We ordinarily think of religion as a cultural inheritance that can be forsworn only under bruising conditions of conquest and social upheaval. The mighty Inca Empire under Montezuma was bludgeoned into submission by Cortes and his Catholic warriors in the early part of the 16th century (roughly contemporaneous with the assault on Lanka by the Portuguese) as a heroic service to the Spanish King and his Christian Overlord. Rivers of blood were shed and the pitiful and broken corpses of heathenish men, women and children littered a once fair land whose only crime was to lift hands in prayer to another God. This bloody and rambunctious way of spreading the message (of the One God) is no longer feasible. However, it is no easy thing to keep marauding monotheism down and the resourcefulness of the valiant 'Soldiers of God' is amply demonstrated by the success they have achieved in moving thousands (if not millions) in Asia and elsewhere to profane that which they earlier reverenced and to effusively pay homage to a God that a short while ago appeared as the metaphysical whimsy of the power-crazed White Invader.

Let us look at two instances of successful conversion by non-lethal means - proof of the thesis that the sword of the conquistador can be beaten into a ploughshare if the occasion so warrants it. The inveiglement of the upwardly-mobile and forward-looking South Koreans to Christianity is the paradigmatic instance of power, prestige and modernity being harnessed to defeat the ancient faith. The God of Christianity rode on the back of a mythically powerful alien who promised the elect not merely goodies in heaven but immediate results in this sub-lunar world. Such things as social advancement, educational sophistication and the company of fellow-worshippers with power and influence. A restless and energetic race -such as the South Koreans - must have found these blandishments irresistible and the mass-conversion to Christianity comes as no great surprise. An important factor has been omitted in this summary analysis - the absence of a vibrant center of Buddhist Power in Korea made things easy for the proselytizer.

A second method has a broader reach than the one referred to above - not much used in South Korea but massively successful in Africa and other poor and neglected parts of the world where a helpless and hopeless citizenry implores to heaven for help. A crude form of petition-based religion is the norm in such straitened and desperate places even if the 'public religion' condemns it. Evangelizing Christianity (and, to a lesser degree, Islam) is a promissory and fideistic religion that is ideally tailored to lull the poor and disposed into the belief that the Saviour-God merely seeks acknowledgement and obedience to make available his munificence. When this wonderful offer comes from mandated agents of the Mighty White Race with the kind of power, wealth and influence that are so demonstrably evident, the lapse into apostasy is a foregone thing. For the desperately poor, religion is a saleable utility - obedience and totemic loyalty to any kind of God is given in exchange for goods and services.

It is time to look at the lamentable situation in our poor country - Sri Lanka. It is difficult to think of any other nation that has, in the course of its history, been the hapless victim of a triple assault by the forces of militant Christianity. The conquistadors from Portugal exacted baptism before cutting down their victims - in the bizarre belief that that they would be spared hell despite their hellish death. We do not know how many thousands of our kinsfolk died during the days of Portuguese terror. They were fortunate in that there were forests to run into when set upon by sword-wielding agents of the Christian God. (The doomed Aztecs occupied a salubrious and heavily urbanized plain that was swept over by horsemen of the religious apocalypse. There were no forests in which to take refuge.) This 'do or die' technique was the first way of dealing with what the conqueror would have described as a supine and pagan population. We survived this first holocaust with a great deal of luck and despite the shameless treachery of the newly converted among the native leadership.

Let us turn to the second assault. This occurs during the period of consolidation of colonial power and is best exemplified by the shenanigans of the upper class natives during the hey-day of British rule. Land owners, the new entrepreneurial class, toadies in civil administration and products of the 'status schools' found it difficult to carry on without being Christian - they converted in droves and were handsomely rewarded for their infidelity. The firstlings issuing from such conversions became ardent followers of the Christian faith and were in the vanguard of the movement to dethrone the historic standing and faith of the Sinhalayas. There is no need to remind readers that there is a replay of this sad phase of our history right now with a Christianized leadership doing what the Britisher and his native converts did a century ago.

The third assault is currently under way with the desperately poor being offered a 'barter deal' involving the offer of existential support and material goods in exchange for a repudiation of the old faith and the acceptance of the Wealthy and All-Powerful God (that has his chief representatives in far-off Western lands) as the sole succour and champion of the destitute. The power of Western Capital is so great that even Gods can be moved out by dishing out the right quantity of cash. The ethicality of this venture is not questioned by those who believe that ethical rules come out of a Guide-Book (the Bible) given by God. Those who find this explanation hilarious are appalled that this destructive work is going on in 21st century Sri Lanka that (supposedly) gives a foremost place to Buddhism by constitutional warrant. Cultural terrorism - of which a particularly heinous form is the exploitation of Third World misery for the religious aggrandizement of a wealthy lunatic fringe in the USA and South Korea - is as bad as the better advertised form that involves bombs and the brain-washed.

While nobody is being killed for refusing to worship the Christian God, there is a cancerous erosion of that which distinguishes us as a people - our language, religion and the long-established mores of a people with twenty centuries of history to buttress their claim to exclusivity in the comity of nations. That this achievement can be blown overnight by religion-besotted warriors from overseas (and their powerful local lackeys) is mind boggling. No more mind-boggling than Prabhakaran's success in routing the Sinhala forces in the North and East. Both depend on local treachery and the infusion of money from fanatics overseas.