Posted on 12/18/2014 7:06:53 PM PST by Steelfish
Christian Enclave In India Fears Violence As Hindus Press For Conversions
A resident surveys the damage after a fire inside St. Sebastian Church in New Delhi on Dec. 2. Hundreds of Christians took to the streets to protest what they said was a deliberate attack. (Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images) By Annie Gowen December 18 at 3:30 AM
ALIGARH, India — The trouble started a few months ago, when Hindu nationalists swept into a small village where several families had converted to Christianity more than a decade earlier. They held a fire purification ceremony with the villagers, tore a cross off the local church and put up a poster of the god Shiva. The space was now a temple, they declared.
Then right-wing Hindu groups announced a Christmas Day ceremony where they planned to welcome hundreds of Christians and Muslims into Hinduism. A fundraising flier solicited donations for volunteers to undergo conversion — about $3,200 for each Christian and about $8,000 for each Muslim.
After a nationwide furor, organizers on Tuesday postponed the ceremony. But one of them, Rajeshwar Singh Solanki, said in an interview Thursday that his group will demonstrate against any church baptisms performed on the holiday. He said his group’s ultimate aim is to ensure that Islam and Christianity “cease to exist” in India.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Muslim converts get more???
They did the same to Thomas, 2000 years ago. Lord, do not abandon Your children, but let their witness bring their attackers to repentance and acceptance of Your saving grace.
Right wing? Seriously?
That anyone can write for the Washington Post and maintain any any self-respect is completely amazing.
Hindus forcing conversion? That’s a new one on me. I thought Hindus considered Jesus as just another god and to each their own, so to speak.
I have worked with Hindus over the years and never once had a conflict with any one of them because I proclaimed myself a Christian.
Strange ... what am I missing?
There are thugs who hide behind religion to partake in their thuggery in every religion. My problem with Islam is that their 'holy' book tells them to commit this murder and mayhem (if they cannot force a conversion). I don't believe the Hindu's 'writings' (whatever they are) do the same.
So I take this as free-lance thuggery - not having anything to do with Hinduism, but with Christ haters.
Great point. Worthy of further research on my part. TY
Hindus forcing conversion? Must be the converts to Islam,Radical Islam that converted to Hindus or Radical Hindus , D’oh
Are you sure that you worked with Hindus and not Buddhists?
Big difference.
I have worked with both and the ones I’m talking about were Hindus. Hindus have over 330 million gods that they worship, and Jesus is just another one in their eyes, that is why I questioned the validity of the article.
I’ve read about activist Hindus in India before. Here, Hindus don’t care what you are. There, some want to save India for the “real” Indians and Indian culture. Sort of a nationalistic thing.
We sponsored a child in the Indian Provence of Orrisa a few years back. There was an orphanage there and a school, and the villagers were Christians. They were brutally attacked by Hindu nationalists, homes burned, until the whole project had to be shut down. The Christians there lost their church, their school, their homes. So it does happen. We get such a sanitized version of things here.
I assure you that the article is valid in its observations.
I have been going to India as a Lutheran pastor for over forty years and lived there for seven of those years. In the villages there are persecutions that go on. In present day Odisha State (formerly Orissa) there was a horrible persecution some years back with the murder of even pastors and the forceful conversions. Now the people of that area have peace and some who were threatened and converted have returned to the Christian churches. The RSS and other Hindu radical groups are involved in this. Investigate what they say about Hindutva, India for the Hindus. There is no question that politics and nationalism also interplay with persecution of Christians.
It is true that Hinduism has been an amorphous thing absorbing down through the centuries the village gods. But India is a large and populous country with many things going on at the same time.
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