Month: July 2024

This is my companion article to (below w/ link to Iskcon News) concerning the orchestrated attack on religious freedom in America and on the Constitution itself.

By Sankirtana Das (Andy Fraenkel)

Again, “Religion” is the Problem

In his purport of Srimad Bhagavatam (SB) 4.14.41, Srila Prabhupada, the founder of the Krishna Consciousness Movement in the West, writes, “They (the Brahmanas and devotees) are generally unaware of the happenings within the material world because they are always busy in their activities for spiritual advancement. Nonetheless, when there is a calamity in human society, they cannot remain impartial. If they do not do something to relieve the distressed condition of human society, it is said that due to such neglect their spiritual knowledge diminishes.” 

Even as devotees always focus on spiritual matters, they are also always thinking of the welfare of the people in general. In this respect, devotees engage socially, culturally, and politically to demonstrate that the Krishna Consciousness Movement is quite relevant to present day concerns.  Otherwise, why should the public be at all interested in the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedic literatures?

Back in the 1970s Prabhupada warned against the communist/ Marxist atheism and aggression as a  danger to godly culture, which he had directly experienced in India in the earlier half of the 20th century. In this election year,  the United States of America (and the Krishna Movement) is confronted with a similar danger in the form of Christian Nationalism. This pseudo religious movement, eager to envelop America with it’s Biblical notions, is militant in nature, and the result of over 40 years of germination beginning with  the Moral Majority.  To acknowledge this emerging danger to religious freedom is no more of a political statement than Prabhupada’s recognizing the danger of communism.

To promote Christian Nationalism, many political and religious voices  demand that the Bible be the supreme  authority in the USA. While offering superficial praise to the Founding Fathers, they uninhibitedly attack the First Amendment, that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” One Congresswomen declared, “The church is supposed to direct the government. . . . I’m tired of this separation of state and church junk. . .” And Senator Josh Hawley at a recent conference declared, “Some will say that I am advocating Christian Nationalism – and so I do.” Many of these people seriously believe they, America’s faithful, are the last hope for Christianity, laying the ground for the coming of Christ. 

The View from Christian Leaders

Those Christian leaders who have a more mature understanding of Christ’s teachings have spoken out against Christian Nationalism. . . . .

TO read full artiicle — https://mahabharata-project.com/resources/

 

**** The Issue At Hand

I imagine some Americans were quite concerned with the 2009 Newsweek article by Lisa Miller. Its title proclaimed, “We Are All Hindus Now.” Miller’s first sentence underscored this point:  “America is not a Christian nation.” The author even goes on to quote the Rig Veda.

Since then, heeding the warnings of leading evangelical pastors, there has been a radical upsurge to “take back America.”  William Wolfe, Christian author, draws a line in the sand at a panel discussion on Christian Nationalism:  “Laws have to have a moral foundation. It’s either going to be the Biblical Christian moral foundation or its going to be a moral foundation made up by man.”

Franklin Graham firmly believes that the USA was founded on biblical principles, and wants to bring prayer to the schools. And Pastor Robert Jeffress emphasized, during Faith Week of 2020, that  America was founded “primarily by orthodox Christians, and they founded this country on the unchanging foundation of God’s eternal truth. . . . they believed that our success as a nation depended upon our faithfulness to God’s eternal word. . . America was founded as a Christian Nation.” 

The above quotes are all core to Christian Nationalism. It can initially appear benign, because many Christians believe America is a Christian nation.  But not all of them think that their religion should control the government.  Jeffress specifically referred to the Founding Fathers as “orthodox Christians” because he and many likeminded pastors  believe that the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and other founding documents were divinely inspired, and that the government today needs to be steered by the right type of Christian leaders.

Of course, Thomas Jefferson couldn’t have been too orthodox since he cut out Bible verses to create a bible that better suited his sensibilities.  Jefferson’s firm stance against religion in government is well known. He writes, “I am for freedom of religion and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.” And “Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.” 

Link to view entire article:

https://iskconnews.org/making-krishna-consciousness-relevant-a-hare-krishna-perspective-on-christian-nationalism/