Comments on: India: Avenging ‘Christian Elephants’?

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:21:09 +0000

Mike as far as your statement “The Hindus are right to call them ….” goes, let me clarify again, no one here is calling them or has ever called them Christian elephants, the story originated from the site of the Archdiocese of Colombo and I am pretty sure that if the facts mentioned in the said article eg: elephants attacking only non-christian homes, etc are even remotely true, a Christian source from India itself would have spread the word, or published this report, in fact the article never even mentioned any source for its findings, the commenters have found a few links to so the so called attacks, but how do we know the author is referring to the same incident ???

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:34:49 +0000

Hmm I wonder why the elephants would travel 300 km to destroy the homes in Orissa Stephan. And in 2008 Hindu groups attacked a priest and two other Christians in Uttarakhand.
http://indianchristians.in/news/content/view/2549/45/

The Hindus are right to call them Christian elephants. The elephants are saying do not persecute God’s people.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:01:08 +0000

Hi Sheree
Now I checked the links you cite to say the story is ‘absolutely true’, however such elephant attacks although not the norm, have been happening not only in Orissa but in many other Indian states (especially Southern India) as well and even before the attacks took place.
Also both the BBC website and the Save The Elephants websites say, the attack is due to their habitat shrinking and this is natural as the elephants need the space.

In fact as proof that such attacks do happen, consider this quote from the link to the BBC report you provided:-
“Last year, a rampaging elephant killed at least seven people and injured 24 others in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.”

By: Sheree Lally

Sheree Lally — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:14:56 +0000

Here are a few other links with information related to the elephants:
http://www.lukekuepfer.com/linked/mik.pdf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8243217.stm
There is also information on the “Save The Elephants” website:
savetheelephants.org

It appears that this story is absolutely true. Could it be also that, through this sign of the True God’s watchfulness over His people, that many would repent and conversions would occur? If so, we could think of this as a sign of God’s mercy and reaching out to the souls of those persecutors to make them realize how their acts appeared in the eyes of God.

By: Pastor Linda

Pastor Linda — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:17:54 +0000

I agree with what Stephen wrote. I live in India and I am a member of Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), which sends regular updates on violence against Christians and other related matter.

If this story were true, then EFI would definitely have reported on it. How is it that a person in another country would know about an incident that the local people don’t know anything about?

It’s a sensational story, but not very credible.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:50:05 +0000

For me this article is just too strange, How come a priest from the archdiocese of Colombo (in Sri Lanka, which is not even in the same country) come across this story, while nothing is mentioned about the elephant migration in the Indian media, I am an Indian and knowing the media here, trust me, these guys would never let such a humongous head line get away.
Also when I google around for Christian elephants, all the links finally end dead at the archdiocese of Colombo website, and that source does not cite any other source or references as to from where he is getting those facts.
I do not wish to question the credibility of the author of the original article here. but if this were true then there would be an alternate source or at least an official cover up trying to hide the incident, which all seem to be absent in this case.

By: Brother André Marie

Brother André Marie — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:58:38 +0000

Ed: We published this story literally in the exact words of the priest who wrote up the events, and had it published it on the website of the archdiocese which happens to be headed by an ordinary worthy of great esteem and respect for his defense of the Church’s tradition (Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don). We did not “use this story as an example of Gods vengeance,” but, in the headline, asked if it might be an example of such.

The comparison to the unnatural act of a mother murdering her child is crude and inapt. How does human prolicide resemble dumb animals inexplicably going out of their way to inflict harm and property damage on men known publicly and actively to persecute Christians?

I know of no false visionary who can claim a sign like this as proof of his legitimacy. (People sustaining retinal damage in Bosnia-Herzegovina, for instance, wouldn’t look very impressive next to this!)

By: Paul Vasilak

Paul Vasilak — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:08:57 +0000

Here is another version of the same incident.

The life of St. Francis Xavier: apostle of the Indies and Japan, page 283.

“A furious elephant contrived to escape from his menagerie and rushing through the streets created terror and confusion in all directions The saint who was walking along at the time with his whole soul absorbed in God was quite unconscious of the commotion whereupon the people screamed out aloud to warn him of his danger but he neither saw nor heard any thing Meantime the infuriated animal was close upon him and would infallibly have tossed him high into the air if our Lord had not interposed his arm the elephant stopped short and in a moment or two without any apparent cause turned off in another direction.”

By: Paul Vasilak

Paul Vasilak — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:02:22 +0000

What happens when a wild elephant crosses paths with a future Saint?

The life and letters of St. Francis Xavier, Volume 2, page 47.
“Another time he was crossing a piazza so absorbed in heavenly contemplation that he did not perceive a wild elephant running loose upon him nor hear the shouts of the people who were warning him of the danger which was only averted by the sudden turn of the animal in another direction.”

By: ED

ED — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:56:42 +0000

Im sorry to see saint Benedict Center use this story as an example of Gods vengenance , I guess we can use a mother suffocating a child as part of Gods vengenance too. Stick to important stuff this sounds like something a phony seer would use to prove God ios on their side.