CHRISTIANITY AGENDA TO BREAK INDIA APART AGAIN

Dear Sagarika Ghose : Why not rewrite the Bible?

In a recent blog, the leftist Indian journalist Sagarika Ghose traces the origin of the caste system to a verse in the Puruṣa Sūkta and makes an appeal to publicly re-write the hymn, which she claims is fundamentally unjust. Her understanding of the hymn is incorrect and her assertion no more than a repeat of the 19th century Christian propaganda. However, I am not going to defend the hymn or explain its correct meaning in this article. But I will mention that only a scientifically ignorant person would continue to think that some scripture created the caste system. So, it is not necessary to refute Ghose’s claims in further detail.

Instead, I am going to agree with her that if a religious text is unjust or intolerant, it should be rewritten or even abandoned. In light of this, I am going to evaluate a few Christian teachings in the Bible to argue that they are unjust.

The New Testament calls the Jews “Christ-killers,” “children of the Devil,” “brood of vipers,” etc. Many of these anti-Semitic phrases were uttered by Jesus himself (e.g., Matthew 3:7). Norman Beck, a distinguished academic and Lutheran theologian, demonstrates that the New Testament contains over 450 anti-Semitic remarks [1] — thus making the Bible the most comprehensive hate-filled anti-Semitic scripture in the world. As Richard Dawkins points out, Martin Luther and Hitler were inspired by Jesus when they too called the Jews a “brood of vipers [2].” The Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel has shown that the Nazi system was the consequence of the Christian tradition and teachings and was inseparable from it [3].

At the minimum, this alone would require rewriting over 450 verses of the Bible as they have been unjust when seen from the perspective of a Jew or any civilized person. One may consult my paper From the Holy Cross to the Holocaust [4], where I discuss many other anti-Semitic Christian teachings to expand on the list of verses to be rewritten. But rewriting 450 verses would be a welcome start.

A law enshrined in The Bible (Deuteronomy 22:13-21) requires a groom to drag his bride on the nuptial night to her father’s doorstep and stone her to death on the suspicion that she may not be a virgin. It urges onlookers to participate in this violent orgy. Our leftist ideologues may think that virginity is just a big issue over a small tissue but Jesus thought otherwise. Jesus announces that he has come to fulfill misogynistic laws unto the last word (Matthew 5:17). This announcement makes the Taliban look like progressive feminists in comparison to Jesus. So, one may consider giving Jesus a makeover. ‘Botox for Jesus’ could be a worthy creative pursuit.

The New Testament urges Christians to wait for the Second Coming of Jesus. On this occasion, the cosmic Jesus would return to earth and judge everyone. Non-believers would be tortured for a period of five months on earth (Revelation 9:4-5) before they are butchered and put on the hell-bound cargo postmortem. Let us rewrite this verse as it advocates the genocide of non-believers. It also portrays Jesus as a stereotypical proto-Middle Eastern terrorist. So, ‘Botox for Jesus’ is no longer just a creative pursuit. It has now become a necessity.

In my forthcoming book, What Every Hindu Should Know About Christianity, I decisively argue that the teachings of Christianity are entirely immoral. Therefore, I am skeptical that a rewrite could transform The Bible and Jesus into anything desirable than a rewrite could render the Mein Kampf and Hitler desirable. But, I would let the creative minds have a go at preserving the ‘religion of love.’ But until the rewrite and ‘Botox for Jesus’ are complete, can we propose a law to keep The Bible out of the reach of innocent children and pregnant women?