2 July 2016 (12:03 a.m.) Train to Haridwar today. Mountains of trash along the railways. Scott [a group leader] mentioned the statistic that India is 1/3 the size of the U.S. with 3x the people. I think of all those potato chip/water stands, and a billion people buying, consuming, and then tossing. As I said earlier, it’s not a lack of interest in cleanliness or sanitation, it’s just an absence of the possibility. I’ve seen this in other places, e.g. Mexico has a trash problem. The only difference between the U.S. and these countries is that we have hidden our trash in landfills, where it is not visible. It’s still trash, and it’s still there. The disposable society will dispose of humans. Felt weird in the pedicab. British Empire, Memsahib, etc. I could put a gloss on it and say we were giving some men the opportunity to make some money. And given the horrible pollution, these cabs are definitely superior. Still, humans as beasts of burden? Again, I suppose that in the U.S. the people who do the heavy lifting—such as those immigrants who work in slaughterhouses—are simply invisible. They’re still there . . . The lecture on Indian history is a good supplement to the Intro and first chapter of the textbook [by Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby]. I had also slogged through about 1/2 to 1/3 of John Key’s massive history of India (should have bought it on Kindle) and that also was reinforced by the lecture. I thought it odd that Michael [a group leader] said that the Baptist Church had no connection to water, given that the baptismal pool is front and center in the church and in the theology. I think all religions have the idea of sacred and profane (okay, that’s Mircea Eliade, but I think he’s right), though it probably isn’t articulated that way by practitioners. The Mandaeans repeatedly baptize, and though Christians do it only once, they are supposed to regularly renew their baptismal vows. Still, it’s not quite the same as getting into the water all the time, though witnessing the baptism of others might be one way of participation. Comments are closed.
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Author Rebecca Moore is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. She is currently Reviews Editor for Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions and Co-Director of The Jonestown Institute. Archives
December 2021
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