A scandalous Pastor in US defames Bhagavad Gita as ‘Demonic’

March 25, 2017

CONTENTIOUS BACKGROUND OF PASTOR ANDERSON

A notorious American Fundamentalist preacher named Steven Anderson of the 'Faithful Word Baptist Church' in Arizona arrived in Trinidad with the utter rationale to pester the Hindu Community. This man has brazenly blasphemed Lord Krishna as "Satan" and vilified both the Bhagavad Gita in particular and Hinduism in a broad-spectrum.

The church has also been designated as an Anti-gay hate group. Anderson once cited that homosexuals, if judged according to the Law of Moses, should be put to death. Further examples of his violence are a number of confrontations with police in several states in which he was the aggressor.

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In August 2009, the church received nationwide attention when Anderson stated in a sermon that he was praying for the death of then-President Barack Obama.

DIATRIBE ON HINDUISM

Extracts from one of his addressing…"Hindus are tough to reach, but it is possible. I ran into several people down in Guyana, including Pastor Ram Angad, who were raised Hindu but ended up getting saved. Hindus need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They need to be told that it's Heaven or Hell, not reincarnation. They need to realize that Jesus Christ is the one true God and put their faith in him alone for salvation."

According to the Baptist Church Pastor, Hinduism has been the cause of stagnancies in India and it hauls people down. It edifies that whatever station is one born into, he or she is fated to be stuck there perpetually. There are about one billion Hindus in India, and the entire race is on their way to hell. Almost one out of 7 people in the world subscribe to Hinduism which the preacher calls a bogus creed.

Shiva (God of snakes) is believed to be the lord of the universe, sometimes also known as the creator, transformer, and protector of the universe. One of the factions amongst the followers of Lord Shiva's is the ones betrothed in Postmortem rituals – known as 'the Aghoris'. Many of the Aghoris stroll around naked representing their true human form detaching themselves from the mortals; through this, they surpass the feelings of love, hatred, jealousy and pride.

…"that's savage, that's uncivilized, that's demonic, that's wicked", Anderson maligned the Aghoris while addressing to the public at Baptist Church.

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The Hindus worship idols of their choice and visit the temple to display the devotion and offer prayer to their god. This man nevertheless condemns Idol worshipping in Hinduism as synonymous to worshipping of devils, saying that worshiping idols made out of silver, gold, copper is a gesture of worshipping the devil.

What bothers him is the hybridization of Hinduism sacred customs with Christianity, for instance, Yoga has now been adopted by many western countries and the sacred syllable 'OM' is enchanted universally. Fencing the traditions of Hindus, Steven apprised that any assertion with Hinduism will pave a way towards the gateway to hell.

VILIFICATION OF BHAGAVAD GITA

Bhagavad Gita, a narrative form of discourse between Arjuna, a Pandava prince and Krishna, his mentor and charioteer written in Sanskrit illuminate people about the conception of Dharma, Bhakti, Karma and Yogic ideals.

Reincarnation, the precept of Indian credence is that the soul (Atman) is reborn in a new body time and time again to grow and mature through all the experiences human life has to offer. A soul will learn new things each moment in time and work through its karma. Eventually, every soul reaches salvation by realizing its oneness with god and is no longer reborn. For the Hindus do not believe in Satan or eternal hell.

…"Death doesn't matter, so killing isn't a big deal. (It's just like changing clothes)" – the elucidation by the conspiring Pastor running down reincarnation as stated by Bhagwat Geeta.

Self Realization (Atma-jnana), in Hindu religion, is the acquaintance with the true self beyond the materialistic pleasures and ego recognition. Hinduism describes the self as the indweller of the body – he is the seer, the perceiver, the enjoyer, the witness and the lord of all the organs of the body. The body cannot survive without its conscious self.

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…"You can't be the god or merge with god, this is a satanic teaching. Lucifer, who tried to be the highest, was a demon indeed. Men do not merge with god, that's blasphemous." – an added vilification of the conniver.

Karma is the terminology of Hinduism which explicates a system where positive effects are consequential out of the past good deeds and harmful effects are derived from past bad deeds thus crafting a system of actions and reactions throughout a soul's reincarnated lives. Hindus produces Karma in four ways, through thoughts, through right attitude words, through actions and through others who work under our instruction.

…"Karma gives you the false hope that if you do good deeds, you will not be damned" – repudiation by Pastor on Karma.

Hinduism vs Christianity – An Irrational endeavor

The sole intention of the Baptist Church preacher is to draw parallelism with Christianity as against other religions, and Hinduism to be more specific. The scandalous member of the clergy has started a YouTube series where he is thriving people to detach from Hinduism calling the oldest religion in the world fallacious. Not only did he blaspheme Bhagavad Gita, but also condemned Hindu rituals and practices stating them as the superfluous sacraments.

There can be no parallel drawn between Hinduism and Christianity or any other religions for that matter. Every faction of the world has peculiar beliefs systems and creed, albeit forcing people to transform to a different religion is a sinful act. Hinduism does not edify violence, poverty, blasphemy, hatred – unless the man interprets the sagacity of holy texts with cynicism.

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The pastor claims from this that the 'snake,' 'god of death' and born among 'demons' here are indistinguishable to Satan in Christian legends and thus Lord Krishna is identical with Jehovah, the devil himself. The predicament with the preaching of the pastor is that he is propagating lose and selective paraphrasing and not the actual text. It seems rather duplicitous to assail the Bhagwat Geet for what it is not really teaching.

WATCH: The Truth about Hinduism

Pastor Anderson of the Baptist Church of Tempe, Arizona has called the Hinduism as the demonic religion. The documentary is a vilification of the religion.

– By Naina Mishra of Newsgram, Twitter: Nainamishr94