Date: December 3, 2001
From: vikramsenkaushik@yahoo.com
Buddhism and Evangelism in Srilanka
Dear Friends,
While every one focusing their minds
at the LTTE problem, we Sinhalese Buddhists are pitted against another
force as dangerous as the LTTE but only a few realize the dangers
that the Sinhalese Buddhist way of life will have to face in the
near future. Perhaps it would be correct if I said that we are in
the first phase of manipulative Christian evangelism. If we do not
counter these moves there will be mass conversions of Sinhalese Buddhist
to Christians within a decade or two once the foundations are prepared
for this purpose during the first phase that has now begun. What
happened in South Korea will be repeated here where the 80% Buddhist
population was reduced to 12% in two decades. Here is this country
they have only to reduce 69% Buddhist by another 20% and we will
no longer be living in a Sinhalese Buddhist country. Just as much
as a tree would die if its bark were destroyed, the Sinhalese race
will surely die if Buddhism is destroyed. Have you ever thought of
this reality?
After George Bush JR became the
President of the United States he made a speech in which he said
that he would no longer support the developing third world countries
through their respective governments but would channel American aid
through the American Christian Relief Organizations in these countries.
World Vision is one such organization. Based on the evidence led
at the Presidential Commission of inquiry on Non Governmental Organizations
it was proved beyond reasonable doubt that World Vision was an American
funded manipulative Christian evangelical organization, which was
surreptitiously trying to convert Sinhalese Buddhists to Christians
through a program of work that was identified as "The Mustard Seed
Project". After they were thus exposed they wound up the project and
remained dormant for several years and have now recommenced activities
with renewed vigor. They have more funds at their disposal than what
is allocated to Divisional Secretariats for poverty alleviation from
the central government. Their new projects are fifteen-year programs
of work that they commence from the pre- schools.
They first visit the pre-schools
at village level give attractive gifts to the children take photographs
of the children on the pretext of finding sponsors for them. On their
second visit they meet the parents of the children and inform them
that sponsors have been found from America for all the children and
that these sponsors will not only pay the preschool teachers but
will also help the families of these children. They next form World
Vision Societies for the parents of children in every village and
a coordinator from World Vision commences regular visits to every
village to discuss with these societies what poverty alleviation
projects they should implement at village level.
I have done a comprehensive study
of their activities in the Divisional Secretariat areas of Kebitigollewa
and Horowupotana. They are trying to make use of the innocent pre-school
teachers for their surreptitious and manipulative Christian evangelical
activity. World Vision has already conducted training courses for
these preschool teachers where they have been told that World Vision
respects all religions and as such would prefer for classes to commence
with two minutes silence respecting all religions without giving
pride of place to one religion only. This is a surreptitious method
of not only preventing the teachers but also the children from respecting
the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. That World Vision is a Christian
relief organization they have hidden from the innocent pre- school teachers.
Through the World Vision societies
at village level they are at present implementing numerous poverty
alleviation programs that include the restoration of tanks and irrigation
canals, repair of roads, construction of community centers drinking
water wells and toilets etc running into millions of rupees. Their
intentions are obvious. This is a hearts and minds operation to win
the confidence of all the village communities and to bring them to
a point that they would sincerely believe that World Vision could
do no wrong. It is at this stage that the cross will be introduced.
This is similar to their Mustard Seed project where the cross was
introduced in the ninth year after much poverty alleviation work
in villages of the Ratnapura district. The long-term intention is
to convert the community as a whole so that any objection from the
village temple could be overridden without opposition.
In one village the parents have
been requested to find suitable land for the construction a community
center for which World Vision is willing to invest Rs. One Million.
The parents have been told that once the building is completed World
Vision intends to appoint the preschool teacher to whom they are
paying a monthly salary as the caretaker of the community center.
Since it would be more convenient for the caretaker of the community
center who is also the preschool teacher to conduct preschool sessions
at the community center the parents have been requested to shift
the preschool from the temple to the proposed community center once
it is constructed. This is a surreptitious method of weaning the
children from the village temple. Once the community center is completed
the preschool teacher has also been requested to form a youth society
in the village. World Vision has promised to organize English education
classes for the benefit of the village youth free of charge on Sundays.
This is a surreptitious method of weaning the youth from the Dhaham
Pasala.
We have therefore to organize ourselves
to counter their moves. We do not have the financial resources available
to World Vision but we are self- motivated and have the will power
to fight their surreptitious methods. All we got to do is to educate
firstly the preschool teachers and secondly the villager on what
the ultimate aim of World Vision is. There is still a tremendous
will among the people in Sinhalese Buddhist villages to protect and
preserve their Sinhalese Buddhist way of life. We must exploit this
spirit of the Sinhalese Buddhist villager to establish a strong defensive
mechanism at village level against foreign funded manipulative
Christian evangelical organizations.
We must never tell the Sinhalese
villagers not to accept the poverty alleviation assistance given
by World Vision but must teach them ways and means of getting more
from World Vision without falling pray to their bait. We must educate
the Sinhalese villager on how to exploit the white man who exploited
our ancestors during the colonial period. Without doing this if we
allow their program to continue for fifteen years the preschool children
whom they intend to commence influencing now will be nineteen years
when the project reaches completion. They will then be of an age
that could influence the decision making process in the village.
As a first step in this direction
of exposing the true intentions of World Vision we conducted a successful
seminar at the Kebitigollewa Divisional Secretariat conference hall
on Saturday the 3rd of November 2001 for preschool teachers. 122
of the 150 preschool teachers invited from Horowupotana and Kebitigollewa
Divisional Secretariat areas attended this seminar. They were educated
on how to deal with World Vision that is trying to make use of them
for proselytizing activity. We advised them to eat the bait without
swallowing the hook. They established a pre-school teacher association
at the end of the seminar whose main objective is to preserve the
Sinhalese Buddhist way of life in their villages for posterity. We
hope to make this preschool teacher association one of our arms to
beat World Vision at their own game. We have now to make this preschool
teacher association financially strong with adequate welfare facilities
to negate the influence World Vision is trying to bring upon them
by paying their salaries.
At the seminar for Buddhist Monks
of Horowupotana and Kebitigollewa held after the preschool teacher
seminar that very evening, they were informed of the type of evangelical
activity that has commenced of late in their respective areas in
the name of poverty alleviation and of the threat such activity would
pose to Buddhism. We intend to mobilize the Buddhist Monks in the
village temples to educate the Sinhalese Buddhist villagers on the
true intentions of manipulative Christian evangelical organizations
such as World Vision. Some of the poorer village temples need to
be assisted as they lack the necessary resources to participate in
our efforts.
In the famous legendary story David
was able to beat Goliath. We can do the same.
Yours sincerely,
A. Amarasekera.
