Today I read an article that saddens me.Over the years, missionaries and churches
have successfully reached tens of thousands
of people in India. Now, India's biggest radical Hindu group aims to wipe out Christianity.
This is a call to pray for missionaries, pastors & churches in India.
Here's an excerpt from the article...
"Laba Digal, 50, sits mending flat tires of bicycles and two-wheelers near the thoroughfare in Kasinipada, a village in the district of India that saw the most anti-Christian violence this fall. Digal says he was a Christian until September, when a local head of the radical Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) came to him twice. "He told me to become a Hindu. He said if I did not, I would lose my home. He said I couldn't live in the village as a Christian. I did not want problems, so I accepted," Digal says.
Now a Hindu, Digal says he will get a government certificate stating that he is a Dalit. Such a certificate will make Digal eligible for other affirmative action benefits, such as government jobs.
The RSS has been reconverting people like Digal to Hinduism — usually from Christianity — for over a decade. Their reconversion campaign is called "homecoming." It is well organized and has cadres assigned to it almost across the whole of India.
The RSS has groups that use propaganda and groups that use violence. The groups entrusted with the task of getting the message out in words conduct meetings where they denounce the church as evil. They follow that up with warnings that Christians must reconvert to Hinduism or die.
On September 25, 2008 Vidyaram Pandey, the head of an RSS branch in Uttar Pradesh, made the claim that the RSS had reconverted 50,000 Christians so far in the state, India's largest. He added that the RSS would drive all pastors out in five years.
Pandey's statement offers insight into the timeframe that the RSS has set for its drive against Christians in India. The campaign to reconvert Christians to Hinduism is part of the overall RSS strategy to convert India, a secular nation, into a Hindu nation."
The full article first appeared in the November 10, 2008 issue of Christianity Today. Used by permission of Christianity Today International, Carol Stream, IL 60188.
