"Sanal Edamaruku, the President of the Indian Rationalist Association [faces] charges of “deliberately hurting religious feelings" over his exposure of a supposed miracle at a Catholic church in Mumbai. Edamaruku pointed out on TV that the source of "holy water" dripping from a crucifix in the church was in fact a leaky pipe, and this prompted three local Catholic organisations with close connections to the Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay to file complaints against him with the police." Petition here
I though to church was past condemming things which have been proven to be false when they admitted Galileo was right back in the 1990's. They even formally admitted that evolution is real... Just when you though they couldn't get any dumber after the pope's condom remarks...this.
Unbelievable. Prove a 'miracle' wrong with a wrench and get arrested. I can't believe a society that would arrest you on religious grounds when its a situation where no one gets hurt.
To be fair, this isn't The Church, this is Catholic groups outside of the Vatican's purview. The petition is to the Bishop, appealing for him to try to convince those groups to drop the action. The Church knows full well that this kind of behaviour only hurts their reputation.
Also you need to remember.... This is in India. For those of you who haven't been... it's not even close to being the first case of it's kind. Indian society is a the craziest mix of extreme and conservative. All of them coexisting in some sort of chaotic, often volatile and completely contradictory fusion.
I understand why the Church is bothered by this. What I don't understand is why the government feels the need to back up the Church. Nothing I have read indicates that the Indian government is particularly supportive of Christian institutions.
I have some experience working with Indian law enforcement - especially in Mumbai. Unfortunately, whilst there are certainly some rational, educated individuals amongst them, the majority are a horde of workshy, poorly-educated crooks whose lack of knowledge about the law and compulsion to demand bribes makes them totally ineffective in its enforcement. Indian police forces often find themselves publicly accused of misconduct and corruption, and despite attempts to gain favour with the public (this would be one of them), the police are generally mistrusted and even despised by the people they supposedly protect. When things get made official (ie. get put in writing, or come from an overbearing figure), they seem to bow immediately to the pressure and do what is being asked of them to avoid confrontation. Even if it is contradictory to a person's legal rights, they will go with the easier option and sort out the finer details later (like arresting a person and taking them away, even though they haven't committed an offence or anything that remotely resembles one). They themselves frequently break laws or disrupt procedure in order to receive personal gain. Rules are made up on the spot. The irony being that Indian ministers are very proud of the fact that their officer-to-citizen ratio is higher than that of many other NATO-countries. However, i for one do not believe that a quantity-over-quality approach is an effective way to uphold the law of the land...
My niece who is on a humanitarian trip to India was told beforehand to bring twice the cash you expect to spend due to 'taxes' you'd have to pay to get anything done. Bribery is just an accepted way of doing business in India. I've no clue why the police would get involved in something religious though I understand religion is looked a little more fanatically than in most of the world.
