Pastor G. Samuel of the 4,500-member Baptist church in southern India where the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) will hold a worship conference in October, joined other Christian leaders to protest violence against Christians in Ongole, South India.
Persecution of Christians was highlighted last year when a Baptist missionary from Australia and his two sons were burned to death in Orissa, India. Last month, a bomb exploded at Jewett Memorial Baptist Church in Ongole while another went off at the Catholic church in Tadipalligudem. Christian leaders are protesting the government’s lack of intervention in religious persecution in Uttar Predesh, Orissa, Gujarat and other states.
Christian leaders in India stand firm in their relationships with brothers and sisters of other faiths. They say it is only a small fringe of the fundamentalists who target them, and “even for them the Christian response has been forgiveness, prayer and peace.”
Samuel, president of the All India Christian Council, met with India’s Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to speak out against the persecution, urging the government to uphold freedom of faith. While T.R. Kakkar, special secretary to the Union Home Ministry, told the prime minister of sending notices to all states to take precautions against violence, Christian leaders asked for much more.
BWA general secretary Denton Lotz assures Baptists in India of worldwide prayer for love and freedom for all. All Baptist conventions are concerned that all nations recognize religious freedom and guarantee the rights of minority religions. (BWA).
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