@Kyu: I found a list of churches in the U.S. that do the Tridentine Mass, so I'll have to add it to my bucket list. Most of the ones in Michigan that do it are in Detroit, actually, which probably has the best Catholic architecture in the state too. But even in the D my options are limited because I don't really want to travel far from the downtown/midtown area, even on a Sunday morning
@PE: Ugh, that's just horrible. I've always known Christians are persecuted in some parts of the world, but I never hear about it in the news so I didn't know about specific cases like that. I'm surprised that the Hindi are so violent and forceful about it! I always assumed they were chill like the Buddhists. Hearing about them burning down houses, threatening to kill children, and painting bindis on crying women just paints them in a whole new light. However, I feel like there's more to the story than what's presented in news articles. I would be surprised if the British didn't force any Hindi to convert when India was under their rule, so there's probably a long history of bad blood between the two religious communities.
I don't like anyone trying to convert people, forcefully or otherwise. It's one thing to spread the word and tell people about your religion, but to badger them, coerce them, or threaten them over it is just despicable. There's this missionary organization on campus here at OU that called themselves "Crusaders for Christ". As if missionary work isn't questionable enough, they were actually referencing some of the bloodiest, most forcible conversions in Christian history? They changed their name at least, but the people I've talked to in that organization just shrug their shoulders and don't know why anyone had an issue with it. Yet
they're the ones going to indigenous communities in South America and "educating" them to leave their traditional spiritual practices and convert to Christianity. Maybe they could educate themselves a little first
I think those missionary organizations would be put to better use trying to uphold the religious rights of people who are
already Christian, and want to practice but can't.
Hopefully someday we'll realize that there is no one true religion, and as long as they aren't hateful or violent about it, everyone should be free to practice whichever religion they choose.