Father Francis Guntipally's Verdict, Bangalore Panchayat, Resisting Stigma and Homophobia
Director: Jeevanandhan Rajendran
Duration: 00:07:16; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 354.802; Saturation: 0.089; Lightness: 0.272; Volume: 0.128; Cuts per Minute: 0.137; Words per Minute: 122.056
Summary: People’s Panchayats on Resisting Stigma and Homophobia; Action Plus - a Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV and AIDS. Father Francis Gundipalli, a member of the Bangalore Panch, discusses his verdict vis-a-vis the testimonials heard. Father Francis expounds on the history of Christianity as a religion, and its ideology vis-a-vis minority populations.
First and foremost, I want to make clear that the opinion I express, is not church's opinion. Its my personal opinion, though I belong to the church and I am a practicing Christian and I follow the Christian tenets. But whatever is the idea that is flowing into my mind just now, you must have noticed I was writing just now, these ideas are just emerging and I have not tested it against, whether it's the doctrinal statement of the church or not. But this is what I see as the perspective that one should take. Having given that note, let me begin. Actually the people of Israel, as the Christian thinking, we need to look at it as the Judeo-Christian perspective. Because Christianity emerged from Judaism and therefore it needs to be looked at from that perspective, because that's the background, that's the history, that's the route of Christianity. Looking at Judaism and formation of Jewish culture, Jewish traditions, we see, Jews in the beginning, who history starts with the Abraham Jacob and after the children of Jacob moving to Egypt and slowly they become slaves there and they cry out to this God Yahweh. So, Yahweh is seen as a protector the oppressed, protector of those who have lost their lives. And in that context and today' context, we need to see minority community, etc. etc. all those communities would be the kind of communities that are dear to God, dear to Yahweh, dear to this particular God. But what are the things that happen…, these people get liberated from Egypt, come to Canaan, a new land, new territory occupied by them and they are in connection with new culture, new tradition and new life. And when they are in touch with new culture, we need to understand again, religion in the context of socio political and economic situations. Religion is very much part of a social system. Religion is part of the economic system. And therefore all practices are connected with political system as well. So, we cannot delink that.
People's Panchayats on Resisting Stigma and Homophobia; Action Plus - a Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV and AIDS. Father Francis Guntipally, a member of the Bangalore Panch, discusses his verdict vis-a-vis the testimonials heard. Father Francis expounds on the history of Christianity as a religion, and its ideology vis-a-vis minority populations.
action plus
aids
bangalore
care
christianity
coalition
education
father francis guntipally
hiv
homophobia
israel
judeo-christian
minorities
panchayat
people
resistance
rights
stigma
verdict
The people of Israelites were confronted with the culture of Canaanites. Canaanites had the culture of, this one, temple prostitution. Temple prostitution is again looked at social fabric of this society there. A person going to have sex with temple prostitute would bring about better crops, better life and therefore better economic situations. So, whereas for an Israelites or a Jew to have anything to do with other cultures, anything to do with following other religion or other deities would mean disassociation with Yahweh and therefore the curse of God would come upon them. And we see several instances and I do not want to sight the bible enough to show you how this happened. But, because of this distinction needed to be made and that cohesion to be established within the social fabric of Jewish culture, they desisted from worshipping other Gods, they desisted from acquiring other religious and social and other cultures into themselves, and therefore there was a problem. Later on, a lot of intermingling has taken place. Ok. Now, coming to Christianity, we see, in the Adds of the Apostles that one of the books the Apostles did, we find a eunuch being converted to Christianity. Again we see, eunuchs were accepted as persons, as respectable persons in the society and they had big roles to play in the society. But as time goes on, again, dominant culture predominates as against people who are oppressed are taken into consideration. Time and again, Christianity reminds them of widow, the orphan, the sojourner, that's the statement made by Yahweh to people saying the weakest of the lots, the widow, because she has no protection, the orphan, absolutely no protection and the sojourner, the person who has come from another area and seen with suspicion, and therefore no protection. So, such people have to be protected by the people of Israel and later on Jesus himself will protect all kinds of people with all kinds of disabilities, and therefore such is the requirement. But yet, when it comes to practice, people with authority, people with power take control of the situation. There was a big narration about police, who are supposed to defend the rights and we have very clear indications in the constitution of equality etc. etc. and yet all these things are not translated into day to day living and how to address the day to day issues. So, those are the difficulties. And if at all, one has to look at what happened in Mangalore the other day, its very clear that again we see religion being linked up with politics and fundamentalism has lot to do with political agendas and so on. And therefore, we need to examine many of these things and sensible people like us should look at religion in the socio political context of the religion itself of when it was written and how it was written, what were the reasons for writing such writings and critically have an outlook on religion itself and at the same time also critically look at various instances and question and condemn those who go against human rights. I think by saying this, I finish my five minutes and I am open to questions as it come forth. Thank you so much.
action plus
aids
bangalore
care
christianity
coalition
education
father francis gundipalli
hiv
homophobia
israel
judeo-christian
minorities
panchayat
people
resistance
rights
stigma
verdict
Bangalore
People's Panchayats on Resisting Stigma and Homophobia; Action Plus - a Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV and AIDS. Father Francis Gundipalli, a member of the Bangalore Panch, discusses his verdict vis-a-vis the testimonials heard. Father Francis expounds on the history of Christianity as a religion, and its ideology vis-a-vis minority populations.
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