Christmas in the Midst of Unseen Violence

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Christmas in the Midst of Unseen Violence

There have been times when the Christian community celebrated Christmas with a peaceful heart. Gone are those days when we thought of Christmas as times of peace, joy and happiness. The carol singing was considered as taking the message of peace and joy that come with a birth of Christ to the people but the recent happenings of violence against the Carol team in different parts of the county and the threat calls issued by the hardcore Hindu fundamental organizations have made it an event inviting troubles and violence. Under this circumstances the question comes to our minds is that, will the Christianity that has faced numberless persecutions throughout the history stop preaching the message of peace? Will these mindless violence force the Christians from doing charity and humanitarian services as demanded by Christ?

How much truth is there in the allegations of forced conversions of people belonging to the economically weaker sections, especially tribals and scheduled caste? The Christians in most of the states are a minuscule minority which has no political voice. The number of families in most village Churches can be counted on fingers. So how will the powerless Christians force the villagers to get converted to Christianity? The Churches in these villages are mostly very shabby and runs in small rooms which silently proclaim the bad economic condition of the churches and families associated with it. How could one justify the allegation of alluring Hindus with regular or irregular economic aid to get converted Christianity?

The Christian community must be running more than twenty-five thousand educational intuitions across the country. And adding to it, the Christian community in the country runs thousands of charity organizations supporting millions of peoples to improve their lives. If these organizations and educational institutions as alleged by the fundamental organizations were working with the sole aim of conversion, then what would have been the population of Christians in the country? If these allegations to be true then how could many of leaders of the Hindu fundamental organizations and Bhartiya Janta Party leaders including L.K. Adwani (Former Deputy Prime Minister) remain a Hindu? In the recent years in Chhattisgarh, many personnel working in educational institutions were attacked in very many ways including very serious allegations of sexual abuses. In spite of all these the faith of people in the services offered by the community is still at a growing pace. So do the allegations of using educational and charity organizations for conversion stand ground?

If we analyse these attacks on the institutions, some of them are organized just to popularize to fundamental list ideology and to stop Christians from working for the poor and downtrodden peoples belong to be lower strata of the society. Some of them are planned and executed to get access to the administration of the educational intuitions so that leaders of fundamental organize get their choice of students get admitted to the schools. One of the major reasons could also be that the Christian community is branded as supporters of Congress Party and the socio-political organizations following Hindutva ideology take political vendetta on the Christians. It is true that there may be few incidents of violence taking place due to religious reasons.

A clear study of attacks on Christians could reveal the fact that in many of these cases fundamental organizations have executive their vicious plans with the help of the police. In some of the incidents the victims were beaten up, manhandled and very badly abused in the presence of the police or in the police stations but police made little efforts to stop them. In the case of the recent attacks on priests and brothers (Christians) in Satna and Bhuranpur and Aligarh in U.P are clear examples of police supported violence. There are many cases reported that the members of the fundamental organizations in the midst of the prayer came with the police and took away the pastor and believers who objected to the police stations. If police find that the arrested persons have no influence in the higher ups, then they are mentally and physically tortured and in many cases police register cases under the Freedom of Religion Act and other sections of IPC and send them to jail. One might tend to ask the question, are these policemen safeguarding the rights of people or executors of the plans of the fundamental organizations?

There are serious violations of freedom of religion guaranteed in the Article 25 of the Constitution of India which grantees every citizen freedom to practice and propagate his/her faith. How could one interpret conducting prayers in houses, conventions, retreats, Bible studies, carol singing, etc as methods of forcing or alluring people to conversion? The misinterpretation and misuse of the provisions of the Freedom of Religion Act is a clear violation of the spirit of the Article 25 of the Constitution of India. We need to place the Christmas and the worries of the Christians in the background of these rising unseen violent situations. In the midst of most uncertain times, we pray, Oh! Lord, Have Thine Own Way, yes it calls for a total surrender of oneself at the feet of the Cross, Wish you all a Happy Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

Fr Dr Anand Muttugnal


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3 Comments

  1. “how could many of leaders of the Hindu fundamental organizations and Bhartiya Janta Party…” writes author.

    So, BJP is a ‘Hindu fundamental’ organization? Does the author even realize how this kind of condescending language coupled with chequered past of missionaries have turned public sentiments very negative on christian religious groups? When BJP came to power, there were many reports of church attacks which later turned out to be false. Even in recent Gowri Lankesh murder case, media and many groups accused ‘Hindu’ groups for the murder with zero evidence. Not a single soul came forward to apologize for spreading fake news. Do you realize how these things perpetuate the same old negative stereotypes of minority groups conspiring to tarnish and weaken the Hindu society?

    Hindu society has a number of flaws and challenges that nobody denies. However, constantly branding anything ‘Hindu’ as ‘intolerant’, mocking hindu sentiments and festivals are adding fuel to the suspicion between communities and resulting in these unfortunate incidents.

  2. Glad to the read the open article exposing the hidden strategy of the current administration from my personal Friend. The RSS and her sister parties have created a new song to bluff the gullible party followers ” forced conversion” through which India will be a Christian country.

    The number of the political leaders who got educated at the Christian schools and colleges are too many; including Advani-Arun Jaitly-Smiriti Irani-Dr. Kiran Bedi- the CM of Goa-Sadananda Gowda (former Railway Minister for a very short term from Karnataka) etc, they are running the country as RSS politicians. How much difference we can visualize too openly and easily, wherever the Christian population is higher, the superior healthcare-education and the socially uplifted society?

    The most stomach cramping rhetoric is to hear from the RSS leaders all across the nation praising the great contribution of the Christian community in healthcare-education and social life, whenever they are invited to speak at the Christian gatherings and Churches.

    It is now quite known to the whole world, especially in the Christian nations of the world where Modi loves to visit and hug the leaders with the profound intention to get massive foreign investment in India, that India is under the current regime is fully anti-Christian; and will do anything and everything to terrorize and oppress them to be politically subordinates. The RSS Government’s misguided and blinded strategy to reach that destination will be crashing before our eyes. We do believe in and worship a risen GOD.

  3. ALSO THERE ARE DOLE DRUMS ( OR LOOP HOLES) IN HONORABLE COURT VERDICTS WHICH IS LATELY OBSERVED BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC !! THOSE WHO BELIEVES IN UNCOUNTED GODS AND STILL THEY DONT HAVE STRONG FAITH IN THOSE GODS AS THEY SCARED TO A COUNTABLE PEACEFUL MINORITY OR
    CAROL SINGERS !!

    CONVERSION IS NOT AN AGENDA HERE BECAUSE BY CAROL SINGING NO ONE CAN BECOME BELIEVER OF ANOTHER FAITH AND FOR THE WORST CASE ONE CANT BUY THE FAITH BY MONEY ( IT IS NOT A CHOCOLATE BAR ) ! AND IT IS A CLEAR PROPAGANDA OF SOME POLITICAL PARTY ! GUYS ! YOU ARE PUSHING TO THE WALL TO DESTROY THE RELIGION FABRIC AND IN THE FUTURE EVERY CITIZEN THINK ABOUT BECOME ATHEIST AND THE DAYS ARE NOT SO FAR !!

    WHEN ITS COMING TO CONVERSION SOME HYPOCRISY PREVAILS IN SOME RELIGIONS !! WHY THE SWAMIJIS ARE TRAVELLING ABROAD AND BRING “WHITE” DISCIPLES IN THIS COUNTRY WHERE THERE IS NO TOLERANCE TO OTHER RELIGIOUS BELIEFS !

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