It is disparity between belief and action which has led to the paradox of America being professedly the most Christian of the developed nations, but least so in behaviour. Have they got Jesus wrong? It appears that most believers in America "have replaced the Christianity of the Bible, with its call for deep sharing and personal sacrifice, with a competing creed," writes Bill McKibben, a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College (Harper's Magazine, August 2005). A true Christian, in Jesus' words, is one who fed the hungry, slaked the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger and visited the prisoner. America is found to be trailing behind in all these categories. Despite the Sixth Commandment, America is the most violent rich nation on earth with a murder rate four or five times that in Europe, and despite Jesus' strong declaration against divorce, America registers frequent breakdown of marriages.

There are several competing creeds; some of them are mainly occupied with "Apocalypse," declaring that "the war between America and Iraq is the gateway to the Apocalypse." In some other creeds, "the focus is on you and your individual needs. Their goal is to service consumers—not communities but individuals."

Some churches have sermons on how to raise your children, to reach your professional goals, to reduce your debts and invest your money, to cope with stress, etc., and there are bestsellers compiled by the Christian Booksellers Association, focusing on similar issues. Helpful as these are, they "somehow manage to ignore Jesus' radical and demanding focus on others." Jesus' injunction: "Love your neighbour as yourself," is a "call for nothing less than a radical, voluntary, and effective reordering of power relationships, based on the principle of love." Both Catholic and Protestant churches have been weakened—their focus being on issues like abortion, same-sex union, etc. McKibben sums up:

The dominant theologies of the moment...undercut Jesus, muffle his hard words, deaden his call, and in the end silence him....

The T.V. men, the politicians, the Christian "interest groups"...have invited us to subvert the church of Jesus even as we celebrate it. With their help we have made golden calves of ourselves—become a nation of terrified, self-obsessed idols. It works, and it may well keep working for a long time to come. When Americans hunger for selfless love and are fed only love of self, they will remain hungry, and too often hungry people just come back for more of the same.

In The Key to Theosophy, H.P.B. describes Christianity as lip-religion in practice. In the section on "Charity" she asks, how many Christians would give to the shivering and starving thief, who would steal their coat, their cloak also; or offer their right cheek to him who smites them on the left, and never think of resenting it?

We need to differentiate between Christianity and Churchianity. The rise of the church with a mass of dogmas and doctrines, rituals and ceremonies, obscured the true teachings of the Christ. "Christianity can never hope to be understood until every trace of dogmatism is swept away from it," writes H.P.B. (Esoteric Character of the Gospels). For instance, the pernicious doctrine of vicarious atonement teaches that no matter how enormous our crimes against the laws of God and of man, if the sinner believes in the self-sacrifice of Jesus for the salvation of mankind, the stain of crime will be washed away in the blood of Christ. H.P.B. observes that those who believe in it are led more "easily to the threshold of every conceivable crime." (The Key to Theosophy, pp. 220-21)

Today, adherents of almost all religions pay only lip-service to the ethics, partly because religions fail to make people see why they should be good.

People can go to macabre lengths to get a facelift. Modern women, relentlessly and ruthlessly, pursue physical perfection and the elixir of eternal youth. It may be hard to believe but it is claimed that "skin" from executed Chinese criminals was being used in lip and anti-wrinkle products sold in Europe. The skin is alleged to have been taken from inmates after they had been shot. A Chinese cosmetic company is supposed to be in secret deal with the prison authorities. Lip implants, consisting of tissues harvested from corpses in America are shockingly commonplace in London. "AlloDerm" refers to the skin culled from the corpses, it is freezer-dried human skin, minus the epidermis, and used for beautifying the lips. "What a Frankenstein's Monster the beauty industry has become!" writes Paul Bracchi (The Times of India, September 19, 2005, courtesy Daily Mail)

These days, we seem to be too much occupied with our personalities—more especially with our bodies. Our body is only an instrument used by the soul and it needs to be kept in good condition. All conditioned things are impermanent and subject to wear and tear. Men and women must learn the art of "greying gracefully." Body must follow the natural cycle of birth, decay and death. Instead of crushing out personal vanity, we go to any length to boost it. We seek to be attractive by wearing mink coats, leather jackets, leather boots, silk sarees, etc., for which we have never hesitated to kill thousands of animals. Now, we are obsessed to acquire beauty—at any cost—through cosmetics, and struggle to keep old age at bay. It is inward beauty that we must strive to acquire, by leading the life necessary, and it is sure to find its reflection in the outer garment. The beauty of form is evanescent. As someone has said: "But beauty dies, beauty vanishes, however rare, rare it be." Lord Buddha's words on body and old age, in The Dhammapada, are worth meditating upon:

Behold this painted image, this body full of sores, stuck together, sickly, and full of many thoughts devoid of permanence and stability. (Verse 147)

The splendid chariots of kings wear away; the body also comes to old age; but the virtue of the good never ages. Thus the saintly teach each other. (Verse 151)

Research involving grafting of human neural stem cells into the brains of fetal monkeys (or primates) has sparked off controversy among researchers on ethical grounds. Several questions arise: What could be the impact of such grafting on the mind of the recipient? Could such grafting help us find treatment for neurological injury and disease? Can we change the capacities of the engrafted animal in a way that leads us to reexamine its moral status? Researchers expect that Human to Non-Human Primate (NHP) grafting may produce creatures with humanlike cognitive capacities relevant to moral status. Some argue that Human/NHP grafting may not be unique in having the potential to alter the capacities of NHPs, as Chimps reared with humans also exhibit humanlike behaviour. Some researchers feel that we overestimate the difference in relevant mental capacities and moral status between Human and Non-Human Primates. The thing to see is to what extent human-NHP grafting will change mental capacities, such as, the ability to feel pleasure and pain, language, rationality and richness of relationships. To the extent these capacities are attained, that creature must be held in corresponding high moral standing and must be treated in a manner appropriate to that moral status. One more cause of concern is that these more humanlike capacities might also confer greater capacity for suffering, and that would be an added factor to worry about when these Non-Human Primates are used for research. (Science, July 15, 2005)

What is it that distinguishes a man from an animal? It is self-consciousness and the power to think and choose. These arise from the mind. "Without this quickening spirit, or human Mind or soul, there would be no difference between man and beast; as there is none, in fact, between animals with respect to their actions" (S.D., II, 513). Ordinarily, the mind is considered to be immaterial. Or, it is taken to be the "name for the action of the brain in evolving thought." Thus, it is believed that if there is no brain, there can be no mind. But, the brain is only an instrument of the mind. Where did mind come from? Theosophy teaches that there was a point in the course of evolution, when man in form was devoid of mind. However, he had developed a brain that was of much better and deeper capacity than that of any other animal, only at that point, man was given the light of mind by Divine Beings—Manasaputras—in a manner comparable to one candle lighting many. As a result, man was endowed with self-consciousness and with the power to think and choose.

Can an improved quality of brain endow an animal with humanlike consciousness and cognitive capacities, such as, "the ability to feel pleasure and pain [like human beings], language, rationality and richness of relationships"? It is mind that affects the quality of the brain and not vice versa. Mr. Judge writes: "The depth and variety of the brain convolutions in man are caused by the presence of Manas, and are not the cause of mind." (The Ocean of Theosophy, p. 62)

Language implies speech, and regarding speech Theosophy asserts that "a human brain is necessary for human speech. And figures relating to the size of the respective brains of man and ape show how deep is the gulf which separates the two." It has been observed that the brain of the largest ape, the gorilla, measures only about 30.51 cubic inches; the average brain even of the Australian natives—one of the least developed races—measures about 99.35 cubic inches. Thus the brain-size of an ape is not even half the size of the brain of the new-born child. (S.D., II, 661)

The absolute balance of Give and Take, the doctrine that every thing has its price; and if that price is not paid, not that thing, but something else, is obtained, and that it is impossible to get any thing without its price,—this doctrine is not less sublime in the columns of a ledger than in the budgets of states, in the laws of light and darkness, in all the action and reaction of nature.

—Emerson