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Rising tensions restrict church-planting in India

Tensions rising between India and Pakistan are impacting the spread of the Gospel, said Dave Stravers of Mission India, reports MNN.

"These religious feelings from Muslims towards Hindus,and Hindus towards Muslims, have been there for centuries," he explained. "And the existence of Pakistan actually is based on this outbreak of hatred between the two groups, back in when India became an independent nation just about 60 years ago."

The tension is making it very dangerous to travel, limiting Mission India's work to only a few places.

"We do have work in Kashmir which is where the greatest tension is, and even the fighting war has been going on there, but it's very dangerous travel," Stravers said. "And so the amount of evangelistic [and] church-planting work that can go on in Kashmir is very limited...to a few places where it's relatively safe."

Stravers is concerned that if India's right-wing politicians gain more political power, they could make life even more difficult for Christians. India's right-wing strongly opposes not only Pakistan and Muslims, but also Christians.

One way that the politicians could be down Christians would be to enforce anti-conversion laws, or pass more of them. The laws, effective in many of India's states, require new Christians to obtain a signature from the local police before being baptized.

"These laws are widely disregarded for Christians," Stravers said. "If they were really enforced, it would make life very difficult for those who are bringing the Gospel in evangelistic work. A political change could actually result in the strengthening of these laws, either their enforcement or the passing of new laws that would tend to inhibit people who would want to change their faith."

Stravers said that Christians in India firmly believe in obeying God rather than man, and generally disregard the law. Last year, he visited a Christian community in Orissa right after it baptized eleven new believers. He asked whether they had obeyed the anti-conversion law.

"The leaders laughed," Stravers explained. "They said, 'No one is doing that. We're not doing that. You cannot obey that law, because you're only inviting the police to send extremists to your house to browbeat you or even to attack you.' So there are literally tens of thousands of new believers in Orissa this year that did not follow this oppressive law."

Since India's constitution guarantees religious liberty and the right to change one's religion, the law is being challenged in the court system. However, India's courts work slowly.

"It's not always so easy to have your say in court. So it does create some tension and some fear undoubtedly on the part of many believers," Stravers said.

Nevertheless, the church is growing, and believers are standing strong. They would appreciate the prayer of their brothers and sisters around the world.

"The church leaders just say, �?God will protect us and bless us, and we're going to keep obeying Him. And if people come to us and say we want to be baptized, we're going to do it.'"

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TAGS: India Pakistan Mission India Hindus Muslims church-planting religious liberty persecution

[01/05/2009]

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