Missionaries encourage illegality:By Rammadhav

[Guest guest]

HOW TO CIRCUMVENT ANTI-CONVERSION LAW

CLEVER GUIDE TO CHRISTIANS

The Government of Tamilnadu has promulgated an Ordinance recently

banning conversions by `force, fraud or allurement'. Ever since the

Ordinance was promulgated there was a lot of commotion and

restlessness in the Christian Missionary leadership. A few days ago,

Minority Gospel Rights Protection Forum in Simmakkal, Madurai,

Tamilnadu have brought out a booklet in Tamil captioned "Approach to

combat Anti Conversion Law". This booklet of 56 pages, whose sole

objective is to offer tips to the Missionaries in the art of

deception of circumventing the Ordinance and continuing with their

conversion activity, outlines in 13 chapters the methods to be

observed for this purpose by individual Christian members. It is

mentioned in the booklet that this is being published with a view

to "educate the Christian Missionary involved in conversion on the

legal aspects of the law".

Some excerpts from that booklet are given below.

 

In the article under the headline `Position of Indian Christians

today', the following are the facts accepted by them.

"The position of the Indian Christians in the beginning of the 21st

century is in contravention of the basic Christian Principles. It is

a common practice nowadays for Christians to pass by another

Christian even without wishing him. The reasons that can be

attributed for this are, lack of unity, disrespect to others, lack of

tolerance, economic disparity, casteism, greed for money, division of

rich and poor, different churches for different castes, desire to

capture power of clergy, exercising hired muscle power, talking ill

of other Christian sects, churches engaged in amassing wealth,

luxurious life, misbehaviour, misconduct etc."

By this Booklet, they have themselves demystified the common belief

that Christianity is pure, lovable and service-minded.

Another chapter headlined "Today's position of churches and Christian

missionaries", discloses the fact that instead of preaching the

teachings of Christ, speeches degrading other churches are made, and

more time is spent on minor rituals and functions. This is advised

to be avoided as this dampens the enthusiasm of the people to come to

churches.

 

In Western countries, churches are being sold for the simple reason

that they have lost the godliness and are turning into recreation

clubs and money-earning organizations. Disgusted by this, people have

stopped attending the church. It is felt that this position is

spreading here also.

The following are a few of the tips given in the chapter with the

headline "Methodology for rapid spread of Christianity":

1. No church should act or encourage any caste.

2. No caste rift should be there in clergy elections

3. There should not be any caste segregation in cemetery.

4. No church or missionary should collect any money either from

its own members or from new converts or from other religion members

by coercion or threat, as this will antagonise the public and give an

impression that churches are money-grabbers.

"Unlike in Hindu Faith, there is no caste difference in

Christianity. Equality and fraternity are keystones in this

religion." These are the oft-repeated phrases of Tirumavalavan of

Dalit Panther and Dr. Krishnaswamy of Puthiya Thamizhagam (Dalit

political parties). Much to the chagrin of these two speakers

campaigning vociferously for Christianity, the contents of the

booklet admittedly reveal that these qualities do not exist

nowadays. God save these two Hindus campaigning for Christianity.

Following are the directions given in the chapter "Precautions to be

taken while effecting conversion".

· No documents either for conversion or baptism should be given

to the converts.

· No recording in any register is to be made.

· Visual testimonies like photographs, videos, etc. should be

completely avoided.

· On no account, the people converted should adopt new

Christian names.

· Each church should get to know themselves voluntarily the

personal details of the people being converted, to avert the

possibility of RSS or VHP activists being converted. The reason for

this is the fear that these RSS/VHP activists would, before

conversion, pretend and say that the conversion is free from

coercion, but subsequently after conversion will complain that they

were converted by coercion and were tempted with cash. This will

lead to litigation.

· An easy method to convert either an individual or a group or

family, is to take them to the nearby State, like Pondicherry,

Kerala, Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh and effect the conversion there.

Since there is no Anti-conversion Law in these States, no case can be

booked against them in Tamilnad.

· For marriages under the Christianity Act, both the bridegroom

and the bride should be Christians. If one of them is a non-

Christian, conversion should not be made for purpose of marriage

under the Christianity Act. The marriage should be got registered

under the Tamilnad Marriage Registration Act. The fear here is that

when a strife or misunderstanding erupts between them later, it is

possible that the convert may allege that the conversion was effected

by lure of cash or girl.

· Another guideline that is given while converting SC/ST and

Backward classes is that no written document evidencing the

conversion should be given to them. Instead of telling them that

they are being `converted', they should be told that they are

only `changing their mind' and are following the teachings of Jesus

Christ. No changes are to be effected in their education or other

certificates, as this change will deprive them of the facilities they

are getting from the Government.

When the Hindu organizations pointed out that SC/ST and Backward

classes continue to enjoy the concession even after conversion, the

churches were denying this: but in this booklet, this fact has been

inadvertently accepted.

In page 22, the chapter, "Religious congregations – Legal guidance",

advises not to mention the people of other religions as `sinners'. In

public meetings or in private TV channels while canvassing for the

religion, speakers should avoid addressing the people of other

religions as sinners, talking ill of their method of worship or

beliefs, tell them that hell awaits them, etc.

In fact, the demand of the Hindu organizations all these days was to

tell them to refrain from such talks, but this went unheeded. Due to

the Anti-Conversion Law, through this booklet speakers have been

bridled. Apart from all the above, guidelines have been given for

Legal safeguards against various religious crimes.

To put it in the nutshell, the purpose of this booklet seems to

educate all concerned with conversion activity, as to how to go about

conversion without getting entangled under this Act. It is now clear

that mere enacting of the Law can not prevent conversions as this

booklet gives ample proof that the Missionaries are hell-bent on

circumventing its provisions and continuing with their nefarious

designs.