Does Christianity believes in democracy?

B D Narayankar

The tragic turn of events in Kandhamal in Orissa and Mangalore in Karnataka has brought the ugly topics of all - conversions - to the fore yet again. And there was the same reaction from the central government - hardly doing anything to curb conversion activities carried out by Christian missionaries. This gives ample scope for speculations that the UPA government, led by a respected Italian lady, is working towards realizing late Pope John Paul's wish to change the 'structure' of South Asian countries, more so India.

Not far behind is the evangelist-owned India media, which is becoming a powerful tool and a mouth-piece for Christian missionaries. Look at the way they conduct the 'Big Fight' and similar such programmes. They have become masters in diverting the tone of the issue. How swiftly they justify conversions on grounds of freedom of religion or social services provided to poor Hindus.

Don’t these pretexts debunk the myth of 'voluntary' conversion? If the argument of social service can justify religious conversion, can such facile pleas justify treason against one’s country? Can a soldier sell confidential security papers to a neighbour and claim immunity on the grounds that he felt discriminated by welfare schemes launched by central government.

Conversion to any other religious faith involves an immeasurable loss of culture, tradition, and multiple levels of religious belief. And surely Sanatana Dharma is a religion and a civilisation.

There certainly is a political ambition of the rich-Christian nations to create a 'political constituency in India' laced with religious fervor. They are providing huge funds to evangelists for carrying out conversions on a large scale in remote areas, targeting poor Dalits and Tribal population. See, how Israel and Timor were created - they dumped European Jews on Palestine and converted Muslims on a large scale.

Christianity does not have a notable reputation for tolerance and respect for other religions. Christian missionaries' failure to honor other religions, particularly non-biblical traditions, is well known, with Christians still denigrating the sophisticated yogic traditions of Asia as mere superstition, idolatry and polytheism.

Christian missionaries have had a reputation for using methods to promote conversion that are not always honest, including employing military and political force during the colonial era.

In the modern secular world, Christians along with Muslims, now demand conversion as a democratic right, even though their religion is authoritarian, and not democratic, accepting only one way, and not honoring pluralism in approaching the Divine. Europe had to reject the church and Christian dogma in order to become democratic over the past several centuries,

Considering this, Christian churches should not be talking about democratic rights. It's merely a smokescreen for promoting their own agendas, spreading their authoritarian and exclusivist beliefs, recklessly eliminating other cultures and religions along the way.

The Christian missionaries, instead of becoming a reason for heart-burning and cultural anxiety in their endeavor to convert Hindus to Christianity, they would do better if they stop worrying about poor Hindu lives and turn their focus on improving the lives of Dalit and Tribal Christian converts.

According to stats furnished by the Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM) convener R L Francis, who has been waging a battle against the Church for discrimination, oppression and false promises made to Christian converts, none of the 40,000 educational institutions run by the Church gives admissions to the children of Dalit Christians. Hardly a few complete primary education. He also flays the Church, which is the largest employer after Government of India, for failing to provide compensation to poor neo-Christian converts by providing jobs in Christian educational and medical institutions.

PCML also blames monopolization of Church funds and property by a handful of priests and bishops for the sharp deterioration of the conditions of neo-converted Christians, who are living in a pitiable condition, deprived of basic necessities.