The Hindus just began a sacrifice of 250,000 animals in Nepal. As you know, there are about 1 BILLION or so Hindus in India, the country where our church does the majority of its mission work. They are sacrificinng animals for a Hindu festival honoring the goddess Gadhimai.
The world's biggest animal sacrifice began in Nepal today with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival in the village of Bariyapur, near the border with India.
The event, which happens every five years, began with the decapitation of thousands of buffalo, killed in honour of Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power.
With up to a million worshippers on the roads near the festival grounds, this year's fair seems more popular than ever, despite vocal protests from animals rights groups who have called for it to be banned. "It is the traditional way, " explained 45-year old Manoj Shah, a Nepali driver who has been attending the event since he was six, "If we want anything, and we come here with an offering to the goddess, within five years all our dreams will be fulfilled."
Crowds thronged the roads and camped out in the open, wrapped in blankets against the cool mist. The festivities included a ferris wheel, fortune-telling robots and stalls broadcasting music and offering tea and sugary snacks.
As dawn broke, the fair officially opened with the sacrifice of two rats, two pigeons, a pig, a lamb and a rooster in the main temple, to cheers of "Long live Gadhimai" from spectators pushing against each other for a better view.
The article goes on to say,
Chandan Dev Chaudhary, a Hindu priest, said he was pleased with the festival's high turnout and insisted tradition had to be kept. "The goddess needs blood," he said. "Then that person can make his wishes come true."
Every time we visit, we go to the Hindu holy city of Rishikesh on the Ganges River. This city is full of temples, idols, holy men, ashrams, yoga centers, and pilgrimage sites. It reeks with incense and sacrificial prayers. Bells are constantly ringing to awaken the deities from their slumber in the thirteen story high Kailashananda Ashram on the banks of the Ganges. Westerners flock to this place to study yoga and fulfill their search for enlightenment. But, darkness is all they find.
"The goddess needs blood." This is true about every religion. Blood, sacrifice, and our offerings are required to awakent the gods and goddesses to our plight and give us good fortune. Religion tells us that we can get to God through what we do. This is the spell that the Hindus are under. But, the Bible declares this perspective to be patently false. We can never get to God, no matter what we do. Yes, blood is required because our sins are great and they require punishment. But, we are incapable of paying the punishment of our sins. A sacrifice is needed, but the blood of bulls and goats is not sufficient. We need a Perfect Sacrifice. This is who Jesus is. He was the atoning sacrifice for our sins. The full wrath of God was satisfied by the punishment that was laid upon Christ. We do not have to continue to offer sacrifices for our sins to to gain good fortune. We must only look to Christ in faith in what He did for us. His death and resurrection is sufficient.
Hebrews 9:11-15 says,
11When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. 12He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
15For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
Religion tells us how we can climb to God. True Christianity tells us that God has come to us to rescue us and make things right. We must only respond to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ in faith and repentance. We must look to Jesus. Hinduism only keeps people in perpetual bondage. Christianity sets people free. People who say that all religions are basically the same know nothing of what world religions teach. They are as fundamentally different as night is from day. As Christians, we no longer have to make sacrifices or perform rituals for salvation, but rather, we must only believe in Jesus Christ, the One that God has sent.
And for that I am truly thankful.

Maycomb, Alabama in 1932 was one of those chronically anxious Southern towns trying to emerge from the racism of its past.



