The much hyped selection of the Pope heralded by white smoke obscures the divisional fires in the Catholic Church and obscures the reality of politics that has dominated the Church since its inception, best exemplified by Popes who sold pardons to enrich themselves, had illegitimate sexual relations and children and manipulated their spiritual authority to be king-makers and urged ignorant common zealots to participate in the genocide and atrocities of the Crusades. The last Pope manacled by outdated doctrines rejected married priests, ordaining women, contraceptive use and even condoms to prevent AIDS. The irony is that he and the princes of the church live in regal splendor and condemned liberation theology while sweeping under the rug homosexual abuse by priests. In America, the Catholic Church is often a sanctuary for a cabal of closet homosexuals to indulge in perversion to the detriment of their flock, while masquerading under the camouflage of divine cloaks. In the third world, the church is notorious for bribing the poor to achieve conversion by unethical means and as always has been the fifth columnist for colonizing propaganda as history bears out. This is not to take away the fanatic dedication of many devout missionaries who out of their fanatic, illogical but genuine beliefs, have sacrificed their lives to succor the poor in the Darwinist third world. It is about time that the third world with its poverty, susceptible to such religious exploitation compounded by its discriminatory practices towards their downtrodden and oppressively exploited castes, wakes up to the potential of divisive manipulation of freedom of religion to create a subversive traitorous fifth column under the guise of the umbrella of freedom of religion, which is nothing but a newer strategy for neo-colonialism.

Christianity, while a truly decent religion, has never been practiced by the West, as its sordid history of colonialism and slavery proves. On the other hand civilizing the heathens has been a pretext for economic exploitation and manipulative subjugation throughout the history of European colonization. China is to be lauded for rejecting the hierarchical domination of corrupt political popes by insisting on the independence of its church and India should sever this last bastion of servitude, to avoid being condemned to a repeat of its dismal history. The Pope is nothing but a political animal pretending holiness with the hidden purpose of spreading Christianity to maintain the hegemony of the Christian West. It is difficult to blame the oppressed and poor untouchables of India or the deprived of Indonesia, but the example of East Timor and the ferment in Northeastern India should serve as a wake-up call for the proverbially stupid Indian power elite who can barely see beyond their corrupt noses, the next election and their privileged undeserving existence. The reform and enlightenment of Hinduism from its orthodox prejudices is essential for the security and salvation of the nation, more than emotional appeals for Ram Mandirs. The retarded ineducable Hindus have not learnt any lesson from the appeal of Jainism, Buddhism, Arya and Brahmo Samaj, that posed ancient and recent challenges against oppression by ritual and caste, with privileged exploitation by the priests chanting monopolistic mumbo-jumbo.

It is the nature of the ignorant, oppressed, uneducated and destitute hungry, to succumb to the lure of instant monetary reward or gratification by the bribery of food and other necessities for survival. This is the primary lure of Christianity and Islam, both subversive to national unity in an otherwise uneducated, unsophisticated, and politically naive, but very susceptible to superstition, astrology and religiously gullible populace. It is not by superiority of intellectual sophistication or logically rational arguments that conversion is accomplished over a free thinking group of individuals. Their poverty and need are catered to by exploiting their gullibility, ignorance and desperation. It is then, the nature of the converted to hide and suppress the real reasons and for the sake of achieving respect and respectability from their progeny, and to espouse their adopted religion with even greater devoutness and fervency, thus propagating fanatic and irrational believers as our experience with Islam should make us aware. Until we achieve the essential goal of providing economic security for our teeming masses, it is sheer folly to leave them exposed and unprotected against the subversive manipulation of the Western religions and Islam, with arrogant certainty, rich purses and scientific ignorance. All religions are opiates for the masses and means of exploitation as well seeds of future murderous conflicts. The dilemma of freedom needs to be balanced by taking away the monetary resources of these crooked preachers without restricting their freedom to preach and by countering their propaganda by genuine altruistic charity and concern by the native Hindu, Jain and Buddhist organizations with reform of our prejudices.

Religion and language are two factors that can prove to be insurmountable divisive wedges even between a single ethnic group, as our experience with Pakistan and Bangladesh should alert us to. Other examples abound in Ireland, the Balkans, Belgium, Indonesia and current Iraq. Another oft neglected entity is marked economic disparity, a malady prevalent in India. The history of the French and Russian revolution and the current problems of China and the future problems of America should alert the wise to avoid that pitfall, but India and its self-serving leaders are notorious unable to read the handwriting on the wall. The docile nature and apathy of the Indian masses with their subjugating attitudes based on Karma and the punitive theory of rebirth to atone for past sins, is rapidly losing its grip on the mind of the common masses as the rising rate of criminal behavior in Bihar and the former UP bear out. No democracy can be maintained in the long run where the majority is no large middle class and have-nots have no hope of fulfilling their rising expectations. The Indian electorate may be naive and unsophisticated, but those who bank on its persistent stupidity and ignorance are even more naive, as the persistent voting for communists in West Bengal and Kerala prove.