…and this is a 
I have learned something new today: you can get a Ph.D. in converting the heathen!
DEVELOPING A CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENT IN INDIA
By DANE WINSTEAD FOWLKES
submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in the subject
MISSIOLOGY
at the UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE
SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR PIETER VERSTER
November 2004
Here's the abstract, if you've got a hankerin' to head on over to India and undermine the Hindu religion, it might be useful.
This dissertation acknowledges the need for Church Planting Movements among the unreached peoples of India. Of particular concern to this study is the application of Church Planting Movement strategy to forward caste Hindus of India.
It traces the historical development of group or people movement strategy and then compares that strategy with traditional missionary approaches in India. It shows that evangelizing households is the primary strategy of the New Testament and the most appropriate strategy for initiating Church Planting Movements. The thesis carefully examines salvation understanding in the Hindu context and its relationship to the caste system. All of this lays a foundation for a proper approach to evangelization of forward caste Hindus in light of the fact that there have been no documented Church Planting Movements among forward caste Hindus in all of India.
The paper concludes that the best approach to facilitating a Church Planting Movement among forward caste Hindus is by not planting churches. As contradictory as this sounds, the paper shows that Christian disciples remaining within Hindu culture and familial systems holds the potential for the most indigenous approach to establishing multiplying churches among forward caste Hindus.
Now I'm wondering…are there equivalent documents in India that describe how to peel American Christians away from their churches? It would be useful information to have.
Politics
Comments
Posted by: Villago Delenda Est | September 20, 2009 12:32 PM
How do you suppose these "Christians" would react if some Hindu PHd was planning to plant temples in the sacred soil of America?
Posted by: Stretch | September 20, 2009 12:35 PM
My uncle, a jesuit priest, spent much of his life in Calcutta and Bhopal trying to help the sick, feel the hungry, and educate the curious... and when they asked why he did it, he would explain his catholic faith. Probably converted a few, but that wasn't why he went there.
The First Church of Bob does it the other way. Go over there, make some pals, get some market share, and get them to start kicking into the revenue base.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | September 20, 2009 12:37 PM
Yeah, "Missiology"?
Let alone the teeth-gritting ignor-/arrog-ance of its referent, the coinage is itself a barbarism.
Posted by: Valdyr | September 20, 2009 12:39 PM
Why the focus on "forward caste Hindus"? If they really believed in salvation and hope for the downtrodden, wouldn't they focus on the untouchables and other marginalized groups in Indian society rather than just trying to befriend the wealthy? Fuck these people.
Posted by: Valdyr | September 20, 2009 12:41 PM
Upon looking up the "University of the Free State", I found this:
"The university faced controversy in late February 2008 following a video made by four white students of the Reitz residence in protest against racial integration at the university. The video depicted five black workers being subjected to various mock activities, including being forced to consume food which appeared to have been urinated on.[2] The video received coverage from both South African and international media and condemnation from most major political parties in South Africa, and led to riots and racial strife among students at the university."
Wow. Sounds like a real bastion of progressive thought.
Posted by: BAllanJ | September 20, 2009 12:43 PM
As I heard, the lower castes are converting to christianity just to duck some of the discrimination... don't know how effective that is, but I would understand it being hard to believe in a system that tells them how low they are all the tim,e.
Posted by: Rjaye | September 20, 2009 12:44 PM
Oh, my, it's too early. When I first read this post, I kept reading "tree planting," and thinking, why, that actually might be a useful thing for a church group to do. Then I woke up and realized it was "church planting." How freaking sad. And yes, where are the Hindu missionaries? I want them to come over here and convert the lost. Or at least give them a taste of their own "medicine." Plus they have great potlucks. Their cast system, not so much...
Posted by: J-Ball | September 20, 2009 12:44 PM
Imagine the outcry from the god botherers if something came to light documenting formal efforts of foreigners to come to the United States and target Christians for conversion to their religion.
I swear, I know of no other group in the planet that so epitomizes hypocrisy as much as evangelical Christians do.
Posted by: detrius | September 20, 2009 12:45 PM
Heh, you've got it wrong, PZ.
Hinduism converts through assimilation, that's how it ended up with 330 million gods in the first place!
Jesus would simply be turned into another minor god of the vast Hinduistic pantheon, the churches would be turned into temples dedicated to him - no Christians would actually have to be peeled away from their churches. :)
Posted by: Tirumari | September 20, 2009 12:51 PM
Well, I'm kind of a non-practicing Hindu; and one of the biggest things that I learned when I was younger is that Hindus don't proselytize. I suppose the reason is the whole reincarnation thing, but either way, it's kind of nice being part of a religion that doesn't bother others. Buddhism has the same attitude.
Posted by: Paul Claesse | September 20, 2009 12:52 PM
#1: "How do you suppose these "Christians" would react if some Hindu PHd was planning to plant temples in the sacred soil of America?"
Plant temples:
Note that the conclusion of this Ph.D. thesis was, that the best strategy for planting churches (in that area) was: "to not plant any churches".
I'm considering a few Ph.D. Thesis's along the same lines for myself! Piece of cake.
REAL Ph.D.'s should be outraged though.
Posted by: Rjaye | September 20, 2009 12:56 PM
CASTE system...oh, it's too early...
Posted by: Blake Stacey | September 20, 2009 12:57 PM
"Malt does more than Milton can," wrote Housman, "To justify God's ways to man." Along the same lines, I'd suggest that missiology pales before mixology as a path to betterment.
Posted by: strange gods before me | September 20, 2009 1:01 PM
Posted by: Paul Claessen | September 20, 2009 1:04 PM
#5: What some students did does not reflect on the university in this case (which WAS working on racial integration. In fact, the university's rector is 'not white'). It has little to do with them handing out Ph.D.'s of questionable quality.
http://www.ufs.ac.za/faculties/content.php?FCode=H1&DCode=ALL&DivCode=0&uid=1741
Posted by: 'Tis Himself
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September 20, 2009 1:06 PM
Missiology sounds like the study of missiles. "Yep, this here's yer genuwhine C4 Trident I missile. Ya'll can tell the difference between it and the D5 Trident II 'cause the C4 has W76 warheads whilst the D5 has W88 warheads. That's more bang for more bucks, as they say at Lockheed."
Posted by: CW | September 20, 2009 1:09 PM
Those who have seriously studied the matter know that my imaginary friends are better than your imaginary friend.Posted by: Plasma | September 20, 2009 1:13 PM
That's obviously a typo. They meant to say misology.
Posted by: Tim H | September 20, 2009 1:16 PM
But what if you can't convert any heathens? Can you get a Master's in Missiology by trolling on their blogs?
Posted by: Diego | September 20, 2009 1:18 PM
One of my sister's friends is high school was a very cool guy who suffered from a case of missionary parents. They were totally gung ho into converting the heathen masses. I remember a time we were all over at my sister's friend's house when to his eternal embarasment his father came out and started talking to us about the cultures of China and Japan. The pater familis waxed poetic on the benefits of communism and how Mao and company had evened the playing field for Christianity by wiping away all those silly old superstitions. I'd have hated to hear him get started on the topic of targeting Hindus.
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | September 20, 2009 1:24 PM
Dane Winstead Fowlkes, your doctorage in Missiology don't mean nothing without a heapin' helpin' of Systemic Theology - the most exciting new field of theology in the last three weeks!
How else would you learn that Cosmology is part of Cultural Studies, while Capitalist Economics is a Science (Socialist Economics, Ecology & Astronomy are Social Sciences)?
Posted by: Heidi | September 20, 2009 1:30 PM
@Plasma #18
WIN! That was awesome.
Posted by: Ian.A | September 20, 2009 1:33 PM
Dang. And one of the refreshing things about India was only seeing a single church in my entire month there.
Posted by: David W | September 20, 2009 1:40 PM
I wonder what contribution to the field of knowledge the thesis made...
Posted by: Anida Adler | September 20, 2009 1:42 PM
@ #5 - My husband and I lived near Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State, for a year. It's a city, all right, but surrounded by vast farmland where change is slow to come, and for much, much more complicated reasons than just unwillingness on the part of those involved.
That said, in the Free State, as in the rest of South Africa, there are people who want to get on with life and get along, and retarded moronic fuckwits who keep being nasty to people of other races.
Most of the people there are just giving it their best, flawed as their best may be considering the background. Some of them aren't. What else is new?
Posted by: protocol | September 20, 2009 1:42 PM
Strange gods before me (#17): dude you should know that no one person speaks for hinduism (indeed, it is arguable if Hinduism is one religion or a collection of diverse practices). So citing a random person bloviating online does not constitute evidence.....anyways you'll be surprised to know that atheism is a valid position within hinduism: see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C4%81rv%C4%81ka
Posted by: tim Rowledge | September 20, 2009 1:46 PM
Cool; I have a certificate declaring me a Guided Missile Guru. Maybe I can take another course or two an get upgraded to a PHD in Missiology?Posted by: fireweaver | September 20, 2009 1:56 PM
to J-Ball #8:
How about Muslims? They are even more aggressively "evangelical" (if you can call it that) than Christians. They have no problem blowing things up or killing you if you don't convert.
Posted by: Susannah | September 20, 2009 1:58 PM
Encouraging, knowing that the "Father" of the Church Growth Movement, Donald McGavran, Daddy Church-Planting himself, lived and worked and developed his methodology in India.Ian.A #23: Don't worry; this paper is unlikely to make any difference whatsoever.
Posted by: Nony | September 20, 2009 2:20 PM
Christians in the US are too late to get the low hanging fruit aren't they? I thought the lower castes were already succesfully targeted by muslims.
Nice setup for a three-way conflict too, I'm sure the Indian locals will be thrilled to have some more pushers of religion around.
Posted by: ShaunOTD | September 20, 2009 2:25 PM
@ Fireweaver #28
Of course - no christian would ever attempt to convert non-christians on pain of death or torture. Nope. Never happened. Not in the Americas, not in Australasia, certainly not in Africa...and NOBODY EXPECTED THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!!
Posted by: Marcus Ranum | September 20, 2009 2:36 PM
I guess this is some kind of implicit admission that "the good news" is not exactly obvious. One would expect that the heathen would have just fallen all over themselves converting - what kind of true faith needs all this evangelizing and proselytizing?
Posted by: jpf | September 20, 2009 2:52 PM
Re #9: Blue-skinned, twenty-armed Jesus loves you!
Posted by: btj | September 20, 2009 3:09 PM
This thesis actually sounds kind of interesting compared to most Christian drivel, because it uses comparative religion as an approach to building (in essence) a business plan for growing the Christianity in India. Most interesting are the techniques that they're not trying, like demonstrating in a falsifyable way that Hinduism is wrong and Christianity is right, or divine revelation. Nope, just using the same techniques Coke uses to compete with Thumb's Up.
It reminds me of the early church's assimilation of the "pagan" tribes in Europe by subsuming their rituals, such as Easter. I wonder if any of those early Christian rascals left behind any documents comparable to this thesis.
Posted by: Mobius | September 20, 2009 3:15 PM
Well, I don't know much about Missiology, but when it comes to my dog Missy, I am considered the world's leading expert. So I guess one could say I have a doctorate in Missyology.
To all of this, Missy says, "Arf", agreeing with me. But then, she will always agree with me as long as I feed her treats.
Posted by: Gyeong Hwa Pak | September 20, 2009 3:17 PM
@ #10
Well it depends on the sect. Hare Krishna certainly does a lot of missionary works. Historically, Nichiren Buddhism also had an evangelical mind set.
Posted by: Lactate dehydrogenase | September 20, 2009 3:21 PM
Hinduism just like any other religion has its kooky elements. But with the 300 million gods and all I think it's a tad more entertaining than our stern ten commandments and stuff which gets a little boring after a while.
Posted by: Paul Burnett | September 20, 2009 3:34 PM
PZ asked: "Now I'm wondering…are there equivalent documents in India that describe how to peel American Christians away from their churches? It would be useful information to have."
Better than that, there is a Hindu "mission" in Northern California, about a hundred miles south of San Francisco. The "Pacific Cultural Center and Ashtanga Yoga Institute" (
http://www.pacificcultural.org/ ), dedicated to the Hindu god Hanuman and blessed by the presence of the guru Baba Hari Dass ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Hari_Dass ), they even run a school for the local heathens, the Mount Madonna School ( http://mountmadonnaschool.org ).
And just down the road there's a Buddhist mission...
Posted by: sikiş | September 20, 2009 3:37 PM
The faster respondents were significantly less accurate than slower ones. In many studies measuring reaction times, it's important to see if there's a trade-off between speed an accuracy. Often if such a trade-off exists, it nullifies the study results. In this case, that's clearly part of what's going on.
Posted by: Ram | September 20, 2009 3:51 PM
People of the west dont understand hinduism. There are four pillars of Hinduism 1)Dharma - living according to the dictates of Dharma or universal non sectarian principles 2) Artha - Wealth; hinduism doesnt reject wealth. Note it is second pillar and not the first one. 3) Kaama - Desires (sexual and non sexual) 4) Moksha - Realization of ultimate truth.
Hinduism and Buddism say Kaama or desires leads to suffering. They talk about controling the desires. There are different ways to control desires. One way is abstaining. Second is by controling the mind. Third is by enjoying the desires to a level where mind doesnt see it as a kaama anymore and develops detachment.
Moksha or realization of ultimate truth is the fourth pillar not the first one. How can you say the ultimate truth is god when you have not realized? Some start realization of ultimate truth with a belief in one god and some with many gods and some with no god. Hinduism doesnt force you to adopt a method. Belief in god is promoted by Bhakti Marga or Devotion Path. The non belief in god is promoted by Gnyana Marga or Knowledge Path. Bhakti marga has led to many superstitions. I am a Hindu of Gnyana Marga. I dont believe in god. I will not until there is a proof for that. The only way to realize the ultimate truth is by gaining knowledge. Everything in this universe can be explained beautifully by reason and knowledge. Both margas co-exist peacefully in hindu dharma. How can I say the other is wrong and doesnt have right to practice it when I havent realized the ultimate truth. This is one of the reasons for tolerance in hindu dharma. The other reason for tolerance is the practice of ahimsa or non violence. Even when I have realized the ultimate truth, i cannot stop the other from practicing their beliefs because of the belief in ahimsa and sadbhavana.
Posted by: BobbyEarle | September 20, 2009 4:06 PM
detrius @9...
That sounds like the Borg.
Posted by: Enkidu | September 20, 2009 4:16 PM
I wonder . . . is this program like barber college, where students have to bring in people with long hair to practice on?
Posted by: Ram | September 20, 2009 4:17 PM
I grew up in a family that was both conservative and liberal. My mom's side is conservative and my dad's side very liberal.
My grandmother once asked me if "Telling a lie was a sin"? I was a just 16 years old then. I told her it is a sin to lie. Then she told me the following story
"Once there lived a saint in a forest practicing meditation. A lady escaping bad guys comes to the saint and tells him that she is going to hide behind a rock and pleads him to help her. She goes and hides behind a rock. The bad guys come to the saint. The saint has never lied in his life. The bad guys ask the saint to tell them where the lady is hiding. One of the bad guy says saints never tell a lie. This also inflates the ego of the saint. Saint tells the bad guys where the lady is hiding. The bad guys go rape the lady and kill her." My grandmother stopped here and asked me if the saint would go to heaven for telling the truth". I told her the story is very confusing because all my life i was told to tell truth and also not hurt others. My grandmother then told me the saint went to hell because the saint never understood dharma. His action got a woman killed. Thru this story my grandmother told me there is nothing absolute in the universe. She told me even universe has to die. Morals are the product of the mind and they are sujective. Given a context, we have to understand a superior moral that fits the situation. Please note my grandmother never believed in heaven or hell. She used to tell me it is a state of mind. She told me if they were true then wouldnt they come to an end when universe ends? She was a liberal hindu. She believe tolerance is the hallmark of hinduism. The only way to destroy hinduism is by making it rigid.
Posted by: nobuddy | September 20, 2009 4:59 PM
Thank you for your informative and insightful comments, Ram.
This is true of xtianity, too.
Xtianity's inability to pitch a big tent will be its undoing. When the fundies published a study recently showing that young people were leaving the evangelical movement in droves because they felt that church people were hypocrites and because they felt that preaching hatred--of gays in particular--was immoral, and the fundies decided that this was a sign they should go even MORE rigid, pushing "6000 yr Earth" and other flagrant idiocies, I was cheering them on.
Destroy yourself, churches. You won't be missed.
Posted by: Walton | September 20, 2009 5:08 PM
That would certainly be a far more useful field of study...
Posted by: Recently Deprogrammed | September 20, 2009 5:09 PM
Missionaries, destroying their religion one bit of dumbassery at a time.
Posted by: MadScientist | September 20, 2009 5:10 PM
That's no use then; he simply wants to rob the upper caste hindus. He has absolutely no intention of dismantling one of the most vile religions on the planet (it has its own social structure that makes the notion of the divine right of kings look like some schoolboy's prank); he simply wants to attach the Jesus parasite.
Posted by: Alienheart | September 20, 2009 5:33 PM
Speaking as both a Militant Atheist(tm) and a web developer, may I first say: WTF!?
I tried reading it as it was, but failed. Then I tried reading it with fonts and colours turned off, but no, still I failed. But then i made the mistake of reading the html source code. Now that is headache inducing!
As this cannot be a Poe (it's simply impossible for any reasonable person(s) to create this monstrosity without going insane in the process), could someone please point him/them in the direction of the asylum, and then apply an appropriate amount of g-forces to the disk it's stored on so the rest of us can get back to our usual blaspheming ways?
Posted by: Alienheart | September 20, 2009 5:36 PM
Ignore my last post, it actually belongs in another thread, which you'll probably guess.
Posted by: efrique | September 20, 2009 6:58 PM
#18 Plasma:
Thank you! You have given me my new favourite word.
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM
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September 20, 2009 7:06 PM
"We are
BorgHindu. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | September 20, 2009 7:14 PM
Hah! LOL! Despite his Legalist leanings, Máo is now just another Confucian-Dàoist god. They sacrifice oranges and the like to him in temples.
(In China, gods don't need to be omnibenevolent.)
I mean, think about it. He's one of two communists worldwide to have got an afterlife. And then those blissfully unaware missionaries... LOL!
Posted by: WarrenS | September 20, 2009 8:31 PM
Re #33:
Can you imagine what a crucifix for a twenty-armed Jesus would look like?
Posted by: kamaka | September 20, 2009 9:22 PM
RAM @ 40
Thoughtful post. I would like to know more about your thoughts and knowlege about ahimsa.
Both generally and specifically about the direct killing of animals for food...not buy meat in the store, but an individual killing and butchering animals to subsist.
Posted by: jiggerhazzle
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September 21, 2009 9:54 AM
So this is strange. I know the guy that wrote this dissertation. In fact, I went to the school where he teaches (back in my believing days). He's a great guy and is actually very intelligent. He draws from his years of experience on the mission field in Africa and India to teach Mission classes. I never took his classes, but interacted with him regularly
However, I have to agree with PZ in marveling at the silliness of a PhD in Missiology. Strategic evangelism is a strange animal and seems contrary to the organic nature of Xtianity that people in the modern xtian movement are trying to espouse.
If someone truly believes and seeks to live out a belief system and in doing so affects someone close to them in a persuasive manner, I can't see anything wrong in that form of "evangelism," even if I find their beliefs ridiculous. Strategic targeting, however....well, that just kind of makes my stomach turn.
Posted by: Jeff Eyges
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September 21, 2009 5:30 PM
Of course, there's already an Indian Christianity, and has been for two millennia: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/april-24-2009/ancient-christians-in-india/2754/
Not that it would deter Dane; they aren't TRUE CHRISTIANS™.
Posted by: jiggerhazzle
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September 22, 2009 12:00 AM
Great link, Jeff. And I think your comment about Dane is spot on. The link you provided even mentioned that the Christianity of antiquity in India was deemed as "heretical" by the Portuguese missionaries in the 1500's and rooted out. Such is the pattern of any belief system seeking to root intangible gods and concepts in a literal and tangible world.
"I'm right, you're the heretic. Accept these beliefs and you won't burn in Hell."
People like Dane are happy to talk about the love of God, but there is still a very definite criteria for belief, and it will forever be at odds with groups of people claiming to worship the very same god. How strange.