What was that again?

I read this news item on Yahoo! this morning - "Pope calls on religions to unite against terrorism" - with a feeling, I can only describe as incredulity.

How does the head of one of the world's largest religions - one that is built around a central belief that it is superior to all other religions and whose practitioners are led to believe that "the Christian way is the only way to God" - hope to "unite" religions??

One would think that someone who goes by the title "the Holy Father", would have the wisdom to realise that you can't unite people by rhetoric alone. Till the Church (or indeed, any other similar religious body) starts practicing inclusiveness and tolerance towards other faiths, it will remain just that!

The Archbishops' gaffe

The head of the Roman Catholic church in Chennai, Archbishop Chinnappa came up with a shocker recently. Speaking on Christmas eve, he urged "all Christians to send their children to only Christian schools". Interestingly, another Archbishop (of Changanacherry in Kerala) issued a similar statement a few days earlier. Obviously this is not a coincidence and there is more to it than meets the eye.

If the statements made by these two men of cloth are not communal, then what is? How absurd can they get?! This, when progressive thinking warrants building an inclusive society. What next, similar statements exhorting Christians to eat only in restaurants run by fellow-Christians? Maybe a directive to all Christians that they should seek employment only in Christian organisations? (So goodbye to the Tatas, Reliance, Infosys, Wipro?) Where will these gentlemen draw a line, when it comes to this kind of thinking? What happens when every religious group starts thinking the same way?

Dangerous, regressive thinking. The sort that is not conducive for a secular society and one that needs to be condemned with the contempt it deserves!