CONVERSION DRIVE BY MULTI-NATIONAL CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS

Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 18:44:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Yashwini1@yahoo.com"
Subject: Is there imperial design behind conversion overdrive?
To: yashwini1@yahoo.com

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=184&page=5
Is there imperial design behind conversion overdrive?
By Sandhya Jain

There is empirical evidence that the evangelical
movement operates through multinational corporations
(MNCs). A special section has been devoted to the
Seventh Day Adventist church (to which Andhra Chief
Minister Samuel Rajshekhar Reddy is affiliated), which
targets Dalits for conversion. It is closely
associated with Maranatha Volunteers International,
engaged in church planting.

A journalist researching how permissions were obtained
for such a vast numbers of churches found that a rough
estimate at $ 5,000/church x 1,000 churches gave a
turnover of $5million. One churches in 1,000 days, and
$5m turnover! There is no land cost because most
churches are built illegally on Poromboke or Mandir
lands.

In recent weeks, allegations of assault by Christian
evangelists in BJP-ruled states have once again turned
the spotlight on conversions. Now, meticulous research
by Ms. Anuja Prashar, director, Transnational Identity
Investments (TII), documents the political, economic
and secular backing by Western-Christian governments
for this imperialist project and its special focus
upon India.

Ms. Prashar’s report, titled “Conversion and
Anti-Conversion in India Today,” owes its genesis to
British MPs Andy Reed and Gary Streeter protesting to
India’s Deputy High Commissioner in London that
certain laws in the country restricted religious
freedom. They presented a letter signed by a
cross-party group of 16 MPs; Reed is a member of the
board of Christian Solidarity Worldwide. This exposes
the hollowness of the secular principles of the
British Government, as evangelical paradigms are so
openly supported across political parties.

This agitated Hindus organisations in Britain and
America, and independent academics, social analysts,
and observers joined hands to prepare a report which
convincingly establishes that Western Christian
charity and faith organisations have a clear agenda to
convert the socially disadvantaged, and a global
imperialistic mission. There is empirical evidence
that the evangelical movement operates through
multinational corporations (MNCs). A special section
has been devoted to the Seventh Day Adventist church
(to which Andhra Chief Minister Samuel Rajshekhar
Reddy is affiliated), which targets Dalits for
conversion. It is closely associated with Maranatha
Volunteers International, engaged in church planting
and 25-villages and 50-villages conversion programmes.


Dr Vijay Chauthaiwale of Gujarat studied some
multinational Christian organisations, such as the
Evangelical Church of India which belongs to OMS
International. Its motto is the imperialistic slogan
“Reaching Nations for Christ.” The website openly
proclaims the targets as Latin America, Europe and
Euro-Asia, Africa and Asia , where the organisation is
actively involved in training and preparing native
evangelicals, and church planting. In 2005 alone is
succeeded in getting 103,464 people make a decision
for Christ and 10,592 undergo lay leadership training.
The donor nations include the United States (HQ),
Australia , Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the
United Kingdom.

The Evangelical Church of India (ECI), established in
1954, targets the slums, scheduled castes and
scheduled tribes, in cities and villages. “We must go
to where the fish are found …where the fish bite the
bait on the hook,” it boasts inelegantly. Its logo
depicts a cross struck deep in a lotus, seat of Hindu
divinity. Dr. Chauthaiwale also studied the US-based
Mission of Joy (MOJ), whose mission is “to bring the
gospel to a million unreached believers and provide
temporary and permanent assistance to orphans.” MOJ
has three orphanages in Tenail, Nasaraopet and
Vijiwada.

But the most organised movement is the US-based AD
2000 and Beyond Movement and its ‘Joshua Project 2000’
which lists 216 people groups throughout the world as
Priority-I. These include nine Indian tribes (Bhilala,
Binjhwari, Chero, Kawar/Kamari, Lhoba, Majhwar,
Panika, Shin or Sina, and Sikkimese Bhotia). The
Joshua Project has identified the North India Hindi
belt as “the core of the core of the core” because of
its population density (40% of the Indian population);
its political importance; its is very deprived (the
“Bimaru” states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan
and Uttar Pradesh lie in this region); it is the
religious hub of India; and it has the smallest
Christian presence in India. Detailed plans have been
drawn up to target India’s 75,000 Pin Codes.

An umbrella called North India Harvest Network (NIHN)
has been organised on the principles of “Plug, Prem
and be NICE” to avoid duplication of effort. Plug
stands for People in every Language in every Urban
centre in every Geographic division. Prem means
Prayer, Research, Equipping & training and
Mobilisation. NiCE involves Networking, Initiative,
Catalyst and Encouraging the missionaries. Virtually a
war strategy.

Britain ’s South Asian Development Partnership (SADP),
led by Mr. Ram Gidoomal, a Sikh convert to
Christianity, is supposed to “facilitate and catalyze
entrepreneurial initiatives in the UK and South Asia
.” Its website explains how the principle of NICE can
be applied to SADP working. If there is a link between
SADP and Indian evangelical movements, how do these
programmes fit into the developmental programmes of
Asian and UK professionals? Ms. Prashar further points
out that Mr. Gidoomal has co-authored a book with
Robin Thompson, an Evangelical Minister with South
Asian Concern (SAC), a Selsdon Baptist Church keen to
convert South Asia.

The Seventh Day Adventists owes its Indian success to
Canadian evangelist Ron Watts, President for the South
Asian Division, who entered India on a Business Visa.
He operated out of Hosur. When Watts arrived in 1997,
the Adventist Church had 2.25 lakh members after 103
years of operations. In five years, to took it to 7
lakhs. Dorothy Watts’ recorded their methodology,
namely, the 25-Village and the 10-Village Program.

This involved five sets of laymen, going two by two,
under guidance from a regular pastor, and exploring
the villages in a district, to identify 25 villages in
close proximity, with people of the same family groups
and castes, so they could continue to have social
relations and marriage alliances after conversion!
Once the villages were selected, the teams would
approach the leaders of each village and invite them
to send two leaders to a 10-day seminar at a nearby
resort, at the organisation’s expense. They were then
brainwashed in the idea of better living, which was
offered to their villages, along with the tenets of
Christianity. Then they were denied baptism till they
convinced the village to convert.

In 1998, there were 17 Ten Village Programmes and
9,337 were baptized. In 1999, forty programs were held
and nearly 40,000 people baptized. The 25-village plan
made proselytization a flourishing business, which got
a further boost with the arrival of the Maranatha
Volunteers International. Under Andhra Chief Minister
Samuel Reddy, the Adventists shifted to a 50-village
plan. They began baptizing at the rate of 10,000
persons per month.

The US-based Maranatha Volunteers International
focused on providing buildings for the Seventh-day
Adventist Church . The Fjarli family, who own a
construction company, Southern Oregon Builders, went
on their first Maranatha project in 2001. They raised
funds to build 1000 churches at a rate of 1 per day. A
journalist researching how permissions were obtained
for such a vast numbers of churches found that a rough
estimate at $ 5,000/church x 1,000 churches gave a
turnover of $5million. One churches in 1,000 days, and
$5m turnover! There is no land cost because most
churches are built illegally on Poromboke or Mandir
lands.

When deportation proceedings were launched against Ron
Watts, Dr. K.J. Moses testified that Watts had
committed fraud, spending Rs. 1.30 crores as bribes to
stay in India . Advocate V.S. Raju said Watts was in
the business of conversion to Christianity, offering
petty cash concessions and allurements of employment
to educated persons in Christian schools and
hospitals; sending youth for education to the Spicer
Memorial College, Pune, and arranging marriages
between young men and women belonging to SDA. Watts,
however, remained in India after a much-publicised
meeting with Ms. Sonia Gandhi!

Besides America , the European Union is funding a
seven year Sustainable Tribal Empowerment Project
(STEP), targeting 200,000 tribal households in
Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Vishakhapatanam and East
Godavari.

http://home.comcast.net/~hanuma/present.pdf





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