Hindu temple "polluted" by white visitor

This story still doesn't get at the heart of the matter. It's not that Rodgier was Christian, or even American. It's that he was WHITE, or perhaps, not Indian. (An Indian American Christian could have visited with no problem and never been detected.)

In a country where millions go to bed hungry, Rs.1 million worth of food meant as holy offering at Orissa's Jagannath temple was destroyed Friday because a foreigner had entered it - an act seen as defiling the premises.

Priests at the temple in Puri, 56 km from here, also performed rituals to cleanse the shrine after Paul Rodgier, a 55-year-old American Christian, visited it Thursday afternoon.

The priests, who had stopped all the rituals of the temple since Thursday afternoon, also performed purification rituals Friday, he said. The kitchen areas of the temple were also washed thoroughly, he said.