On Indian Christian Missionaries – Treason from within

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”

–Marcus Tullius Cicero

Great Treachery – India and the Syrian Christians of Kerala

Baptist Church Backs Terrorism in North-East India
Christian Conversions and Terrorism in North-East India
Petition- Protest Christian Aggression in Orissa and India

India’s vengeful Christians turn to murder as Hindus step up their killing campaign

Christians have to blame only their own machineries (missionaries) who are intent on destroying Hinduism and replacing it imperial Christianity. This genocidal practice is a finely crafted art through centuries of destruction of olden cultures and civilizations from Europe, to Africa to  the Americas. In the  21st century Asia is the last bastion and India the focus of Christian genociders.

September 27, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4834245.ece
India’s vengeful Christians turn to murder as Hindus step up their killing campaign

Rhys Blakely in Bombay
In the remote Indian state of Orissa your religion can cost you your life. Now a Christian mob has resorted to murder. Wielding knives and axes they have stabbed a Hindu man to death.

The killing followed a month-long campaign of murder, gang rape and arson by Hindu fanatics that drove Christians to take up arms to defend themselves, church officials in the area said yesterday. As many as 50,000 members of the minority Christian community have been forced into hiding in the jungle.

The Hindu man was killed near the town of Raikia in the Kandahmal district, which in the past month has featured some of the worst anti-Christian violence in India since partition.

“Christians have defended themselves after their houses were burnt down by Hindus. The two groups clashed,” Father Ajay Singh said from the office of the Archbishop in Bhubaneshwar, the state capital. Praveen Kumar, a senior local policeman, confirmed the account.

Related Links
Pictures: anti-Christian violence in India
Christians in India face extremist attacks
The Home Ministry in Delhi, which faces international criticism for failing to stamp out the violence, admitted that a situation of apparent lawlessness now reigns in the state.

Police are investigating unconfirmed reports of Christian militias being formed, with some attempting to make bombs. The reports have been denied by Christian leaders.

Similar tensions are simmering across India, where at least 45 Christians have died at the hands of Hindu fanatics in recent weeks, according to the Roman Catholic Church. Government officials, who in some areas have been accused of being complicit in the tragedy, have put the death toll at 27.

An estimated 4,000 homes have been razed, crops have been spoilt, livestock slaughtered and possessions looted. Witnesses have described Christians being forcibly converted to Hinduism while axes were held to their throats.

David Griffiths, of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a campaign group, said: “Christians going back to their homes are facing violence or coercive conversion to Hinduism. And yet the state government continues to claim that everything is normal.”

The Rev Harish Arisalya, the regional secretary of the All India Christian Council in Orissa, said: “Perhaps Christians should have defended themselves since the beginning of the attacks, but they chose to avoid conflict. Now Christians are being killed every day. The situation is going from bad to worse.”

There were further reports of trees being felled across roads to prevent security forces from reaching remote regions.

The unrest is thought to have been spearheaded by the Bajrang Dal, an influential extremist Hindu youth organisation. “They are highly communal and fascist in their approach.

The Government must move strongly against them,” a spokesman for Congress, the leading party in India’s coalition Government, said. Amid signs that the violence was spreading across the country, President Bush was urged this week to exert pressure on the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to take firmer action.

Felice D. Gaer, the chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, said: “If India is to exercise global leadership, Prime Minister Singh should demonstrate his Government’s commitment to uphold the basic human rights obligations to which it has agreed.”

The criticism followed condemnation from the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Government has promised to send thousands of troops to Orissa and the Home Ministry in Delhi has rebuked the regional state government — but itself faces widespread criticism for failing to act effectively.

Concerns are now mounting that, without international pressure, attacks against religious minorities will increase as Hindu extremists seek to mobilise voters before general elections in India, which must be held before May.

In the past two weeks more than 20 churches have been attacked in and around the southern city of Bangalore, the centre of India’s flagship IT industry. Anti-Christian violence has also erupted in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Kerala.

The violence was prompted by the murder on August 23 of Laxmanananda Saraswati, a figurehead of the extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad — VHP, or World Hindu Council — in Orissa, who had campaigned against the alleged forced conversion of Hindus to Christianity by foreign-backed missionaries.

India’s Naxalite movement, a faction of armed Maoist militants that holds sway over large parts of eastern and central India, claimed responsibility.

The VHP, which is closely linked to the Bajrang Dal, blamed Christians.

The anti-Christian violence now threatens to feed into wider religious clashes across India.

A series of bomb blasts that killed 22 people and injured 100 in Delhi earlier this month stoked fears that the country faces a newly emboldened faction of home-grown Muslim militants.

Several major cities have been hit by elaborate bombing campaigns that have claimed more than 150 lives over the past five months. The Indian Mujahideen, a previously unknown Islamist group, has claimed responsibility.

In one e-mail purportedly sent by the Indian Mujahideen, the terror cell warned its “Christian brothers” to stay away from rallies held by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s main opposition. “Our main objective is to blow LK Advani [the BJP leader] into pieces,” it read.

Conversion of the lower castes

— Christians make up 2.3 per cent of India’s population after colonisers spread the religion largely among the poverty-stricken lower castes

— Hindus allege that conversions by the Christian missions are forcible conversions, which are illegal under the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act of 1967

— According to the 2001 Census, there are 897,861 Christians, compared with more than 34 million Hindus in Orissa

— Hindus burnt to death Graham Staines, an Australian missionary, and his two sons in their car in 1999

— Violence broke out between Hindus and Christians in December 2007 over Christmas decorations, resulting in an attack on the property of a Hindu leader and the burning of 19 churches

— Further violence occurred during the last week of 2007, driving 1,200 people into camps

Sources: Human Rights Watch, Times of India, Indian Census

Loving Christian Pastor had sex with daughters to educate them on how to be good wives

This is an unbelievable case of Christian persecution in Australia.  We need to immediately galvanize support from the United Nations, Californication, Europe, Major Western countries and get this poor guy freed.  After all he was being a good Christian teaching his daughters holy Christian virtues.

Pastor had sex with daughters

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/pastor-had-sex-with-daughters/2007/08/30/1188067266454.html
August 30, 2007 – 5:37PM

A fundamentalist church pastor had sex with two of his teenage daughters to educate them on how to be good wives, a South Australian court has heard.

The 54-year-old man, who cannot be named, was today sentenced in the SA District Court to eight and a half years jail after pleading guilty to seven counts each of incest and unlawful sexual intercourse.

The court heard that the man had sex with his daughters for nearly a decade from 1991 when they were aged 13 and 15 at the family property.

The sex took place at various locations including in a shearer’s shed, a paddock, on the back of a ute and, on one occasion, at the girls’ grandparents house.

The man told the court the sex was not about fulfilling his desires but about teaching his daughters how to behave for their husbands when they eventually married, as dictated in scripture.

In sentencing, Judge David Lovell said the misrepresentation of scripture used to justify the abuse of the girls “defied belief”, and that he had “hypocritically betrayed” his religion and principles.

“You said the acts were about learning about sex rather than engaging in the acts of sex,” Judge Lovell said.

“I do not accept that.

“You treated your daughters as your property … using them to satisfy and gratify your sexual urges.”

Judge Lovell gave full credit for the man’s guilty pleas, saying he was genuinely remorseful and had a good chance of rehabilitation as his wife and the church remained supportive.

The man will be eligible for parole in four years.

AAP

Why Christian Terror, Savagery and Genocide?

The persecuted Church involved in terror, deceptions, violence, savagery, genocide and more

Find out here

Loving Christian Pastor Arrested On Child Pornography Charge: Christian persecution in America

Pastor Arrested On Child Pornography Charge

KXAS-TV
updated 3:54 a.m. ET Sept. 26, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas – A North Texas pastor was arrested Wednesday and charged with transporting child pornography, authorities said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Steve Richardson, 36, the pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Royse City, Texas, into custody after searching his home and church.

The agents confiscated Richardson’s computer, which he is accused of using to send pornographic and erotic images of children using Google’s “Hello” software program, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Richard B. Ropers’ office.

The First United Methodist Church has put Richardson on suspension, NBC 5 reported.

Christians desecrate Hindu temple in Madurai: Genocidal Christian aggression

This is how genocidal christianity destroys all pre christian religions all over the world. And they are working overtime in India too.

http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/09/24/0809241313_temple__mes_8.html

Communal tension in Madurai
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 13:10 [IST]
Madurai: Tension prevailed in Perumalkoil Patti village in Dindigul district after some unidentified persons painted the symbol of another religion on the walls of the over 400-year-old Narasingaperumal temple, police said.

Police said people of the Vanniyar community,belonging to the Christian and Hindu religions, were at loggerheads for the past few years over celebrating the local Church festival.

However local revenue and police officials intervened and made arrangements for the celebration of the festival, though most of the Hindu vanniyars had left the place during the festival,complaining that the police were biased.

The officials said the “symbol” painted on the walls of the temple was erased and the walls white-washed. A case had been registered.
Source : PTI

Comments Policy – No Christian Preaching or Propaganda

Hindu dharma allows for search for truth and debates have been an ancient Indian tradition as opposed to Jihads and genocides being the defacto means to quell dissent by followers of dogma based religion viz Christianity, Islam. These followers have little or no freedom to explore/question their religion.

We welcome alternate view points but cannot allow nauseating Christian preaching & propaganda in this blog. Christian lies, deceit, fake grace, love, stand in great contrast to the terrible misdeeds they have done to hundreds of pre-Christian cultures. Behind your love and sweet speech, I realize you want to commit genocide on Hindu religion and culture. Does it not boil down to it? !!

Bangalore:- Missionary Inducements lure poor to convert

‘Inducements lure poor to convert’

17 Sep 2008, 0210 hrs IST, Rishikesh Bahadur Desai,TNN

BANGALORE: Raju Gouda of Ucchangi Durga in Davanagere district has changed his religion twice, but not his name. He was born a Veerashaiva and converted to Christianity in his 20s.

A few years later, he met VHP volunteers who were involved in reconversion. He came back to Hinduism after a few meetings with them. Now, Gouda leads the re-conversion movement.

Similar is the case of many others. “The reconversion movement is slowly taking root across Karnataka. We have already succeeded in bringing back over 50,000 converts,” said Ga Ra Suresh, who oversees VHP’s Paravarthana movement.

He is convinced that none of the reconverts have gone back to Christianity. To him, the process is not reconversion. “We call it mainstreaming,” he added. Paravarthana focuses on the recent convert. “We are not bothered about Christians who have been converted centuries ago. They embraced that faith under different socio-political conditions. Christian beliefs and practices are ingrained in them. We don’t touch them. Our primary targets are those who have been converted by inducement, or under duress, in recent decades,” Suresh said.

According to him, Protestant para-church organizations like the New Life institution (that was targeted in Mangalore and Chikmagalur) are into large-scale illegal conversions. “Such organizations can’t be called churches. They are run by salaried employees whose job is proselytizing,” he said.

According to him, such people are more likely to become the targets of attacks by rightist organizations, rather than priests. They choose particular caste groups in different districts.

In Hyderabad-Karnataka region, they target Madigas (scheduled castes). In North Karnataka districts like Bijapur and Gadag, they have converted Lambanis, and in Bagalkot and Dharwad districts, Kurubas have been converted.

“Most of the time, they use a neo-convert to carry on conversions,” he said. According to him, converts are induced with land, free education for children and other gifts like sewing machines. “Most conversions happen in hospitals. The poor who are denied quality healthcare are impressed by the way missionary hospitals are run. They become easy targets,” he said.

He does not completely accept the argument that low caste Hindus convert to escape untouchability and atrocities by the upper castes.
“This is not fully true. There may be some such cases. But escaping caste-based discrimination is not the only reason behind conversion,” he said. According to him, caste-based discrimination exists even among Christians.

“There are separate churches for Dalit Christians. Upper caste converts don’t marry lower caste converts. In fact, several churches in Kollegal have —— for Dalit Christians and others,” he said. The process of reconversion is simple. Paravarthana volunteers visit the house of the converts regularly, and convince them of the need to come back. They are told stories about the achievements of saints and leaders from lower castes. The volunteers ensure that they regain pride in their community and Hinduism.

When the family is ready to reconvert, the members are given Ganga jal or ‘gomutra’ (cow urine) to drink. A swamiji of the same caste or from a Veerashaiva mutt visits their house and performs the ‘ling dharana’ ritual to bring them back. Most of these families embrace Veerashaivism.

“They become followers of Basavanna, who had produced saints from all castes,” Suresh said. Paravarathana also seeks the Arya Samaj, which has been carrying out the Shuddhi reconversion movement for nearly a century. Arya Samajis perform a small homa and issue a certificate. This works well for large-scale reconversions.

Missionary Physicians Deluge Bangalore to uproot Hinduism

Missionary Physicians Deluge Bangalore

Posted November 28, 2004

Bangalore, Karnataka, one of India’s fastest growing cities and IT hub, is now in the crosshairs of missionary physicians. The International Mission Board (IMB) says that through its efforts it will convert the local population to relieve them from “the spiritual suffering” of those “who fear Hinduism’s vengeful gods.”

A IMB map of Bangalore shows the city dotted with Baptist churches – mainly due to conversion through hospitals. Just a few years ago, when Baptist Missionaries scouted one community a couple of miles from the hospital years ago, there were no Christians and no churches. However, within a year there were 20 converted Christians. Today, the Trinity Baptist Church has started 18 other churches and is attempting to convert other communities as well.

The Bangalore Baptist Hospital, one of the most primary institutions used for conversions, delivers nearly 1,500 babies a year (about 4 a day) and treats more than 100,000 patients a year. Though these medical services are needed by the local population, there have been numerous reports of extortion by the local population. Many Indians have complained that the hospital only provides services to those who either pay an exorbitant fee or convert to Christianity. For many impoverished patients, they are forced to choose the latter in this life or death decision. Others complain that the hospital clearly discriminates against non-Christians and reserves a majority of the beds for those who have already converted to Christianity. The hospital also tries to convert patients when they in emotional distress. When a man died at Baptist Hospital some years ago, the staff gave the man’s wife and family a Bible and soon after converted the family.

With the government failing to protect the poor from these practices, the hospital has begun to establish clinics in smaller villages as it targets the “lost people” in the state of 52 million in 33,000 villages, towns and cities.

Christian missionary assault on India to destroy Hinduism

“Missionaries are systematically targeting specific regions of India in hopes of converting the entire nation to their brand of fanatic Christianity. Below is a detailed look into their designs and plans. ” Read rest of the report at  christianaggession.org

Orissa Freedom of Religion Act: The Christian conversion debate

Orissa Freedom of Religion Act: The conversion debate
Thu, Aug 28 02:40 AM

Last weekend, communal violence rocked Orissa after a group of masked gunmen killed VHP leader Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati (84), who was known for his campaign against conversion of tribals to Christianity. As the Christian community was attacked in the state, the alleged conversion of tribals in the its backward pockets was back in focus. It was the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, enacted in 1967, which sought to regulate forced or manipulative conversion. A look at the Act:

• The origin
Post-independence, Orissa was the first state to enact a law prohibiting conversion from one religion to another by using force, allurement, through inducements like gifts or gratification and grant of any benefit, either pecuniary or otherwise, or by fraudulent means. The Act was enacted in 1967 by the Rajendra Narayan Singhdeo government.

• What it says
Punishment pertaining to the violation of the Act makes one liable for imprisonment that may extend to one year, with or without fine, which may be up to Rs 5,000. The Act prohibited conversion of anyone under the age of 18. For conversions involving persons below the age of 18, a woman, or a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, the punishment was for two years and fine was up to Rs 10,000.

The offences will not be investigated by an officer below the rank of a police inspector. The prosecution has to be made with the sanction of the district magistrate. Under the Act, each district magistrate has to maintain a list of religious organisations propagating religious faith in the district. The district magistrate, if he thinks fit, may call for a list of persons receiving benefits either in cash or in kind from religious organisations or institutions or from any other person.

Any person intending to convert needs to give a declaration before a first class magistrate, prior to such conversion that he intends to do so on his own accord. The priest will have to intimate the date, time and place of the ceremony where conversion would take place, along with the names and addresses of the persons to be converted, to the concerned district magistrate 15 days prior to the said ceremony in a prescribed form. The district magistrate has to maintain a register of conversion and enter particulars of the intimation received by him. The district magistrate by the 10th of each month needs to send to the Government a report of intimations pertaining to such conversions.

• Its implementation
Though the law was enacted in 1967, it could not be implemented for the next 22 years due to the absence of Rules to support it. In 1989, the Orissa Freedom of Religion Rules was framed. The first case under the Act was registered in 1993 when a superintendent of police booked 21 pastors in Nowrangpur for breaking the law. The SP was transferred immediately.

• Interpretation of the Act
The minority communities have steadfastly opposed it claiming that such a legislation is aimed at restricting the right to propagate religion, guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution.

In a prominent case challenging the validity of the Orissa Act, Chief Justice A N Ray in Reverend Stainislaus versus State of Madhya Pradesh (AIR 1977 SC 908) and Yulitha versus State of Orissa and others ruled that propagation is different from conversion. Adoption of a new religion is freedom of conscience, while conversion would impinge upon freedom of choice granted to all citizens alike. After examining the different meanings of the word “propagate” in Article 25(1), Justice Ray expressed the view that “what Article 25(1) grants is not the right to convert another person to one’s own religion by exposition of its tenets”.

Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati: The saint who resisted Christian missionary menace

We Hindus have only two choice. To resist  Christian evangelization or let them destroy Hinduism. They have commendable record on destruction of non-Christian cultures and religion.  Religion of love in action here

The saint who resisted missionary menace
Posted April 25, 2006

The saga of 35 years of struggle by social reformer Swami Laxmananda Saraswati By Debasis Tripathy

It was a hot noon of May 1970 in Orissa. Suddenly the news spread to every nook and corner of the state that some miscreants had set the idol of Lord Birupakhya at the famous Shiva temple afire. The temple was situated at the small tribal village Chakapad in the Kandhamal district, Orissa. The innocent Hindus were shocked and had one question: Who will rescue us from such religious terrorism? But nobody was there to answer.

When the Hindus of the Kandhamal district and other tribal-dominated districts of Orissa were suffering from the inhuman acts and conversion bids of Christian missionaries, they got a little ray of hope. A saffron-clad saint?Swami Laxmananda Saraswati?reached there as the nemesis of all the missionary activities. Due to his decades-long restless struggle, the social, religious and economic conditions of thousands of tribals have improved. Now they have learnt to lead an independent life free from all the bondages and as such, the conversion bids of the missionaries have been given a goodbye.

The year 1965 witnessed anti-cow-slaughter movement all over India. The whole country stood up against the killing of cows. The news of this movement organised by the RSS reached Rishikesh. When Laxmanandaji heard of this, he could not sit silently. He organised some of his friends and convinced them about the necessity to stop cow-slaughter.

?In Rishikesh, one evening when I was reading the Upanishad on the bank of the Ganges, I came to know about the Goraksha Andolan, launched by RSS. I thought a while and decided to join it. I tried to convince my friends, most of whom agreed,? said Swami Laxmananda.

Swamiji further said taking his saffron-clad sannyasi friends with him, he marched towards Delhi to join the Goraksha Andolan. They staged a protest meet in front of the residence of the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi. This protest continued for more than a week. During that time, fortunately he came into contact with Shri Guriji, the then Sarsanghachalak of RSS. The lofty personality of Shri Guruji influenced him a lot. Words of Shri Guruji made him determinant for the service of rashtra, dharma and satya.

?I saw Shri Guruji in Delhi. We were sitting on the same dais. He told me: ‘Swamiji Bharat Mata is calling you’. I was impressed with his powerful words, which are even now echoing in my ears. I refused to return to Rishikesh?, says Laxmanandaji.

During that movement, he was arrested and jailed for 19 days. After his release from the jail, he was sent to Orissa to monitor the goraksha movement. In 1967, he reached Orissa and the goraksha movement took momentum under his strong supervision. In 1968, under his guidance, Vishwa Hindu Parishad took shape in Orissa.

In 1969-70, he arrived at Phulbani district headquarters of Kandhamal district. The Church had chalked out a dangerous plan to finish the Hindus in those areas. The plan?Mission Christ Sthan?was intended to create one separate territory for the Christians. The missionaries were keen to make their programme successful in Koraput, Gajpati, Phulbani, Kalahandi, Bolangir, Bhanjanagar, Daspalla, Khanda-pada, Boudh, Sonapur, Athamallik and Angul districts, says Swamiji. ?Huge funds from Christian countries were flowing into these regions. I got this news from my friend and the eminent Sangh swayamsevak Shri Raghunath Sethi and rushed to Kandhamal to save Hindus from the clutches of missionaries.?

?When I heard about the plan of the pastors to create a Christ Sthan, I decided to visit those areas. Communication was not as good as it is today. I did not have any money even to travel. Hence, I begged alms in places like Khurda and Nayagarh and managed to collect 30 rupees. With this amount in hand, and taking the blessings of Lord Jagannath I reached there,? he said.

Swamiji reached Chakapad, a small tribal village, 30 kms from the Phulbani district headquarters. He established his ashram there in 1969 and dedicated himself to the service of mankind.

Swamiji started his service and reform work, making Chakapad his centre. To promote education, he established a school and a Sanskrit college at Chakapad in 1969. To save the Vanvasis from the clutches of missionaries, he started a unique plan. He inspired the locals to have a kirtan mandali in each village. He started delivering religious preaching among Vanvasis, which proved advantageous in curbing the missionary activities. Swamiji united the Vanvasis of Kandhamal and educated them to be conscious of the missionary activities and to develop their economic and social conditions. As a result, the missionaries had no way but to cancel their ?Christ Sthan? project and to leave Kandhamal.

For his series of social services and his remarkable contribution to the Vanvasi society, he has been conferred with the title of ?Adharma Chakra Vidarak Dakshya Maharath? and Vedanta Kesari by the revered Shankaracharya of Gobardhan Peeth, Puri, Swami Nishchalananda Saraswati and Gajpati, King of Orissa in 1999. For his unique contribution to Vanvasi society, Swamiji was felicitated at the three-day mammoth Vanvasi rally, organised in Chakapad from April 8 to 10, 2006, in which about five lakh people participated.

The business of faith

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/The_business_of_faith/articleshow/3453877.cms

The business of faith
7 Sep 2008, 0407 hrs IST, Amrita Singh ,TNN

There was a time the Christian missionary spread the word of god in a simple and direct way. He would step off a boat, make friends with locals and after years of effort, count a sizable flock.

Cut to 2008 and it’s a different scenario altogether. Church planting agencies, as they are called, have taken over the evangelical role. They ensure that growth targets are set and new churches built. There is quantifiable growth. In the four years from 2003, 22 new International Churches of Christ were built. The Adventists has concrete plans to build 500 new churches too. The Presbyterian Church of south India, which is funded by the UK-based Mission to the World, also has a goal of 500 new churches in the next decade.

The growth means the existing flock has to dig ever deeper into its pockets because the new churches are funded partly by members and partly by foreign donations. Senthil Joseph (not his real name), who goes to church occasionally, says: “Even though I am not a regular, I have to make donations for the new churches. In the last 10 years, since I moved to Delhi, 10 new churches of my (Syrian Christian) sect have come up and every time I have to pay a heavy donation.”

Most Christian denominations use the name-and-shame method to force their flock to donate generously. Joseph says: “The amount given is published in the annual telephone directory of the community for every one to see.”

The commercial thrust has made the last decade one of the most successful for the growth of Christianity in India. According to a forecast by the World Religious Council, India’s 25 million-strong Christian population could balloon five-fold by 2050.

Church planting agencies have never been busier. These agencies are described by the Indian Evangelical Mission as “specialists in taking Christianity to places where it has no presence and training people to establish new churches there.”

One of the most effective church planting agencies working in India is the US-based AD 2000 and Beyond Movement. It is impressively organized, having mapped the whole of India by caste and identifying those most likely to be receptive to their message. AD 2000 lists nine Indian tribes as Priority-I, possibly because they are so poor they’re deemed most likely to convert.

The nine tribes identified by AD 2000 are: Bhilala, Binjhwari, Chero, Kawar/Kamari, Lhoba, Majhwar, Panika, Shin or Sina, and Sikkimese Bhotia. AD 2000 identifies thickly-populated, politically important and moderately poor northern India as “the core of the core of the core”.

In a sign of some of these church planting agencies’ sense of purpose, AD 2000 has drawn up detailed plans to target all of India’s 75,000 postal pin codes with the ultimate goal of a church in each.

So, how do church planters work in the 21st century when the days of the itinerant missionary are long gone? Helen, a missionary who has worked among Bhils in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh says the first step is to send a reconnaissance team to the target area to find out if a church is already under construction. The team would also need to study the area and understand its problems.

Armed with this basic information, modern missionaries are expected to work out a sound socio-economic plan for the area. This could include simple things to make the lives of locals better, such as starting a school, a health centre, new self-help groups. It is only after a minimum of five years of such groundwork that a Christian denomination actually starts to talk to local leaders about building a church.

The proposed church would initially be paid for by bigger ones in the cities but it is expected to become self-supporting and entirely locally-managed within 15 years. After that, it is time for the missionary to move on and adopt a new place.

Orissa: A fight between Rome and Jagannath Culture

10 Janpath advocates minority appeasement policy for Kandhamal
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
By Anurjay Dhal

http://www.orissadiary.com/Shownews.asp?id=8082

Bhubaneswar: Call it a fight between Rome and Jagannath Culture. Since Congress President Sonia Gandhi has Church background, he asked her man in Orissa, PCC Chief Jayadeb Jena to strictly follow the party’s traditional minority appeasement policy while dealing with the Kandhamal crisis.

This secrete communication between the 10 Janpath and PCC chief has came to light following the UPA’s move to send Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to visit Christians majority areas of Kandhamal on Wednesday.

According to sources, AICC chief has asked the Orissa Congress leaders to campaign aggressively against the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

With the blessing from 10 Janpath, State Congress is planning a series of protests and rallies in Kandhamal, the hub of the recent communal violence, and other Dalit and tribal-dominated areas.

Ajay Maken, general secretary in charge of Orissa, argued that the Congress could not possibly meet the VHP-BJP challenge in Kandhamal. Congress leaders from Orissa

cited how Union Minister of State for Home Affairs  Sriprakash Jaiswal had to cancel his trip to the district.

After hearing all, Sonia forced Shivraj Patil to visit Kandhamal. Interestingly, PCC chief Jena, former Union Ministers KP Singh Deo and Srikant Jena, believe the party will gain nothing by holding back with the objective of keeping the Hindus on its side.

Patil’s trip to Orissa was another of his belated visits to a trouble spot. But unlike most other times, he will be going alone and not trudging behind Sonia Gandhi.

His previous trip to Kandhamal came last January although communal violence had flared before Christmas. When police firing killed nine persons in Orissa’s Kalinganagar in January 2006, Patil let nine days pass before he paid a visit, trailing along behind Sonia.

Minority appeaser anti Hindu Home Minister Shivraj Patil skips Jalaspata Ashram during his Kandhamal visit

http://www.orissadiary.com/Shownews.asp?id=8084
Patil skips Jalaspata Ashram during his Kandhamal visit
Wednesday, September 03, 2008

By Anurjay Dhal

Bhubaneswar: Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil has no words for the inmates of Jalaspata Ashram. Patil even found no time on Wednesday to see the girl inmates of the Ashram, where Swami Laxmananda Saraswati was shot dead on August 23.

The Home Minister, who visited communal violence, hit Kandhamal after reviewing the situation here at Raj Bhawan, even not enquired about the mental condition of the inmates, who lost their god like guide and teacher.

“It appears that a fear of psychosis growing in the minds of the violence hit people. We have to take enough steps to make sure that such incidents not repeated in future,” the Home Minister told reporters.

“I have asked the Chief Minister to prepare a plan to support the poor who suffered in the incident. They will be required to be given relief till they return to their respective houses,’ he said.

Is fear of psychosis not in the mind of inmates of Jalaspata Ashram? Why the Home Minister kept him away? Why not he visited Jalaspata? These are few questions remain unanswered.

The innocent girl inmates have no idea on secularism and communalism. Swamiji all through his life taught them for a good life. Since Swamiji’s death, some 200 inmates have been passing through sleepless nights while few have left Ashram and staying in their home following tension.

When Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik visited Kandhamal, he not only visited Jalaspata Ashram but also spend hours with inmates and assured to provide all facilities, which were available for the inmates during Swamiji’s day.

Patil visited Tiringia and G Udaigiri areas of Kandhamal . He also visited a relief camp to make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation. More than 20,000 people have taken shelter in 11 relief camps in the district.

‘As per impression, it is unfortunate’, Patil added.

“Confidence should be given to people to go back to their respective villages without fear,’ he said adding that the Central Government would support the state in this matter. But like his last visit to Kandhamal, this time Patil not visited Hindu majority areas of Kandhamal.

Meanwhile, police said there was no violence reported from the worst-hit Kandhamal and Koraput districts Tuesday and Wednesday.

Christian genocide of Native Americans still haunt United States

Religion of love, or religion of hatred leading to genocide and holocaust of non-Christians? You decide

http://www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1997/native-americans.html
Native American Genocide Still Haunts United States

By Leah Trabich
Cold Spring Harbor High School
New York, USA

In the past, the main thrust of the Holocaust/Genocide Project’s magazine, An End To Intolerance, has been the genocides that occurred in history and outside of the United States. Still, what we mustn’t forget is that mass killing of Native Americans occurred in our own country. As a result, bigotry and racial discrimination still exist.

“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” . . . and made the first contact with the “Indians.” For Native Americans, the world after 1492 would never be the same. This date marked the beginning of the long road of persecution and genocide of Native Americans, our indigenous people. Genocide was an important cause of the decline for many tribes.

“By conservative estimates, the population of the United states prior to European contact was greater than 12 million. Four centuries later, the count was reduced by 95% to 237 thousand.

In 1493, when Columbus returned to the Hispaniola, he quickly implemented policies of slavery and mass extermination of the Taino population of the Caribbean. Within three years, five million were dead. Las Casas, the primary historian of the Columbian era, writes of many accounts of the horrors that the Spanish colonists inflicted upon the indigenous population: hanging them en mass, hacking their children into pieces to be used as dog feed, and other horrid cruelties. The works of Las Casas are often omitted from popular American history books and courses because Columbus is considered a hero by many, even today.

Mass killing did not cease, however, after Columbus departed. Expansion of the European colonies led to similar genocides. “Indian Removal” policy was put into action to clear the land for white settlers. Methods for the removal included slaughter of villages by the military and also biological warfare. High death rates resulted from forced marches to relocate the Indians.

The Removal Act of 1830 set into motion a series of events which led to the “Trail of Tears” in 1838, a forced march of the Cherokees, resulting in the destruction of most of the Cherokee population.” The concentration of American Indians in small geographic areas, and the scattering of them from their homelands, caused increased death, primarily because of associated military actions, disease, starvation, extremely harsh conditions during the moves, and the resulting destruction of ways of life.

During American expansion into the western frontier, one primary effort to destroy the Indian way of life was the attempts of the U.S. government to make farmers and cattle ranchers of the Indians. In addition, one of the most substantial methods was the premeditated destructions of flora and fauna which the American Indians used for food and a variety of other purposes. We now also know that the Indians were intentionally exposed to smallpox by Europeans. The discovery of gold in California, early in 1848, prompted American migration and expansion into the west. The greed of Americans for money and land was rejuvenated with the Homestead Act of 1862. In California and Texas there was blatant genocide of Indians by non-Indians during certain historic periods. In California, the decrease from about a quarter of a million to less than 20,000 is primarily due to the cruelties and wholesale massacres perpetrated by the miners and early settlers. Indian education began with forts erected by Jesuits, in which indigenous youths were incarcerated, indoctrinated with non-indigenous Christian values, and forced into manual labor. These children were forcibly removed from their parents by soldiers and many times never saw their families until later in their adulthood. This was after their value systems and knowledge had been supplanted with colonial thinking. One of the foundations of the U.S. imperialist strategy was to replace traditional leadership of the various indigenous nations with indoctrinated “graduates” of white “schools,” in order to expedite compliance with U.S. goals and expansion.

Probably one of the most ruinous acts to the Indians was the disappearance of the buffalo. For the Indians who lived on the Plains, life depended on the buffalo. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were an estimated forty million buffalo, but between 1830 and 1888 there was a rapid, systematic extermination culminating in the sudden slaughter of the only two remaining Plain herds. By around 1895, the formerly vast buffalo populations were practically extinct. The slaughter occurred because of the economic value of buffalo hides to Americans and because the animals were in the way of the rapidly westward expanding population. The end result was widescale starvation and the social and cultural disintegration of many Plains tribes.

Genocide entered international law for the first time in 1948; the international community took notice when Europeans (Jews, Poles, and other victims of Nazi Germany) faced cultural extinction. The “Holocaust” of World War II came to be the model of genocide. We, as the human race, must realize, however, that other genocides have occurred. Genocide against many particular groups is still widely happening today. The discrimination of the Native American population is only one example of this ruthless destruction.

Credits: Sharon Johnston, The Genocide of Native Americans: A Sociological View, 1996.

Christian missionaries go fishing in troubled Kashmir

http://www.hvk.org/articles/0604/86.html
Missionaries bring aid, controversy to Kashmir
Author: Janaki Kremmer, Publication: The Christian Science Monitor
Date: May 2, 2003
URL: http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2003/0502/p07s02-wosc.html

The influx of Christian evangelists complicates an already volatile religious equation, critics say.

For a decade now, Christian missionary groups have been flocking to the conflicted province of Kashmir, bringing medicine, school books, and self-help programs.

“Muslims and Hindus in Kashmir are fighting too much … Christians help us to get jobs and they teach us love,” says Zubaida Hameed, a student at Srinagar University. “This is good for our people.”

But some observers worry that the influx of Christian evangelists may be exacerbating a volatile situation in India’s northernmost state, where up to 50,000 people have died in sectarian violence. Sandwiched between India and Pakistan, this territory is the cause of two wars between the two neighbors. Armed militants are alleged to sneak across the border from Pakistan to foment trouble in the valley. Just last month 24 Hindus were killed in Kashmir, allegedly by Muslim militants.

“The time is not ripe for promoting and spreading a third religion in the valley – it will have bad consequences,” says Prashant Dikshit, the deputy director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.

Local Christians like Pastor Leslie Richards are also increasingly agitated by the presence of the new evangelists, who they believe are more interested in conversions than social work. Mr. Richards says local Muslims receive cash if they agree to convert. “The conversions they are doing are Biblically wrong … this is not good for the local Christians, who for centuries have shared cordial relations with the local Muslims here,” Richards told the Indian Express newspaper.

But Neethi Rajan, an evangelist with the Assemblies of God, rejects the criticism: “There is nothing wrong with spreading the word of Christ, and I assure you we are not bribing or exploiting anyone to come to our church.”

The Rev. Chander Mani Khanna, pastor of the Anglican All Saints Church in Srinagar, is skeptical of the large numbers of newly converted Christians being tossed about – and of claims that many conversions are for cash. “Of course, I believe that there are some black sheep in the fold – some evangelists who use money as a lure – but I can tell you that I have been here in Srinagar since July 2002, and I have only converted one person – so even if there are a few others in new churches, it is hardly a case of mass conversion.”

“Most of these young Muslims would be too scared to convert – too scared to tell their families,” Khanna adds. “”The young people come to hear sermons mainly to escape from the cycle of violence in their lives – it just gives them an outlet and also gives them someone to talk to.”

Unofficial reports say that more than 10,000 people have converted to Christianity in Kashmir since 1990. “There are more Christians in Kashmir than on the record,” says Premi Gergan, a prominent Christian in Kashmir, told Christianitytoday.com last year. “The number goes into the thousands in the rural areas. We don’t want to advertise. It has serious repercussions.” In the past, right-wing Hindu groups from upper castes have reacted aggressively against missionaries who attract lower-caste Hindus and other groups trying to escape their unhappy place in Indian society. In 1999 an Australian missionary and his two sons were killed by Hindu extremists in the northeastern state of Orissa because he was reported to have converted hundreds of poor, tribal people in the area.

Officials estimate that only 2.18 percent of the Indian population is Christian, and the figure is falling.

Most of the Christian missionary groups are funded by parent groups in the West, including the United States, Germany, Britain, and the Netherlands. Most focus their efforts on the rural poor and areas bordering Srinagar, a city of about 750,000 people.

Ramesh Landge, founder of the Cooperative Outreach of India, a Christian nongovernmental organization based in New Delhi which gets some of its funding from the Germantown Baptist Church in Tennessee, recently brought 15 sewing machines to women in Kashmir. “We try to make people self-reliant,” says Mr. Landge. “These young women – many of them the children of parents with leprosy, now sew clothes for schoolchildren.” Landge says that social work combined with the teachings of Christ has done a lot to improve life for the Kashmiri people.

“It is ridiculous for anyone to be threatened by a few Christians in Kashmir,” says Rev. Dominic Emmanuel, public affairs spokesman for the Catholic Bishops Conference of India. “Missionaries will continue to go where they are needed – where there are earthquakes or famines or conflict. And Kashmir is just one of those places.”