Show us Your Saffron Stuff!
This warms my heart.
In preparation for an upcoming Saffron Cross event, hostess Sheryl Scrimsher crafted this quiz for the guests! Thanks, Sheryl!
There is truly no better feeling as a writer than to see folks be excited about this story.
Take the quiz, share, and let us know how you do in the comments! Happy weekend, y’all.
SHOW US YOUR SAFFRON STUFF!!
If you’ve already read Dana’s book, answer these questions and win a prize for your table!
1. What 2 things did Dana miss most on her honeymoon?
2. Where did Dana and Fred go for their honeymoon?
3. What feat (Hindu-style) does Fred perform in the bathroom?
4. Dana arose, on her honeymoon, at ____am to meditate. Circle the statement below that accurately describes her meditative experience:
a. ethereal and comfy (‘cuz California was having a heat wave)
b. dark, cold, sitting on a hard stone floor
c. a small group “split” and “meditated” together at Starbucks
5. What sport is Dana addicted to watching on TV?
6. Devout Hindus reflect on how particular foods affect our minds when we eat it. The Bhagavad Gita categorizes food into 3 categories. Circle them in the line below:
intelligence energy ignorance flatulence goodness passion
7. Fred has endearing names for Dana. Circle below the one that appeared in Dana’s book.
“my little grasshopper” “poopsy-woopsy” “kitten”
8. Early in their marriage, Fred and Dana joined a class at Binkley that was called the _________________________________.
9. A CULTURE CLASH IN CALIFORNIA: Riding down the mountain through Redwood Park, Dana wanted to befriend her escorts, the monks [the VEGETARIAN monks]. She asked them if they’d ever heard of. . .
fatback grits Chapel Hill toffee Carolina BBQ
10. Who published Dana’s book?_____________________________
11. When Fred proposed (on his knees!), he opened a box and
showed Dana her ring, what did she say?
Hi Dana,
Firstly I’d like to congratulate you on your marriage and book launch.
After reading your blog, what I thought was a ground breaking and beautiful union turns out to be disappointing and saddening. I feel you are basically patronizing Fred and his belief so that you may convert him to christianity one day. You married him for what he is and that’s it. You introduced a more deceptive way of conversion.
In your entire blog all I read is about Jesus, Church, Lent, Christian festivals, Biblical scriptures. Very few post on Hinduism, 1 Vedic hymn, nothing on Vedic philosophy.
There’s even a pic of you and him reading the bible, no Vedic scriptures. Not even the Bhagavad Gita which you claim to have studied in Theology school. Your views are biased.
The whole blog is about you and yr faith. Even though u go to temple, take part in service and travel to India what you’re doing is to patronize his faith to keep him happy but without any positive view.
You even mention apathy in his Vedic rituals and incorrectly dated Hinduism to 2500 BC which is what Christian missionaries and academics did hundreds of years ago to damage Hinduism, just ask Fred. 100 over million Hindus were massacred and 125 000 temples were destroyed by Islamic and Christian inquisition, this carries on till today. I bet they din teach you that in Seminary school instead they white washed history and covered up all the wrong doings. Just look at what christian missionaries are doing in India, portion of the funding comes from Baptist churches and people like yrself who see the world through christian lens.
To sum it up this interfaith is more one sided. You’re lucky to have Fred as a husband who could tolerate all that I wrote about and still love you. Interfaith can only be possible within Eastern religions and not with Western religions. If you have kids they’ll probably become christians thanks to yr bias views.
Pls do not attempt to blog anything about Hinduism after this message as it may seem to be hypocrisy on your part. Do not force yrself to do something you don’t wanna do, it must come from within.
Truth is something not all can accept, so if you choose to not publish my comment I’ll understand.
I apologize if my post has hurt you in anyway.
Agni:
I appreciate your candid thoughts on my blog content as well as my interfaith marriage.
You’re certainly correct–I’m very biased! Much of what I write about is Christian-centric. That’s intentional: I want to convey that one does not have to give up one’s tradition in order to be enriched/affected by another’s view of God. While it’s clear you’ve read my posts (thank you!), I unpack more of the Vedic/Hindu influences on my Christian walk in my book, SAFFRON CROSS.
As for my “patronizing Fred and his belief so that I may convert him one day,” you’re half-way right. 🙂 Early in the book, I talk about my plans to try and baptize (!) him. I also state in the book that this was “my first failed attempt at interfaith understanding.” I’ll let Fred speak to his own experience as to whether he finds me still seeking to convert him.
Thanks again for posting your views. I appreciate differing perspectives and am humbled by your comments.
Deep peace to you and yours,
Dana
Hi Dana,
thanks for responding. I think I came out too strongly with my views earlier.
Sure, it’ll be nice to hear Fred’s view. Having said that did u have a Hindu wedding??
Agni:
I certainly understand and appreciate your views–and am grateful you shared them.
I’m encouraging Fred to respond. His schedule is quite busy right now, but I know he’ll write when he can.
Per our wedding, we had a Christian ceremony in our progressive Baptist church and a Indian honeymoon at an ashrama in Vrindavan, India. Fred’s guru doesn’t officiate at weddings, so we agreed to divide the nuptials into two phases to represent both of our traditions.
The Baptist ceremony was lovely, as was the two weeks in Vrindavan. It was in India that I truly began to understand and accept Hinduism. Fred knew it was important journey for me; it offered me to immerse myself into the “roots” of his faith.
Are you a practicing Hindu?
With gratitude,
Dana
Dear Dana,
Thanks for understanding my initial views, it’s actually quite strange as right after after my first post I realized where you were coming from in your blog post. It dawn upon me that in an interfaith marriage one cannot simply be constantly singing praises of another faith besides ur own. Rather it should be done in view of yr own to show common grounds as yr posts did. I am so sorry for my very strong and unfair views earlier, truly even a little bit of anger can affects ones thinking ability.
I saw the post by Amba on Saffron Cross at Patheos, it mentioned that you wrote quite a bit on Hinduism and how positively it changed yr view. That was another episode which made me realise the reason for yr blog post, how silly of me!!
It’s okay I understand both of you are occupied with work so take ur time in responding :-))
Yes I am a practicing Hindu Vaishnava. I saw yr wedding pics, it was lovely, especially you!
How did you find yr Indian honeymoon at the ashram? I saw the pics where Fred fed the cows. Most ppl usually mock our practice and even pass derogatory comments like “”we worship their food””. !!
I have been to Vrindavan as well in 2010, it was the most spiritual trip I ever made. My next trip would be too Ayodhya the birth place Lord Rama. It’s a bit dangerous as there are constant communal riots between Hindus and Muslims, the site where the mosques stands actually belongs to the temple of Lord Rama which the Muslims destroyed hundreds of years ago.
I understand that you completed a masters in divinity from Duke, do they cover world religions as well??
Peace and blessings!
Agni