Christians in the West outsourcing prayers to India

[dArKeR]

THE OBSERVER , LONDON

The marketing slogan conjured up by Kerala Tourism -- "God's Own Country" -- is proving surprisingly apt now that this picture postcard Indian state, famous for its lush palms and coastline, is becoming a spiritual outsourcing center.

Christians in the US and Europe -- fed up with waiting because of a shortage of priests locally -- are increasingly sending their requests for special prayers or requiem masses to Indian priests who have time to conduct them, albeit in the local language of Malayalam and thousands of kilometers from home.

Those in the know have always said there is no limit to outsourcing, so why restrict the work being sent to India to benefit from its low-cost and abundant skilled labor to mundane matters such as credit card inquiries, rail information and airline ticket processing?

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/06/25/2003176435

[darkstar]

1. I thought sure this was gonna be The Onion.

Oh well. This mad, mod world we live in goes round and round.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. It makes a weird sense

after all, didn't the Buddhists mechanise prayer hundreds (or thousands?) of years ago with prayer wheels? ;-)

[readmylips]

3. Yeah, you got Rev. Chuppa and Himmi Hanna....

whatever their names are...The religion of these countries do not allow them to get super rich, but western christianity does. Which way are you gonna go? Follow the money, of course.

[Bridget Burke]

5. My, my, they have funny names! How cute of you to notice.

Quite a few people manage to make their livings off all the religions in India. Christianity is a minority religion but has a long history there.

Famously, Jesuit missionaries arrived in the 16th century. But there's a tradition that Thomas the Apostle founded the churches of Kerala in the first century AD. Most of these local traditions have come under the rule of Rome but retain their regional flavor.

[lumpy]

4. India was practicing faith

long before Jesus hit the headlines. It has been my belief that Jesus borrowed heavily from Eastern religions. It is possible that he was traveling in those regions explaining the lengthy gaps in his historical timeline.