Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Religious leaders in America have never lost an opportunity to cash in on natural disasters.   Hurricane Irma was no exception.   Televangelist Jim Bakker declared that the hurricane was God’s judgment on America.   Interestingly, Bakker was forced to resign from his religious post following a sex scandal.   He was also involved in many financial scams and scandals and even served a prison term. Bakker’s friend Pastor Rick Joyner was quick to lend support by stating that storms don’t “happen by accident.”   Another religious leader Pastor Kevin Swanson asserted that Hurricane Irma would have been altered by God if the American Supreme Court had made abortion and gay marriage illegal.   In other words, the hurricane was a punishment for abortions and gay marriages.   Preacher Rick Wiles argued that Houston was battered by the storm because of the city’s “devotion” to LGBT.   Another religious leader Ann Coulter suggested that the storm was caused by the lesbianism of th

One of the reasons why I love teaching is that I am more comfortable with the young generation than with adults.   I’m not ashamed to admit that I haven’t really grown up.   I remain young at heart.   I still nurture youthful dreams and ideals.   I still hope for a better world and believe that it is possible to create such a world, a world in which people will be more sensible and sensitive.   My cynicism belongs to the adult part of my being. The present edition of IndiSpire asks the following question:   My experience is that the young people embrace privacy out of helplessness.   It’s not that they wish to be confined to their private spaces; it’s that they don’t find people in whom they can confide fearlessly.   I have had innumerable experiences of youngsters wanting to spend time with me discussing their personal problems.   My regret has been that I couldn’t afford to give them the time they deserved.   Ravi Zacharias said in one of his books that in the

The murder of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh is yet another tremor that has shaken the pillars of democracy in India.   Two years ago, the scholarly rationalist M M Kalburgi was killed under similar circumstances.   Referring to that murder, Gauri Lankesh later said that “we are living in such times when Modi Bhakts and the Hindutva brigade welcome the killings and celebrate the deaths (as in the case of U.R. Ananthamurthy) of those who oppose their ideology”.   Today the social media is replete with celebrations of Lankesh’s murder .   Anyone who goes through the gloating comments will understand who killed the journalist and why. Gauri Lankesh dreamt of an egalitarian society in India.   That was her crime.   The right wing in the country has always been opposed to anyone who questioned what it projected as the nation’s ancient culture and tradition.   People like Gauri Lankesh decoded what passed off as “culture and tradition” and questioned its very foundation