Herb Hoefer
Update
30 January 2006
Family and Friends,
I need to let you know right away that the movement I reported on in the
last Update is intentionally trying to stay "under the radar."
Therefore, be careful not to spread that report too far and wide. For the
seminar that I held, for example, they arranged that most of the
participants arrive after midnight so that the gov't. informants and radical
Hindu cadres would not be around. They also were instructed not to leave
the farm premises and go into the town. The organization is very informal,
not having any name, just a network.
The major reason they can operate safely is that the founder is the former
director of the rural hospital there. He has a great local reputation, and
his children continue as doctors there. The officials and
radicals really can't touch him because of all the local support. When they
do attack any in the network, [name withheld] has connections in the gov't.
from his medical days, and he usually can get some protection mobilized.
My presentations to the group of "Master Builders," as he calls his
trainers, were on how to handle issues of faith and culture. [name
withheld] said he thought it gave them "a paradigm shift."
I was present for their celebration of Holy Communion. It was led by several
different people, in keeping with their practice of having the Sacrament
practiced as part of their house groups. They did not use
formal Words of Institution, but had a prayer of consecration. (I didn't
know this previously, but Dr. Borecki said that this was indeed the earliest
church practice.) They do it quite solemnly, distributing the bread (a flat
wheat bread called "chapatti") before the meal and the cup (filled with
Pepsi) after the meal, in conformance with the original Passover Meal
practice and the early church "Agape Meal" practice.
Here in Delhi I'm staying with the head of a similar movement. They also
operate only with house churches across North India. They have 37,000
baptized people in 3500 house churches, with 120 paid workers to train the
house church leaders. They also remain quite
informal and "invisible" (in the words of their leader [name withheld] ) in
their organization and focus primarily on training leaders at the
grassroots.
My time with the Muslims in Nagpur was quite eye-opening. They are a
movement of laypeople who have determined that the mullahs (Muslim clergy)
are leading the religion astray. They are led by a wealthy layman who has
taught a 200-hour course for an average of 15-20 men and 15-20 women every
three months over the past seven years. He has trained over 1000 through
these leaders across much of India.
The course emphasizes Qur'anic Arabic and the study of the Qur'an in its
original text, not using the commentaries of scholars. He says that the
text is very clear and often teaches quite differently than what scholars
have claimed. The group said they were quite extremist Muslims until they
began their study of the original texts and realized how their imams had
been leading them astray. I had a meal with them on Sat. eve. and joined
their 3-hour teaching session on Sun. morn. Some of the topics they covered
in the textual study were terrorism, "Islamic" banking, "Islamic" state,
hatred of Jews, secularism (treating
all religions respectfully), obeying national laws, beating wives, capital
punishment, and mob riots.
Of course, study of the Qur'an in the original text is crucial for Muslims,
as this is the direct, full, and perfect revelation from God. When the
leader, Mr. Parekh, saw that I knew a lot about Islam but didn't know
Qur'anic Arabic, he simply commented, "You don't know Islam."
We discussed how Islam is becoming an instrument violence and destruction.
I observed that European people have largely turned away from Christianity
because of its turbulent history of fomenting religious wars over the
centuries. They agreed that the same will happen among Muslims unless
movements like theirs can wrest the religion out of the hands of radical
imams.
I also discussed with them how the uncertainty of salvation in Islam can
feed into suicide bombings. In the Qur'an the only two people who can be
assured of salvation are ones who die with a pure heart on a Hajj or in a
jihad. If one really believes that dying as a suicide bomber not only will
assure her/him of salvation but bring great merit in God's eyes also for
their family, it is a great motivation. They agreed that this is one of the
issues they are trying to address and one of the points in contrast with
Christian teaching.
They estimate that only 100,000 out of the 1.3 billion Muslims are active in
the terrorist movements, but the basic rationale of their movement is what
needs to be addressed. They feel that can best be done by clearing up the
wrong interpretations/applications of the Qur'an. If the Qur'an was able to
set them on a path of peace, it can set others also. They are determined to
oppose the negative elements of the religion with the positive influence of
the Qur'an.
I also discussed with them their presumption in interpreting the text. In
classical Islam, only scholars who have achieved 15 qualifications are
eligible to interpret the Scriptures. They, of course, disagreed with
this. They said one does not need to know all the historical background and
"occasions of revelation" to understand the message.
The Qur'an is an eternal book and thus can be understood and applied clearly
in any time and place simply by studying the text. Of course, the imams do
not agree with them, and they face a good deal of opposition from their
clergy.
The one warning I proffered is that this is what occurred through the
Protestant Reformation. On the one hand, it opened up the Bible to every
Christian. On the other hand, it resulted in total splintering of
the church into thousands of denominations. They said they already have
many splinter groups behind the facade of Islamic unity, often violently
opposed to each other.
The other "Reformation" theme I found among them is that religion must not
be imposed by the state but must be left to individual piety. Therefore,
they do not participate regularly in the mosque, partly also
because they object to the exclusion of women from the mosque in India. We
formed some relationships and built some trust. I hope to build on this
contact in years to come, for they are open to Christian
discussion.
I also met with Mr. D. John of the India Peace Institute sponsored by the
the National Council of Churches of India, headquartered in Nagpur. We
discussed ways our Portland-based Association for Communal Harmony in Asia
might partner with them.
God bless.
Herb