Clash of Christian and Hindu beliefs and practices
Ramamurti looked across the room at the workers gathered around the large picture of the blue-faced Hindu god Krishna, heavily garlanded with marigolds and tinsel. He looked at the plate of food being offered to him. What should he do?
It was Friday, and Ramamurti realized that he had arrived just at the completion of weekly prayers to Krishna, the Hindu deity who was revered as the patron of the printing press. Like many businessmen in this city in South India, the printing shop owner provided money out of his pocket for employees to purchase coconuts, bananas, and sugar to offer at the weekly puja (Hinduism's worship ritual).
The print shop where Ramamurti had just arrived was doing well. The owner believed that the prosperity of his printing operation was due to divine blessings received in return for his faithful offerings to the god.
As assistant editor of a Christian magazine, Ramamurti was responsible for seeing that the publication was properly printed and came out on schedule. Today he had several urgent matters to take care of, so he had come to the print shop earlier than he usually did. Before he had realized that the puja ceremonies were still going on, Ramamurti had hurried into the room, and the press foreman, Ravi, had seen him.
As they had worked together over the past months, Ravi and Ramamurti had developed a close relationship. Ramamurti hoped to win Ravi to Christ some day. Right now, however, things seemed to be going in the opposite direction. Ramamurti's friend was pulling him toward the group receiving food that had been offered to Krishna at the little shrine in the print shop.
After they had eaten, each person had a spot of kunkumam (colored powder) placed on their foreheads. That colored spot of powder signified that they had been purified by eating the god's leftovers. Ramamurti knew that, for Hindus like Ravi, eating food which had been offered to a god was a sign of goodwill. It was somewhat like the giving/receiving of a Christmas present. But Ramamurti also knew that for orthodox Hindus, partaking of the food and applying the kunkumam were worship rituals.
While Ramamurti did not want to damage his relationship with Ravi, he also did not want to compromise his Christian witness. He vaguely remembered Paul dealing with a similar issue in one of his letters to Corinth. Ramamurti saw Ravi hold out the platter of food, and he. . .This case study as originally written by Simon P. David, appeared in Case Studies in Missions, edited by Paul and Frances Hiebert, © 1987, Baker Book House. Edited and used by permission. This case study may be reproduced only upon payment of a 35-cent per copy royalty to: Baker Book House, P.O. Box 6787, Grand Rapids, MI 49516 USA
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Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008 | Phone: 405-491-6693 - Fax: 405-491-6658
Copyright © 2000, 2001 - Last Updated: September 2, 2008 | URL: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/food.htm
