Mahabir: Pastors luring Hindus away

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Mahabir: Pastors luring Hindus away

YVONNE BABOOLAL

Published: 31 May 2009

Hindu author and anthropologist, Dr Kumar Mahabir, believes there is a “haemorrhaging of Hindus into evangelical Pentecostal-type movements,” but Maha Sabha president, Satnarine Maharaj, is convinced it is the other way around. The Sunday Guardian got these conflicting views in attempting to find out if indeed, Hindus have been leaving their faith for Christianity.

We spoke also to a former Hindu who is now a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor who gave reasons for his leaving the religion. “It has been happening since the Jimmy Swaggart and Benny Hinn movements came into being,” Mahabir said. “There has even been a moving out of Indians from traditional Christian religions, like Catholicism, to these new, born-again churches.” Mahabir believes it is the “ecstasy” these church leaders are able to “conjure” that attracts people. “Some of these church leaders are good actors and magicians,” he said.

Mahabir said he has been studying the phenomenon for quite a while and even started a research paper to prove his hypothesis that most Hindus who convert to these Christian churches have a number of variables in common. Outlining some of the variables, Mahabir disclosed: “Most of them have not successfully completed high school, are occupying low-level jobs in society, and mostly live in rural areas. “This can only mean they are people who suffer from low self-esteem and their conversion to Christianity has little to do with Jesus and the Bible. “It has to do with a feeling of becoming western and modern.”

Sat: More people embracing Hinduism

The reverse is correct, Maharaj believes.

“It’s not true that Hindus are leaving the faith for Christianity. The statistics show that over the last 50 years, the percentage of Hindus in T&T has been almost the same—between 23 per cent and 25 per cent. Maharaj said, in fact, the Western world, locally and internationally, has been embracing Hinduism more than in the past.

In T&T, he said most Baptists have Hindu flags in their yards and images of Shiva and Hanuman in their churches. “Our pundits do puja in their churches.” Yoga, transcendental meditation and aryurvedic medicine, all Hindu, are now widely accepted globally, he added.

“There are mostly whites and blacks in the Hare Krishna movement in North America. “There is no erosion of Hinduism,” Maharaj insisted.

Working to convert Hindus

Pastor Teelbaney Singh, a former Hindu, is now director of Stewardship and Trust Services at the Seventh-Day Adventist Conference Office in St Augustine. Singh, 49, said he was born into Hinduism in Caparo and converted to Christianity at age 18.

He has remained connected to his “Hindu brothers and sisters,” however, and has even written a book called, “Understanding Your Hindu Neighbour” for Christians. Singh believes his mother’s death when he was 13 and his father’s alcoholism created a desire “to grasp at a life that was perceived to be better.” “At age 18, I knew how to smoke cigarettes and marijuana and drink alcohol.”

The second of six brothers, he says a conflict at home one evening led him to a crusade and he kept going until he got baptised.

“It wasn’t only that I was convinced it was the truth... It was also the fellowship; the sense of belonging I felt.” Singh said he was the only Adventist in his family and he is very happy and satisfied with his decision. “I have a personal encounter with God.”

He works to convert Hindus in communities like Debe, Penal, Barrackpore and Felicity and noted that some Christians criticise them, telling them to tear down their jhandis and discard the images of their gods instead of presenting the love of Jesus. Singh said the conversion rate in these areas was slow because the Adventist Church believes in helping whole families, not just individuals, join the religion.

Source: http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2009/05/31/mahabir-pastors-luring-hindus-away