Tamil theology upgraded Prabhakaran and downgraded Jesus – Part 1
Posted on December 18th, 2015
H.L. D. Mahindapala
At the height of the 33-year-old war – i.e., from the Vadukoddai declaration of war on May 14, 1976 to Nandikadal on May 18, 2009 — two Tamil clerics decided to give a face-lift to Tamil politics by dressing it up in new clothes of Christian theology. Under the cover of waging a war of liberation” even the so-called moderates had accepted Tamil fascism” (Prof. Rajan Hoole) as a necessary means to achieve their political end. Any one who questioned Tamil fascism” was condemned and, wherever possible, eliminated as a traitor. The Tamil terror unleashed by Velupillai Prabhakaran to maintain his supremacy as the sole representative of the Tamils” tolerated no dissent. Any threat to his reign of terror was snuffed out swiftly. The New York Times labelled Prabhakaran as the latest Pol Pot of Asia”. The University Teachers for Human Rights, Jaffna, the only courageous voice of the dissenting Tamil intellectuals, was documenting in detail the horrors coming out of the womb of Jaffna. Eventually, the LTTE headed by Velupillai Prabhakaran was banned as a terrorist organisation by the international community.
The Churchmen who were witnesses to the rise of the Pol Potist cult in the North went along with it, religiously blessing the fascist horrors unfolding before their eyes. They decided to embrace the Tamil Pol Potist cult in preference to the elected government of the day which they branded as the Sinhala government”. In short, they hailed Tamil fascism under one-man rule as the better alternative to the multi-cultural democratic norms that ruled the nation, with all its imperfections, in the post-independent era. The Vadukoddai violence incrementally morphed into the North-South war which was waged exclusively by the intransigent and implacable Velupillai Prabhakaran. He dragged it on for 33 years. The peninsula became the battleground for the three main combatants – Sri Lankan Force, Indian Forces and Prabhakaran’s Forces. It was the Tamils of the North who suffered most. More than any other force, the Tamils who were expecting liberation” became the victims of the dreaded cult of Tamil Pol Potism.
In contrast, the Sri Lankan Government continued to conduct its war against the Tamil terrorists within a democratic framework, however fragile and defective it may have been. Tamil politics, on the other hand, had descended into the depraved depths of fascist politics. It was desperately in need of moral justifications. The Christian Churches of the North, dominated by Tamils, were already in the thick of Tamil separatist politics, lending a helping hand to Prabhakaran. Through the global network of Christian Churches, they were in the forefront either justifying or manufacturing excuses for Tamil violence. Their modus operandi was to paint the Tamils as the victims of the oppressive Sri Lankan government without mentioning that the Tamils penned inside Prabhakaran’s Pol Potist regime were never invited to the grand birthday parties of his children, or to swim in the pool built for him to cool off in the heat of the dry zone. While Prabhakaran even siphoned off the food and medicine sent by the Government of Sri Lanka to fatten his family and his cadres protecting him, the Churchmen accused of the Government of Sri Lanka of using food as a weapon of war to deprive the Tamils of essentials for their survival.
The Tamil Churchmen were doing their utmost best in propagandising from the pulpit, through parish letters and lobbying from Rome to every possible Tamil home. But the Churchmen were desperately in need of a Christianised justification for their role in aiding and abetting Tamil separatism – a movement that turned Tamil against Tamils, and took the lives of more Tamils than all the other forces put together, as stated by S.C. Chandrahasan, the son of S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, the father of Tamil separatism. The putative Tamil theologians stepped in to undertake a rescue mission that would sanitize Tamil violence and make it a respectable and acceptable force in the eyes of the world. Prabhakaran too depended heavily on the Churchmen to whitewash his crimes against humanity, particularly his crimes against his own Tamil people. And the Churchmen fanned out into various corners of Christendom to present Prabhakaran as a latter day saint who had risen to rescue the oppressed Tamils.
What was missing in the pro-separatist campaign of the Churches was a theology to justify and / or cover up the horrors of the Tamil violence that erupted in the post-Vadukoddai Resolution period. It was easy for the the Churchmen to twist the ground realities and project the Government of Sri Lanka as demonic force. But the theoretical difficulty was in elevating the crimes of Prabhakaran to the dizzy heights of a divine force.
Of course, any attempt to rationalise and justify the Pol Potist” violence of Prabhakaran was an uphill task. But to construct a theology to sanitise it was impossible. But that is precisely what Rev. S. J. Emmanuel, former Vicar-General of Jaffna, and the head of Global Tamil Forum (GTF) , and Rt. Rev. Dr. Bishop S. Jebanesan promised to do for Tamil separatism. Rev. Emmanuel was the first to announce his decision to construct a Tamil theology. He played a prominent role when the LTTE forced the Tamils to move out of Jaffna into Vanni, hoping to leave a vacant city for the Security Forces advancing into the heart of Jaffna. The Diasporic propaganda machine was also intent on impressing the world that the Tamils were leaving voluntarily in support of their LTTE liberators”.
Rev. Emmanuel was the chief propagandist marketing this myth. But the following snippet from the University Teachers Human Rights, Jaffna, report tells the hidden story of the forcible eviction of Tamils by the LTTE: On October 30th, 1995, it (the LTTE) forced almost the entire population to move our of Jaffna City and Valikamam. It had already sent out agents to the West, including a member of the Christian clergy, to spread the word that a humanitarian crisis had resulted from 500,000 people spontaneously fleeing their homes to escape the Sri Lankan Army and to be with the Tigers.” (P. 384 — The Arrogance of Power, Myths, Decadence and Murder, University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), (July 2001). It was, as stated by Prof. Hoole, a crisis engineered by the LTTE” (ibid) and the clergyman who went to the West to be the messenger boy of Prabhakaran was Rev. Emmanuel. He wrote a pamphlet titled Let my People Go, claiming to be the Tamil Moses who virtually led the Tamil exodus that was herded out of Jaffna by the LTTE to Vanni. As the dedicated acolyte of Prabhakaran, he continues to theologise” even now to boost his myth of projecting Prabhakaran as the liberator” virtually on par with Jesus. (A sample of his latest theology” was published in Colombo Telegraph – November 25, 2015). His theological” defence will be dealt with later.
Dr. Bishop S. Jebanesan, is the second Tamil cleric to announced his decision to construct a theology for the Tamils only. He is the co-author of The Bible Trembled, a scholarly study of the early Christian influences and confrontations in Hindu Jaffna society. He declared later in an interview with Prof. S. Ratnajeevan Hoole published in the Daily Mirror that he too was engaged in writing a theology for the Tamils. In response, I questioned (also in the Daily Mirror) the validity of manufacturing a Christian theology for the Tamils ONLY which meant excluding the Sinhala Christians. It was obvious that any attempt to construct a theology exclusively for a single tribe would run counter to the universal humanism of Christianity. Any theology written exclusively for the Tamils would have been a racist exercise excluding the Christians in the majority Sinhala community. In their blind eagerness to boost the bloody politics the Tamil theologians were, either wittingly or unwittingly, trying to create two Christianities – one for the Tamils and one for the Sinhalese. But Jesus belongs to all Christians, irrespective of race, and to hijack his universal principles to promote partisan politics of any one community is an exercise in futility, if not stupidity.
The greatness and the universality of Christianity is in the historical fact that Jesus took God out of the hands of his own Semitic tribe — the Hebrews who claimed the sole ownership of God by proclaiming that they were the chosen people of God — and made Him the saviour of all mankind. He made Christianity an inclusive means for all believers to access God without handing the ownership to any chosen tribe dwelling in an exclusive enclave . Any attempt by the two Tamil clerics to write a theology exclusively for the Tamils would have meant tribalizing God as if a single tribe had been given the unique privilege of monopolising God for their benefit alone. Writing an exclusive theology for the Tamils alone is a contradiction which cannot be reconciled with the basic principles of Christian universalism. An exclusive theology for a chosen tribe is the most un-Christian doctrine imaginable.
But for the Tamil Churchmen the pull of Tamil separatist politics was stronger than the fundamental principles of non-violent Christianity. The magnetic idea of Tamil separatism had dragged the Churchmen deep into Tamil politics. In the predominantly Hindu society of Jaffna it was the Tamil Churchmen who took the lead, both internationally and nationally, to politicize religion with the sole aim of dividing Sri Lanka on ethnic lines. Their objective was to elevate Tamil politics to a higher moral/spiritual plane, if that was possible, with a newly constructed Christian theology exclusively for the Tamils. Their thinking was that a separate theology was necessary to go along with a separate state. Apart from this the Churchmen had a hidden agenda : a separate Tamil theology in the separate Tamil state would pave the way to establish an exclusive Tamil clerical hierarchy without kow-towing to the higher-ups in the national ecclesiastical bureaucracy who would naturally be Sinhalese.
Though in the eyes of God all creatures, big and small, are equal the Tamil clerics felt that their superior Tamilness can be maintained only under Tamil hierarchy in the Church bureaucracy. In fact, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, the father of separatism, left the Anglican Church and joined the South Indian Church to pray for the same God. He was comfortable in his Tamil ambience, praying in a Tamil church for a God to whom Tamils can relate without going through Sinhala channels. The only difficulty they faced was making God into an ethnic Vellahla Tamil. Short of that they were planning to Tamilise everything else.
Christian theology, like all Abrahamic theisms, claims its origins from divine sources. But the Tamil clerics decided to produce a man-made theology exclusively for the Tamil tribe. It was bound to be a partisan political exercise for the creation of an exclusive ethnic enclave rather than a pure spiritual exploration pointing the way to the promised Biblical realms of eternal salvation. Eelam, like the Mosesian Promised Land, was on terra firma. It was diametrically opposed to the Promised Land of Jesus which was not of this earth. As it turned out, the politicised theologies” of the Churches ended in offering political candles / pandans to worship the Satanic Sooriya Devan” rather than the loving God, the Father of all humanity.
Part of the cult to concoct a theology exclusively for the Tamils came from the desperate need of the Tamil Churchmen to prove that God was on their side. This exclusive Tamil theology was going to be the ultimate argument that would silence the critics, sceptics and dissidents. It was going to be a divine justification for Tamil separatism and subhuman violence generated by Tamil politics which has been detailed graphically by Prof. Rajan Hoole, in his collection of incisive and candid essays, titled The Arrogance of Power, Myths, Decadence and Murder, University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), (July 2001). But no theology – Tamil or otherwise – could justify or sanctify the unspeakable brutalities that came out of the subhuman womb of Jaffna. It baffled even a perceptive analyst like Prof Rajan Hoole who consistently refused to pussy-foot around the crimes committed by the Tamils against the Tamils and, of course, the NGOs. What he witnessed and reported exposed the hidden layers of the fascist culture of Jaffna. Jaffna was bleeding to death. In one of his article he grieved and wondered how the abominable cruelties could have come out of the womb of Jaffna.
The Bible, of course, has been used down the ages to justify diverse political regimes and extremist dogmas boosting the superiority of a chosen race / nation. The political aim of these manufactured theologies has been to claim that God is on their side and not on the side of their opponents / enemies — a distinct advantage in an argument or in battle. In the 20th century, for instance, the Bible had been used by the White supremacists to justify racism in the Bible Belt of America in the southern states and by the Afrikaans in S. Africa to justify apartheid. These theological dogmas are constructed to separate people into the superior and inferior categories. Such dogmas are inherently divisive and oppressive and lead to confrontations and aggression.
The attempt to write an exclusive theology for the Tamils could be traced back to inherent Tamil arrogance, which again is rooted in the false sense of Tamil superiority. There is no secular, spiritual or rational basis for the Tamil to deserve a theology that would exclude the rest of mankind. To believe that the Tamils are chosen exclusively by God for special favours has no rational or evidentiary basis. Of course, beneath the veneer of being humble and gentle there lurks a hidden strain of arrogance which places the presumptuous Tamils, in their own minds, way above the rest. Prof. Hoole refers to the ………dangerous inherent assumption of the superiority of Tamils over the Sinhalese and a certain uneasiness about the Muslims who were also largely Tamil-speaking.”( p.xiii – Ibid) This sense of superiority also extends to the Batticoloa Tamils, the Indian coolies” and, most of all, their own low-castes whom they treat as pariahs. A theology which seeks to establish that the Tamils are the favourites of God is the ultimate extension of this absurd sense of superiority. It is the divine equivalent of sharing power with the Sinhalese.
In the end, neither produced the theology they promised. Bishop Jebanesan, as far as I know, withdrew into a wise silence on this issue. Rev. Emmanuel, however, keeps on dragging God into his brand of politics. He uses the Christian collar in the corridors of Western power to gain respectability, acceptability and credibility to propagate his fabricated theology” even after his thesis that God was on their side was disproved on the banks of Nandikadal.
The main thrust of his Tamil theology” was to deify Tamil politics and to demonize the the Sinhalese as the Satanic force acting against the will of God. But if history is the expressed will of God then it is clear beyond any doubt that He has rejected Velupillai Prabhakaran – the most evil monster that came out of the womb of Jaffna. This message has not sunk into the Tamil psyche yet because pseudo-theologians are still engaged in keeping the fires of Prabhakaranism burning. For instance, Rev. Emmanuel’s Christian mission is devoted to elevate and embrace Prabhakaran as his Sooriya Devan”. Jesus is kept at a comfortable distance to be used at his convenience.
There was no salvation for peninsular politics after the Tamils crowned Prabhakaran as their Sooriya Devan”. With that Tamil politics took the final leap from absurdity to sheer lunacy. The Tamils who depend solely on their mythicised history to pursue arrogant politics, are severely handicapped by the absence of a credible and noble hero who could be hailed, with some honour and dignity, as the shining symbol of their achievements in their historical past. Their lack of a great icon from their ancestral times leads them to a false sense of superiority. Coming from a bankrupt past with no grand monuments or noble heroes to glorify their brief history, the Jaffna Tamils run down everyone else with venomous envy.
Of all the figures in their history they have embraced Prabhakaran as their sole hero. Only the diseased Tamil minds, sick with sado-masochism, would embrace a Tamil villain who has tortured, persecuted, exiled and killed more Tamils than anyone else as their hero. Only blood-thirsty vampires would rally round a flag which has no redeeming features to uplift the sensibilities of a humane and urbane being. The hideous images of a snarling tiger, putting his head out of a ring of thirty-three bullets — it looks more like a wreath placed for a corpse — with two bayoneted guns crisscrossing in the background are not the kind of worthy symbols accepted by any civilised community gifted with even an ounce of intelligence and decency.
All these monstrous obscenities have their origins in the bogus sense of Tamil superiority. The Germans and the Italians have virtually erased from their memories the evil fascist monsters – Hitler and Mussolini — who led them to defeat and humiliation. They have, of course, other historical giants, who have made unique contributors to the welfare of humanity, to revere. The Tamils of Jaffna, of course, must be excused because if they drop Prabhakaran, the Tamil Pol Pot, whom else do they have to look upon as their great hero?
Does this choice reflect a sense of superiority or mediocrity?
(To be continued)
December 18th, 2015 at 12:42 pm
So true Ranil is a blessing for these culprits. This is the end of our Buddhist civilization.
December 18th, 2015 at 2:32 pm
For Tamils CHRISTMAS comes ONE month early (on November 25) and EASTER comes ONE month late (on May 18)!!
But the Tamil HERO and SUN GOD worshipped Singhala soldiers just before he died (according to Tamils). Just like illegal boat invader Ellalan who worshiped Dutugemunui and elephant just before he died.
TAMIL FACISIM must be rooted out from SL.
December 18th, 2015 at 3:28 pm
“Uthuru Wasanthaya” was designed to get Wasanthaya ( Spring) to Tamils one month early.
But it brought Wasanthaya or Spring (Uprising ? Destruction ?) to the country TWO YEARS early.
December 18th, 2015 at 6:08 pm
Thank you, HLD.
——-
I would like to share with readers an article I came across on the web which throws some light on the situation in India re religious conversions. It is said that when ‘India catches a cold, Sri Lanka catches pneumonia’ – and that is what happens re conversions.
Updated: March 27, 2015 00:48 IST
Being Christian in India
by MARI MARCEL THEKAEKARA
Those screaming ‘conversion’ should know that even all the might of the British Raj could not succeed in enticing a serious number of Hindus into the flock.
I am a Christian. I believe that conversion is abhorrent when it is done for the wrong reasons. I have always believed that every person can reach their God through their own religion. But reading the comments on the raging conversion debate has brought many ideas to the fore.
First, the country needs a clear understanding of ‘conversion’, at least in terms of Christianity. There are a few small sects, such as Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other fairly fundamentalist Christian groups who convert. Those fundamentalist Christian groups have put a foot in my door to try and convert me from Catholicism to their creed. They believe my brand of Christianity is not the true brand. Therefore, before tarring all Christians with the same brush, those screaming ‘conversion’ at Christianity should understand this. Secondly, all religions need to introspect. Thousands of Catholics from Brazil and other parts of largely Catholic South America have converted to the Pentecostal and other small churches. The reason? The Catholic Church has failed them. The smaller churches provide them the support of a brotherhood and sisterhood, a close community that the early Christians had and lost as parishes became much larger.
I am ashamed of the history of my religion where bigoted Catholics, both Spanish and Portuguese, carried out the decimation of millions of indigenous communities in South America and then converted the rest by the sword. I am ashamed of the huge scandal in which many boys and girls were sexually abused by paedophile priests. But I am pleased that, finally, the paedophiles were exposed, punished and banished from positions of authority. Much more reform is needed and I am pleased that finally we have a Pope Francis, who is starting the process of introspection.
Asking the right questions
I think all religions need introspection. Muslim moderates should ask why a five-year-old girl must be in purdah instead of being assured of justice when a paedophile leers at her. Similar questions about the marital rights of Muslim women and other diktats need questioning. Not from a Western perspective but from the perspective of humanity and decency. The Brahmo Samaj protested against child marriage, sati and encouraged widow remarriage. A lot more has to be done within Hinduism to fight conversion effectively.
I bring this up because when I wrote, some years ago, in The Hindu, that I abhor the conversion of poor people by offering them free food and education (the so-called ‘rice Christians’), there was a howl of protest from my Dalit friends. They quoted B.R. Ambedkar, who had exhorted them to leave Hinduism if they wanted to be freed from the curse of casteism, oppression and untouchability. I receive reports everyday from Dalit networks of rape, murder and other atrocities committed on Dalits. The crimes go unpunished largely because the politicians in charge and the police in the local stations are from the same caste as the perpetrators. Most of these Dalits are converting to Buddhism, which does not appear to provoke the ire of the Hindutva brigade. Can you blame them for fleeing a religion that has persecuted them for millennia?
I have always considered that only rather stupid Christian missionaries would convert people by offering them food and education. Technically and theologically, that is not a conversion at all. Still, while I understand Hindutva anger at these conversions, definitely brought about by foreign funds, the fact remains that the population of Christians in India remains at 2 per cent. All the might of the British Empire could not succeed in enticing a serious number of Hindus into the Christian flock. Even within this 2 per cent, significant conversions happened long before the British arrived, when St. Thomas landed on the coast of Kerala and preached his message in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Those were genuine conversions, 2,000 years ago, which is what makes those churches particularly strong.
Today, Ghar Wapsi programmes are being carried out in Jharkhand, Bihar and other states, allegedly by terrorising impoverished communities and by reportedly taking them back into the Hindu fold with threats. Journalists should investigate these claims. I am aware that as a Christian, I will be accused of bias, so I will not venture further.
Bad strategy, bad PR
The new war on Christianity is counterproductive, and strategically stupid. It will not only harm the image of India globally, it puts into jeopardy the millions of Hindus living peacefully and happily in the U.S., Britain, Europe, Canada and Australia. I have already begun to read about hate graffiti sprouting up on Hindu temples in the U.S. The NRIs who funded the Modi campaign will not be pleased about the damage to India’s image just as they are beginning to be proud of the country’s emerging global position. Nor will they appreciate the backlash that might affect them sooner or later, as news spreads to churches abroad about the vandalising of Christian churches, the rape of nuns in Kolkata and Orissa, and the burning down of a Delhi church.
Coming back to conversions, what about the thousands of Americans and Europeans who ‘convert’ to the Hare Krishna cult? I have been stopped in New York by proselytising saffron-clad and vermilion-smeared Caucasian Americans urging me, an Indian, to become a Hindu. I was amused. But the question is, can one then extend the conversion debate to Hindu proselytisation of emotionally starved Westerners as well? I haven’t seen that discussion anywhere.
I opted, very decisively, to stay in India, in the 1970s, when most of my Hindu friends from university fled to the U.S., Canada or Australia in search of a materially better life. I stayed because I am Indian. This is my home. And I, too, as retired IPS officer Julio Ribeiro said in a recent article, feel threatened for the first time in my life, in my country.
(Mari Marcel Thekaekara is a freelance writer based in Gudalur, the Nilgiris.)
December 18th, 2015 at 6:43 pm
Hinduism is never peaceful. Just read ancient Hindu text ad you will see war, pervert sexual conduct, worshiping sexual organs, cruelty to women and children, murder, rape, bestiality, caste discrimination, destruction, incest and other forms of gory are glorified and JUSTIFIED.
December 18th, 2015 at 7:38 pm
Does this choice reflect a sense of superiority or mediocrity?
Answer: A sence of deep rooted inferiority complex.
1. For 2500 the Tamils have tried hard to overwhelm the Sinhalese homeland. They always failed.
2. During colonialism they tried to gain land but only partially succeeded thanks to white help
3. They have always been slaves of the white colonialists (the Dutch settled thousands to grow tobacco, the British brought them to the hill country to pluck tea, the Sinhalese outright refused to work on tea plantations because it was their land grabbed under the “Bareland Act”)
Why are there so many Tamils in South Africa, Kenya, Mauritious, Malaysia, Singapore etc.? They came as slave laborors.
4. There are 120 million Tamils in the world, no country for them. Only 14 million Sinhalese, and we have a country; they are trying to steal it from us
5. Tamil Nadu is probably the filthiest state in India, Tamils know it.
December 18th, 2015 at 7:39 pm
**sense** not sence
December 20th, 2015 at 12:09 am
Dear H L D, please cultivate your language which is on the the level of hate speech. Your Government is counter acting this with a suggestion of a new law. Your writing can be criminalized. In hate speech the author does not care any longer what he says, but he cares for how he speaks, in your case with aggression. Truth is determined by your choice of ugly pejoratives, nagging repetitions and trivial stereotypes. You have never read the works by Emmanuel and Jabenesan. You make general statements about them, which precludes that you have read their life work. Do you compete with yourself to become more vulgar for each article? I have followed your writings and I feel pity for you. Peter Schalk
December 20th, 2015 at 3:14 am
Dear Peter,
There is absolutely no “hate speech” in HLD’s writing here.
In the contrary, it is not only attacking the “hate speech” by Tamils and Tamil Churchmen but also giving a good account of how “hate action” was carried out under the umbrella of God.
So, called “hate speech” laws have been strongly opposed by Tamils and stopped by them already. You should go and read news papers.
December 20th, 2015 at 5:57 am
Karl Rahner, on the eve of his death, rightly called for an enlargement of the concept of martyrdom in the context of active struggles for truth, justice and peace in the world. – Refer S.J.Emmanuel’s article in the Colombo Telegrpah and mentioned in this article.
Emmanuel would have done well to cite the article of Rahner as reference or at lest the relevant paragraph.
What does S.J.Emmanuel (no Rev.Fr.before his name because this man cannot by any stretch be called a Catholic priest) imply by his reference to karl Rahner?
Who is Karl Rahner? He was a leading theologian in the 1960s especially during Vatican Council 2, which ended nearly 50 years ago. The reference by Emmanuel to Fr.Rahner is a subtle attempt to distort Catholic teaching on martyrdom. It is subtle because it leaves room for the reader to imply that the notion of Catholic martyrdom should be extended to ‘suicide bobmers’ who are KILLERS. It is therefore subtle innuendo.
The Catholic doctrine does not come from the mouth of a theologian. A theologians task is to clarify and elaborate on Catholic doctrine as pronounced by the Teaching authority, the ‘magisterium’ of the Church. As a ‘doctor’ in theology Emmanuel should have known this and not tried to hoodwink readers by this subtle reference to a Karl Rahner the soles of whose feet Emmanuel is not worthy to lick.
However Emmanuel lets the cat out of the bag when he writes: With Asian struggles becoming the matrix of a new victimhood and martyrdom, going beyond the “Catholic concept” towards a wider concept ….
Now in what capacity does Emmanuel make these declarations? If he considers himself a PRIEST of the Catholic Church, and as a ‘doctor’ of theology, he is disqualified from defining a ‘martyrdom’ that goes ‘beyond the Catholic concept’. In drawing Rahner into his pernicious plan, he has sullied the name of a reputed theologian of his time. Karl Rahner, let readers definitely know this, would never have made such an anti-Catholic declaration.
That Emmanuel has lost his sense of Catholic identity need not be repeated here. He proves it yet again by another outrageous statement in his article. He speaks of the church founded by ‘Jesus Christ the prophet’. NOWHERE in the gospels is Jesus Christ referred to by his disciples and followers as a PROPHET. In the relevant gospel passage, Jesus asks his disciples who others say that he is. They reply that others relate him to various personalities of the old testament. Then he asks them the crucial question: Who do YOU say that I am? Then Peter assuming his leadership role replies in the name of ALL. He says; thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Before the Sanhedrin when asked: are you the son of God, Jesus replies: Thou has said it.
By this utterance Emmanuel devalues his doctorate obtained from the university called ‘Propaganda Fidei’ in Rome. Mr.Mahidapala speaks of Emmanuel degrading Jesus. This naming Jesus a PROPHET is one such glaring instance.
Emmanuel, let me tell you, that Jesus never considered himself to be anything else but the SON OF GOD. Emmanuel, know this…this truth that your doctorate has not enlightened you about…the Church was NOT founded by Jesus the prophet. Emmanuel, let me further tell you that you are a FAKE, a false prophet. You are a disgrace to the robe you wear.
Emmanuel and Jebanesan were highly motivated about writing a Liberation Theology for Tamils. None of them did so, for the simple reason that they were incapable of such an undertaking. but someone else wrote it for the. the work ‘The Beast-a liberation theology for Tamils’ published by a well known Colombo publisher was written by me.
Emmanuel wrote a work titled ‘Let my people go’. Go where Emmanuel? The very title of that book shows his dreadful ignorance of Catholic theology. The Israelities were taken away from one country and led to another after 40 years of wandering. Where is this homeland to which Emmanuel the Moses wants to lead his people? Yes the Tamils, the new Jews of Emmanuel, mostly the rich ones have found new homelands in other climes. It was not Emmanuel the Moses who led them there. Emmanuel the Moses did not lead the band.
Emmanuel is a FAKE in every aspect of his personality. He is a man without an IDENTITY. He does not know who he is. He is a priest of the PROPHET ‘JESUS’. There is no such one in the gospels. A priest is called the ‘other Christ’ – alter Christus. Emmanuel is a ‘priest’ of the prophet Jesus, not the man of the gospels. Jesus means nothing to him. No wonder he called Prabha the mass murderer ‘Jesus’.
Yes Emmanuel shed his identity a long time ago. His article is a random rambling of a man who even does not know what religion he belongs to. Is he a Hindu? A Saivite? A Christian? Is he an atheist, an agnostic? the only thing we know him to be is the proclaimer to the world that a mass murder is Jesus, that killer suicide bombers are Catholic martyrs. a Moses who never lead anyone anywhere except to don the suicide jacket after the ‘last supper’ with his JESUS.
For Peter my comment too would be ‘hate speech’. Peter you are not the man to tell us what is hate speech and what is not. We have a parliament for that purpose.
If ever there was a man the personification of HATE that is HE, Emmanuel
Mario Perera
Kadawata
December 20th, 2015 at 9:50 am
Mr. Mahindapala, You have failed to mention Bishop Reyappu Joseph who did a lot of damage to the country. He is supposed to have built 100 Churches in Mannar to convert incoming illegal dalit migrants from Tamil Nadu. This was the plan by the Church when they helped Prabahakaran. They hoped Prabahakaran would carve out a separate state and then they could bring in large numbers of illegal Tamil dalits from Tamil Nadu and convert them. The way I see it the Vatican is like a corporation. All the priests are paid a monthly retainer by them and also a pension when they are retired. When the war ended 31 Catholic priests came out of the Wanni. What were they doing there? No one questioned them as to why they were there mainly because they were protected by the Church. There was a story about a Catholic priest who had handed over 600 children given to him for safe keeping by Tamil civilians to the LTTE for training as child soldiers.
“In order to ensure the safety of their children, some 600 of them were sent to a church just south of Puthumathalan to protect them from the Tigers who were on a ruthless rampage to recruit children. The priest resident in the church, which we presume was Father James Pathinathar, had promised the parents that he would not allow the LTTE to take away their children.
However, when on March 24, a large group of Tiger cadres most of them females arrived, despite the parents informing him about this, the priest allowed them to go into the church. When they ordered the children to go with them, the priest vanished from the scene.”
See http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2009/04/catholic-church-ally-of-tamil-tiger.html
Because the Catholic church failed in conversions in India they turned their attention to Sri Lanka. Will Sri Lanka end up like South Korea which was a Buddhist country which has now become dominated by Catholicism?
December 20th, 2015 at 1:22 pm
Peter,
STOP shooting the messenger. Face FACTS.
It was the type of work of Emmanuel, Jabenesan and other Tamil leaders (HATE MONGERS) that landed Tamils in hell. 89,000 Tamil WAR WIDOWS, over 10,000 Tamil women and girls raped (MOSTLY by the IPKF), parts of Jaffna DEPOPULATED and some Tamils still cry GENOCIDE.
FYI, it is the TAMIL NATIONAL ALIENS that have filed protest against HATE SPEECH LAWS!!!! Guess who is MORE affected by them!!
December 20th, 2015 at 2:19 pm
Thank you Mario.