Posted on 11/12/2005 3:21:12 PM PST by MSCASEY
JMM Urgent Prayer] November 12, 2005 Dear Friend in Christ,
I am asking you today to pray for an extremely critical situation. More than 60 new believers in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh are being threatened with death if they do not convert back to Hinduism! It is not enough that they escaped the spiritual bondage that has oppressed their people for centuries, but now radical Hindus have threatened to burn alive any Christians who do not return to their former slavery.
Here is what happened: On November 4, a pastor was attacked and severely beaten by a group of militants who threatened his life. Now the same group says they will conduct a puja (ritual) on November 20 to forcefully convert the Christians in his church to Hinduism--and burn alive any who do not renounce their new faith.
The pastor has filed a complaint with local police, but the area is dominated by a large temple to the Hindu god Shiva. Thousands of pilgrims come to the temple, so Hinduism is important to the local economy. It is not clear if the police will take any action to protect the Christians.
What is most important now is that we pray for this situation. I urge you to pray for the protection of the men, women and children in that place who have committed their lives to Christ. Pray that God will surround them with His angels and turn back any violence. Please also pray for their attackers, that their hearts will be softened and that God will work a miracle in their lives.
Imagine what a powerful force for good they could become if they surrendered their lives to the Living God instead of gods that do not hear them!
Please share this request with your church and your friends. This is a spiritual battle, and only through prayer and fasting will the enemy be defeated in this stronghold.
I thank you for being a part of what God is doing in Asia. Thank you, most of all, for standing with us and with our brothers and sisters in Himachal Pradesh during this challenging time.
Yours for the lost of Asia,
Pastor.Johnson Mathews
Mohammad approves of lying to infidels, so I feel that was a very legitimate question.
I am going to sign off for now it is very late/early in the morning in this part of the world and I have to get up in few hours.
Ms.Casey Daughter
There are roughly 30-40 million Christians in India. When you have such a large population of Christians, every single incidents of killings and murders does not make it a "presecution" as your anti-Hindu propagandists would like to play up.
I suggest you travel to India to know more and trust me nobody will harm you because you are a Christian.
Yep.
" ALL religions are mutually exclusive. NONE of them (except maybe Bahnai Br'ith if I'm spelling it right, but it's a man made religion) believe we're all worshipping the same God"
Not true - read about Bahais (or Bahaism).
Just one correction in that spiel will I address.
ALL religions are mutually exclusive.
Absolutely untrue. Hinduism is the world's only major inclusive religion. In that sense it is far superior to a Christianity which excludes everything except a Jesus it no longer understands. (if ever it did after the third century)
Christianity is lost. Spiritually dying if not already dead. If it weren't, it would not be looking for Shiva devotees to swell its ranks.
The main problem with Christianity (as understood today) is the lack of disciplic succession from Jesus. There is no living parampara. So anyone can claim to be a disciple of Jesus and believe all variety of stuff, which Jesus himself may or may not agree with!
The Hindu (Vedic) tradition mandates that one who wants to know God must find a spiritual teacher and inquire from him submissively and render service to him, as a disciple. And the qualities of such a spiritual master are delineated very clearly and in detail. The first and foremost quality is that he (or she, as the case may be - there have been women gurus) must himself be a disciple of an authoritative guru. No room for "self-made" teachers, who invent as they go along, making all kinds of wild claims and creating "truth" that is not in accord with the previous teachers.
Never had a real teacher, until recently. At times it is difficult to know who is teaching whom. (It's a very sharp edge.)
Hmmmmmm.... I'll have to ask the local Muslim community if we're tolerant. Especially the local doctor who cheered the death and destruction on 9/11 and who is still practicing in the area. And those who built the local mosque just a few miles from here. And maybe the Muslim kid who played his junior and senior years on a high school soccer team I coached - he was as much a part of the team as any kid there.
If the US was intolerant, this acceptance wouldn't be replayed all over the US day after day.
Individual stories don't tell the story - there are anomalies everywhere.
There is no religion on earth that is as emperiled world wide as Christianity.
Actual comment heard personally from a German lady I met with in '93. I remember her exact words - she was very emotional and it really stuck with me. She wsa speaking of the Holocaust perpetrated on Jews by her countrymen: "I think we are not so different from them..." In other words, she was saying that she was afraid people today are capable of the same evil.
I stupidly reassured her that with modern communications, the slaughter couldn't be hidden and the world wouldn't stand for it. Then came Serbia, Bosnia, etc. to prove how foolishly optimistic I was.
You really have me puzzled now.
If Christ was God, why did He die if not for the express purpose stated by Him? And why was He here in the first place?
What sense does it make to accept Christ as God but deny everything else about Him?
Logically, it doesn't make sense to me either, but we don't think as God does. It doesn't make sense to me that the universe goes on forever either, but I still know it does.
While I would NEVER defend anyone attacking another human being for just being who they are or believing what they believe, an occasional act of violence, usually perpetrated by one or two people without plans aforethought does not compare in any way with burning alive three innocent people by a mob who'd planned it ahead of time and who prevented others from trying to extinguish the flames.
The two boys were aged 8 and 10 if I remember correctly.
IT SAYS A LOT ABOUT YOU THAT YOU TRY TO DEFEND OR MINIMIZE SUCH AN ACT.
I am amazed you cite the last article. Do you really think it makes your point?
The most interesting thing about the article is that the author takes almost 1800 words and 133 lines to prove that the adult victim was involved in proselytizing, then points out later in the article that attempting to cause someone to convert to another religion without registering is illegal, and that Staines had not so registered.
The author goes on to say, "In a word: conversions were taking place; this had caused tensions; so much so that a Hindu group had decided to try and get them back into Hinduism.".
Elsewhere in the article: "....Staines and his associates are left free to go on converting Hindus to Christianity."
And: "tensions mount because of conversions.... But our institutions -- the Minorities Commission and the police being representative in this regard -- even in retrospect assert the fiction that there was no tension between Christians and non-Christians."
The point seems to be that Graham Staines was converting people to Christianity and brought it on himself, and if the authorities had enforced the "freedom of religion" act (which could also be called the anti-proselityztion act), the murders would never have occurred.
I think you should stop freaking yourself out over a silly email.
I am not freaking out. I think YOU should stop freaking out on a prayer thread asking other christians to pray for 60 christians whose lives are in danger. Are you trying to tell people NOT to pray for these people?
If you think this is a silly email, why are you on this thread to begin with. Nobody asked for your expertise in this matter.
You try to sound like you know more about the person who wrote this email and the contents of the email, more that the owner of the thread.
My statement of about the police is a statement of fact. Not a comparison of police reaction to various communal conflicts. Maybe you should READ my post before you make inane responses.
This is not a India vs America subject or a Christians vs Hindus issue.
My advise to YOU: There is no anti-hindu material in my post. I don't know what kind of paranoia you suffer from. Don't throw wild, baseless accusations around, you will lose your credibility real fast.
I am not freaking out. I think YOU should stop freaking out on a prayer thread asking other christians to pray for 60 christians whose lives are in danger. Are you trying to tell people NOT to pray for these people?
I have not stopped anybody from praying. Stop making false accusations. And your post (the one I responded to) had nothing about prayers.
If you think this is a silly email, why are you on this thread to begin with. Nobody asked for your expertise in this matter.
Yeah. So What? I have to have your permission before I post on any thread? You are the new post Nazi? You dont entertain any other views that goes contrary to your belief? You have a problem because I was defending my religion and country?
You try to sound like you know more about the person who wrote this email and the contents of the email, more that the owner of the thread.
Well frankly I haven't come across this news anywhere on the web except form this Christian propagandist site:
Had this threat been real and not made up we would have surely seen it in at least some main stream news media and not just one lone Christian (and anti-Hindu) site and in that case I will tell you I would have been the most vocal in outrightly condemning that act. An incident of this scale (60 to be burnt alive) would certainly not have gone unreported at least in the Indian media. Forget the government and the police, at least the Indian media is secular.
Frankly I find this a pathetic and unnecessary attempt to whip up anti-Hindu emotions by people who are indoctinated into beliving that Hindu are raving, lying, deceiving, cow worshipping, blood thirsty, polytheistic idolators out to kill all Christians. One particular incident of Graham Stains and his sons being murdered does make all Hindus a whole bunch of mass murderers.
My statement of about the police is a statement of fact. Not a comparison of police reaction to various communal conflicts. Maybe you should READ my post before you make inane responses.
I did read your post and your own sorry conrtribution to the emotionally charged anti-Hindu histrionics. " Looks like the thugs have given them a deadline to give up their christian faith, or else they will be harmed. The police cannot be really counted on for protection."
You seem to be having more information about the events then any of us.
This is not a India vs America subject or a Christians vs Hindus issue.
Unfortunately, but that's exactly what it is. Look at the posts.
My advise to YOU: There is no anti-hindu material in my post. I don't know what kind of paranoia you suffer from. Don't throw wild, baseless accusations around, you will lose your credibility real fast.
Wow, thats rich! This whole thread is about wild, baseless accusations against Hindus and Indians.
My initial take on the subject was that this could be a case of misreporting (just like the previous couple of threads where incidents happening in Pakistan were mistakenly being reported as happenning in India, Sangla Hills in Nankana, Pakistan also continues into Himachal Pradesh) ..................
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1521542/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1521386/posts
.......................since there is an ongoing anti-Christian pogrom currently going on in Pakistan (for which I have posted links in post #77).
But now I suspect there is a much more ulterior motive behind the numerous anti-Hindu anti-India thread doing rounds at FR. It seems to be a deliberate attempt at Hindu bashing and I am sorry to say that with this kind of knee-jerk reaction to every email or rumour you might end up losing whatever support from secular Hindus you still enjoy for your cause.
The above post #154 is for you too.
And check the above posts. There are more harsh and unfair comments on Hindus then there are prayers.
Why did he say he was here?
What sense does it make to accept Christ as God but deny everything else about Him?
A very good question, but you ask it of the wrong person here. If you ask why I deny everything else others have taught about Jesus I might answer.
Hinduism - the other religion of peace.
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