That so many Americans switch Faiths during their lifetimes is not an indication of their deteriorating spiritual health. I think it is a telling commentary on the deterioration of religious practices in all religions. Instead of providing the believer with "mental peace and salvation" modern religion seems to fill people with "fear". Religion, like every other aspect of human life, is almost totally fear-based. The fear of sin, the fear of Satan, the fear of God and his wrath etc. I am reminded of the prophetic words of my grandfather uttered sometime in the 1930s when Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the leader of India"s hundreds of millions of so-called "untouchables," threatened to leave Hinduism if reforms were not implemented. The vision of converting approximately 150 million "low-caste" unfortunates lured many Christian and Muslim men of religion to India.

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Some years ago I read an article which claimed that is Jesus were to apply for a job at a university he would be rejected because he lacks all the qualifications. No degrees, nothing published and so on. As a non-Christian I am going to stick my neck out on this one. I think Jesus would be neither a Democrat nor a Republican but a Liberal. I say this because my perception of a Divine Being is one who is full of love, compassion, respect and understanding. In my view Jesus embodies all these and more.

The Democrats and the Republicans can boast of none of these positive attributes. Their politics is all about the self and power.

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The Question: E-mail: Blessing or Curse?

Depending on what one's concept of progress is, E-mail can be a blessing or a curse. Although I am guilty of using E-mail more than snail mail I think it is a curse because it has made life faster when we need to slow down and enjoy the beauty of nature and living. Life was fast enough before E-mail and now it has just got to the point when we can't move away from the screen to see anyone or enjoy nature and the family. We have no time to cultivate relationships or interact with human beings (except snipe at each other on email) and this form of isolationism only leads to more violence in human societies. There is also the other aspect. Future scholars will find no written records to piece together the history of this period. We don't write much in E-mail and we don't save them as we did letters which provided material and color to historians. E-mail has made communications faster and has ended up in more work, work, work!!

The Question: Which "ism" is more entrenched in America, sexism or racism? Which should religion address?

I think Americans are certainly more obsessed with sex and sexism and would like to forget racism. When many countries all over the world have had women as prime ministers, the United States still hesitates to elect a woman as president. It is only in the United States that we believe our president is "the Leader of the Free World" -- and only because we have a powerful army and powerful weapons of mass destruction. But in reality we have done nothing tangible to give the free world a moral or ethical direction.

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