Author: Balbir K Punj
Publication: Organiser
Date: November 30, 2008
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=265&page=7
Church strategy after the lull
"...Well funded, superbly networked,
backed by the highest of the land, seized up its moral supremacy, it has India
as arc of its key targets". Talking about the findings of its countrywide
investigations, the Tehelka report says "the conversion drive was more
than just a numbers game; it was an unabashed exercise."
To carry out its sordid business of harvesting
of souls, the church now adopts a multi-layered strategy, full of prevarication,
snivel and subterfuge. It's Janus faced. For the elite, the church claims
that it worships the Lord through the service of the poor and has no conversion
agenda. At ground level there are covert and overt attcks on other faiths.
(The trouble in Karnataka followed publication of such a booklet Satyadarshini,
in which Hindu Gods were abused). Protests against such insults are termed
as attacks on the Christians. While allegations of conversions are denied,
the right to evangelise is defended and exercised. Inducements to change the
faith are never accepted, but 'help' to the needy and subsequent conversions
are explained as 'change of heart !
The above mentioned stratagem followed by
the church in the post-Independence era is not a part of the Bajrang Dal propaganda.
This is the substance of the Neogi Committee (NC) report. The NC was constituted
by a Congress government of Madhya Pradesh and it submitted its report running
1500 pages in 1956. Subsequently four Congress run states - Madhya Pradesh,
Arunachal Pradesh, Orissa and finally Himachal Pradesh (in 2007) brought out
laws to check such unethical conversions to protect local culture and maintain
social harmony.
The church and locals have become more frequent
and violent in the last few years. This was inevitable in view of the church's
plan to evangalise India in the 21st century. The "sinister plan"
was revealed in a detailed investigative report by the weekly Tehelka (February
7, 2004) (surely not a Sangh Parivar publication). The report said, "a
new mood of aggressive evangelism has been emanating from America. Well funded,
superbly networked, backed by the highest of the land, seized up its moral
supremacy, it has India as arc of its key targets". Talking about the
findings of its countrywide investigations, the Tehelka report says "the
conversion drive was more than just a numbers game; it was an unabashed exercise.
And the aim was sinister….. frightening and equally sinister was revelation
that US trans-national organisational had personal data down to last man,
important because he was the vehicle who would get the next convert".
The Tehelka report says "The missionary
goal is to set up a church within cycling distance. Then within walking distance
and finally within hearing distance. The church growth figures with Tehelka
clearly indicate that this missions mandate is on in full swing". During
2000-2001, according to Tehelka, various denominations of churches received
from abroad a total of Rs. 4,535.23 crores, 15.56 per cent increase over the
amount received in the previous year.
Recently there was a clinching admission of
church's strategy in the last lines of the dispatch-'Life As The Other'-The
Indian Express, Delhi edition, October 23 last. "The entire problem began
because New Life was attracting poor people in distress and challenging their
shallow faith by offering money and property to convert", was how Father
Austin Menezes of Melagres Church of Mangalore described the work of New Life
Fellowship Trust whose actions provoked violence in Karnataka's port city.
In reality, such an abrasive approach to evangelism was at the core of a popular
outrage against the Trust. Notice that Father Menezes has no qualms describing
the belief of poor people as 'shallow' and admits offers of "money and
property" being made to the poor for inducing conversions.
But if New Life was 'offering money and property
to convert' it is only part of church's well-established stratagem to bring
people to Christ. It is empirically as integral to strategy of church, as
conversion is integral to Christianity itself. Evangelical organisations frequently
run into troubles for such acts whether in Karnataka or Orrisa. But they receive
support from the fourth estate, (even when kingdom of heaven doesn't intervene),
for whom any opportunity is as good as the other to demonise Sangh Parivar
and BJP. Not infrequently such 'atrocities against Christians' are laced with
gory tales of rape of a nun and a lot worse.
Fortunately, most of the Christians do not
subscribe to the church's agenda of harvesting of souls and are as good citizens
as any one else. Many of them do suffer (along with the rest) in the social
unrest triggered by the shenanigans of the church. The victims of this mindless
violence should not be seen as Christians and non-Christians. They are first
Oriyas and Indians and anything else later. Painting the 'Sangh Parivar' black
will not help. The hostile relationship between the locals in India and abroad,
and the church pre-dates the birth of the `Parivar' by several hundred of
years.
The ugly events in Kandhmal and elsewhere
are the result of what Gandhiji called as the destruction of the "social
superstructure" by the missionaries over the last several decades. India
is steeped into pluralistic ethos and believes in 'God is one', irrespective
of His numereous names and shapes. church has faith only in "One God".
To it, all the rest are false and those believing in them have to be "saved"
and "harvested" for the Lord. Should not the church heed Gandhiji
and leave people to their faith? The innocent Kandhs are fighting a battle
for the pluralistic character of India. They look at missionaries and their
evangelical enterprise the way Gandhiji saw it. Their hurt is the same as
that of Gandhiji. But they are not Gandhians. They do not have the benefit
of education and are unequipped to deal with sophism which comes naturally
to the elite. While their methods to do so at time may be outside the frame
work of law, their intent is noble. The civil society must stand by them,
give them a lead and articulate their concerns as Gandhiji did.
(The writer is a Member of Parliament (RS)
and can be contacted at punjbk@gmail.com)
