Coronavirus Outbreak Provides A Hey Day To The Sin Counters

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke 

Photo courtesy: Public Radio International

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano

Photo courtesy: dailymail.co.uk/

Evangelical pastor Rick Wiles

Photo courtesy: TruNews via nypost.com/ 

COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak is providing a centre stage to the sin counters of various religions.  These self-righteous and judging-condemning people see things in black and white -- sinfulness and holiness. There is no grey area in their sight. They have been pontificating that this pestilence outbreak is a chastisement, punishment, or retribution for sins of abortion, fornication, homosexuality, and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning) practices.  

This widespread virus attack and death in the world has levelled everything -- casteism, racism, feeling and practice of superiority and inferiority, richness and poverty, educational and intellectual pride and humbleness of illiteracy -- into a single line. 

Yet, we find that some religious leaders are shouting from the rooftops how God's severe punishment is befalling on the sinners of particular infractions. They are, as if, enjoying their hurtful pontification. 

When people are suffering so badly, when they are in anxiety, and unsure of their future earnings, this type of religious judgment and condemnation is not only pathetic but also shameful. Now is the time when suffering and anxiety-filled populace needs words of comfort, encouragement, and God's love and mercy all the more. 

It is easy to pontificate being in a comfortable and pompous position, but difficult in being in the real, hard, and suffering world. Religious leaders usually are well-trained and well-read in the teachings and practices of their religions. They easily understand and realize what is right and wrong, what verbalizations and actions go against the teachings of God. How many of the COVID-19 virus sufferers have the capacity for understanding and realizing the rightfulness or wrongfulness of their actions? 

If God really punished people for their serious sins, he would do it all the time in world history. According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Adam and Eve are the first man and woman created by God the almighty. Through the disobedience of God's command, they committed the first sin of mankind and were banished to the world from the blissful Garden of Eden. Their sin is called the Original Sin or Ancestral Sin, which gave rise to other sins of mankind. 

If God really took retribution for serious sins through natural disasters (cyclones, hurricanes, volcanoes, thunderstorms, famines, plagues, and pestilences, and man-made disasters like ethnic cleansings, murders, persecutions, revolts, wars, abductions and rapes of women, mafia and gang violence and human traffickings, usurpation of lands and properties, fornications, adulteries, and homosexualities), the world would really be depopulated by this time. The Bible speaks of God's punishment for human sins. According to the Bible description, the creation of the first human beings (Adam and Eve) occurred about five to ten thousand years ago. But in the real world, we find the existence of human beings (through skeletons and other artifacts) in different parts of the world as old as 100,000 to 300,000 years old. So, there were human beings even before Adam and Eve. Why didn't God punish the pre-Adamite peoples for their sins? Were the pre-Adamites sinless peoples?

Later in history, especially in the Middle Ages, we see how the Catholic Church and a number of its clergy in Europe and some colonies committed persecution of and injustice against apostates and heretics -- including people of other Christian denominations and religions, 'witches,' and others who did not follow Catholic Church teachings. What about the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) and the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) in Europe, the First World War (1914-1918), and the Second World War (1939-1945)? How cruel and barbarously evil methods were used in persecuting, killing and maiming of thousands and millions of people? People of other religions also had their own types of sins and injustices. Where was God in those evil times? Why didn't God chastise or punish them?

We see in the first several hundred years of its existence, married clergy were allowed in the Catholic Church. A good number of these priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes had engaged in adulteries, child sex abuses, rapes, illegally giving away church funds and properties to their children and concubines. To redress this situation, the celibate (unmarried) priesthood was introduced for unhindered and fulltime devotion and service to the Lord Jesus and his Church. That change also could not do away the normal human weaknesses and sins of the celibate priests and bishops. This has been well-proven in the last four decades when a good portion of the Catholic clergy (priests, bishops, and cardinals) were engaged in child sex abuses, bisexuality, homosexuality, heterosexuality (sexing with women or nuns, and, in a good number of cases, siring children and secretly paying church funds for their upkeep), misuse or embezzlement of church funds, and so and so forth. The cover-ups of these crimes and sins by their superiors were tantamount to participation in others' sins.  Why didn't God punish these clergy sinners en masse?    

Jesus Christ, who is believed by Christians, to be the second person of the blessed Trinity of God, himself said that sickness is not a punishment from God. We read in the Gospel of John 9:1-3: Now as Jesus was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him."

Please read the following for details on the recent COVID-19 outbreak:

Coronavirus Is a Chastisement For Sins

• Assessing the Pope's responsibility in the chastisement of coronavirus (March 31, 2020)
• One of Trump's Favorite Pastors Says, "All Natural Disasters Can Ultimately Be Traced to Sin" (March 14, 2020)
• The Coronavirus and God (March 16, 2020)
• Is the coronavirus an act of God? Faith leaders debate tough questions amid pandemic (April 2, 2020)
• Coronavirus is punishment from God, Pa. lawyer suggests; calls for statewide day of atonement (March 24, 2020)
• 'Presumptuous sins': Pennsylvania lawmaker says coronavirus is divine 'punishment' (March 25, 2020)
• Coronavirus is Punishment for 'LGBT Sin,' Says Far-Right Pastor (March 6, 2020)
• Religious conservatives are blaming gay people for coronavirus (March 12, 2020)
• COVID-19 pandemic: The world's religions and coronavirus (March 16, 2020)
• Rabbi: Coronavirus 'divine retribution' for gay pride parades (March 2020)
• Islamic Scholar Who Called Coronavirus 'Act of Allah' Gets Infected (March 9, 2020)
• Why coronavirus is a punishment from God that should lead to repentance (March 12, 2020)
• Conservative pastor blames coronavirus on same-sex marriage (March 20, 2020)
• 'God's punishment': Muted Nowruz in Afghanistan over coronavirus (March 2o, 2020)
• God's vengeance: the Christian right and the coronavirus (March 27, 2020)
• Natural Disasters Are Part of Original Sin (Sept 27, 2017)
• [Video] 'It's About Sin!' Hermit says coronavirus is a 'chastisement' (March 24, 2020)
• Evangelical pastor claims coronavirus is God's 'death angel' to 'purge a lot of sin' (January 29, 2020)
• Top pro-life leader: coronavirus pandemic is 'chastisement' for sin of abortion (March 24, 2020)
• Irvin Baxter Says Coronavirus Is a Warning From God About the Sin of Fornication (March 27, 2020)
• Pastor: Coronavirus is a Warning from God Because Only 5% of Brides Are Virgins (March 27, 2020)
• Conservative pastor says spread of coronavirus in synagogues is punishment from God (March 29, 2020)
• Insane End Times Preacher: Coronavirus Came About Because of Fornication (March 30, 2020)
• Kenneth Copeland: Fear of the Coronavirus 'Is Not OK -- It Is Sin' (March 11, 2020)
• Coronavirus: Sermon of Saturday March 7, 2020 at Saint-Nicolaus-du-Chardonnet (Paris) (March 16, 2020)
• The 11th Plague? Pastor Claims Coronavirus is God's Punishment for Sin (January 31, 2020)
• [Video] Pastor says coronavirus will "purge sin off our planet" (Feb. 3, 2020)

Coronavirus Is Not Punishment For Sins

• Can God Use the Coronavirus for Good? (March 19, 2020)
• WATCH: Pope Francis blames coronavirus on nature 'having a fit' over environmental damage (March 24, 2020)
• Faith leaders reject the idea that coronavirus is punishment from God for a sinful world (March 25, 2020)
• There is nothing pro-life about exploiting a pandemic to further a political agenda (April 4, 2020)
• Is the coronavirus an act of God? Faith leaders debate tough questions amid pandemic (April 5, 2020)
• No, God Did Not Send Coronavirus To Punish Us for Sin (April 2020)
• Is the Coronavirus Evil? (March 17, 2020)
• Why Zika, and Other Viruses Don't Disprove God's Goodness? (A microbiologist reflects on the problem of evil in human diseases) (August 14, 2018)

Should People Attend Church Services En Masse?

• Vatican says public will not be admitted to papal Holy Week liturgies (March 16, 2020)
• Vatican extends lockdown measures to Easter Monday (April 3, 2020)
• Vatican says general absolution may be permissible during pandemic (March 20, 2020)
• Coronavirus may cause 'grave necessity' for general absolution, Vatican says (March 20, 2020)
• Message on the Combat against the Coronavirus COVID-19 (March 21, 2020)
• Cardinal Burke says faithful should attend Mass despite coronavirus (March 24, 2020)
• Bishop Sneider: Priest don't have to obey bishops, govt who suspend Mass over COVID-19 (March 30, 2020)

Today Is the 45th Victory Day of Bangladesh

Jatiyo Smriti Shoudho (national war memorial) at Savar, Bangladesh

Artwork: Mary D'Costa (Toronto: Dec. 15, 2015)

Today is Bangladesh's 45th Victory Day. On this day we specially remember the dead, who, during Bangladesh's Liberation War in 1971, gave their lives to make the deadly struggle for independence and freedom a reality. Due to the sacrifices of these departed souls, freedom fighters, sacrificing population of the country, and foreign support, Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation. 

The people of the then East Pakistan always had to struggle against the Pakistani ruling elite (big landlords or zamindars, government bureaucrats, and military leaders, mostly belonging to West Pakistan) since the independence of Muslim-majority Pakistan in 1947. The emergence of Pakistan itself was based on lies -- the populaltions of both the wings (East and West Pakistan) would live in freedom, prosperity and peace! The promises and actions of the ruling elite were always based on lies, and, even after independence of Bangladesh, the Pakistan government spews lies about the Liberation War. They are even using their money and material to influence some foreign governments and organizations as well as their local agents in Bangladesh to disrupt the war crimes trials in Dhaka. 

To understand the reality of the Bangladesh War of Independence (also called Liberation War) and the childish lies and hoodwinking efforts of Pakistan regarding the War, please read the following series of write-ups and videos published in the online edition of The Daily Star of Dhaka: 

• Genocide plot conceived at duck shooting trip
• Genocide coolly planned, carried out
• The blueprint for massacre
• Bangladesh's Liberation War: The night of horror 
• Pakistanis tried to keep foreign journos away
• Cables of genocide  
• Partners in genocide
• A living proof of Pak army's atrocities  
• It's Pak carnage with US supply (Declassified cables show how strongly America backed Pakistan)
  
• They did everything to block trial by Bangladesh 
• Shame they hid for 28 years (Non-publication of the Hamoodor Commission Report)
• Pakistan used Nazi Killer Eichmann's argument 
• Pakistan still in denial and self-deceit 
• Pakistan lying, still 
• 195 Pak soldiers can still be tried for genocide  
• The Diplomat monk (Venerable Sangharaja Jyotipal Mohathero)
  
• Opinion: Pakistani war criminals of 1971 still free [Brigadier R. P. Singh, VSM  (Retired) of India]
• Opinion: Demanding apology from a myopic establishment (Mohammad Nurul Huda, The Daily Star columnist)
• Opinion: Between Liberation and Freedom: Reflections on the Constituent Assembly Debate (Nazmul Sultan, Ph.D. student of Political Theory, University of Chicago, USA)
• Opinion: So we really remember? (Sushmita S. Preetha, activist and journalist)
• Opinion: It is important to remember 1971 (Julian Francis, former OXFAM official in India and Bangladesh and a recipient of the Friends of Liberation War Honour from the Government of Bangladesh)
  
• Opinion: BNP-Jamaat must explain what is Hanadar Bahini (occupation forces) (Sharier Khan)
• (Opinion) Atrocities by Pakistan Army: Why so shy to mention it? (The BNP and Jamaat-e-Islam party leaders use hanadar bahini (occupation forces), shying away from saying Pakistan occupation army, Razakars, Al-Badr, and Al-Shams) (Rashidul Hasan)
• [Video] Sector Commander Shafiullah (Part 1 & 2)
• [Video] 'Intellectual killings brainchild of Pak collaborators' (Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed)
• [Video] Pakistan lying about 1971 genocide  
• [Video] Gobinda Halder: 1971 war lyricist 
• [Video] War crimes researcher Shahriar [Kabir] (Part 1)  
• [Video] Guerrilla fighter Shahzaman [Mozumder] (Part 1 & 2)
  
• Freedom in the Air (Film and video footages of 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh) 

The Arab-Israeli Conflict: the Perennial Failure of the World Nations

This is in memory of the suffering and dead on both sides of the aisle of the Arab-Israeli conflict

The above design (August 2, 2014): © Jerome D'Costa

The Present Israel-Gaza Situation:

• The Haaretz: Live Updates -- Operation Protective Edge, day 21
• BBC: News -- Middle East Conflict
• The Guardian: Gaza
• Aljazeera: Gaza Conflict

 Background and History of the Conflict:

• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Pros and Cons
• BBC: A History of the Conflict
• Gaza Timeline: From Samson and Delilah to Israeli Palestinian Fighting
• Historyteacher.net: Arab-Israeli Conflict
•  Timeline of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
• 9 questions about the Israel-Palestine conflict you were too embarrassed to ask
• Zionism
•  Zionism (Jewish nationalist movement)
• Zionism
• Why Orthodox Jews are opposed to a Zionist state?
• Behind the Balfour Declaration
• Balfour Declaration
• Balfour Declaration: How Britain Sold Palestine
• The Role of the Balfour Declaration
• U.S. Role in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Big Powers & the Arab-Israeli Conflict:

• The Arab-Israeli Conflict; Great Britain and the Creation of Israel
• How the British Created the Israel-Palestine Conflict 
• The Great Powers, the Arabs and the Israelis
•  The Middle East since the beginning of the 20th century
•  Great Power Interventions and the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967-1973

On the Palestinians:

• Palestinian People
• What is Palestine and Palestininians?
• Who are the Palestininans?
• Do Palestinians Really Exist?
• Who are the Palestininans?

On the Jews:

• Jews
• Who are the Jews?
• What Is Judaism?
• Why Do People Hate the Jews?
• Brief History of Israel and the Jewish People
• The 45 Questions Most Frequently Asked About the Jews

Today Is the 41st Independence Day of Bangladesh

The above image says: "Independence '71, 26th March"

Artwork (Toronto: March 25, 2012) © Joachim Romeo D'Costa

Today is the 41st Independence Day of Bangladesh. This day reminds its citizens how much sacrifice was made to make this country independent in 1971. 

This freedom also bestowed upon us a tremendous burden of responsibility. A responsibility encompassing all its citizens -- irrespective of ethnicity, religion and education -- to treat each other fairly and equally as much as possible in every sphere of life. 

We need to go back to the past and deeply look at different aspects of the independence movement that culminated in 1971 in a deadly warfare with the West Pakistani ruling junta and finally in the independence of Bangladesh.

This study and re-study will open our minds further and make us more introspective and mindful of our responsibilities. Then and then only will we be able to strive to take our country forward to greater peace and prosperity.

Today Is Bangladesh's 40th 'Bijoy Dibosh' (Victory Day)

The Jatiyo Smriti Shoudha (National Martyrs' 

Memorial) at Savar, Bangladesh, is the symbol 

of Bangladesh's Bijoy Dibosh (Victory Day)

Graphics (Toronto: Dec. 16, 2011) © Jerome D'Costa

Bangladesh observes its 40^th Bijoy Dibosh (Victory Day) today. Forty years ago, on this day, General Niazi, who was head of the Pakistani occupation forces in East Pakistan (later renamed Bangladesh), surrendered to the joint forces of India and Bangladesh muktijuddhas (freedom fighters). 

It is sad but true that the ideals that spurred the independence movement did not get realized fully even in the last 40 years of independence. The question of freedom, democracy (holding regular elections is only a part of democracy; real democracy also means enjoyment of rights and practice of responsibilities), political stability, the rich and poor divide, violation of the rights of the minority ethnic groups, corruption, naked nepotism, law and order situation, implementation of true justice, and economic stagnation still need to be addressed firmly. 

Bangladesh is in the middle age now. It has attained enough maturity to think for itself and work for the greatest interest and good of its people – majority people who are Muslims as well as minority peoples, who are Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, aboriginals and small ethnic groups. 

To understand the history, significance and meaning of the Bijoy Dibosh, you may read the following: 

• Bangladesh Victory Day

• Today is the Bangladesh Victory Day

• Today is the Bangladesh Bijoy Dibosh (Victory Day)

Bangladesh Victory Day

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The Jatiyo Smriti Shoudha (National War Memorial) 
at Savar, near Dhaka, on Nov. 19, 1986
(Photo © Jerome D'Costa)

Bangladesh observes its 37th Bijoy Dibosh (Victory Day) tomorrow. This victory was achieved at the cost of three million lives, about 10 million displaced persons within its borders and outside, 300,000 raped women, and over a billion dollars worth of infrastructure and property destroyed.

Independence of Pakistan

After 190 years of British rule, the Indian subcontinent won independence in August, 1947. The Hindu-majority regions became India and Muslim-majority areas Pakistan. Pakistan again was divided into East Pakistan (presently Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (presently Pakistan). These two sections of Pakistan had about 1,000 miles of Indian territory between them. This odd configuration of the country also symbolized marked differences between the two sections of Pakistan.

Differences Between the East and West Pakistanis

Except the religion of Islam, the people of East Pakistan and West Pakistan completely differed in physical structure and skin colour, food habits, dress, intellect and attitude, culture and language. There was only peripheral similarity in religion. The East Pakistani Muslims observed syncretic and more tolerant Islam, whereas the West Pakistanis observed conservative to fundamentalist Islam.

Most of the Muslim leaders, giving leadership in the independence movement against the British, were of Farsi or Urdu speaking background and they were living in northern India. After independence, they naturally moved to West Pakistan, where Farsi and Urdu were also in use to a certain extent, and formed the new central government of Pakistan. Everything was being administered and controlled from West Pakistan. From the very beginning, East Pakistan, instead of being equal with West Pakistan, was in the secondary position and was being treated almost as an "administered territory."

The State Language Crisis and the East-West Discrimination

The effort of the ruling elite to impose Urdu as the state language of Pakistan was mostly resisted by Bengali-speaking students of East Pakistan. Ultimately on February 21, 1952 police fired on protesting students in Dhaka and killed three university students and two other non-students. This incident had country-wide repercussion. On May 7, 1954 Pakistan government recognized Bengali along with Urdu as two state languages of Pakistan. The Constituent Assembly ratified it on February 26, 1956. This language movement aroused Bengalee nationalism that culminated in independence of Bangladesh.

The unceasing and unabashed exploitation -- whether political , economic, social or religious -- of East Pakistan by West Pakistan and conscious struggle for Bengali identity and cultural freedom led to deep resentment among the East Pakistani educated class. Different student movement of the decade led to mass movement in 1969 and brought about the downfall of the military ironman Ayub Khan. It also led to overwhelming victory of the Awami League under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the election of December 7, 1970. The Awami League won 160 seats out of 162 seats of the Pakistan National Assembly in East Pakistan. With this victory he became the leader of the majority party destined to lawfully form the central government of Pakistan. In this election the East Pakistani overwhelmingly gave support to the Awami League's six-point demands seeking greater regional autonomy for East Pakistan.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Deprived of His Right of Being the Prime Minister

The military elite and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the then leader of Pakistan People's Party, that received the second highest number of National Assembly seats, openly expressed their opposition to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's forming the government. In the name of negotiation for handing over the power to him, the military were heavily arming themselves in East Pakistan. The Bengalees were losing patience and there were several unhappy incidents between the Bengalees and Urdu-speaking Bihari Muslims, who, due to communal riots, had previously fled to East Pakistan as refugees from the Bihar province of India. These Biharis always supported the Urdu-speaking West Pakistani ruling class.

The War of Independence

The East Pakistanis started a country-wide non-cooperation with the existing military government. On the night of March 25, 1971, there came the deadly military crackdown in Dhaka city where thousands of unarmed people, including university students and Bengalee policemen, were killed in cold blood, many houses and shanties were burned down, and numerous others were wounded.

After receiving Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's written note on the declaration of independence, the Bengalee Major Ziaur Rahman, on March 27 declared independence of East Pakistan as the People's Republic of Bangladesh over a makeshift radio station at Kalurghat near Chittagong. The Awami League also formed the Bangladesh government in exile. Thus began the 9-month Bangladesh War of Independence. During this war about eight million inhabitants of varous religious and ethnic groups fled and took refuge in India, the country that was always on the lookout for ways to weaken its rival Pakistan. Getting this opportunity out of the blue, India took full advantage of it and provided guerrilla warfare training to thousands of East Pakistani refugee youths organized into Mukti Bahini (liberation force).

These guerrillas for a few months indiscriminately attacked Pakistani army posts in different parts of East Pakistan and almost broke down the enemy morale. Pakistan as a last resort, declared war on India on December 4, 1971, but, in face of superior Indian army aided by the Mukti Bahini, lost it with the full surrender of its forces consisting of 90,000 soldiers and paramilitary men in East Pakistan on December 16, 1971. The embattled East Pakistan emerged as the full-fledged independent nation of Bangladesh.

Pope John Paul II on an official visit to Bangladesh
pays homage at the National War Memorial at Savar on Nov. 19, 1986

(Photo © Jerome D'Costa)

War Crimes Unpunished, Reparations Still Due

After the long-awaited independence, Bangladesh started from the scratch. Under foreign pressure and influence it could not try the war criminals and until now it failed to receive due reparations for the wealth it lost to the West Pakistanis. It is ironic that Pakistan always declared its unconditional allegiance to Islam that speaks of love and justice, but it has been acting as a coward by not expressing its simple regret for its deliberately discriminatory and unjust role in East Pakistan.

Do you think that the Government of Bangladesh should actively pursue the issue of war crimes and genocide with the United Nations Human Rights Commission and related agencies?