Samantha – Naga Chaitanya Divorce: the tragedy of Christian – Hindu marriages

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   Today’s question Samantha and Naga Chaitanya got divorced. What is your opinion? 

Good question. The sad spectacle of Hindu-Christian weddings are all around us. Samantha, a Christian girl marries Naga Chaitanya, a Hindu guy. Nick Jonas, a Christian guy, marries Priyanka Chopra, a Hindu girl. In today’s episode, let us focus on Samantha. 

Samantha and Naga Chaitanya announced their divorce. For starters, let me introduce these two individuals. Both are film stars from South India. Samantha was born in a Christian home. She became a film star. She acted in many hit movies in different languages of India. Naga Chaitanya was born in a Hindu family. His grandfather Akkineni Nageswara Rao was a famous Telugu actor and his dad Nagarjuna is also a famous movie star. 

     Samantha and Naga Chaitanya acted in a movie titled Ye Maya Chesaave. In the movie she acted as a Christian young woman and Naga Chaitanya as a Hindu young man. In the movie, the Hindu guy goes into the church, sits among the worshipers to flirt with the Christian girl. That makes a great entertaining movie. Right? 

    Can you imagine a movie in which a Christian guy goes to the Hindu temple, flirts with a Hindu girl, convinces her of his love and marries her? No one dares to make such a movie and if one is made that becomes hugely controversial and Hindu right would call for banning the movie and harass Christians in the name of ‘love Jihad, Christian style’. ‘This is love jihad, Christian style. How dare a Christian guy come to the Hindu temple and flirt with a Hindu girl?. But for a Hindu guy sitting among serious worshippers in a church and flirting with a Christian girl? No problem, that is acceptable. Such blatant double standards are rampant in our film industry. 

  Anyway, in this movie, Hindu Karteek flirts with Christian Jesse, they fall in love and get married. The film story becomes a real life romance between Samantha and Naga Chaitanya. While working on the sets of this movie, they started dating and after a few years they got married. In 2017, they had a destination wedding – one day a Hindu ceremony and next day a Christian ceremony. The imaginary tale of their movie became a real life romantic story. Both have millions of admirers. Now, to the utter dismay of everyone, they announced the termination of marriage. 

     Every divorce is a sad spectacle and a heart breaking event. God hates divorce. Till death is part – when we say those words. They are profound and serious. It is tragic that we don’t mind breaking those words to end our marriages. But that’s not God’s will. God’s intention is to keep one man and one woman in one marriage throughout their lifetime. 

    First of all, I don’t know the reasons that led to their divorce, but looking back on her life, marriage and divorce, we can learn some lessons. 

1. Don’t even go into the movie industry: when you see talents in you, the temptation can be strong. I can act, I can direct, I can sing, I can play music, I can edit, I can write great stories and scripts…. Satan says, come to Bollywood and Hollywood, I need you here in my service. But that is Satan’s will for your life, not God’s will. God’s will for your life is to spend every day in the service of Jesus. Samantha quotes Jesus, God and Bible here and there, but her life as a whole took a wrong direction when she entered into movie industry. Her parents gave her a good Christian name, taught her basic teachings of Christianity and sent her to a good school. Then Satan enters. That’s a good lesson for all Christian young men and women. Don’t fall for Satan and go to Bollywood or Hollywood or any wood. It will burn like chaff when God evaluates your life. 

Samantha’s mom says, ‘Samantha showed great performances in this movie. My child. May God bless your movie and make it a blockbuster’. She encouraged her daughter with such false piety. God is not going to bless a movie. That is all part of this perishing world. 

   Samantha has been using her God given body to provoke carnal desires in her followers or viewers. God can not bless such activities. 

2. Dont marry a Hindu or any other unbeliever. Marriage is an institution established by God to keep his children maintain a continuous testimony for his name generation after generation. In Genesis 24, we see Abraham searching for a wife for his son Isaac. There are plenty of young women in his neighborhood and in his town. But Abraham say, no. I want a wife from my own. If he marries Isaac to one of the girls in his neighborhood, soon we will see them worshiping a pagan god. Solomon married pagan women. What happened? Soon, he was sitting beside his wives worshiping those idols and pagan gods. The same thing happened in Samantha’s life. She decided to marry Naga Chaitanya. Just look at his name. Naga means snake god. Chaitanya means energy. Together they mean snake God’s energy. What a name for a husband! That should put a chill in your spine. You should marry someone with nice Christian names like John, Paul, Peter, Matthew, David, Immanuel etc.She had two wedding ceremonies- one Hindu and one Christian. That is absurd. You can’t reconcile Christian view of marriage with a Hindu view. If you mix Christianity and Hinduism, you are neither a true Christian nor a true Hindu. Stick to one and discard the other. They cannot co-exist in the same heart. God of the Bible cannot share your heart with other gods of this world. Jesus cannot share your heart with Krishna. 

3. Most likely, they will change you, you may not change them. Many Christians say, ‘I will marry this unbeliever and I will win him or her to Christ’. That is also a foolish strategy. Samantha grew up going to church with her family. After marrying this guy, she was going to Hindu temples to worship Hindu gods. You see her in Tirumala. You see her in Srikalahasti. You see her performing rituals before idols. In Ten Commandments, the first first commandment is I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. When you sit before an idol or fold your hands before it, you are disobeying the very first commandment of God.

Not just Hindus, marrying any unbeliever puts you in danger of breaking God’s explicit commandments. Christians should not date any Hindus or Muslims or Jews or atheists or even Christians who are not really Christians. 

     ‘My name is Peter. I was born in a Christian home’

‘My name is Mary. My parents were Christians. Well, that does not make you a Christian. You should make an individual profession of faith, receive Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord, get baptism and follow the Lord consistently and continuously. That is what make you a Christian. 

Let us hope, Samantha repents of her sins, get saved, follow the Lord and change her lifestyle at least from now onwards.