Bill Tammeus ( email : wtammeus@gmail.com ) is an American who had come with his father, an agricultural expert, to India in 1957-58 with his family, and was my classmate in my school, the Boys High School, Allahabad. He then went back with his family to America, and became a journalist in the Kansas City Star ( the newspaper for which the great American writer Ernest Hemingway once worked ).
Bill, now 78, has since then retired, and spends his time doing various social work, including preaching in his Presbyterian Church.
He has sent me his recent speech, in which he has referred to me briefly towards the end ( from 19 minutes 38 seconds onwards ).
I sent him my response :
” Reverend
Thank you for quoting me in your speech.
However, you said right in the beginning ” All sin comes down to idolatry ”.
This remark would offend most Hindus ( and there are about 1200 million of them ) who believe and worship numerous gods.
What is wrong in idolatry, and how do you equate it with sin ? Can an idolater not be a good man so long as he does no harm to anyone ? Does he cut off anyone’s head or chop off anyone’s limbs by believing and worshipping many gods ?
With respect, I think ur remark is silly
Markandey
Bill responded :
” Your Justiceness:
Idolatry means worshipping someone who — or something that — is not God. The first of the Ten Commandments says, in the old language, “Thou shall have no other gods before me.”
If you worship other beings or other things, you have cut off your relationship with God.
Hindus who pay homage to clay idols are not exactly worshipping those idols. Rather, they are using them as a pathway to God. Something similar goes on with all the iconography found in Eastern Orthodox Christian churches.
One doesn’t worship the icons. Rather, they are a window through which one may get a better view of God. And although some fundamentalist Christians seem to worship the Bible, the Bible is not to be worshipped. Rather, it is to be seen as a means by which God is revealed.
So once more we have something theological about which to argue. Good.
Cheers,