Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures

chennai is located in the state of tamil nadu and the native tongue is tamil

I know I promised in the last post that I would be talking about temples, but that is actually going to wait for one more city. I’m splitting up time in Chennai with time in Mamallapuram. Sorry if this causes emotional distress to any of you.

What I remember about the travel process to Chennai is being completely exhuasted. We took off from Hong Kong around midnight, landing in Delhi for our layover at around 3am and then finally landing in Chennai shortly after 11am. I was so ready to be horizontal. This is also a pretty decent time to mention that my feet did not love India. I think the total blister count was around fifteen – including one that the team referred to as the ‘toe tumor’ because it was almost larger than the toe itself. (by the time we hit Hyderabad, they were much better.)

One of the statements made about India is that is an assault on your senses. This is completely true. India does not allow you to ignore it – the sounds, the smells, the odors, the masses. India crawls right up and demands to be dealt with. As we drove from the airport to the YWCA where we stayed that evening, our bus was silent save for the sounds of camera shutters. I’m sure some of it was jet lag, but I know some of it was that none of us were quite sure what to do and how to process everything we were seeing. I’m still figuring out how to describe India – but I will make this statement: life is lived outside. Constantly. Laundry, bathing, cooking, eating; life happens on the street. It’s an amazing juxtaposition.

We spent that day settling in (and I desperately tried to get the swelling in my feet to go down!) and attempting to rest. We only spent one night and a portion of a day in Chennai. The morning was spent in church at an Anglican Church of Scotland – complete with giant eagle podium – and then we did the tourist thing for a wee bit of the afternoon before loading a bus to drive to Mamallapuram. I have thoughts about the church… but those are for a later post. Here’s a quick photo summary of our hours in Chennai. After the quick photo tour – be sure to tune in tomorrow for the story of how I went to Mamallapuram and got promised marriage.

The little vehicle in the foreground is a auto-rickshaw – affectionately called a ‘tuk-tuk’ because of the noise they make as they drive. We took these frequently and they were my favorite mode of transport.

They had these signs all over the place and they always made me laugh. Always.

We thought this meant ‘no bugles.’ Instead, it meant ‘no horns.’ Considering, as Casey said, the horn business would be good to go into in India, that made more sense.

Just in case you were wondering, seeing cows everywhere never got old.

Housing happens wherever you can find it

The Apostle Thomas – of doubting fame – reportedly made his way to India shortly after the Day of Pentacost. There is a vibrant faith community still in India that traces itself back to Thomas – calling itself MaraThoma Christians. However, it is not just the MaraThoma who claims Thomas’ contact with India. Pictured above is his “tomb” – complete with creepy wax figure.

Below are my reflections on the insight session on Persecution of Christians led by Robert Johansen professor of peace studies at Notre Dame. Jim Hardenbrook began the session with a passage in Hebrews 13:3 Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.
Johansen told us according to the UN religious persecution and religious discrimination exists in half the countries of the world. Johansen argues that the reason Christians (Church of the Brethren) should be concerned about the persecution of Christians because they are human beings. Christians value compassion. This means that Christians should oppose any form of religious persecution and discrimination.
Religious persecution and discrimination is not only bad theology it is illegal Johansen stated. International law outlaws religious persecution. However, religious persecution and the discrimination persist. Religious liberty flourishes in the context where the rule of law is the norm. Here the rule of law means the free exercise of religion and non-faith. Religious tradition is an identity marker. Persecution for identity markers are another way to purge a nation of minorities whether racial, religious, ethnic or otherwise.
An idea that requires more attention is the religious intolerance gap. The pre-occupation with religious liberty is a necessary element because of the need for reciprocity. Many churches with origins in the radical reformation (Anabaptist and Baptist) know firsthand religious persecution. However, when those roots move from firsthand memory then the solidarity with the persecuted exhorted in Hebrews becomes more difficult to nurture.
A crass solution of force or violence often instigates counter-violence. One sees a a cycle of violence and counter-violence, or violence and vengeance.
Johansen told us that “genocide” is a technical term in international law which explains the reticence of U.S. officials to use the term.
The long range prevention of religious persecution and discrimination is peace building. This includes economic development, democracy and education. Johansen told us that recent research proves that increased contact across boundaries proportionally reduces violence ahead of time. This would re-frame the ecumenical and inter-faith dialogue task. It is now a matter of peace building. This becomes an organic ecumenism. The pro-active work is building an infra-structure of trust that becomes the peace-building work of ecumenism.
Mike Hostetter told us that in the nineteenth and twentieth century certainty of faith became the gold standard of faith and subverted the peace building work of faith. Further it misses the provocative work of the Cross as a metaphor of contingency not a certainty that masks social and political powers.
A key question is how we can nurture a passion for this view of ecumenism and pro-active peace-building. It is good for us to return to Hebrew 13:3.