When it comes to highlighting the caste system as a flimsy pretext to engage in aggressive evangelisation and attacks on Hinduism, both the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church have always made their menacing presence felt. Using their respective vast wealth, the coffers of the ecclesiastical treasury are put to their optimum use.
Whenever there is an issue of caste discrimination one can always find these nefarious figures lurking with their sinister grimaces to show how unequal Hinduism is compared to the ‘True Faith’. Strange how when it is their history and behaviour in the dock they suddenly go quiet and hide in the nearest bush. Such was the case on Tuesday 18 November 2014.
The National Council of Hindu Temples (NCHT) participated in an extraordinary Parliamentary Debate on the subject of “Abuse of Religious Authority”. The Debate was extraordinary for many reasons but most noticeable was the complete absence of the Church of England.
The InterFaith Week Debate held in Committee Room 12 and hosted by Bob Blackman MP and Alok Sharma MP, and organised by the Hindu Muslim Forum, City of London Interfaith, Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors (MACSAS), Forum and Imams and Rabbis Council of the United Kingdom, brought together representatives of the Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Jewish faiths, to support the motion that Human Rights must take precedence over Religious Rights, and to speak out against Clergy Abuse in all of its guises.
Powerful speeches reiterated that Religious Self Regulation had failed and that the rights of victims could not be entrusted to the Churches and Religious Institutions themselves. Passionate and at times controversial, the debate aroused great passions and several victims of abuse spoke for the first time of their experiences….. all in the absence of the Church of England whose representatives had refused to participate.
The Panel which included NCHTUK General Secretary, Shr Satish K Sharma presented reflective, compassionate and fully informed, passionate and positive speeches which covered individual cases of human rights abuses to global and historical abuse of Human Rights by Religious Institutions and Clergy.
Click here to listen to the speakers or for further details ….
