Christian Persecution and other Disturbing News out of India

First things first. I was aware of a conflict in India this summer regarding Hindu's and Christians, but not overly informed, as our news here in America does not report much, most likely because it involves clashing religions. One of my feeds keeps me up to date on all Christian persecutions.

The battles have been between Christians and Hindu's in the states of Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh and have escalated the past few weeks.

While researching these persecutions I've come across several articles written by Hindu's who blame Christians for the woes of Christians in India, and that Christians support and encourages martyrdom.

Christian organizations have pitched their church tents in some of the poorest areas of India and are offering medical care, food, and education, but with much criticism. Many Hindu's feel that these handouts are deception, tricking Hindus to convert. Their generosity and opportunity is called illegal conversion. Many states within India have outlawed conversion to Christianity. One would think bettering the lives of the poor and introducing them to the Kingdom of God would be a blessed event. But India is not America.

Many seem down right outraged that America would support ministries that could better another human's life, and state we shouldn't offer them things that they can never have, such as food. There are claims of Christian churches strong-arming Hindu's into converting but don't clarify what that strong arming looks like, other than the gifts, oh, and promises of a Kingdom in Heaven.

To be fair, I'm not a missionary in India, but I support several who are and their accountability doesn't look like a threat, but a blessing. Some anti-Christians groups have axes to grind toward America in general. Their accounts seems very bias toward Hinduism, and that the Indian's should not look left nor right but stay a course of poverty that their Hindu gods have subjected them to for generations.

The very nature of Hinduism is renouncing the world and all material things, one is to find bliss on their dirt floors and their empty bellies. The nature of the Christian God is prosperity and promises of a better life.

* God is not selfish or stingy but "gives us richly all things to enjoy." (1 Timothy 6:17)
* Christians are joint heirs with Christ. (Romans 8:17)
* God "gives (us) power to get wealth." (Deuteronomy 8:18)
* "For all the promises of God in (Christ) are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us." (2 Corinthians 1:20)
* God teaches us to profit. (Isaiah 48:17)
* God desires that we prosper. (3 John 1:2)
* Christians have been called to freedom. (Galatians 5:13)

These examples of the promise of our Christian God could be seen as a treat to a nation strapped to an antiquated caste system that promises those at the bottom (or not in it at all) nothing but their misery and their children's misery and their children's children misery, for their lot is determined forever based on a birth order.

Through Christ everything is new.

These writers gives the notion that the peaceful, kind, loving and generous Hindus are the heroes in this current saga, be-dogged throughout history by the evil and greedy Christians. But India was fraught with violence throughout the ages, and long before Christians showed up to spread God's word. A good Hindu certainly knows the Bhagavia Gita, which is a story of battle. Christians didn't need to bring violence to India, it already existed.

This violence in India made me wonder if I would consider myself a militant Christian. I believe Hindu gods are false gods, and here in America, this religion often mutates into cultist-cultural factions, not unlike the caste system practiced by Hindu's for ages. Of course many deny that the caste system is involved because Christians (Hindu converts) still maintain this discrimination. As if Rome could be built in a day! Please. I wouldn't put it past any Indian Christian to also have a statue of Shiva. There's just thousands of years to unwind.

Now, many of India's swami's are "re-converting" these Christians back to Hinduism by making them drink cow urine. Yum. Humiliation, right? Drink this you low-life for thinking you could be loved by one true God, find happiness, personal peace, a little food to warm your belly, an education, and inherit the Kingdom of heaven. Please.

None of these writers mention the Bible once. If they did, they'd have to explain why they think Jesus was just a guru when the biography of Christ in the New Testament states he's the Son of God, the ultimate authority. Jesus regarded Biblical Scripture as authoritative and commissioned his followers to pass on his message to all people, in all places.

"If the world hates you," keep in mind that it hated me first." John 15:18