The Hindu : Kerala News : `Religions need visionary leadership'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 13, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

`Religions need visionary leadership'

"The fervour for Godmen is an alarming symptom of escalating ungodliness."

VALSON THAMPU

A majority of religious leaders are not adequately educated, says the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions member in a talk with John L. Paul.

Valson Thampu, member, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, prefers to call a spade a spade.

He stood out from the crowd in the positions he held - professor, preacher, social activist and writer. Leaving his job of 30 years - he quit as Head of the English Department of St. Stephen's College, New Delhi - Mr. Thampu became a priest. In Kochi recently, he spoke about the reasons for his joining priesthood.

He had all along been concerned that a majority of religious leaders were not adequately educated, Mr. Thampu said. "Generally, the least talented and enlightened people venture into priesthood in all religions," he said. "Religions need visionary leadership which is idealistic and incorruptible. I am deeply convinced that spirituality is the highest intelligence. But sadly, people develop and propagate irrational faith based on emotionalism, sensationalism and that which appeals to baser instincts."

The commission's mandate is to protect the educational rights of minorities. Minority communities had the duty to exercise the educational rights and special protection conferred on them by law, respecting the pluralist, secular and democratic ethos of the Constitution, he said.

Mr. Thampu, a native of Mavelikara, asserted that history had proven that every privilege lent itself to abuse. "This is worrisome since such likely abuses discredit and tarnish the image of the community and alienate it from other communities. The recent attempt by the Government of Kerala to curtail the rights of minority institutions through legislation found considerable sympathy from even members within minority communities."

Religion was now widely used as a means to legitimise personal selfishness and collective vested interests. People were now running around in search of Godmen and Godwomen, who with great aplomb offered quick-fix solutions to all problems. They popularised superstition and obscurantist version of religiosity that was market savvy, but inimical to the spiritual empowerment of individuals and the moral dynamism of society, he said.

The fervour for Godmen was an alarming symptom of escalating ungodliness, he added. "Religions have a common enemy in consumerist culture that corrupts the soul of people and erodes the stature of human beings. Social justice has been given the go by. People have to cross religious boundaries and work for common cause. The unholy marriage between religions and politics has to end."

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