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he-man : What @
Contrarian is saying is that you have no right to decide how other people spend their private money. If they want to build a temple with it instead of a school, that's their right. But govt money shoud only be used for tangible public welfare, not to propogate any religion.
That being said, @
Contrarian, you should realize that everybody has a right to their opinion, as long as they don't seek to impose it by force. If he-man thinks it is wasteful, he has every right to say so. He does not have a right to demand that it should be banned by law. I'm not sure, but from what I read he only gave his opinion that the money can be used in other ways that benefit people more. If he was suggesting that the govt should stop them from building a temple, he is wrong. The govt should neither promote any religion nor prohibit it.
To sum it up: If it is my money, I would rather see a school or a hospital built with it, than a grand temple. I would give this opinion to any rich person who wants to do some social service with his or her money. But ultimately of course it is for that person to decide how to use his money. In this case, it's the devotees' money being used by ISKON, and if they don't agree to building a temple, then they can stop donating to ISKON. But ISKON has every right to build whatever they want with money that was given to them volunatarily. And this goes for mosques and gurudwaras and anything else.
