LET US DISAGREE, BUT RATIONALLY!

I WELCOME THIS DEBATE

Valson Thampu

Greetings to my FB friends; especially to those who are active and responsive. I have been deeply influenced, among others, by Socrates who said, “I don’t teach anyone. I only urge them to think.” That is precisely what I seek to do. So, those who think are very dear to me. They are beautiful in the eye of my soul!

That is so, even in respect of those who differ and debate my viewpoint; provided it is done on a rational basis.

Hence the following brief reflections on this process.

1.   Dissenting is different from resenting. It is not enough to say, “I don’t agree with you, because I dislike you”. It is necessary to also say “This is why I disagree or dislike.” That is dissent. Merely stating a prejudice is not enough. Being prejudiced and biased shows lack of intellectual stature and moral energy. It shows the person concerned in a poor light.

2.   Merely attacking a person, who takes a stand, is not dissent or debate. That is the ace strategy of the BJP. It is interesting that those who disapprove of what the BJP spokespersons do on TV talk shows is done by some of us, apparently, for the sake of Jesus Christ! The stock response of all BJP spokespersons (indeed the spokespersons of all parties) is to discredit the messenger, when the message cannot be refuted! The Pharisees had perfected the art before the BJP! When they did not like what Jesus said, they portrayed him as a ‘sinner’, a ‘heretic’, ‘a mad man’ and so on. We should do better than that.

3.   To this day no bishop, no habitual church-loyalist has ever said, “Well, this clause in the Church Act will affect us in this way.” Only general, vague and unsubstantiated fears are spread in our midst. Yet, we claim to be loyal to Jesus Christ, who “is the way, the truth and the life”! The Church Bill seeks to-

-Bring the democratic principle of transparency and accountability in managing church assets. Is this harmful? If it is, how; and to whom?

What I urge everyone to realize is this: the richer the church becomes, the more opposed its hierarchy will be to accountability. If the church were poor, as Jesus envisaged it, there would have been no problem! So, by resisting accountability and transparency, the bishops and their gang make a public confession that they have much to hide! What is shocking is that the laity want to aid and abet this anti-biblical stand. Remember, Ananias and Sapphira perished because they compromised transparency (read Acts 5)?

-Make the congregation the owners, managers and directors of parish assets and spiritual services. It is precisely this that upsets the priestly class. Their unjustifiable, spiritually barren, domination over the lay Christians will be curtailed. Once the Church Bill becomes Act, no priest can deny you baptism, wedding or burial arbitrarily. Nor can he impose financial burdens on you. The parish trust will decide such matters. Isn’t that great?

-Affirm the right of all Christians to enjoy basic human rights and makes the parish and diocesan trusts responsible for ensuring that it happens. For example, it empowers a parish trust to address issues of nun-rape, or shady land-deals within the parish limits and to work out effective remedies. You don’t have to run to bishops, arch-bishops, major arch-bishops, cardinals and popes for remedy if you have a head ache or heart attack! (Of course, we expect bishops and co. to protest this!)

-Emphasize people’s participation in church matters. As of today, they pay and pale into insignificance. Bishops and priests rule the roost. This fuels corruption among the clergy; especially the bishops. They become brazen-faced in their depravity because of the enormous wealth at their disposal, coupled with total absence of accountability. All the same, they want you to prostrate yourself before them because they have taken “the vow of poverty”!  This glaring hypocrisy must stop. If bishops are swon to poverty, they must live in poverty! Right?

-Protect church and community assets from loot and scoot. No church property can be alienated or sold without the knowledge and consent of the parish/diocesan trust. To me, this is a basic need.  

So, the Church Bill is an attempt to cleanse the church of accumulated dirt. Jesus used the whip to drive out agents of corruption from the Temple of Jerusalem. Today the same “whip” needs to come in the shape of a “law”. (Ironically, it had to come through Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, a “non-Christian”. You decide who is Christian and who is not. This great jurist gifted his house to the church. Ever heard of a bishop doing such a thing? Most of them loot you and me.)  We have no right to resent this because the need for it has arisen because of our failure as Christians. If we could have contained crime and corruption within the church, there would have been no need for this law.

Either we put in place, voluntarily, in-house mechanisms for arresting the rot, or we accept legislation to create checks and balances.

What we cannot do is to say, “We shall neither have internal checks and balances, nor shall we accept any law to ensure truth, transparency and accountability in managing the worldly assets of the community.” This is like saying, I will not be honest, but I will also not allow policemen to be appointed!

As St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “Who is it that needs to fear the king (in our context, law)? Are they not those who do evil?”

Either you stop dong evil, or accept the need to create the means for stopping evil. Resisting well-meaning legislation, without any willingness or courage to create remedial means within the church systems, is to insist that priests and bishops must be licensed to do evil. That must go!  

Sadly, most Christians are unaware of the extent of rot that has set in. A great deal is hidden from them. That is the reason I have decided to speak up and speak out. Silence is sin in this context.

Of course, I do know that vested interests will react violently and viciously when I do so. This is nothing new to me. I only expect well-meaning fellow Christians to realize that the more violently and spitefully they react, the more they confirm the truth of what I am saying.  Unless, of course, they have logical and factual basis for attacking me; in which case I will correct myself on the spot. I want to be truthful. That is why I value dissent; provided it is dissent in the true sense of the term.

The state of affairs in our churches, my dear fellow Christians, is shocking; to say the least. We do no good to ourselves or to the church by keeping quiet or siding with those who desecrate the sacred. If we love our faith, we will resist its corruption and desecration valorously.

Have a blessed day! May the light of reason and truthful understanding dawn on all of us!

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