and family? The book looks at these issues, among others, and offers practical answers based on the Bible’s teaching.

You can read a sample page and see the list of contents here: Resources

Watch short video interviews with young British South Asians.

What was your view of Christianity before?

How do your South Asian friends and family view Christianity?

What are the particular challenges of following Christ as a young South Asian?

Are churches aware of the challenges young South Asians face?

What can churches do to help young South Asians?

Children who lost loved ones suddenly became aware of the danger and hatred in the world, forced to grow up suddenly. Young people recruited to fight new wars - some in the armed forces for their countries, others for Al Qaeda. A world of tighter security and greater suspicion.

The day after 9/11 my daughter went with her friends – a Gujarati couple - to her local pub. On this visit the bartender, who knew them, told them in a loud voice: ‘Oi - What are you doing here? You are Muslim! You are not supposed to drink!’ The entire place went silent. You can imagine my daughter’s shock - the irony being that she is a Christian and her friends are Hindus!

When I invited some Muslim students to a lecture I was giving on multiculturalism, not long after 9/11, they immediately opened their rucksacks at the entrance, offering them for a security check – even though they were not asked to! During question time they shared this with us saying that they felt suspected and suspicious.

It struck me then that the situation for all Asians – irrespective of their religion or ethnic background – had forever changed. A subtext of suspicion had arisen within communities and we would all need to learn how to cope with this.

In a world that can seem hostile and dangerous, only God can deliver us from hatred, suspicion and fear, so that we can reach out with love to people of all backgrounds.

Ram Gidoomal

What are your experiences of 9/11 and its aftermath?

They are organising a rally in New Delhi, set for 8th October. The slogan is ‘I am corrupt and change starts with me’. Several churches in Delhi are getting involved.

A friend from the group comments:

“The hypocrisy in the anti-corruption movements in India is truly amazing. Perhaps this is best demonstrated in the fact that so many people were robbed at the Hazare rally. Our friend had his shoes stolen.

“People have become experts at shouting ‘stop corruption’ at politicians, policemen and bureaucrats, but somehow fail to see that India’s citizens are also utterly corrupt. The slogan ‘I am corrupt and change starts with me’ has spread like wildfire among young people on the internet. The t-shirts have just come out, and there is a short film in pre-production.”

Watch this space!

While all agree that corruption is bad, questions about ‘Team Anna’ include:
- which groups are supporting it?
- why are the big business corporations not included: will they get off the hook at a time when many are under scrutiny?
- why only this particular draft? Others have proposed drafts which may be even better.
- who will supervise the Lokpal? Won’t his proposed role undermine Parliament and the Constitution?
- are we dealing with the real disease, or just the symptoms?

“Corruption while a severe malady is a mere symptom of the deeper disease of the social political system… gross inequality… lack of transparency… absence of accountability of our elected representatives and officials.” (Anhad Press Meet - Lokpal Bill: Alternate Viewpoint)

Drastic remedies are needed. Ramachandra Guha compares them to bypass surgery (Hindustan Times, August 23, 2011). There is always the risk that the surgery ends up killing the patient.

Robin Thomson

That, I suspect, is why our faith is not more infectious. For only when it comes out of a life lived down and dirty among the really poor, does it speak with a voice of authenticity that catches fire.

This week Arundhati Roy, the Booker-prize winning novelist, spoke with such a voice. She is the Kerala-born activist who uses her fame to draw attention to the marginalisation of India’s adivasis or ‘first people’. In quietly passionate tones, she told BBC Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman that India’s economic success is “a lie”.
 
She has seen what is going on in the forests of places like Orissa where they’re mining for bauxite and killing and displacing thousands in the process. 

“If you look at what [the growth of the economy] has done to the mass of people in India… yes, we have the world’s largest number of billionaires, but we have 800 million people living on less than 20 Rupees a day; you have millions of displaced people…”

Whatever you think of her politics, or her analysis, there can be no mistaking the authority of this tiny woman who’s turned her back on her own career to champion the poor. It was absolutely riveting.

“The most successful secessionist struggle is the secession of the middle and upper classes who have gone into outer space from where they look down at the poor and say, ‘What’s our bauxite doing in your mountain? What’s our water doing in your rivers?’”, she said.

Globalization serves merely to consolidate further the oppression of the dalits and the tribals.  And here in Britain we believe the propaganda we’re fed about economic ‘success’.

Arundhati is demanding a different future for India: a future lived in balance with the environment, and where those who live close to the land are respected for it.

“The people who live in Orissa don’t want aluminium,” she says simply. 

There are two exhibitions running right now in London that help expose the truth behind India’s fantastic ‘growth’: one is at St Paul’s Cathedral: Being Untouchable . The other is at The Brunei Gallery at SOAS in Russell Square A Disappearing World: Ancient Traditions Under Threat in Tribal India which shockingly documents the human cost of coal extraction in Jharkhand.

The luxury we expect in the West exacerbates the poverty of developing countries because of the numbing effect such luxury has on our authenticity as Christians and our ability to cry out. 

God Himself came in poverty to expose the truth of the world’s greed and sin - and to force us to feel it more deeply than we otherwise would. 

Dr Jenny Taylor

Dr Jenny Taylor is founder and director of Lapido Media, a registered charity that works with journalists to promote religious literacy in world affairs. The charity runs a website, publishes materials, and campaigns through events, advocacy and public speaking for a better understanding of the social and political impact of religious motivation.

Then there is the liberal elite. They respect the ideology of equality for all, but are not willing to make the personal sacrifice for this to happen – less than 10% of citizens pay tax (perhaps because of an uncertainty of where the money would actually end up).

Alongside this is the army, which does largely function as an organisation should, but it sits alongside the clans and kinship groups, not interfering unless necessary.

As an Islamic republic, Islam provides a corporate and cultural identity for Pakistan and most Pakistanis. And in spite of its brutal penal code, the attraction of Sharia law is that it is a justice system that is above the executive – which changes with every new government, coloured by personal interest. However a Sharia-based legal system would itself be influenced by the scholars who interpret it, with their own perspectives, agendas and their limited human understanding of right and wrong, and experience of global affairs.

So it isn’t surprising that Pakistan doesn’t quite fit the West’s model of democracy.

Two of the biggest long term challenges for Pakistan are population growth and water. The population of 180 million is likely to hit 330 million by 2050. Access to clean water is expected to get worse, causing more friction with neighbouring India.

How do we, who long to see South Asia develop, respond? Prayerfully, and with humility, in view of the complexity of the issues it faces.

Suneel Shivdasani

My master told me to love my enemies, not kill them. That has implications for what I am to do and feel if someone who is only indirectly my enemy is killed by some other party unrelated to me. Of course “everyone who takes the sword will also die by the sword”. So it was inevitable that Bin Laden would go in some manner like this. But I regret the manner in which he was killed.

Under US law, a ‘wanted’ person, after arrest, is supposed to be tried in court before judgment is passed: how come there was no trial in Bin Laden’s case?

The hyping of terrorism has become a means of devaluing, degrading, eroding and reducing civil liberties - isn’t it time now to re-examine the whole business of how governments and media have been handling the question of terrorism? 

Terrorism can only be confronted by addressing its root causes in Koranic teaching/ propaganda which has emanated from Saudi Arabia over decades, and which the West has tolerated in exchange for oil. 

Now that the people of the Middle East are themselves rejecting their regimes, perhaps we will see them opposing more vigorously the interpretation of the Koran that leads to terrorism.

Democratic regimes in the Middle East may well be more Muslim than the current tyrannical regimes.  But democratic regimes, however Muslim, will eventually learn that Islamism leads only to cultural decline, and that openness and liberty are the only values that lead to continued development.

The passing of Bin Laden can be the end of an era - or merely a continuance of the unsatisfactory disorder that we have at present.  Clarity about the values for which we stand is more necessary now than ever before.

PS

While the world responds in jubilation, suspicion or fear, spare a thought - and prayer - for the deteriorating legal and social situation for the average Pakistani and specifically for all minorities - for example Christians in Pakistan.  They are already under intense pressure and likely to be prime targets of any reprisals.

Last weekend there were mob attacks on Christians in Gujranwala, over alleged Quran burnings. This report from a local pastor:

“On 30th April 2011 at about 7:00AM I heard that Muslims have attacked Aziz Colony. I went on the roof and saw that numbers of Muslims were throwing stones and bricks on Christians’ houses. I got scared, I informed my wife and we decided to leave the house as soon as possible… We started running through nearby fields to save our lives.”
The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mehmood Dogar, had been transferred from Gojra, where a terrible attack took place last year. He said:

“I am well aware of the situation. I was there when violent attack took place in Gojra, and I will not repeat my mistake again, I will adopt every possible security measure for protection of Christians in Aziz colony.”

More than 100 Muslims including some clerics who were staging protests against Christians and throwing stones on churches were arrested by the police. The situation appears to be under control, but is an example of what can happen.

Professor Prabhu Guptara