Lutheran Ping!
Posted on 06/21/2007 7:44:12 PM PDT by Zender500
A Hindu professor of religion has become the first non-Christian to head St. Olaf College's Religion Department in the college's 133-year history. "It's a great honor," Anantanand Rambachan said of the three-year appointment. "St. Olaf has one of the finest undergraduate religion departments in the country."
Rambachan, 55, has taught religion, philosophy and Asian studies at the college in Northfield, Minn., since 1985. He also has been a leading figure in Minnesota's Hindu cultural circles.
He grew up on the West Indies island of Trinidad in a devout Hindu family -- both of his grandfathers were Hindu priests. As a young man, he spent three years at a Hindu monastery in India before deciding to pursue postgraduate degrees at the University of Leeds in England.
"That time [in the monastery] was very important in my life," Rambachan said. "I was able to steep myself in the discipline of meditation and to enter into a deep sense of spirituality. There is a close relationship between those years of reading sacred texts and practicing sacred disciplines and my work now as a Hindu scholar and teacher."
His passions, both scholarly and personal, include interfaith dialogue, in particular those sponsored by the World Council of Churches, and "fostering liberation theology in the Hindu tradition in the areas of gender, caste and poverty," he said. He recently returned from participating in a papal conference in Rome about proselytizing and the tensions it can create for non-Christians, and will visit with the Dalai Lama in November.
Last year saw the publication of Rambachan 's most recent book, "The Advaita World View: God, World and Humanity." It explores "the fundamental unity of God, the world and living beings that constitutes the heart of the Hindu tradition," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
The sacrilege! Couldn’t they at least have found a good Baptist? (duck’n & runn’n)
Interesting that St. Olaf led the efforts to Christianize Norway. Now his namesake is being bastardized by a professor of another faith.
I’m not sure who this speaks more poorly of: the school that hired him or the professor.
I know that if I was a professor of Christian theology at a Jewish school that I would refuse to take the head of the department. It wouldn’t be appropriate, and doing such would take a pretty grand sense of arrogance, IMHO.
Well we all know that their new idol is Tolerance, which they have sacrificed their souls for.
Just be happy he’s a Hindu and not a Muzzy.
I wish I could laugh but it just makes me vomit.
bump
Time was, Lutheran colleges used to consider their most important mission that of inculcating students' personal, saving faith in the Lord who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me." Now, evidently, the Biblical admonition "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" runs a distant second to "fostering interfaith dialogue and promoting liberation theology." Sic transit St. Olaf.
I doubt that the Lutheran pastors I knew would approve of this.
Oh well, we all know that one (religion, culture, species, whatever) is as good as any other...(sarcasm off).
June 8 - The Late-Great State of Minnesota?
Is there something in the air or water in my home state, Minnesota? "Minnesota nice" is going too far. We are making headlines for all the wrong reasons: The flying Imams, Muslim foot baths, unhappy Somali cab drivers, having the first Muslim as a Congressman, etc.
This story has little to do with the above issues, as now it is Hinduism in Minnesota making news. I don't have a particular battle with the Hindus and wish they didn't have one with me. While I say I don't have a battle with them, I am very troubled by the situation at a Lutheran-based school here known as St. Olaf College. Anantanand Rambachan, who has taught religion and philosophy at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota since 1985, now will become the first non-Christian to head the religion department in the school's 133-year history.
I sense Professor Rambachan is a sincere man and a sincere Hindu. If he were teaching math or science or a foreign language I would not be writing this column.
A college spokesman says, "Studying religion at St. Olaf must be centrally a cognitive, not a spiritual exercise: Indeed, in the words of the St. Olaf mission statement, the academic study of religion cultivates 'theological literacy'. But with that framework, these institutions have chosen to say we may not agree with every point of doctrine, but we do believe in pursuing an education process that brings Christ to the center and fosters a student's faith in Christ."
How can Christ be at the center when Professor Rambachan states that he is trying to "give my students an understanding of what it means to see the world through Hindu eyes"? Doesn't the college want students to see the world through biblical eyes? It is likely that many parents of these Lutheran-rooted students did not send them to St. Olaf to learn 'religion' from a Hindu no matter what his credentials are and no matter how sincere he may be.
St. Olaf students who are not spiritually grounded are getting a double message: This school is Christian but I'm learning about religion from a Hindu who wants me to see religion through Hindu eyes. Other students who are spiritually detached may explore Hinduism as a faith for themselves. St. Olaf professors and administrators do use the term for the school "Christ-centered." How is that possible under these circumstances?
Another St. Olaf spokesman says, "St. Olaf, like many other academic institutions, is growing and changing. Today, courses on Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism are taught without controversy. Institutions should increasingly reflect the diversity of our nation and this includes religion."
Clearly St. Olaf College does not reflect your grandma's Lutheran church or educational institution. Is it any wonder there is some legitimacy to the statement that America is now a post-Christian nation?
The magazine "Hinduism Today" continues to list Olive Tree Ministries as a hate Web site, along with many other ministries such as Gospel for Asia. World Net Daily reports on all of this at this link http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56067
This verse applies in more ways than one. It is the "last days' " reference in 2 Timothy 3, "ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
That's why we must keep telling even the inconvenient truth!
Awaiting His return,
Jan Markell
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Regards,
Star Traveler
The past tense verb says it all, unfortunately. Many current Lutheran pastors wouldn't even blink. Here's one I know who doesn't approve, however: Tom Brock.
Sounds like mealy-mouthed talking points from the constitution of the Laodicean Lutheran Synod. When I see the college officially and urgently promulgating the Biblical truths in post 9, I'll start paying attention.
Our daughter just graduated from St. Olaf, and I can say with some confidence it is still substantially more Christian and culturally conservative than any college of its quality and reputation. Being in Minnesota as well as ELCA, there's a strong liberal strain, but this is a school where there's no alcohol on campus and the kids still look like travel posters for scenic Norway.
I'd settle for this, from pastor and religion professor alike. Martin Luther surely would have done no less.
PULPIT FORCE
It is not the duty of the clergy to blunt the sharpness, to soften the hammer, to quench the fire. Woe to the preacher who protects the people from the Word that kills, because he protects them from being made alive -- truly and forever alive. Woe to the preacher who acts as a buffer, deflecting the force of the Scriptures to soften the blow, because in protecting the people from the stroke, he prevents their healing. If his labors in the pulpit amount to a lifetime of standing between the people and the Word of God, reducing its effect, taming it and making it polite, presentable, and harmless, he will have nothing to show for it in the end but wood, hay, and stubble, instead of gold, silver, and precious stones. If the passages that have been read speak of life and death, then elaborate on life and death. If they speak of repentance, then preach that men should repent. When they encourage faith, proclaim faith. When they warn of hell and the judgment to come, then blow the trumpet as a faithful watchman on the walls. When they comfort, speak as a pastor who feeds the sheep. Let the meaning of the Scriptures be expounded to their full effect; proclaim from them the truth that affects the eternal destiny of the souls in your care. It is far easier to preach if a man will ride the Scriptures like a wave, letting them make their own point and arrive at their own destination. --ROBERT HART
[in the June 2007 issue of Touchstone magazine]
It’s time to resurrrect Martin Luther and do another reformation!
as long as he can sing he’ll do.
Some of the nicest people in hell will be sober. The problem is, the clarion call from every department in the college needs to be, "You need Jesus! Social worker, summa cum laude, St. Olaf Choir member alumni don't make it into heaven. Only those who've repented and put their trust in Jesus do."
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