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A Hindustan Times article from 2016 had revealed how “faith heals, but only if one continues medication.” The article described how people developed life-threatening complications, some even lose their lives after stopping the medication and hoping their faith will cure and heal them.

Vaccine a mark of the beast

As the government relentlessly is urging people to get inoculated, a 24-hour free-to-air Christian evangelical channel Angel TV, run by a pastor Sundar Selvaraj who calls himself a ‘sadhu’ warns people against the vaccine saying ‘is a mark of the beast prophesied in the Bible.’

Selvaraj claims that the vaccines contain a chip and that his ‘prophecy’ of the chip-fitted vaccine to be given to the masses through government programs and free camps has come true.

Preaching while on Covid duty

We had reported earlier on how a nurse on government duty in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh was caught in the tribal-dominated development block of Bajala with publicity leaflets preaching Christianity on the pretext of informing people about dietary plans amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

Moving on to evangelists using official and influential positions to further their religion while on government/ official duty.

IMA Head wants to use the association as a springboard to convert

In an interview to Christian magazines, recently appointed Dr Johnrose Austin Jayalal confessed to using the Indian Medical Association as a springboard to share the “love of Jesus Christ” and be a “living witness to God and encourage young medical students and doctors to receive Jesus as their personal saviour”.

According to Dr Jayalal, it was “Christian compassion” and Christian doctors and churches who relieved the world from lethal maladies such as leprosy, cholera and other pandemics in the past. He believes the coronavirus pandemic has provided “the urgent need of the proclamation of the Gospel to people who are suffering from the virus has allowed us to share the Gospel even in secular institutions”.

Using influential positions to preach Christianity

In a report released by Swarajya in June 2020, it was revealed that Mr. D.P. Haokip a senior official in the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) confessed in an evangelist convention to being an evangelist even while on duty. He also boasted to have summoned Rahul Dravid, former captain of the Indian cricket team to his office and did proselytizing maneuvers for an hour, preaching him Bible. Haokip’s visiting card too contains a verse from the Gospel.

In another shocking revelation a Jesuit clergy, Joe Arun, Director of LIBA (Loyola Institute of Business Administration) claimed that when the state government of Tamil Nadu asked him to be one of the mentors in the board for revising the social science syllabus from the first standard to 12th standard, the first thing he did was to introduce Jesuit ideology into the syllabus.

Heading to the last pillar, several evangelical organizations have come under the scanner for flouting fake companies, unaccounted cash and hawala.

Rampant conversions

Taking undue advantage of the lockdown imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, missionaries in India converted as many as 1 lakh people and adopted 50,000 villages in a span of one year. Need for medical aid and two squares meals amidst the financial crisis, pushed the economically weaker section into the trap of missionaries. The missionaries also built a record number of churches in thousands of villages where none existed before.

Pastor Praveen Chakravarty a popular name in Andhra Pradesh was arrested by the police for kicking idols of Hindu Gods. He was also booked under various sections related to creating enmity among religious groups, committing a crime at religious places etc. The pastor flaunted the creation of 699 Christ villages in the state.

In January this year, Shahjahanpur (Uttar Pradesh) police have lodged an FIR against five people, including two from Tamil Nadu, under the new anti-conversion law for allegedly convincing people to convert to Christianity. Quoting the complaint, the police informed that a few of them were seen convincing people to convert to Christianity with the promise of “good job and good education to children.”

It is imperative to understand how evangelism in India is no longer a single prong business. The organizations and individuals have camouflaged themselves in every aspect of society making it difficult to escape their grip.

References:

OpIndia