Denominations or Abominations?
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
4 March
2023
“Like the little girl who says to a little boy, ' Are you a
Presbyterian?’ And he says, ' No, we belong to another abomination. "
Anthony de Mello
Yes, this
little boy's Freudian slip is indeed worth pondering over. All denominations in
all man-made faiths are abominations.
Recently, I
attended a Buddhist wedding in Poona. You may be aware that Maharashtra has a
sizeable population of neo-Buddhists (Ambedkarites) who follow Dr Bhim Rao
Ambedkar who embraced Buddhism in the 50s along with scores of Dalits. Sad to
say, the Ambedkarite neo-Buddhism is a rather new sect or denomination which
doesn't clearly fall under Heenyana/Mahayana sects (the primary and
principal divisions) of Buddhism.
Now, this
fluid abomination (sorry, denomination) of Buddhism is on the verge of getting
split into one more quasi-abomination and the reason will make you laugh and
also feel sad for idiocy of faithfuls.
Earlier,
neo-Buddhists placed Buddha's statue juxtaposed with the picture of Ambedkar.
That was opposed by some and Ambedkar's picture or statue began to be placed
below Buddha's statute. Hard-core Ambedkarites felt slighted and placed Dr
Bhimrao above Buddha. So, now there're three (unwritten) denominations: one,
placing Buddha and Ambedkar together/ Buddha above, Ambedkar below/ Ambedkar
above, Buddha below. Though denominational declaration (Parimapan in
Pali) hasn't been made, it's very likely to happen erelong.
Hinduism
which ridiculously calls itself Sanatan also has broad divisions like Shaivites/Vaishnavites
and Lingayats, the last one recently getting the status of an
independent religion! Its obnoxious and byzantine caste system has religious
tone and spirit.
I don't
want to get into the innumerable sects and denominations of all three Semitic
faiths. It's a well-known fact. Recently, Mr Naseer tried to integrate all the Firqas
of Islam into a seamless and coherent Islam. However noble the idea may be,
it's impossible to implement. In other words, it's an eternal pipe-dream.
The irony
is, religion itself is a useless thing which lost its utility centuries ago and
with its abominable denominations, the whole business of faith and divinity has
gone haywire.
Dutch
professor of religions Wayne Derkblone wrote a book, “How denominations come
into existence" (I read it in Dutch). He argued that humans are never
happy with an existing system of broad scale unity. Humans may be social
animals preferring to be gregarious and living in groups but it's always
(different and dissenting) groups ready to split from a bigger group to form a
homogeneous group. In other words, the concept of pan-humanism or global
humanity is still alien to most of us. Ergo, a religion always gets relegated
to numerous units and sub-units; denominations and sub-denominations.
It's, therefore, time for humans to try to
evolve so that even if religions persist, denominations should peter out. Alas,
it's easier said than done.
-------
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/denominations-abominations/d/129246
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