The Evangelical Project in Orissa

As Kandhamal burns, the BJD-BJP coalition in Orissa is under severe strain. It should be obvious to even the most amateur of political observers that the murder of Swami Lakshmananda was a pre-emptive strike at unravelling this coalition. The unabated violence against Christians is not just unacceptable but is plain stupidity to provoke it for it only widens chasm between the BJD and the BJP ahead of the elections to hand over Orissa on a platter to the Congress. The Naveen Patnaik Administration and the BJP must realise the stakes are too high for the NDA to?not contain the violence and to bring the perpetrators of the murdee and subsequent violence to justice.

Having said that the events in Orissa are symptomatic of a deeper malaise that needs to be fully understood. When violence had flared in Kandhamal during Christmas last yera Offstumped had pointed out that it was a feud over entitlements while highlighting the mischief mongering by the National Minorities Commission’s fact finding team.

The bias in the NCM’s investigation is clear from these remarks that find place in the official report.

The 1991 Census shows the Christians constituted 75597 of the population of Kandhmal district whereas in the 2001 Census their population had gone up to 117950. While the increase in population in percentage terms is substantial, there is no evidence whatsoever that this increase occurred under duress or on account of inducement to conversion. A stringent law regarding conversion the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act has been on the statute books for the past four decades. The NCM Members asked both district officials and senior officials in the State Secretariat whether any cases had been reported or filed with regard to infringement of this law over the past 10 years. Not one incident of forcible conversion was cited or adduced. We also inquired from the Church representatives whether they keep a register of conversions. Such a register is a routine practice at the time of baptism. The Church representatives confirmed that they indeed maintained such a register. But no one has apparently bothered to check it. In fact the Archbishop of Bhubaneshwar told the NCM team that neither he nor anyone in the Diocese was ever summoned by the authorities with regard to matters relating to conversion. From the above the NCM team has inferred that there is no basis whatsoever to justify the anti-conversion campaign. On the other hand, this mischievous campaign has created an atmosphere of prejudice and suspicion against the Christian community and Christian priests and organizations.

It is clear from the above that the NCM team did the bare minimum necessary to understand the social effects of evangelical activity in Orissa. But what is confounding is the arrogance of the NCM in concluding that there is “no basis” for what it calls an “anti-conversion” campaign.

Offstumped will now detail the Evangelical Project in Orissa and the foreign entities behind it.

To understand this Project better, Offstumped draws the attention of its readers to foreign evangelocal entities “World Encounter” and LCMC (a Lutheran Church Congregation). The LCMC has a quarterly newsletter and in its edition for the first quarter of 2007, the LCMC newsletter carried a detailed 1 page story focused on Orissa where it invited congregations in the U.S.A for what it called

For a life-transforming experience, join World Encounter, in association with LCMC, on a short term outreach to India October 5-22, 2007. Orissa Evangelical Fellowship (OEF), an LCMC association of churches in India, has invited congregations in the US to encourage them in their efforts to share the Good News with the unreached people of India.

What’s interesting is why this project zeroed in on Orissa of all places, in its own words.
The people of Orissa are primarily tribal/animists and Hindus who worship spirits, trees, rocks, and other objects of nature. The heart of the OEF vision is focused on church planting, discipleship, and leadership…Groups of believers worship inhomes and thatch-roofed churches. In the midst of opposi-tion to the Gospel,they are committed to reaching their Hindu neighbors and families with the Good News that has transformed their lives .

This precisely is the problem in Orissa – aggressive proselytization with foreign funding and support thats invasive of people’s privacy with a clear objective of “planting churches”, expanding to “new villages” and evangelizing to “Hindu Neighbors”.

This not about the practice of Christianity in Orissa.

This is about changing the social demographics and the fabric of society in poor rural pockets of Orissa, one village, one neighborhood at a time.

To appreciate how well prepared this Evangelical Project in its targetting of Orissa, consider this compilation of target Villages in Orissa by geo-cordinates.

To further appreciate the sophistication and subterfuge with which proselytization is conducted in Orissa in the post-Staines era read this blog post by a Brian Zahnd, founder and senior pastor of Word of Life Church, a 4,000 member congregation in St. Joseph, Missouri.

I was never allowed to sit on the platform and was never introduced as a preacher. P.G. would say that he and his wife, Lilly, and his daughter, Grace, were the preachers. They would get up, speak for five minutes, and then P.G. would say he had a friend he wanted to introduce and bring a “greeting.” P.G. would introduce me as a friend bringing a greeting, and then as he handed me the microphone, he would whisper, “Preach for an hour and a half.” We did this twice a day and every evening. So three times a day I would bring a 90 minute “greeting.” I was told the police were wondering, “Who is this greeting man?” Because several thousand local people were coming at night, the evening meetings took on the tone of an evangelistic event. The last three nights I preached strong evangelistic messages….

The Orissa Government maintains a list of foreign contributions to NGOs in Orissa. The list is worth reading to appreciate how much money was pumped from International sources to further the evangelical project in Orissa during the earlier part of this decade – 2.3 crores to Orissa Fellowship Ministry, 12 crores for Cuttack Roman Catholic Diocese, 2.73 crore for Indian Evangelical Association, 1.4 crores for Brethren in Christ Church, 2.8crores for East India Mission, 4.4 crores for Joypore Evangelical Lutheran Church … the list goes on.

Of all the digging up by Offstumped, this appeal for foreign funds by a Pastor from Orissa should take the cake, replete with address and details of Bank Accounts posted as a comment on a Christian Financial Ministries site,?its funny and tragic at the same time.

Pastor. Surya Karada AGAPE REACHING MINISTRIES GOVT. REGD. NO: 5392-30-2000-2001.GOVT. FCRA. NO: 105060070. FCRA.STATE BANK OF INDIA: ACCOUNTS. NO: 10535483790. PANCHGACHHIA, BARAIPALI, INDESTRIES.ESTATE SAMBALPUR, ORISSA, INDIA.768150

Had the NCM been honest and objective in its fact finding it would have detailed out the influence of foreign sponsored Evangelical Activities. The fact that this kind of evangelical proselytization with the aid and support of foreign entities finds no mention in the NCM’s report dents the NCM’s credibility while ascribing all the blame to the VHP’s so-called “anti-conversion” campaign.

Offstumped Bottomline: There is a critical distinction between the religious freedom of the Minority Community to practice its faith and the freedom to aggresively proselytize flush with funds and support by foreign entities. The former is a fundamental freedom enshrined in the Indian Constitution the latter is a privilege that has been abused to the detriment of the social fabric of poor rural communities. As Orissa picks up the pieces from this spate of violence the Evangelical Ministries would do well to reflect on the damage done by aggresive proselytization.

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