Love Truth Blog

The Christ-Krishna connection pops finds its way into many spiritual conversations. It is a way of communicating that we are all on the same journey, and looking for the same thing. Both are said to be sons of God divinely conceived, both had prophesied births, both were born in unique circumstances, with Christ in a manger and Krishna in a jail cell, both escaped death from evil forces as infants, both entered into worlds filled with social upheavals, both were pierced with sharp weapons—Christ with nails and a spear and Krishna with an arrow, and both taught love and peace. How do the two really match up? Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man in one person (John 1:1-3, 14), whereas Hinduism teaches Krishna is an avatar and one of many incarnations of Vishnu, thus Krishna says, “Manifold the renewals of my birth have been.” 1 They teach Brahman decided to enter into the world as the eighth child of DChristianity teaches Jesus Christ was born of a virgin ...

Skeptics of Christianity say ad infinitum ad nausea the Jesus of the Bible is one of many other dying and rising gods from paganism. The typical approach is to point out certain Christian beliefs and practices, like Christmas, the star in the East, three kings (magi), twelve disciples, miraculous sings and wonders, the divine titles attributed to Jesus (“Lamb of God,” etc.), Judas’ betrayal, and the crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection on the third day, have roots in paganism. This is then followed by a blitzkrieg a dogmatic assertions of alleged connections between Jesus to pagan gods. Discerning people, however, need to check the facts before signing off on them without some research. When one does look into the pagan religious sources, one finds they just do not pan put. The pagan gods have nothing in common with the Jesus of Christianity. The basic idea of Christianity evolving out of pagan myths originated with the History of Religions School which flourished between 18...

Today, I read the following Associated Press article: WORLDmag.com Community Blog Archive Petraeus warns about Quran burning Pertraus warns, “Images of the burning of a Qur'an would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan—and around the world—to inflame public opinion and incite violence.” This comes in response to the plans of Dove World Outreach Center led by Terry Jones to hold a Qur'an burning on the ninth anniversay of 9/11. I think Pertraus is most certainly correct. Christians can never go the route of repaying evil for evil. Such a conscious act of desecration is unwarranted to those called to be peacemakers. Instead of defiling a book that Muslim hold in high esteem, why not seek another way? Cannot a Christian faithfully testify to that God has spoken to us though Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament, and Christ and the apostles in the New Testament, and what they have offered has been faithfully handed down to us without resorting to violence? W...

Browsing the news online, I came across Time magazine Matti Friedman piece entitled Clashes Erupt at Sacred Jerusalem Site. It concerned a clash between Muslim worshippers and Israeli riot police, which ended in some injuries, particularly a Palestinian woman who suffered a head injury from a rubber bullet. This all happened near the Western wall, perhaps a artifact from the Jerusalem before it was destroyed by Rome in AD70, near the what Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call the Nobel Sanctuary. The trouble centers on social, political, and theological differences between Muslims and Jews in the region, but the catalyst is an Israeli decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites— the site that Jews call the Cave of the Patriarchs and Muslims call the Ibrahimi mosque, and the other site is Rachel's Tomb, adjacent to the city of Bethlehem. Of course this is just one more squabble in a whole series of squabbles that erupted beginning with Isr...

As I was scanning through the news today, I came across an interview with the Dalai Lama, wherein reporters inquired about Tiger Woods' recent press confrence, wherein the pro-golfer expressed apologies for his moral failures and shared about reconnecting to his Buddhist faith as part of the process of his restoration. The Dalai Lama, the alleged fourteenth reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, responded that he did not know Woods, as if the exiled spiritual political leader of Tibetan Buddhist is supposed to be a little interested with American pop-culture's insatiable fascination of the "dirty-laundery" of its fallen icons (yeah, I'm guilty of this too). However, the Dalai Lama did say, "all religions have the same idea" about adultery."Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that's important," he said. "Self-discipline with awareness of consequences" ( Dalai Lama: Who...

Tiger Woods’ formal public apology came just a day ago, and many from the social media universe are chiming in on the subject. A few of the responses circulating are from those who consider his presentation a “canned,” performance. I must admit the thought has crossed my mind. “Of course Tiger needs to do this,” I say to my self, “After all many other disgraced public figures pay top dollar to have public relations experts to help restore their marred image, not so much as a way of receiving absolution, but to improve their charisma, so that their name can continue being a marketable commodity. So the ‘Tiger Woods’ must be must be restored, if it is to remain marketable, and keep whatever endorsements remain.” Whether or not his presentation was “canned” is a mystery. Can anyone really judge his motives? To those who find Tiger to be insincere, I ask, “Where’s the beef?” I’m also just being way too cynical to think this is just a well-played PR campaign. I’d say, give the guy the ben...