Author:
Publication: The Observer, London
Date: November 21, 2003
Controversial missionary activities
by fundamentalist Christian sects in Sri Lanka have inflamed passions among
the predominantly Buddhist population to an extent that could rebound against
older, established Christian groups such as the Catholics.
New evangelicals, often flush with
American funding and eager to spread the fundamentalist gospel in the island,
have been targeting the poorer sections of Sri Lankan society. Jehovah's
Witnesses, the Assembly of God, Southern Baptists and several others sects
have established churches in remote rural areas that have remained Buddhist
through the centuries. They distribute food, clothes and other basic essentials
and even cash to the deprived people, encouraging them to attend prayer
sessions.
This has antagonized Buddhists,
who have launched attacks on some of these churches and preachers. Many
have called for a law prohibiting "unethical" religious conversion and
demanded that evangelists set up shop in predominantly Christian, rather
than Buddhist, areas.
The zeal of the fundamentalists
has also affected Sri Lanka's established churches, especially the Roman
Catholic community, the largest and oldest Christian church, introduced
by Portuguese colonizers in 1505.
Matters came to a head last August
when Sri Lanka's Supreme Court ruled in a landmark judgement that the constitution's
guarantee of freedom of worship did not extend to the right to propagate
religion.
The judgment also noted the constitution's
acknowledgement of Buddhism as the country's foremost religion and the
state's duty to protect and foster it.
The court was responding to a petition
by Buddhists against the legal incorporation of a Roman Catholic order
of missionary nuns seeking to carry out teaching, vocational youth training,
nursing and care of the elderly, together with missionary work. It ruled
that "the spread of knowledge to youth" by a Christian missionary order
was inconsistent with the constitutional requirement to protect and foster
Buddhism, the religion of 69 percent of the population.
Hindus (15 percent) are the next
biggest group, followed by Christians (8 percent), Muslims (7 percent)
and others (1 percent).
The Supreme Court also held that
Christian institutions should not couple religious instruction with charitable
deeds and agreed with the petitioners that young, inexperienced and elderly
people could be lured to other religions by charitable activities.
Although fundamentalist Christians
number less than 1 percent of the population, their activities are highly
visible among the urban middle class and are spreading increasingly to
the rural poor. More than 10 attacks on new evangelist churches have been
recorded this year compared with five last year.
