1. Unless we subscribe to the naive belief that governments do not engage in acts of terror against their own citizens, let alone the civilians populations of other nations, the one-sided use of terrorism by the world's media is baffling. Violent actions by the Israeli army or Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians are never described as "terrorist," but the term is routinely used in large sections of the Western media for violent acts undertaken against Israelis. Surely journalistic integrity requires that the term terrorism should either be dropped for its vagueness or be used evenhandedly to embrace all organized acts of terror, including those by government. The term militants, guerrilla or insurgent do not carry the same connotations of evil that terrorism does; and hence the hijacking of that term by governments who want to scapegoat those who challenge their legitimacy. ( p. 41)
2. So, a morally and culturally "neutral" state which makes no moral demand on its citizens and is equally hospitable to all cultures and conceptions of the good is logically incoherent and practically impossible. And since every law coerces those not sharing its underlying values, a morally and culturally noncoercive state is a fantasy. Openly recognizing this fact is the first step forward in reconfiguring the nature of politics in any pluralist society. ( p. 143)
2. We all have what has come to be called our cultural blind spots. However rich it might be, no single culture embodies all that is valuable in human life and develops the full range of human possibilities. Only when I am deeply exposed to another cultural tradition and community do I become aware of my own; my imagination is stretched as I am forced to rethink my own in the light of the another way of life, and I come to cherish wha this good and challenge what is bad or ugly. (p. 145)
3. Why are North American or British or German theologies never named as such, but Indian or Latin American or African theologies are? Western theologies are simply assumed to be universal, but non-Western theologies are "contextual." The insularity of most Western theological institutions is astonishing... The only situation in which the typical theology student is likely to learn about other cultures, histories and religious is if he were to follow a course on missiology. In the more academic faculties, these courses do not exist. And in most missiology courses Asians religions are taught in an Orientalist style. Moreover, where chairs of mission or missiology have been established, these studies have become isolated from other parts of the theological task. They became what David Bosch calls " the theological institution's 'department of foreign affairs,' dealing with the exotic but at the same time the peripherical." ( p. 259)
NB: These quotes are from Sri Lankan thinker and social activist Vinoth Ramachandra's Subverting Global Myths: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping our World, published in 2008 by Inter Varsity Press, US. To my friends, I wish to suggest that you purchase the book and read it because it is so good. If you don't have money, sell your coat and get this book!
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