** Conversions of Dalits

http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=108
End fraudulent conversions of Dalits and Tribals
R L Francis

The tragic turn of events in Kandhamal in Orissa once again highlights the urgent need for church authorities to immediately halt the fraudulent conversions of India’s Tribal and Dalit populace, which are causing so much heart-burning and cultural anxiety.[The Constitutional term for the latter group is Scheduled Caste, but missionaries have coined and propagated the term ‘Dalit’ – Editor]

As the menace of conversions is perpetuated with the receipt of foreign funds, the Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM) has steadfastly demanded that the church utilize all foreign funds exclusively for the welfare and uplift of poor Christians who are suffering from terrible discrimination within the community. Indeed, this is the reason why PCLM has been petitioning the Government of India not to appoint Bishops, priests and nuns to official Commissions and Committees, and instead appoint ordinary Christians.

The church annually receives so much money that we want the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and the National Christian Council of India (NCCI) to set up a Rs. 1000 crore “Dalit Christian Development Fund” to ensure the integrated social and economic development of this huge populace that was lured to Christianity on the promise of a better life.

Considering the confusion created by propagation activities in remote areas, the PCLM demands that church authorities defer mass conversion programmes for at least a century. It is our view that evangelism cannot be a measurement of a society’s socio-economic development. Rather, the evangelism programme funds should be utilized for the welfare of Dalits and Tribals who have already been converted to Christianity, and whose lot has not been improved by the church.

There should be reservation of seats for Dalit and Tribal Christians, as well as other Dalits, in Church-run schools, colleges, technical institutions and other vocational organizations. As of now, the reality is that a handful of priests and bishops are monopolizing Church funds and property in the country. This has led to sharp deterioration of the conditions of neo-converted Christians who are living in a pitiable condition, deprived of basic necessities.

Instead of worrying about their living conditions, the church leadership is interested only in increasing the numbers of its flock. Even worse, a large chunk of foreign funds are being utilized for purchasing land and for the luxurious lifestyles of a few Christian leaders in India. Bishops are monopolizing the Church estates and treating it as their own property and are indulging in its sale-purchase without the consent of the community.

The children of poor Dalit and Tribal Christians do not even complete their primary education. None of the 40,000 educational institutions run by the church give admission to the children of Dalit Christians. This is the reason that in the last two decades many poor Christians have gone back to Hinduism due to maltreatment by the church.

For this reason, some of us feel that the Government of India and the Supreme Court should redefine minority educational institutions and de-classify those Christian minority institutions which do not admit Christian children. They should also be taxed as commercial ventures.

There is no case for caste-based reservations for the Christian community in India, as this would institutionalize the discrimination against the poor Christians and blight their future forever. The teachings of Jesus Christ do not permit discrimination amongst his followers. All Christians are born in the image of God. Hence, if the Church in India pursues reservation for Christians on the basis of caste, it must pay compensation to poor Christians converted to Christianity in the past, for discrimination and oppression and false promises.

The Government of India should also introduce special laws to protect Church property and land that is currently being misused and sold by vested interests. We also feel that the Vatican must stop appointing bishops and must follow the system in China. The Dalit and Tribal Christians must be appointed to important positions in the institutions of the Catholic Church.

As the Church is the largest employer after the Government of India, poor Christians should be given 50% job reservations in Christian educational and medical institutions.

Above all, the church should not criticize other religions, as this creates unnecessary ill-will. The time has come when pluralistic societies must be accepted. Hence the focus on fraudulent conversion and increasing the number of “rice Christians” does not serve the faith. The Church should instead promote multi-culturalism and inter-faith dialogue.

The author is convener, Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM)
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Reverend D'souza catholicunion@eml.cc of DalitFreedomNetwork writes:
Evangelists trigger riots by blaspheming Hinduism
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008

The Indian media has presented a distorted version of Hindu-Christian clashes in Mangalore.
Here are the facts The Following are the list of abuses from one such book – Satya Darshini – distributed by the missionaries of New Life.

This book is in Kannada and the translation of the abusive passage is as follows.

Urvashi – the daughter of Lord Vishnu – is a prostitute. Vashitha is the son of this prostitute. He in turn married his own Mother. Such a degraded person is the Guru of the Hindu God Rama. (page 48)

When Krishna himself is wallowing in darkness of hell, how can he enlighten others? Since Krishna himself is a shady character, there is a need for us to liberate his misled followers. (page 50)·

It was Brahma himself who kidnapped Sita. Since Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva were themselves the victims of lust, it is a sin to consider them as Gods. (page 39)
When the Trinity of Hinduism (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) are consumed by lust and anger, how can they liberate others. Their projection as Gods is nothing but a joke. (page 39).

When Vishnu asked Brahma to commit a sin, he immediately did so. How can such a "evil brahma" be a Creator of this Universe? How is it possible for both the sinner and the entity which provoked the sin to be gods? (page 39)
God, please liberate the sinful people of India who are worshipping False Gods that believe in the pleasures of illicit 'Vyabichari' relationships. (Page 39).

All the 16 incidents that took place were not attack on Churches. In fact, unauthorized prayer halls were attacked where the blasphemous pamphlets were distributed and aggressive proselytisation was taking place.

These 16 incidents were not localized but took place across three districts of Mangalore, Udupi and Chikmagalur. The only place where attacks took place apart from New Life Prayer Halls was at a small prayer hall in the premises of Milagres Church in Mangalore, where some miscreants had damaged a Jesus idol. The VHP and the Bajrang Dal have condemned the attack at this place.

Following this incident, a Christian mob gathered and the situation went out of control as the mob started pelting stones and disrupting traffic. The police was forced to intervene and this resulted in unsavoury violence. Since the past two days, it is not Hindu-Christian clashes that are taking place. In fact, it is more appropriate to call it"Christian-Police" clashes since the Christians holed up in Churches have engaged themselves in pelting of stones and disruption of traffic. The Police were forced to enter the Church to clear the mob and they found arms inside the Church. Incidents of Stabbing were reported in around four or five places across Mangalore district. In fact, an activist belonging to Shri Ram Sena was stabbed which led to a bandh call by Shri Ram Sena – a Hindu outfit that is not connected to Sangh Parivar.

The VHP and the Bajrang Dal have condemned the desecration of Jesus idol at the prayer hall adjacent to the Milagres Church in Mangalore. They have also clarified that they are not against the Catholic faith and the Churches. However, they have clarified that the public outcry would continue as long as illicit conversion activities and blasphemy of Hindu gods take place.

Even the Kandhmahal murder — which involved the killing of Hindu monk Swami Lakshmananda by missionaries – seems to have caste a shadow on this incident since the general public seems to have seen through Christian aggression. It may be recalled that there was a public outcry against illegal prayer halls in Davanagere district last week. In that case, the administration had closed the unauthorized prayer halls that were mushrooming in the region. --
Reverend D'souza catholicunion@eml.cc

Related stories:

Inducement to lure Poor @
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Inducements_lure_poor_to_convert/articleshow/3491637.cms
NGOs and Foreign Funds @ http://newstodaynet.com/2007sud/mar07/190307.htm

Anti-Nation Industry @ http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=5192&SKIN=C

** Towards Religious Harmony

Towards Religious Harmony
Crusadewatch
by H. DeSilva

Christian evangelists are on a roll in Sri Lanka. During the past few decades many reactionary Christian organisations originating in the west have swept into Sri Lanka with the single aim of converting all non-Christians to Christianity.

Having arrived in a "third world" country, their reasoning is that all niceties and norms of decency can be dispensed with; evangelism is carried out through whatever means necessary without any thought for the consequence, even if this means creating a religious conflict.

Sri Lanka must be on high guard if she is to preserve her religious harmony, for looking around the world it can be seen that religious conflict has not been far behind wherever Christian evangelists have set up shop. Moderate Christians in the country have opposed the acts of the minority Christian fundamentalists, but this opposition has been much too soft and has been relegated to a few personalities.

If the articles in various national papers are anything to go by, more often than not we come across members of the mainstream churches supporting and encouraging the evangelists and their insidious activities.

By throwing their weight behind the Christian fundamentalists, moderate Christians are only doing what the fundamentalists want them to do: join in the offensive against other religions. Such an outcome does not bode well for the future of this country, and a deep reflection on the issue ought to be undertaken by moderate Christians siding with (or leaning towards) the evangelists. It is true that we have heard some sections of the Church condemn the insensitive and indecent activities of the evangelists, but nothing has been done to reign in those who continue with these provocative activities.

No concrete steps have been taken to stop abusing the poverty and destitution of a war-scarred population in order convert them, and no concrete steps have been taken to stop once and for all the iconoclastic practice of smashing Buddhist and Hindu statues to signify total conversion to Christianity. We are left to believe that the public condemnation is merely a ploy to appear moderate and tolerant, and that the Church continues to support such activities in secret.

But surely this cannot be true? For if it were, we have the makings of a religious imbroglio that could overshadow the current national conflict itself. It is unfortunate but true that the history of the Church in this island has not been one that it can be proud of.

If truth be told, the mainstream churches, hand in hand with the colonials, engaged in vicious forms of evangelism, trying to convert all the non-Christian natives to Christianity and bring them to the "civilization" that the Europeans supposedly first brought to this country inhabited by brown-skinned "pagans."

The Church played a leading role in trying to wean away the natives from their culture and national religion - Buddhism or Hinduism, and used whatever means at their disposal to carry out this task.

They shamelessly paid new converts to go around villages degrading Buddhism and they had no qualms about providing education through their schools if only the Buddhist and Hindu children would convert to Christianity.

Churches were built on the desecrated remains of Buddhist and Hindu temples, and for a long time the inveterate enemies of the Church remained the two religions of Buddhism and Hinduism which were adhered to by the vast majority of Sri Lankans.

So it is with much concern today that the people of this country regard the lack of action taken by the Church to arrest the activities of the evangelists. Is the Church falling back into its past history of openly attacking and trying to annihilate other religions? Is this the case in this "age of enlightenment", and if so, how can such an openly hostile attitude towards other religions be conducive towards religious harmony?

The established churches in Sri Lanka must be wary of providing support to the evangelists who are conducting an ideological war against against non-Christian religions.

By providing overt or covert support to the activities of the evangelists, the mainstream churches are only inviting the displeasure of the vast majority of Sri Lankans who do not look kindly upon the provocative methods of proselytism employed by the Christian fundamentalists.

Many in this country are quite plainly fed up with the crusade of conversion that is being spearheaded by the evangelists, and want the hate campaign against non-Christian religions to end.

If the Church were responsible and tolerant of other faiths, it ought to take into account the thoughts and feelings of the Sri Lankan people, instead of continuously ignoring them in order to satisfy the rather fanciful and intolerant dream of Christianizing not only Sri Lanka, but the entire world.

Christian fundamentalists have sown the seeds of religious discord in this country, and the fruit of their actions can only be disastrous. It is in the interests of the Sri Lankan nation to take immediate steps to neutralize the war waged by the Christian evangelists against non-Christian religions, and to reinstall and reinforce a climate of religious tolerance and understanding.

Moderate Christians must understand that the religious harmony that was prevalent in Sri Lanka has been breached solely by the irresponsible activities of the evangelists, who care naught for the welfare of Sri Lanka, and who would do anything in their power to "harvest souls" for their God.

By ignoring the principles of tolerance, love, compassion and understanding that are enunciated in the Bible, the evangelists are going against the teachings of Jesus Christ, and are trampling on accepted norms of decency. No good can come of it, and Sri Lanka should not have to undergo the trauma the Christian fundamentalists are thrusting upon her.

United together, Sri Lanka can shake off the unpleasant activities and attitudes of the Christian fundamentalists and move towards greater understanding and co-existence.

By doing so, the country can stave off a possible religious war, and maintain its proud tradition of religious harmony. But as long as the Christian evangelists continue with their ideological war against non-Christian religions, and as long as some mainstream Christians support and aid the intolerant activities of the evangelists, an end to religious rivalry and hostility will not be seen.

The vast majority of Sri Lankans comprising Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, moderate Christians, free thinkers and atheists will not be happy over such a situation. They want the religious fanaticism of the Christian evangelists to end as soon as possible - before it creates debilitating religious rifts among society.

Opposing religious fundamentalism will be of benefit to Sri Lanka both now and for the future. To ignore evangelism today will likely lead to more hostile religious conflicts later on.

This is something that Sri Lanka can ill afford after more than 20 years of national conflict. United together as Sri Lankans who appreciate religious harmony and co-existence, the intolerant worldview of the evangelists and their machinations can and should be defeated. The voice of the tolerant majority must be heard. http://www.crusadewatch.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=928

RELATED STORIES:

Persecution Industry @ http://www.crusadewatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=697&Itemid=128

Slokas on Mount @ http://indiaview.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/slokas-on-the-mount/