2004-04-03

A Study On Harvesting Souls

A religion with a lot of money is preying competition.

Religious conversion efforts have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. It is all hoping to cut people off from their rich past and heritage by making them switch to a different faith. Descendants of religious converts are expected to lose their religious and nationalistic fervour over time and welcome World Government without much resistance. That’s the calculation. They will be dispossessed of their wealth along the way, of course. See what’s happening in America. They are either secular/anti-Christian or mad-as-hell evangelical types.

Shreeprakash and Jayaprakash of Kerala have published a study titled Conversion In India. It is based on reports published by Christian missionaries. One of the authors was spurred into performing the study after perusing a copy of The National Missionary Intelligencer at a doctor’s office. This journal apparently is for private circulation only and not available.

Nearly about 500 letters were written to these evangelical groups and nearly the same numbers of replies were received. Bibles, New Testaments, books, booklets and pamphlets flowed in and all of them were free of cost. 30 Bibles (with old and new testaments), 20 New Testaments, 40 books, 100 booklets and plenty of pamphlets were received by post. I even received a Free Bible which was sent to me with Registered Post with postage of Rs72/-.

I had done a few bible courses when I was young and a recurring question in the courses is: Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior? I concur with the authors when they say:

Bible correspondence courses are free of cost. The method of teaching in each study material is well designed. The lesson plans echoes a high sense of modern educational psychology behind them. They give a comprehensive outlook of Christian Theology. The evaluated answer paper and the score sheet reaches the student very promptly even from abroad.

About the missionary network, the authors say:

As a part of this work, an address namely, Workers Together in U.S.A was contacted. To my surprise, a pastor of a Brethren Church contacted me from my own town. His residence was only 1 km away from that of mine. He called me over telephone and invited me for a personal meeting.

On visiting his house, he handed over to me an Oxford Edition of the Bible, printed in New York, and a few booklets and pamphlets. What astonished me was that the pastor had with him a copy of letter which I had sent to U.S.A. On enquiring about how the nearness of my residence with that of the pastor was understood by the party at Bangalore, he showed me an official directory of the list of the evangelists working in India, with their family photographs and complete details arranged in the order of PIN codes. Another directory of their worldwide network was also shown to me.

Here is a reproduction of a pamphlet published by Missions India.

A BRIEF OUTLINE ABOUT MISSIONS INDIA

Navajeevodayam Center, Thiruvalli-5, Kerala.

Website:www.missionsindia.org

A children congregation started at Thiruvalli, Kerala, in 1951 by navajeevodayam K.V. Cheriyan, with its main objective as ‘Evangelisation of India’, grew up to form “Evangelise India fellowship” in 1964. A bible school for imparting training to Missionaries, was started in 1983. It was in 1989 that “Mission India” came into being. Missionary work started at Yamunanagar in Haryana. Missions India mainly concentrates outside Kerala.

• Motto: Reach the unreached At any cost
• Mission fields: 81
• Missionaries: 225
• Missionary Training centers: Yamunanagar(Haryana), Jummu(J&K), Jalp(MP),
• Khurda (Orissa), Sindhipet (AP). These Training centers produce 45 missionaries each & every year.
• No. of conversions: Approx. 600
• Service area: India & Nepal
• No. of Churches built: 5
• No. of conversions through medical service: 150 (This was made possible by the effort of the hospital ministry group aiming at “Evangelisation through medical service”, coinsisting of a team of 14 missionaries, 2 doctors, 2 nurses and 2 lab technicians).
• 14 orphans are sheltered in Chappadkhanda in Orissa.
• Tailoring classes conducted in khanspur (Haryana), and Jalap (MP).
• 2 public schools are being run at Yamunanagar (Haryana) & Jalap (MP).
• Literacy classes are conducted by the Missionary especially in North-East India and Nepal to enable the illiterate to know about Jesus.
• Skilled training in composing, printing, typewriter, shorthand, tailoring, etc., is conducted at various centers.
• From 1994 onwards, an electronic diploma course has been started with a view to spreading the message of Jesus.
• The organization is registered under Societies Act.
• Aims & Objectives: To establish the kingdom of Jesus, incorporating other similar organizations and various sects of Christian community & utilizing every facilities and media which may accelerate evangelization. To extend a helping hand to those who are involved in “Total evangelization of India”. To spread the Gospel in places where it has not been reached.

UPDATE: The following are some of the complaints mentioned the International Religious Freedom Report 2004 released by the U.S. Department of State (their foreign ministry).

The Government is empowered to ban a religious organization if it … has violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), which restricts funding from abroad. Christian organizations have complained that this prohibition prevents them from properly financing their humanitarian and educational activities in the country.

There is no national law that bars a citizen or foreigner from professing or propagating his or her religious beliefs; however, speaking publicly against other beliefs is considered dangerous to public order and is prohibited by India’s Foreigners Act.

A Home Ministry report, released in April 2003, stated that 23,777 persons, predominantly Hindus, were arrested and charged in 2,014 cases in connection with the Gujarat violence. None were charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).

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