"In places like New York and California, hardly anyone attends the church".
The above is completely untrue. I live in New York and I know it. If you look at America, the fact is people are turning more and more to religion, which is mostly some extreme form of Christianity. In New York, churches are overflowing with worshippers, from St. Patrick in Manhattan to St. Micheal's in Flushing. Black's and Hispanics have taken to the evangelical Christianity in big way and small worship places, store front churches, mostly managed by individuals, are opening at street corners. This phenomenon was recently explored in NY Times. Islam is kept at a distance, despite contrary claims, and Hinduism is being more and more being looked upon as exotic, something like Madame Blavistky's cult of the 1920s. Americans still do not know what the great Hinduism is all about. Only negative characters like David Frawly, Money Hungry Yogis, and despicable commercial minded Yoga experts are all that they know about.
We have ourlselves to blame for this, because the type of Hindusim now being imported here is the exotic veriety, associated with Yoga, ritualistic Mediation, and alternate living, the kind of exotic stuff which can never get into the mainstream, but remain fads.
The ritualism and casteism aslo plays a negative role. Characters like Modi, and their doings are the worst advertisement for Hinduism in America. People like Ram Madhav come to America and give hinduism a bad
