Thiruvambadi Speech

A speech I gave in October 2007 at Thiruvambadi, which remains a statement of my faith.

Corporate Globalization and the Indian Farmer

One of the most helpful descriptions of globalization is found in the Report of the Copenhagen Seminar for Social Progress in 1997. According to the report, globalization is a ‘trend’ and a ‘project’. The trend is the narrowing of physical distances between peoples and growing interdependence of countries resulting from astonishing advances in science and technology. The ‘project’ is global capitalism, or the application of the ideas and institutions of the market economy to the world as a whole. It is actively pursued by the United States and a number of other governments and implemented through such institutions as WTO, World Bank and other multilateral trade agreements.  What is under our consideration is this ‘project’. This can also be termed as corporate globalization as this ‘project’ is essentially led and directed by multinational corporations to maximize their profit. They come to have unregulated political power, exercised through multilateral trade agreements and unregulated financial markets.

Under the Shadow of the Cross

It is very important to take a step back from our highly competitive, fast-paced, over consuming, rat race and take a second look at ourselves and ponder over the meaning of life and where we are headed. Lenten season provides an occasion for that. The cross of Jesus Christ and his life that led up to it provides a frame for a proper perspective on our life and its pre-occupations.

First, during the Lenten season, fasting and abstinence from foods, provide us with an occasion to remind ourselves that life has a meaning beyond eating, drinking and satisfying our basic needs. While it is true that those basic needs are essential for life, we are reminded that 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' (Matt.4:4)

God’s Plan of Salvation (Luke 1: 39-45)

God comes to us and calls us to participate in his plan of salvation in quite embarrassing and unexpected ways.

Elizabeth and Mary were two magnificent women who were called to play their part in God’s plan of salvation. Elizabeth was not a young woman. After years and years of praying for a child, after becoming used to not having a child and after getting to the age where giving birth to a child was not a good idea, she becomes pregnant with a baby. In contrast, Mary was a very young woman. She too hoped for a child someday, when it would be appropriate, not now, not before she was married, not while she was still a virgin. So we meet two women who are pregnant. One of them is too old to be a mother and the other is too young. Scripture tells us that Elizabeth "became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion" (Lk 1:24).

മ്ലെച്ചമാക്കപെടുന്ന ഒരു വിശുദ്ധ അവകാശം

തുടര്‍ന്ന് വായിക്കുക

മദ്ധ്യനൂറ്റാണ്ടിലെക്കുള്ള തിരിച്ചുപോക്ക്

Religion: a Wasteful Exercise in Futility

Stop bringing meaningless offerings!

Your incense is detestable to me.

New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—

I cannot bear your worthless assemblies...

Take your evil deeds out of my sight;

Stop doing wrong.

Learn to do right; seek justice.

Defend the oppressed.

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

Plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1: 13-17

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1: 27

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

Christileaks

Leaks expose the duplicity, subterfuge and the cruelty of the beast
Afraid of Truth, like Herod; “he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him”
At the birth of the one who has been born the king of the Jews.

We, who know where Christ would be born, remain where we are
Condoning in complicity the horrendous acts of genocide and torture
And then, counsel the poor to remain with peaceful protests.

When, those who do not know nothing beyond the stars foretold, embarked
On a perilous and long journey, we remain in our secure hide outs
Complacent and basking in our religiosity and sharing in the spoils of the beast

Remaining incognito the little child of Bethlehem still rules to “beat
Swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks; of the increase of his
Government and of peace there will be no end.”

In faithfulness to him, Christileaks we should become, making public
The secrets in high places, and the enigma of God’s rule and its healing and ostracizing power
Subverting and turning upside down the designs of the beast.

Thomas John

A Christian Perspective on Education

“Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"(Luke Ch. 2: 49)

(The following is a sermon preached by Rev. Thomas John during the divine service at Christ Church Elamkulam on Sunday, September 5, 2010)

Referring to the Christian presence in higher education, late Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, one of the missionary stalwarts, made the following statement in a talk he had given to a gathering of the principals of Christian Colleges in 1963 at Thambaram:

A Christian college is not primarily a place where the gospel is preached and people are converted. It does not exist primarily to strengthen Christian community. It is not simply a contribution to national development. It is – or ought to be – a place where, under the impulse of the love of God, there is offered to all who desire it that kind of training of the whole person which is congruous with God’s revelation in Christ of the true nature of manhood, and is appropriate to the needs of India at this stage of world history.

What is the goal of Christian presence in education? Why do we want to start educational institutions? What do we expect to happen from education? What do we expect from our children by sending them to “good” educational institutions?

ഇടയലേഖനങ്ങളും ക്രൂശിലെ ബദല്‍ രാഷ്ട്രിയവും

പതിവ് ആവര്‍ത്തനംകൊണ്ട് അര്‍ത്ഥവും വിലയും നഷ്ടപെട്ട ഇടയലേഖനങ്ങള്‍ രാഷ്ട്രീയപ്രസ്താവനങ്ങളായി അധ:പതിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു. വളരെ വിരളമായും അവധാനപൂര്‍വവും ഉപയോഗികേണ്ടവയാണ് അവ. തുടര്‍ന്ന് വായിക്കുക »»

സത്യസുന്ദരമായ വചനം ജഡമായി ഈ മണ്ണില്‍

(ഒരു എം. ജെ.  അനുസ്മരണ)

വളരെ തീക്ഷ്ണവും സാഹസികവുമായ ക്രൈസ്തവവിശ്വാസം ജീവിച്ച, എന്നെപോലെ അനേകര്‍ക്ക്‌ മാര്‍ഗദര്‍ശിയായ, ഒരു മുതിര്‍ന്ന സ്നേഹിതനായിരുന്നു എം. ജെ. ജോസഫച്ചന്‍. തുടര്‍ന്ന് വായിക്കുക »»

Distorting the Integrity of Creation

The Story of Genetically Engineered Seeds and Foods
(Genesis Ch. 6: 1-8, 11: 1-9)

The Problem

Some of the recent advances in genetic engineering and transgenic development of organisms are astonishing: A company called Nexia has managed to put the gene of a spider into goats. The "spider-goats" produce milk with a silk protein which is so strong and lightweight that the U.S. Army wants to make bullet proof vests out of it. Now fluorescent cats, human/pig hybrids and other exceedingly bizarre creatures are actually being created by our scientists. A genetically modified cat named Mr. Green Genes is the first fluorescent cat in the United States. If you get one of these, you will never have to turn the lights on to find your cat.

A Life Well Lived, a Life Well Loved

It has become quite common and convenient to extol the virtues of great men and women in history, write eulogies for them and idolize them, while overlooking the concerns and commitments that many of them valued. In these times when the church has been turned into an institution which is used for once self-aggrandizement, to talk of Bishop Benjamin and many others of his generation is to recover that church which once dedicated itself to serve the poor and the downtrodden.

Bishop Benjamin and other members of his family, of the same generation, embodied that which was laudable about the missionary tradition founded by missionary societies such as the CMS, that which we today would understand as the authentic identity of the church. For them, our calling as a community of Jesus Christ was essentially for mission and that too, for preaching the good news to the poor. Hence, church was not an institution that would live for itself but for others, especially those who are marginalized and poor.

പ്രണാമം

Pentecost

The work of the Holy Spirit in Christian history has been reduced to an emotional and sentimental overreaction that is very individualistic and pietistic and borders on occultism devoid of any substance in the material and social realities of our life. But a careful reading of the primary experiences, as described in the Acts of the Apostles, would indicate that the phenomenon of the Pentecost in the early church created just the opposite. Pentecost experience and the consequent transformation that find in the book of Acts is one that calls into question the way the Western and American Christians do mission.

As we are about to celebrate Pentecost and realize its meaning for our lives as partners in Joining Hands, it is important to reflect how we relate to our brothers and sisters in the Third World, whether it be related to Joining Hands or any other short-term mission. I consider Joining Hands an attempt to open ourselves to the transformative power of the Holy Spirit.

Do not Use a Sacrament for Narrow Political Interests

How should we address the priests who make use of sacraments to meet their narrow political interests? It is important for the believers to recognize the theological, spiritual and moral bankruptcy and foolishness of the Bishop, and his supporters, who used the last sacrament to disgrace and discredit the life of a man who had made a commitment in life to stand with the poor, for social justice and against an exploitative religious framework. Jesus addressed such religious leadership of his time “brood of vipers.”

What has been enacted in Kerala, over the last few days, is a vivid exposition of how, through the institution of administering sacrament, those who have become mediators of God’s grace, establish their authority over the masses and exploit them.

While anybody may come and offer solace to the existential grief of a man and his family; it is despicable to use such an act to further their narrow political agenda. If one is to go by what these Bishops loudly proclaim; religion becomes relevant only in the weakness of human beings and not in their strength. It is this understanding of religion that was the subject of Karl Marx’s critique, and it is this sort of a religion that was condemned by Marx as the opium of the masses.

Even without the final sacrament, Mathai Chacko will resurrect into the “new heavens and the new earth, where righteousness is at home” (2 Peter 3: 13). It is not whether he knew Christ, but it is on what he has done for “one of the least of these who are members of my family” (Mathew 25: 40) that he is going to be judged on the final Judgment day. Christ has made it very clear that “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

The biggest challenge that religion faces today is the practical/functional atheism of those who claim to be theists. It is to these representatives of religion, the high priests, the Pharisees and the elders of the people that Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” (Mathew 21: 31)

The meaning of the Greek word ‘Sacrament’ is to make holy. Mathai Chacko is a man who transformed his whole life into a sacrament by taking to selfless and sacrificial life service to the least of this world. Sacrament is not meant for managing others. It is something to be lived. It is to transform this material world into a heavenly one. It is this quest and struggle for a “new heaven and a new earth” that brings a Christian and a Marxist together.

Helder Camara, who was an Archbishop in Brazil once said, “When I give food to the poor they call me a saint; when I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist.” A theology of social justice that goes beyond a theology of distributing rice porridge to the poor is alien to the Church leadership in Kerala. Christ is also alien to them. They are the collaborators of those who crucified Jesus. Those within the faith community need to recognize this.

It is not possible for anyone with a sense of history to argue today that a believer cannot be a Marxist and a Marxist cannot be a believer. Only thing is that theism must be defined. Theists are not a monolith. The problem raised by the Bible is not that of atheism but of false Gods. It is false Gods that make human beings vulnerable and then exploit them. The atheism and materialism of Marxism were essentially meant to affirm human dignity and responsibility and their role in the inevitable transformation of history.

Marx’s understanding of religion took shape within a historical context where religion turned human beings into vulnerable agents of an all ‘powerful’ God, and whose vulnerability was then exploited by a priest–capitalist nexus to preserve and protect the existing capitalist system and the ruling class interests. This was a very true to life analysis of an existing socio-political reality.

The Gospels make it very clear that there is a similar critique in the Bible also. It was the collaborators of this religious consciousness and god consciousness that ultimately crucified Jesus. It was Christ’s affirmation of humanity and his commitment towards human history and creation that ultimately made the Cross an inevitability. Who can reject the critique of religion that is evident in the Cross? It is this strand of thought that later influenced theologians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer to write about a “religion-less Christianity.”



It is with this critique of religion that the Church leadership which takes interest in fattening its own self by making the masses vulnerable and then exploiting that vulnerability, and reducing Christ into an idol, need to be confronted. In this instance, the final sacrament has become an instrument of the Church to exploit rather than offer solace.

The responsibility to confront this Church leadership is not just that of Pinarayi Vijayan alone. It is also the responsibility of all those believers who follow Christ, who envisioned new heaven and a new earth where justice reigns and ultimately gave his life for it.

Politicizing Sacraments

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HOLY BIBLE: Matthew 21:31
"Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.
Quis ex duobus fecit voluntatem patris dicunt novissimus dicit illis Iesus amen dico vobis quia publicani et meretrices praecedunt vos in regno Dei


Parable of Two Sons

28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ 29 “And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 “The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. 31 “Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. 32 “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.

2 Peter 3:13
But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

Mathew 25:40
The King will answer them, "I tell you the truth. What you did for even the smallest of these people you did for me. They are my brothers."

Mathew 7:21
Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.


`

Union Christian College

Re-inventing and Re-living its Commitments in Creative ways

(Quality benchmarking in Higher Education with specific reference to Union Christian College, Aluva)

We are living in a world that is corrupted by the one dominant ideology of the Neo-liberal political economy known as globalization. There is no area of life that does not bear its mark and education is no exception. All arms of democratic governance such as legislature, executive, judiciary and the fourth estate are at the service of the market forces. Education is one of the most crucial service sectors where commercialization, creation of a subservient intelligentsia and cultural indoctrination are making rapid strides.

It is natural that UGC, NAAC and such other instrumentalities in Higher education can only play second fiddle to this cultural action for globalization. In this context, it is very difficult for institutions like UCC, which had maintained a prophetic role in higher education from succumbing to the quality benchmarks of these instrumentalities. The topic for today’s discussion itself is an example as to how terminologies that are unique to business and industry find their way to education and determine its character, thought forms and practices.

Benchmarking is a process used in management, in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best practices, usually within their own sector. This then allows organizations to develop plans on how to adopt such best practices, usually with the aim of increasing some aspect of performance. Benchmarking is a continuous process in which organizations seek to challenge their practices.

It is my conviction that our efforts at identifying the best practices which would provide UCC with an edge over other colleges should emanate from its own distinct history and self-understanding than from any extraneous influences. The essential benchmark of UCC is its courage to be different and prophetic and to model a unique way of living ones faith in the secular vocation of educational service through a distinct organization of its collective life and administration and way of imparting knowledge. Why did the founding fathers decide, against many odds, to establish a college with unique distinctions of ecumenism, fellowship method of administration, residential life, cosmopolitan character and strong nationalistic commitment? What are the distinctive marks of UCC that we should value and highlight as giving a distinct edge to our service in relation to other institutions?

The founding fathers of the college were not indifferent to their religious persuasion or faith but, had acted on the conviction that “the Christians in India are today called upon to give their best without stopping to stipulate terms for their service, that it is their duty “not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” They did not have any greater desire than.... “shoulder [our] humble share of the days burdens among the many tasks that confront the nation at the present time.” The founding fathers further emphasized their commitment to remain obligated to the state: “We have gladly engaged with the Travancore Durbar to accept the “Conscience Clause” and to use no manner of compulsion in the matter of attendance at religious instruction”. This was an action which brought criticism from some of the conservative missionary quarters. But they were firm in their resolve and made it clear that it was not due to any difference to Christian faith but their conviction that at this point in history it was their calling “to give their best without stopping to stipulate terms for their service.”

These statements from one of the documents the founding father’s had produced in 1921 highlight the following:

1. Commitment to respond to “the needs of India at this state of world history.”
2. Commitment to work toward the creation of “a new and more virile type of Indian manhood humanhood than at present obtains among the products of our Universities.”
3. Christian faith is determinative of this understanding of the Human and the kind of service extended to society and it is lived in service to “all” as “a vital force of our (their) lives determining every word, thought and action” in the political and social realm.
4. Commitment to remain fiercely independent of the western missionaries and remain dependent and accountable to the state in spite of limitations that they might impose.
5. A clear understanding that ‘living the good news’ does not involve being intolerant of other faiths and converting them to Christian faith. In broad strokes, I have painted the context- the historical origins, identity and commitments of UCC- in which we ask questions about quality benchmarking in Union Christian College.

An understanding of the New Man (Human) congruous with the person of Christ, a form of Christian Humanism was fundamental to the educational enterprise of the founding fathers and that of the Missionaries. Humanism is a broad philosophical system with ethical implications that affirm the dignity and worth of all human beings, their capacity for self determination, self-transcendence, and for making ethical choices and sacrifices for common good. While acknowledging the reality of God and the role of religion in human affairs, it is unequivocally against any attempt to make human beings impotent and a slave of any God, cult, religion, ideology or system. It affirms the capacity and responsibility of human beings to transform this world and make it a better place for all to live and pursue their calling as free and responsible beings.

Christian Humanism affirms the dignity, freedom and responsibility of human beings. It is derived from the Old Testament understanding of human beings as created in the image of God and the New Testament representation of Jesus Christ as the prototype of authentic humanity. Authentic humanity is understood as fellow humanity, life in fellowship and responsibility to the rest of creation and fellow human beings. Bonhoeffer refers to Christ as ‘the man for others’. It points to the lofty goal of facilitating the growth and transformation of human beings into self actualizing beings who are capable of extreme self-sacrifices for the sake “a new heaven and a new earth”. This humanistic tradition was at the back of the liberal arts and science tradition in Higher Education. According to this understanding, education is not an activity of acquiring knowledge and storing it but also one of developing a new human being with faculties, vision and commitment to reinvent and change the existing realties and the world. The practical ways in which the founding father’s tried to realize their educational philosophy is critical in understanding quality benchmarking in U.C. College.

• Linking Higher education to the crucial issues that confront our nation today through community extension programs
• Remaining depended and accountable to the state and to the public, accepting the constrictions it may impose
• Re-conceptualizing, re-living and revitalizing the liberal Arts and Science tradition in daring ways
• Restoring the residential life
• Enhancing the cosmopolitan character of the college through greater international linkages

The founding father’s refused to accept and conform to the world as it existed and dared to imagine an ideal world and realize it through structures and practices that were unheard of in those days. At a time when we are confronted by a dominant ideology of ‘there is no alternative’- TINA, which is an affront to human dignity and freedom, it is imperative on U.C. College to evaluate its quality of service in terms of the extent which it can re-imagine the world around it and reshape it through alternative structures and practices that model them. In short we should not be swept away by the passing currents of neo-liberal economic policies but rather should be able keep at bay its tides by evolving new models of realizing the liberal arts and science tradition. We should be able to open up new vistas of Ecumenism, democratic structures of administration, international co-operation, residential life, knowledge creation and exchange, learning through community extension

• Democratic nature of the relationships within the campus

The college should keep the best democratic traditions of freedom, respect and responsibility in all aspects of human relationships within the campus. This must be reflected in the relationships between the management and the staff, the staff and the students and the students among themselves. The fellowship method of administration, unique to U. C. College, was essentially meant to remove the distinction between those who govern and those who are governed and to ensure a sense of involvement and participation to those who serve in the college as faculty.

• Quality of Residential life- greater teacher student interaction

Residential life of U. C. College best exemplified this democratic tradition which facilitated a “free intercourse between the teachers and the taught and the participation by them in a common life lived beyond the hours of instruction.” It was seen by the founding fathers as an “antidote against the many stultifying influences of our present educational methods.” This aspect of its heritage must be restored by providing reasons for the present students to stay on the campus for longer hours- library remaining open for longer hours, re-vitalizing the activities of various clubs and societies, keeping alive informed political discourse and activities, offering educational programs that explore the social uses, practical implications and the interdisciplinary linkages of various courses of study.

• Extension to the community

All disciplines and departments of the college must extend their knowledge base to the needs of the community. It is a way of making the subject relevant to the community and to life. Instead of making higher education job oriented our effort should be to make it life or society oriented. There is no meaning in producing knowledge giants without humanity and love and without a grasp of reality and ingenuity to change it. In other words, education should be made reconstructive and liberating. By serving in a community they should be able to deconstruct and reconstruct reality and also their own knowledge system and thus make them serve the ends of liberation in respective communities. This perspective on education owes much to the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire who understood education as cultural action for liberation. The Alwaye Settlement, the Christava Mahilalayam, the Rural Medical Mission and the Alwaye Fellowship House are best examples in our heritage for reaching out to the needs of the community within the limitations of their understanding and ideological orientation.

• Keeping to the spirit and genius of our indigenous heritage in shaping the life and work of the College

“While (we should be) profited by the best counsel that western educational experience can provide” it is important that we “keep distinctly to the spirit and genius of our people in shaping the ideals of College’s life and work. So that within the narrow bounds of a cast-iron system of education, we may find room for the development of a new and more virile type of Indian manhood (womanhood) than at present obtains among the products of our Universities.” What does this mean for us today as a quality bench marking for our development?

• International co-operation in Higher Education

While the founding fathers sought to make the college both in management and atmosphere Indian and refused to accept the domination of the western missionaries in the administration of the college, they took particular care to maintain a cosmopolitan atmosphere on the campus and ensure the presence of Western scholars on the campus as co-workers. The relationships have been mainly with the C. M. S Missionaries and they were borne out of mutual respect and commitment to the lofty goals of higher education. Today it is extremely important that we enunciate an alternative vision of internationalization of higher education over against the dominant globalization paradigm of considering education as a trade in services. A paper presented in one of our seminars in 2000, “Towards a Critical and Creative engagement in Internationalization of Higher Education” amply describes our commitment.”

The paper states: The problems we confront cannot be reduced to that of a nation or a people but rather, those that are confronted by a global community, who find that soil under our feet is being eroded and we are increasingly losing control over our own destiny. All problems have a micro-level and macro-level dimension, and solidarity needs to be built up across national boundaries to deal with them. Over against the solidarity centered on profit motive we need to build a solidarity centered on respect for life and preservation and enhancement of the same.

• Continuous evaluation, up gradation and innovation of academic programs
  This is to be done with the objective of:
  

(1) Keeping up with the knowledge explosion in various academic disciplines and advances in information technology, accessing and sharing of information
(2) Meeting the needs of society in the rapidly changing economic scenario with particular bias and preference to the most deprived and disadvantaged of Indian society and the rural masses
(3) Participating in Knowledge creation based on the strengths of our geographical, cultural and socio-political specificities
(4) Making our educational system more compatible and competitive with the ones that are available any where else so that we can attract foreign students and faculty and thus maintain our cosmopolitan character
(5) Equipping our students to meet and cope with the demands of a highly technological and competitive society
(6) Comprehending and dealing with complex issues of modern life with skills and resources derived from multiple disciplines
(7) Sensitizing students to the negative consequences of the dominant paradigm of development and helping them to evolve alternatives that would be more sustainable, eco-friendly and life-enhancing
(8) Developing greater ethical sensitivity, responsibility and accountability to fellow human beings and nature

• Greater involvement and participation of the faculty in the development of courses, their implementation and the evaluation of students

• Turn religion into a living reality and not a dead routine

The founding fathers, in a brochure published in 1921, used excerpts from a letter from Dr. S. Radhakrishnan to make clear their stance toward religion. Let me quote from the letter “It is good to say the prayers we have learnt at our mothers’ knees once or twice a day, but is it not much better to make religion a vital force of our lives determining every word, thought and deed? …I hope at Alwaye you would try to kindle the spiritual sense, instill a larger vision and thus help people to respect each other’s faith. Such mutual respect would be the necessary result of a true understanding of the spirit of religion that it is not a cult or a creed, a church or a ceremonial system, but an inner life which in the quiet depths of the soul seeks its way to God…. If we preserve our tradition of patience under suffering, passive resistance to evil, the power to face death without a tremor, and develop our innate sense of the spiritual, we will no more be servile imitators of the alien.”

This exhortation by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan deserves more attention than ever before when we are faced with the ugly face of religion and its cultic and sectarian uses taking precedence over its humanizing and ennobling roles. It is important the college develop a department of religion and ethics to “harmonize the colors that now to all appearance refuse to blend” (Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, 1921) and to respond to ethical questions emanating from modern Science and technology and the challenges raised by such phenomenon as globalization and neo-liberal economic policies.

• Maintaining the simplicity, serenity and pristine character of the ecology of the college

One of the essential aspects of ones identity and self-respect is ones body image. We have a large and beautiful campus. We don’t seem to be fully aware of it. Over the years, the development of the college in terms of buildings and infrastructure has been unplanned and less appreciative of the beauty of the college campus. When the campus becomes very large, its up keep becomes a problem. Hence it is important to demarcate the area essential for our development and draw up a master plan so that future development will be more in tune with the beauty and ecology of our campus

• Greater interaction between scholars and experts, the community, government agencies, industry and service agencies and mechanisms to realize the same
  
  
• Developing and ensuring a strong financial base with endowments and scholarships, not through commercialization of education, but trusting in the good will of people – our alumni and well wishers
  

This is best achieved by a development office and by involving our alumni and scholars who have distinguished themselves in various fields of study, research, business and industry in the life of the college, in an advisory capacity. We can harness their good will and resources, both financial and academic/technical, by establishing network of Alumni chapters all over the world and also by continuous updating of the developments in the college through a newsletter. Here we should be able to make use of the potentials of information technology.

After all this is said and done, how can we make this a reality? How can we live up to the standards we set for ourselves?

Nothing meaningful is possible within the present University system. It is more a constricting and stifling influence than an enabling instrument. How can we do away with this system and turn the university into a resource center for vetting our courses, enhancing and updating our knowledge base and skills, and guiding us in research and development. Academic Autonomy should be understood and asked for in this context.

No meaningful initiative can be expected of the management. This would mean that ultimately, everything depends upon the determination of the teachers of this institution. The teaching community can divide themselves into task forces to translate the benchmarks into objectives and goals and action plans and bring out a charter of demands for the consideration of the management and the larger public so that the UCC continues to play its prophetic role in higher education.

Can we decide that this same body of people, including our guests, will meet again by the end of this year to talk about a charter of demands for implementation in higher education, specifically in UCC? We must be prepared to think out of the box- the dominant paradigm provided by the neo-liberal economic rationality. We must ask for minority rights not to make profit from education but to live out our values in genuine service in the field of Higher education.

Slandering Christian Witness

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Scandalizing Christian Witness in a Multi-religious Society

The reaction and responses of the church leadership to The Kerala Unaided Professional Colleges (Prohibition of Capitation Fees and Procedure for Admission and Fixation of Fees) BILL should be seen as a clear reflection of the changing role of the church in today’s world.

By crying wolf to the ‘bill’ the church leadership has exposed their moral insensitivity and their callous disregard of the primary responsibility of the church: to bear witness to the in-breaking of God’s rule through sacrificial service to the building up of a world of equity, justice, peace and harmony.

It is not enough to take credit for the missionary contribution to higher education, but to ask what their successors have made of higher education. Since the ‘60s, after the Vimochana Samaram (the liberation struggle), the church’s involvement at all levels of education has been without any sense of probity, responsibility, sacrifice, and mission.

Many of us have failed to realise that the Kerala society’s initiation to the self-financing of education was through the unaided, English medium, recognised schools. They gave the churches and similar associations, a taste of what one could accomplish without any capital of one’s own and yet make substantial revenue and profit to expand one’s clout in the educational field.

Though these schools were run for the children of the elites in society, gradually they began to be seen by the middle class and the lower middle class as a means for upward mobility and economic benefits. Thus, schools of various sorts that would suit the purse of the parents such as ‘international’, ‘residential’, ‘public’ and so on – began to spring up in every nook and corner of Kerala with active connivance of the powers that be.

The unbridled privatisation of education, led to the total neglect of the aided and government stream, which resulted in the children of the poor getting a raw deal. The guardians of social justice – including the politicians, church, and other socio-religious organisations – are only interested in their burgeoning profits.

Education is universally recognised as the primary instrument equipped to ensure equity and equal opportunity in this highly unequal and caste-ridden society. The churches in Kerala have the dubious distinction of having pioneered the transformation of education into a source and device of inequity.


Children of the socio-economically weaker strata cannot hope to better their lives in a highly competitive society. They are denied access to good education and hence cannot hope to benefit from the new economic opportunities. Can the Christian community absolve itself of this crime?

This unashamed mercantile nature of private-owned education have legitimised capitation fee under different pet names such as development fund, building fund, etc. It is this morally degraded cultural milieu that has become the fertile breeding ground for self-financing institutions and courses in higher education.

The church and their monastic orders, for which vows of chastity and poverty are fundamental, did not hesitate to take advantage of this opportunity for crass material aggrandizement. They have nowhere to hide after exposing themselves to be callously indifferent to the poor in their own churches and communities.

Self-financing in education is something unheard of in any civilised society, even in highly capitalistic ones such as the United States of America. This form of education should not be confused with private educational initiatives.

Most of the private schools, colleges and universities in the western world are built by the largesse of rich philanthropists. Such schools, though they may charge a higher rate of fees than the government run or supported schools, still provide a highly subsidised education. They do not force the capital costs of education on to the students, irrespective of their financial status. They also insist on a student composition that reflects the socio-economic realities of their societies. Through a well-evolved system of scholarships and financial support, the private schools in the west ensure that no student is deprived of educational opportunities for want of money.

The self-financing system of education is a negation of all values, particularly those Christian values for which the missionaries laid down their lives. They started schools for Dalits and other untouchable communities and also for women. Kerala owes a lot to the noble vision of the missionaries of the past, who saw education as a means of civilising and transforming the existing social order. The tireless efforts of the missionaries have been rewarded in the form of tremendous amount of goodwill towards the church.

Now, the church leadership is in a hurry to encash that goodwill. They unashamedly ask for minority rights to run these self-financed educational institutions, which are the worst form of commercialisation of education.

Greed can only breed more greed and trigger the destruction of the very values Christ gave us for safe-keeping. Why do Christians want to run these educational institutions? What values are they trying to live out? Who are the ones benefited by these institutions? What rights do they demand for running educational institutions of this kind? Is it to serve the most deprived students, or to admit students of their own communities? Or is it merely the desire to make a profitable business out of it? What disadvantage or discrimination as minority are they trying to redress by claiming this right?

By claiming the right to establish and administer educational institutions without specifying the disability or disadvantage or discrimination that they suffer in relation to the majority community, the church leadership is desecrating a sacred right conferred on them by the constitution. The Indian constitution represents the best democratic traditions of a civilized society, and which guarantees that brute majority will not obliterate the traditions, values and distinct identities of a minority.

What a Christian wants and should demand is the right to practice his/her faith, to live out values that are distinctly Christian – responsibility to one’s fellow human beings and creation, self-less and sacrificial service to humanity and intervention in history on behalf of the poor and the outcasts to the point of death.

The clamor for minority rights would appear ridiculous in comparison with the vision and commitment of the founders of some of the Christian colleges in India.

The founders of the Union Christian College, one of the oldest Christian indigenous initiatives in Higher Education in India, acknowledged in one of their earliest brochures (1921) that, "We have gladly engaged with the Travancore Durbar to accept the ‘Conscience Clause’ and to use no manner of compulsion in the matter of attendance at religious instruction. This is no way due to religious indifference on our part but to our conviction that the Christians in India are called upon to give of their best without stopping to stipulate terms for their service, that it is their duty ‘not to be ministered unto, but to minister’. We have no greater desire than that like our Master before us ‘who went about doing good’, we may, poor and despised as we are shoulder our humble share of the day’s burdens among the many tasks that confront the nation at the present time.”

They were even prepared to forgo their concern to teach scripture, "to shoulder the day’s burden among the many tasks that confront the nation at the present time." They never claimed any minority rights; nor did they stipulate terms for their service. But they were prepared to accept the restrictions that the government would impose and unconditionally put themselves at the service of the nation ‘in this great hour of trial’. This was a reference to the independence movement of our nation.

An understanding of the New Man (Human) congruous with the person of Christ, a form of Christian humanism, was fundamental to the educational enterprise of the Missionaries. Christ is understood as the prototype of authentic humanity. Authentic humanity is understood as fellow humanity, life in fellowship and responsibility to the rest of creation and fellow human beings. It points to the lofty goal of facilitating the growth and transformation of human beings into self actualizing beings who are capable of extreme self-sacrifices for the sake "a new heaven and a new earth". This humanistic tradition was at the back of the liberal arts and science tradition in Higher Education. According to this understanding, education is not an activity of acquiring knowledge and storing it but also one of developing a new human being with faculties, vision and commitment to reinvent and change the existing realties and the world.

The self-financing of education is not only against this understanding of the human but reduces human beings to sellable commodities in the job market.

The church, which should have raised its prophetic voice against commercialisation of education and the notion of education as a private good, is seen not only to have silently acquiesced with it, but to be actively engaged in promoting it and making profit out of it. The church by its active engagement with this form of education is proclaiming to the world that nothing else matters except Mammon (the god of wealth) and his project and there in nothing ennobling about human beings.

When our nation is threatened by divisive forces of sectarianism and religious fanaticism, the church by its claim on minority rights and differential treatment for illegitimate reasons and thus, putting majority communities on a disadvantage, not only justifies those illegitimate reasons but also communalises our already fractured social order. A Christian should be seen at this state of world history striving with all likeminded people for promoting social justice and equity, communal harmony, a more humane and sustainable world order and the integrity of creation.

The church leadership is compromising their integrity and moral stature and their most supreme apostolic calling to bear witness to the good news of the in-breaking of God’s rule to set the world and all its relationships right. It is quite obvious to all people in the pew except the bishops that our medical colleges and engineering colleges ‘sell seats’. It is obvious to all except the Bishops that the entrance examinations are conducted after seats have been sold. It is obvious to all except the bishops that they only serve a fraction of the rich in their communities and the majority of poor students from their own communities are left to fend for themselves. All know that these professional colleges have no noble motive other than financial gain and political and social clout. It is obvious to all that these educational institutions have no ennobling role in the lives of students as they also are there as investors who expect good returns.

While all these are crystal clear to all and sundry, the kind of public outbursts on minority rights will only demean themselves and the Christian community in general. True Christians will always remain a minority and it is their privilege and joy. It is their joy to embody the Kingdom values of love, justice, peace and harmony. It is their joy to be the vanguard of a new humanity and world order. It is the responsibility of all true Christians to rise up against the church leadership that is bent on scandalising Christ and his mission in the world.