Emotional Leper wrote:Menolly wrote:I currently live in the same situation you describe. College town of around 100K, with student population, I think. Yes, the HKs actively proselytize, their
prashad lunches on the Plaza of the Americas draws the students in like nothing else I have seen. But they do not use the brainwashing techniques of other cults. At least not from what I've seen, and I have been to their local temple and in the private homes of practitioners.
I actually was reffering to Gainesville.
Somehow, I instinctively knew that. Cool! When were you last here?
Emotional Leper wrote:Many are the days I would see the Krishnas on the Corner of 13th and Uni, singing, and dances. And way too many times would a Krishna try to talk to me about their religion, or worse still, try to convert me, to which my universal response was something along the lines of, "Sorry, I'm a Zen Buddhist, and once you've spent enough time up to your nostrils in bullshit, you get to recognise the smell real quick. Unfortunately, Krishna's not even bullshit. It's more like stale urine."
There are two groups of HKs here around Gator Town. I readily admit the ones near campus who do the lunches and chant on corner of 13th and University are much more aggresive in their proselytizing, as they are comprised mostly of newer, gung-ho acolytes. But they don't do brainwashing techniques like other cult groups that have been in the news over the years.
The group that the administration and staff that ran Beorn's middle school comes from the actual Temple up in Alachua. That group is mostly comprised of long-term devotees and their families. Unless you go to the Temple itself, they
rarely proselytize. Alachua is a very small town, and because of the Temple a good portion of the town's population are HK devotees. But, except for the Indian dress many devotees wear, you wouldn't know it. I've run into them in grocery stores with meat in my shopping cart and have conversed with no apparent judgement in their attitude, heck, I've even gone out to eat with members from Beorn's school and after checking with them first, have ordered and consumed fish and/or beef while dining with them.
Those I have gotten to know have pretty much the same attitude as what I said above about Jewish Law versus the Law of the Land. They live in the mundane world. They change what they can and pass through the rest.
And everyone I have come to know is well intentioned with a good heart. I see no difference between their efforts at proselytizing and the more aggressive Chr-stian groups, such as the JW's or LDS when they go out witnessing. Yes, it can be an interruption to my day to be addressed by one of these, but they truly do see themselves as trying to help me, and I see no reason for me to see them as rude, intruding, or simply a
wrongness here in Gator Town. At most the conversations last a minute once they understand I have no interest, and when Hyperception gets in the mood to have fun with them, it can actually be ten minutes of intense entertainment with both parties leaving non-convinced of the other's views, but chuckling as they go their separate ways, generally after a hearty and sincere handshake.
I am sad to admit that there are times when the religious school and youth groups at my shul teaches the students to be wary of the HK, but the
P'nai Or I am occasionally involved in when my leanings towards Jewitchery must be addressed has had combined events with them. Tolerance here in Gator Town is slowly growing, and we are a fairly liberal city to begin with.
