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#Teachers: Want to know why your Jehovah's Witness student won't say the pledge and how to respond? http://t.co/EIdlgDwW #religion
3 common questions teachers ask about their Jehovah's Witness students: http://t.co/kPTygb8r #teacher #religion
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What do #religion reporters have to say about balance in religion #journalism? Watch the video from last night's panel: http://t.co/jutu8oJ9
Hear @TribSeeker and @ReligionNewsNow speak about striking a balance between fact and faith in #religion reporting: http://t.co/jutu8oJ9
Hear @TribSeeker and @ReligionNewsNow speak about striking a balance between fact and faith in #religion reporting: http://t.co/xYZb5SfR
New video at http://t.co/d5X0uCv6 from last night's event on religion reporting: http://t.co/6XnSFQKZ
If you missed tweets from last night's #religion reporting event on Mormons, Obama, and anti-muslim sentiment, view them at @religionblogger
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If you’ve missed the news in the past year about the violence between Christians and Hindus in India, ReligionTranscends will bring you up to speed.
Last year, violence escalated in Orissa, a state in east India, between Christians and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). The VHP is an organization that believes India is a Hindu Nation – always has been, always will be. Its leader was Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.
Saraswati was upset about Christians who were constantly trying to convert the poor and tribe members. The swami made efforts to bring those people back into Hinduism. And the two sides have been fighting about conversion ever since.
The death of Saraswati
Then this year on August 23, the swami was murdered along with four others at the swami’s ashram.
Some government officials claimed it was an act of the Communist Party of India (CPI, or Maoists). But when Hindu groups began blaming the Christians, the government kept mum. This has led some Hindu groups to believe the government is blaming Maoists to cover for the Christians.
The aftermath
As a result of all the finger pointing, violence has continued to escalate, particularly against Christians. VHPs are retaliating against what they view as an attack on their leader.
Schools have closed across India to protest the violence. Around 20 Christians are dead; 4,000 are homeless; and thousands are reporting rapes, murders, and arsons.
The Prime Minister has sought to intervene, sending in units of the Central Reserve Police Force. But the violence continues.
Check out this news video from Reuters:
Want more?
Read Wikipedia’s bio of the swami.
Check out an interesting article from the VHP point of view.
[...] In case you missed it, Hindus and Christians are violently fighting in east India. It all goes back to Christians converting Hindus and non-religious tribes…and the Hindus saying it’s not ok. For a review of how it all started and the murder of Swami Saraswati that made everything worse, che… [...]