PERSECUTION International Christian Concern | October 2014
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India Revisited
By William Stark
ICC visits India and sees a shocking rise in persecution stemming from the election of India’s radical Hindu party, the BJP.
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n January 2013, I departed on my first trip for ICC. I’d originally been hired for my experience with Africa, but found myself on a flight to India to meet with persecuted Christians at a point that I felt was still very early in my career working for ICC. Needless to say, the situation was somewhat overwhelming. On that first trip, I learned a lot about myself, Christian persecution, and God’s faithfulness and power. It truly was a life-changing experience. The Christians I met in India left such an impression on me that I ultimately switched from being the regional manager of Africa to the regional manager of South Asia.
Only one year later, I was excited to be visiting India for a second time. Not only was I traveling back to a country that changed me so much, I was also blessed to have my wife travel with me. My experience of meeting the persecuted in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, all of which I have visited in the past year, was something I always had a hard time conveying to my wife. Having her assist me on this trip opened her eyes as to why traveling to these sometimes extremely dangerous places is such a burden for me. The Return of the BJP Prior to our departure to India, something happened that will likely affect Christians in India for many years to come.
The BJP’s thugs: RSS militia members very busy during our trip. Testimonies from Persecuted Pastors We started out journey in the state of Telangana. In villages outside of Hyderabad, where we were staying, my wife and I met and interviewed two victims of intense persecution, both pastors. It was a pretty tough start to the trip for my wife because the attacks we encountered were some of the most brutal we saw.
In May 2014, the Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist party, was voted back into power in India’s general elections. The reaction of the Christian community, even before the election results were announced, was fear that a new storm of persecution was gathering. Unfortunately, this fear has turned out to be reality. The uptick in persecution was immediately noticeable from the first few meetings we had in India. Hindu extremist groups have been emboldened by the BJP’s rise to power and the number of attacks on Christians, church leaders, and Christian places of worship has escalated.
For our first interview, we met with Pastor J and Rakesh, one of Pastor J’s church members. When my wife and I arrived at Pastor J’s church, we were quickly escorted from the car to the church compound, taken inside and served a simple breakfast. As we ate, I asked Pastor J why we had been moved so quickly from the car to the church.
Fueling this rise in attacks is a general climate of impunity with regards to attacks on Christians. Beyond this new wave of attacks, government restrictions on Christian organizations have also increased. This unfortunate change in religious freedom for Christians led to my wife and I being
During my first trip to India, I had not experienced this sort of behavior. To me, it felt like I was back in Pakistan, meeting with Christians accused of blasphemy who, if discovered, would come under attack because of the accusation leveled against them.
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“It is not safe for me to be seen meeting with you here,” Pastor J replied. “Our church is still being watched and we may come under attack if the radicals discover we have been meeting with foreigners.”
Pastor J and Rakesh “In August 2011, Pastor J and I were at the church attending a late night prayer meeting,” Rakesh said. “I left the prayer service for a few minutes and I saw some suspicious people gathering in the shadows outside.This made me very nervous so I told the pastor.”
In an attempt to save the pastor’s life, Rakesh dove on top of Pastor J’s unconscious body, shielding him from the club blows meant to finish the pastor off. “They hit me many times on the back and head,” Rakesh said.
As suddenly as the attack had started it was over, leav“When Rakesh told me what he saw, I decided that we ing Pastor J and Rakesh severely injured. The church should go outside and see what these people wanted,” members then came out to help. Pastor J said. “I had not received any threats before, so I didn’t think there was any danger in talking to them. Pastor J and Rakesh were in the hospital for an extended time due to the severity of their injuries. Pastor J, “When we got outside, a man jumped over the church who was the focus of the attack, required several rewall and started to attack the pastor,” Rakesh told me. constructive surgeries on his face. “My upper lip was split in half, most of my teeth were broken, both my “The man was shouting many filthy things and then jaw and my cheekbones were completely smashed and ten other men came and joined the attack. I looked to my hands and wrists were fractured,” Pastor J told me see where the pastor had gone and he way lying face as he pointed to each of the scars he still bore. down on the ground, not moving.” Rakesh required 17 stitches on his head. “I still get “I don’t remember most of the attack,” Pastor J said as splitting headaches due to the attack,” Rakesh said. he told me about the attack. “The man who came over the wall hit me in the head with a club and I don’t re- Following the attack, Pastor J filed a police report but was unable to identify any of the perpetrators; there member anything after that.” has been no progress.
After finishing our meal, Pastor J, Rakesh, my wife and I sat down together and discussed the attack that had taken place almost two years ago. The attack was brutal and seemed to have left lasting scars on both Pastor J and Rakesh. Since that incident, both Pastor J and Rakesh fear future attacks. “I don’t go near to the bus station anymore,” Pastor J told me. “That is where the Hindu radical elements hang out and if I go there I will probably be attacked again.” Due to threats being lodged against him for protecting Pastor J during the attack, Rakesh has been forced to move out of town for safety reasons. “We have also stopped doing house meetings with the Christians and evangelism to Hindus,” Pastor J said. “I fear I will be attacked by the radicals if I continue these things.” With BJP now firmly in power, pastors like Pastor J have much more to fear. Incidents similar to the attack on Pastor J were not uncommon before BJP, but since the
Hindu nationalist party took power in mid-May there has been a marked increase in attacks on India’s Christian minority. Also, similar to Pastor J, many of India’s Christians are ‘battening down the hatches.’ Much of the evangelism work I remember from my first trip to India has been significantly curtailed due to the recent increase in persecution. After saying our goodbyes to Pastor J, Rakesh and the rest of the members of Pastor J’s church, my wife and I quickly returned to the car and traveled to our second meeting of the day. This interview turned out to be particularly difficult because of the level of violence unleashed upon the pastor and his family by the local Hindu radicals. Again, my wife and I were quickly escorted into the church to keep a low profile. Once inside the church, we met Pastor M and his wife. As I walked toward them, I could immediately tell that there was something off about Pastor M. He didn’t greet me at the door and was having a very difYou can help today! 800-ICC-5441
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ficult time standing to shake my hand. When he did shake my hand, his grip was very week and he winced almost every time he shifted his weight. I soon learned the reason behind this odd behavior. After brief introductions, I was surprised to see that Pastor M’s wife, not Pastor M, took over the meeting and began to tell me and my wife about the incident of persecution that had been recently visited upon their family. The brutality of the attack on Pastor M and his wife shocked both my wife and myself. As the interview progressed and we were told about how both Pastor M and his wife were stabbed by Hindu radicals, both my wife and I continued to note the obvious discomfort Pastor M seemed to be in. He didn’t speak much and when he did it was labored and seemed to cause him more pain. This led me to question Pastor M’s wife about Pastor M’s current health. “He is still in a lot of pain,” Pastor M’s wife told me. “The doctors say that he has a blood clot on his spine and that his liver was damaged by the stabbing. He is taking some medication, but he is still in pain. The doctors say that they need to remove the blood clot, but my husband is tired of having surgeries and procedures. He just wants the pain to stop.” After discussing Pastor M’s and his wife’s current health condition, I asked the couple whether there was any progress being made in regards to the investigation into their attackers. “Right after the attack, the police brought sniffer dogs to our church,” Pastor M’s wife said. “They were not
Narenda Modi, the head of the BJP
able to find anything right away and initially blamed the attack on a member of our church claiming it was an internal church dispute. This is completely untrue.” “I didn’t recognize any of the attackers, so I was unable to identify them for the police,” Pastor M’s wife continued. “I did supply the police with a description of the attackers.” Pastor M’s wife went on to tell me that although the initial investigation was slow, a local politician later took notice of their case and started to apply pressure on the police department. Soon after the pressure was applied, the police found an individual who fit the description of one of the attackers and arrested him. Quickly, that individual gave up the identities of the other people who were with him on the night of the assault and the entire group was arrested. Unsurprisingly, all of the attackers were members of a local Hindu radical group bent on removing Christianity, which they claim is a foreign religion, from their village. “After the arrests, the police lost interest in the case and things slowed down again,” Pastor M’s wife explained. “All of the attackers have posted bail and are currently free. No court date has been set and these men are living in the village like nothing ever happened.” “We have decided to stay in the village because my husband and I feel God has called us to do ministry here,” Pastor M’s wife told me when I asked what they were planning to do now. “Things have been very difficult because of all the hospital bills, threats, my husband’s pain and the lower attendance at the church. We are really struggling, but this is where God called us.” After the interview, I saw that my wife was shocked by the brutality of the attack and the faith displayed by Pastor M and his wife. I have the privilege of working with Christians like Pastor M and his wife every day and sometimes forget how truly amazing the faith displayed by persecuted Christians can be. It was nice to be reminded of how moving the testimonies of persecuted Christians are. Something I have always loved about my position at ICC is that I am not just a reporter. I’m not limited to just recording stories like Pastor M’s and sharing them with the broader Church. ICC wants to find the lost sheep, those victims who don’t receive any notice in the press and enter their story and rescue them. At the conclusion of our meeting, I was able to tell them ICC would cover their medical expenses and that I would personally start making inquiries into the case against the men who attacked them. I could tell this relieved not only
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Pastor M & Wife “It happened on December 29th after a New Year prayer service,” Pastor M’s wife started. “After the service, we went to bed, but around 11:30 p.m., there was a loud knock at the door.”
After getting out of bed and opening the door a crack, Pastor M’s wife saw a group of strange men at her door. “Before I could say anything, they rushed the door and broke in. They hit me on the head with a club. I was not unconscious, but I couldn’t move or really do anything but lay on the ground and make noise. The noise I made woke up my husband,” Pastor M’s wife said. The attackers went after Pastor M with knives. He put up his hands to protect himself and tried to deflect his assailants’ knife blows. “They cut my hands first,” Pastor M chimed in for the first time during the interview. “Then they stabbed me in the back and I collapsed to the floor. Then, they stabbed me another ten times.” Witnessing the brutal attack on her husband, Pastor M’s wife began to scream. It was at this point the attackers noticed that she was still conscious and had witnessed the entire attack. “On leaving the house, they stabbed me two times in the back,” Pastor M’s wife said. After the attackers left, Pastor M’s 11-year-old daughter entered the room and saw both of her parents on the floor, bleeding. Pastor M’s wife desperately called her to help. “I tried to get my daughter to call for help,” Pastor M’s wife said but “she was in shock and too scared to do anything. I summoned up all of my strength, found a phone and called some of our local believers for help.” We were rushed to the hospital but my husband didn’t regain consciousness for five days.”
Pastor M and his wife, but also my wife. These two intense meetings represent just a single day of our time in India. Even though it was still early in the trip, I could sense the significant uptick in the intensity of persecution in India and the overall fear Christians experienced because of the threat of persecution.
Pastor M: Stabbed 10 times
Post Trip Update ICC gave Pastor M enough funds to pay for a doctor appointment and instructed him to have both his liver and the blood clot on his spine thoroughly checked. Following the appointment, ICC was informed that Pastor M required immediate surgery to remove a clot. Pastor M’s surgery went well; he is experiencing significantly less pain than he was before. He is currently recovering from the surgery on his spine and will continue to inform ICC of his medical condition. After he has recovered fully from the surgery, ICC, Pastor M and Pastor M’s doctors will explore what the next steps are to getting Pastor M fully healthy again.
I also noticed that this was an eye opening experience for my wife. Initially, she was quiet as we drove back to Hyderabad from our first day’s meetings. After mulling things over in her mind for a while, she started to ask me the same questions I asked when I first started meeting with persecuted Christians for ICC. Chief among these questions being “why is this happening?” I still don’t have all the answers, but I did my best to share what I have learned over You can help today! 800-ICC-5441
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the years with my wife. Ultimately, I told her that we live in a broken world and that even Jesus told us persecution would be something Christians would have to face, making the work ICC does extremely important.
were accused of committing blasphemy against Hinduism and two were falsely accused of rape, all within the last year. I was shocked by the increased persecution faced by the Christian community that accompanied the rise of the BJP.
Persecuted for Sharing Faith with Children After spending more days around Hyderabad, meeting with persecuted Christians, my wife and I flew to Bangalore. Similar to our time in Hyderabad, we traveled outside of Bangalore to the surrounding villages where Christians were being persecuted.
But, out of all the stories I recorded, it was the attack on Priya that stuck out for both my wife and me. The brutality of the attack against the elderly woman again highlighted the escalation of persecution under the new BJP rule.
In a village four hours outside of Bangalore, we met and interviewed four pastors who are currently being persecuted because of the outreach ministry they lead in the villages. These incidents were somewhat different from the persecution faced by Pastor J and Pastor M. Instead of physically attempting to remove the pastors from the village, the Hindu radicals outside of Bangalore were attempting to misuse the law to remove the pastors. In each of the interviews we conducted with the pastors, I was told that they were currently fighting a legal battle because they had been accused of various crimes they didn’t commit by local Hindu radicals. All of the pastors were accused of forcefully converting Hindus to Christianity, two
As we drove towards Priya’s village, we received a call from her letting us know that she would be more comfortable meeting us outside the village. The intent was, again, to keep a low profile and not escalate the already unstable situation with the Hindu radicals living in her village. Outside of her village on the side of the road, we picked Priya up and drove to a church in a nearby village where we could conduct our interview securely. Once outside of the village and in the safety of the church’s four walls, Priya was ready to tell us her story of how she was beaten and forced to worship Hindu gods because of her attempts to share Jesus with others in her village. I asked her if she was afraid to share her faith after the at-
The tree where Priya was beaten
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Our regional manager goes on his 100th auto rickshaw ride tack. “No,” Priya responded immediately. “I am not afraid to cause trouble for the Lord. I know that I will be persecuted, but I am not afraid.” “It is like Daniel and the lion’s den,” Priya continued. “It is dangerous, but the Lord is with me and I know that He will take care of me.” Again, I was astounded by Priya’s faith. Being tied to a tree and publically beaten had not entirely scared Priya away from sharing her faith. One thing I did note, however, was the ever present fear of being persecuted again. Although Priya was still sharing her faith with the children at school, she still had us meet her outside her village to avoid bringing attention to herself. Again and again, I noticed a new level of fear among the Christians my wife and I met with in India. In almost every meeting, our Indian counterparts would discuss the new problems they faced under the new BJP rule and what persecutions they believed were coming now that the Hindu nationalists were installed in power.
Returning to Orissa I noted this fear even among ministries and partners I had visited with on my last trip to India. After spending almost a week in southern India, my wife and I traveled to Orissa, the state where I spent most of my time during my last trip to India. It was a great experience for us because I was able to return to Orissa and visit with the Christians I had visited last year. Everyone was very excited to see us and meet my wife, but again, there was that new fear, that unshakable tension I had noticed at the very beginning of our time in India. In a conversation with one of my closest partner ministries in India, we discussed what it was like for him and his organization under the new regime. He told me things have become stricter, especially for Christian organizations. Every week, he is called to a government office and has to go over his organization’s books with a government official. This partner told me he is afraid the government will try to shut his organization down if they are able to find anything they believe is ‘out of line.’
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Our orphanage kids at the zoo Despite these unfortunate developments, ICC’s work, and the work of ICC’s partners in Orissa, continues to progress and I was very happy to be able to share it first-hand with my wife. I had told her so many stories from my first trip to India and many of those stories focused around my time in Orissa. One of the greatest highlights of our time in Orissa was the time we spent at the ICC’s orphanage.
of the experiences my wife and I had during out time in India. It was amazing to return to India, but persecution has greatly increased. Several weeks after our trip, I was Skyping one of my contacts in India who told me, “India is boiling with religious violence.” This is both a frightening and accurate description of the situation Christians in India face right now.
Since their parents were killed during the 2008 antiChristian riots that spread across India’s northeastern state of Orissa, ICC has been taking care of fourteen Christian orphans, providing them with shelter, food, a top-notch Christian education and a loving Christian family. Visiting these children has, and continues to be, one of the real joys of my work in India. Having my wife join me for a visit to the orphanage was an even greater treat.
The election of BJP and the spike in the number of attacks on Christians and other religious minorities across India is a clear indication of where things are likely heading. Given BJP’s racist, nationalist, ideology, and their track record of allowing attacks on Christians to go unpunished, it is probable that the fear expressed by the Indian Christians I met on the trip will likely come true, if they have not already.
To make this year’s visit special, my wife and I took the 14 children out on a day-long excursion. With all fourteen children in tow, we visited a zoo, a science museum and a local theme park. The day was truly special and all of the children had an amazing time. After a full day traveling with 14 children, both my wife and I were exhausted and in serious need of a rest. Christianity has a Future in India These stories presented in this article are just a fraction 8
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Attacks like those on Pastor J, Pastor M and Priya will likely increase and ministries will experience more scutinity. But India’s Christians are devoted. They have already faced extreme persecution and have decided their fate is in the Lord’s hands. They will not give up. The pressure the Church faces will cause it to be pressed down. It will cause the Church to spread rather than break, and the Church will go deep in the Lord. We are in for some rough days ahead in India but mark my words, the Church will only continue to grow.
An ICC Spouse’s Eyes Are Opened Growing up in the United States, most people learn about other cultures and other countries through the media or textbooks. Like most people in the U.S., I have learned about other cultures and countries through media or textbooks. When I married William, he would tell me about the countries and cases that ICC works on and I have to say that I often didn’t fully understand persecution. This past summer though, I was blessed to be able to accompany my husband on a month-long trip to India and Nepal. As we boarded the plane, he explained that we were advocates for the Christians we are going to meet. Our job was to listen to their stories, discover their needs, and sometimes just simply spend time with them; to “weep with those who weep.” I went into the trip with an open mind but came back with a heart indelibly stamped by the stories, needs, faith, and courage of the persecuted believers we met. The most profound experience for me was a meeting a pastor and his wife who had both been stabbed (the pastor was stabbed 10 times) and beaten because they tell people about Jesus. They let us into their church and home to relive the horror they experienced six months prior. The pastor and his wife were burdened to tell Christians in the West that persecution is still going on in India. We told them they are part of the Body of Christ and they are not suffering alone. I listened to the wife explain how she had repeatedly screamed for help as her husband was being stabbed with her daughter in a bed a few feet away. I took pictures of the couple’s small house and beloved church as they told their story. I paused when I was asked to take a picture of the
Pastor M’s back after being stabbed 10 times pastor’s back. I stared for a moment as he lifted his shirt to reveal the terrible scars that will never heal. I was struck how being part of the Body of Christ was not typically “a thing” for a Western Christian but vital for the persecuted Christian. I saw clearly that no one can journey through this life alone. We need Jesus and a community of believers who can pray with us and touch us when we are in need. The stories and relationships I took away from the trip will stay with me the rest of my life. They will weigh on me and I know they will force me into action. Even though you did not travel to the other side of the world with William and I, I pray that these stories and pictures will move you into action as well. Please pray and help your persecuted brothers and sisters. You can help today! 800-ICC-5441
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