Author: David Rohde
Publication: The New York Times
Date: January 22, 2005
A dozen Americans walked into a
relief camp here, showering bereft parents and traumatized children
with gifts, attention and affection. They also quietly offered camp
residents something else: Jesus.
The Americans, who all come from
one church in Texas, have staged plays detailing the life of Jesus
and had children draw pictures of him, camp residents said. They
have told parents who lost children that they should still believe
in God, and held group prayers where they tried to heal a partly
paralyzed man and a deaf 12year-old girl.
The attempts at proselytizing are
angering local Christian leaders, who worry that they could provoke
a violent backlash against Christians in Sri Lanka, a predominantly
Buddhist country that is already a religious tinderbox.
Last year, Buddhist hard-liners
attacked the offices of the World Vision Christian aid group and
vandalized or threatened churches and pastors 75 times. They accuse
Christians of using money and social programs to cajole and coerce
conversions.
Most American groups, including
those affiliated with religious organizations, strictly avoid mixing
aid and missionary work. But scattered reports of proselytizing in
Sri Lanka; Indonesia, which is predominantly Muslim; and India, with
large Hindu and Muslim populations, are arousing concerns that the
good will spread by the American relief efforts may be undermined
by resentment.
The Rev. Sarangika Fernando, a local
Methodist minister, witnessed one of the prayer sessions in Sri Lanka
and accused the Americans of acting unethically with traumatized
people. "They said, 'In the name of Jesus, she must be cured!' "
he said. "As a priest, I was really upset."
The Americans in Sri Lanka belong
to the Antioch Community Church, an evangelical church based in Waco,
Tex. Two members of the church were arrested, and accused of proselytizing,
by the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2001. When the United States
invaded the country several months later, pro-American Northern Alliance
forces freed the women, who church officials say did speak with Afghans
about their personal "relationship with Jesus."
The Antioch Community Church is
one of a growing number of evangelical groups that believe in mixing
aidgiving with discussing religion, an approach that older, more
established Christian aid groups like Catholic Relief Services call
unethical.
In Sri Lanka, alarmed local Christian
leaders say proselytizing at such a sensitive time could reverse
the grass-roots interfaith cooperation that has emerged since the
tsunami and endanger Christians, who make up 7 percent of the population.
The country also has sizable Hindu and Muslim minorities.
The Rev. Duleep Fernando, a Methodist
minister based in Colombo, the capital, brought the Americans to
the camp here. Mr. Fernando said they had described themselves as
humanitarian aid workers. He and other Sri Lankan Christian leaders
say raising religion with traumatized refugees is unethical.
"We have told them this is not right,
but now we don't have any control over them," said Mr. Fernando,
who called the group's Web site postings "unnecessarily explosive."
"This is a dangerous situation,"
he said.
In Indonesia last week, reports
that a missionary group named WorldHelp planned to raise 300 Muslim
tsunami orphans in a Christian children's home in Jakarta brought
an outcry from Muslims. The group later said it had never had custody
of the children.
Sri Lankan refugees, camp administrators
and church officials said the Americans here had identified themselves
only as a humanitarian aid group. In an interview here on Wednesday,
Pat Murphy, 49, a leader of the team, said the group was a nongovernmental
organization, and not a church group. "It's an NGO," Mr. Murphy said.
"Just your plain vanilla NGO that does aid work."
But the church's Web site says the
Americans are one of four teams - for a total of 75 people - dispatched
to Sri Lanka and Indonesia who have persuaded dozens of people to
"come to Christ."
When the group's postings were read
to Mr. Murphy, he confirmed that the Americans were from the Antioch
Community Church, but said the group would never use relief goods
and gifts to entice or pressure people into becoming Christians.
He denied that the team, which sent about half its 24 members to
work in the eastern town of Kalmunai, was trying to convert people.
The church has 2,000 members.
"We simply provide people with information,"
he said, "and they do with that what they like."
A Jan. 18 posting from the team
in Indonesia says the country's devastated Aceh Province is "ripe
for Jesus!!"
"What an opportunity," it adds.
"It has been closed for five years, and the missionaries in Indonesia
consider it the most militant and difficult place for ministry. The
door is wide open and the people are hungry."
The Rev. Jimmy Seibert, the senior
pastor of the Waco church, said in a telephone interview that the
church would evaluate whether the group's members should identify
themselves as aid workers. But he said the church believes missionary
work and aid work "is one thing, not two separate things."
"My hope is that as a follower of
Jesus they would bring who they are into the workplace," he said,
"whether they are in a workplace in America or a workplace in Sri
Lanka."
Older Christian aid groups like
Catholic Relief Services, Lutheran World Relief and others with religious
affiliations say they do not proselytize, abiding by Red Cross guidelines
that humanitarian aid not be used to further political or religious
purposes. Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services, said
that in the last 20 years there had been an increase of smaller Christian
evangelical groups providing relief aid in the wake of disaster.
"I think there are new groups that
are driven by missionary zeal," Mr. Hackett said. In the last several
weeks, Mr. Hackett said, his group has received anecdotal reports
of proselytizing in countries devastated by the tsunami.
"From our partners in India, Sri
Lanka and Indonesia we've heard that there have been instances when
American and other Christian groups have been proselytizing and casting
aspersions on the faith of people there," he said. "Some of these
groups raise questions about other faiths, saying that people would
be better off if they converted to Christianity immediately."
Several American evangelical aid
groups have arrived in Sri Lanka, but no reports of proselytizing
by those groups have emerged, according to Sri Lankan church officials.
The Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham,
visited Sri Lanka this week to encourage the workers of his evangelical
aid organization, Samaritan's Purse, who plan to work in Sri Lanka
for the next five years.
Other American evangelical aid groups,
including Gospel for Asia and World Relief, are active on the country's
devastated east coast, according to Sri Lankan and American aid workers.
Members of Mr. Graham's group said
they did not engage in proselytizing, but said if local Christians
wanted to build a church they would help them. Officials from World
Relief, the aid wing of the National Association of Evangelicals,
have said in interviews that they try to first build trust with local
people and then look for opportunities for conversions, in some cases
years later.
More evangelical groups are apparently
on their way. A message posted on the Web site of the Moral Majority
leader Jerry Falwell says the school he founded, Liberty University,
is preparing to send a team to Sri Lanka, India and other countries
battered by the tsunami.
"Distribution of food and medical
supplies along with the dissemination of thousands of Gospel tracts
in the language of the people will keep the L.U. team very busy,"
the Web site says. "Mission trips to the Asian region by many L.U.
students will follow in the months, and perhaps years, to come."
Ron Godwin, president of Jerry Falwell
Ministries, confirmed that the Liberty Foundation was organizing
a shipment of rice, medication and Scriptural excerpts, but said
the primary goal of the effort was relief, not proselytizing. "Everything
we do is in the name of Christ," he said. "But we try to be sensitive
in areas where it may be politically sensitive, and we have no litmus
test for those we give rice to."
According to the Waco church group's
Web site, its teams in Sri Lanka and Indonesia are performing "children's
ministry," seeing "many people saved" and continuing to "minister
to families and children through prayer and evangelism."
According to its Web site, the congregation
uses small groups called "cell churches" to attract new members.
The reports from Indonesia and Sri Lanka refer to "cells" and "lifegroups"
in both countries.
Residents of the camp here reported
no healings as a result of the group's prayers. But they said they
appreciated the aid and activities for children that the group provided
and did not want to see them end.
Organizers in a nearby camp have
declared the Americans missionaries and barred them from entering.
Camp organizers here said they believed that the group was trying
to convert people, but did not want to further upset the tsunami
victims by cutting off the aid.
W. L. P. Wilson, 38, a disabled
fisherman with a sixth-grade education, said he allowed the Americans
to pray three times for the healing of his paralyzed lower leg because
he was desperate to provide for his wife and three children again.
Mr. Wilson, a Buddhist, said that he believed that the Americans
were trying to convert him to Christianity but that he was in "a
helpless situation now" and needed aid.
"They told me to always think about
God and about Jesus and you will be healed," he said. "Whenever I
ask for help they always mention God, but they do not give any money
for treatment."
Neela Banerjee contributed reporting
from Washington for this article.
