‘A church for every people and a gospel for every person’
Why a temple in Ayodhya when there are so many temples rotting all over the country and again when we are confronted by several more pressing problems? This is a common refrain of the media, intellectuals and also much of the indifferent middle-class. Are the people aware of the number of churches that are being raised all over the country in a frighteningly frantic pace?
Though the original question still remains unanswered, it would certainly get trivialised and even become irrelevant if one comes to know of the proliferation of churches, a trend that has seen a marked escalation in recent years, particularly in Tamilnadu. The Hindu groups are only fighting for the retrieval of their places of worship which also figure in their scriptures and yet they get castigated for their ‘unsecular’ ways. But, pray, what is the rationale behind this sudden spurt of churches right under our noses, and why is it that a collective blind eye is being cast at this potentially explosive enterprise of planting the cross across the country?
Our Prayer Networks has planned to identify and mobilize 100,000 prayer warriors to focus their efforts on 100 gateway cities and 2700 unreached groups of India
The McDonald’s chain prides itself that every twelve hours an outlet or store of theirs is coming up in some part of the world. The operation of Christianity in India is somewhat similar though we cannot be sure if what they dish out would be as palatable to us, Indians, if we come to know the key ingredient that goes into it –Hindu hatred. The topping, of course, is secularism and religious freedom.
The quantum of funds that has been earmarked for the spread of Christianity by various denominations abroad is mind boggling, though in a pervert way we can call this too FDI. Even more sinister is the extensive planning that goes into the evangelical exercise. And there is a huge army of well-trained preachers, missionaries, pastors et al at disposal. Surely, this army has not been enlisted to just count stars, or rather, sheep, but for a greater purpose: that of expanding the farm and increasing the harvest. The Pope would vouch for that.
By God’s grace, regional, state and district level networks have been formed, priorities are set and action plans are ready
There is a parallel State operating in all its potent glory the efficiency of which would put our elected ones to unspeakable shame. And the methods and systems that form the backbone of this ‘Holy Kingdom’ would leave even McDonalds with a marked feeling of inferiority complex.
The landscape of the ‘market’ is meticulously mapped, the demographic pattern is perfectly pictured and the social structures are subjected to severe scrutiny. The caste equations, tensions and frictions, the civic problems of every locality, famines and epidemics and even the common cold of your nosey neighbour are all casual knowledge in the evangelical circuit. The resourceful reverends may even know your domestic budget, your wife’s preferred saree and your adamant child’s favourite ice-cream flavour. No information is deemed trivial in this relentless pursuit of their lord’s mission which is to ‘save’ every soul in the world.
The goal is to plant churches in all the remaining 5,00,000 villages and in several thousand unevangelised segments of the 300 large cities in India
And the most preferred way is to proliferate the places of worship and then set about securing worshippers. In a crude way it is also a measure of their confidence in their crowd-gathering devices. The trend is too visible to miss, unless one is blind, both physically and metaphorically. All one has to do is to stalk the streets or the highways at night and count the number of crosses that shine forth at their neon best. The ‘light’ is verily on the rise making even nights seem like day, and enlightening the ‘sinners’ at a frantic pace. Churches sprout in no-man’s lands too, just in case.
There are, it appears, no specified norms for calling a place a church; a rambling bungalow is as good as a ramshackle hut for the saviours to make it their lord’s habitat. It is surplus grace, if there happens to be some vacant or disputed land around, in case the influx of sheep swells as is their expectation. But a place once so ‘sanctified’ instantly comes under the secular umbrella –a protection regime that even socialist economies of the past could not achieve. In all, evangelism is a grand commercially viable political enterprise riding on religious horseback. What a confluence and cocktail of all aspects that matter to humanity! Can we then understimate the effect?
The vision and task of reaching India in this century has brought together an army of lay people and full-time workers in an unprecedented act of cooperation. The biblical reality of belonging to the body of Jesus Christ is expressed in several partnerships
The other element of commerce, competition, too thrives fiercely in this holy economy. There are several sects and denominations, all vying with each other for a share of the pie. Funds are there for the asking and all one has to do is to show ‘performance’. And by performance is meant the number of churches and of course, the quantum of converts.
But despite the rat race for the market share amidst the faithful there is a scary unanimity of purpose. Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Seventh Day Adventist, Methodist, Pentecost etc, etc are all but different outlets with their own brand names, but vending the same venom. Though many of them are often at each other’s throat, there is nevertheless no dilution of the collective zeal. And the masters abroad who hold the purse strings do not mind this so long as these franchisees of faith meet the targets. In fact, in true commercial spirit, they deem competition as an engine that propels the evangelical enterprise to higher levels of ‘growth’.
We are excited and motivated to declare His glory amongst the heathen, His wonders among all people.
The obsession with numbers in contrast to conscience is by itself a telling revelation of the present state of the faith which resembles an MNC in the retail sector chasing customers and not a religion in pursuit of truth. It is really sad that a matter as lofty as religion should be paraded in the market place and has to be sold like a detergent, a sin-cleaning-soap, sealed and secured for delivery by robed sales reps. Does a religion become a true religion simply because it is attractively packaged?
Well, the holy salesmen seem to believe so and more, for they also appear quite upto date on all the latest sales promotion techniques like incentives, discounts, free gifts,’door-delivery’ and if some reports are to be believed, even the ubiquitous kick-backs to pliable politicos.
But does it not really debase a religion when it has to be sold on the strength of hype and hysteria rather than on intrinsic values? Since truth is in the eye of the beholder, why not allow the beholder to seek it himself instead of the conscience-hunters cajoling and cornering hm? Aah, the purveyors probably know their product best and are convinced it has to be pushed, we do not know. But, is it not, then, quite logical that as potential customers of what could turn out to be spurious spiritual stuff, the maxim ‘buyer beware’, should be our watchword? Or rather, believers beware?
Indeed, it appears that the anti-forcible conversions act was a mistake. The more appropriate legal remedy would have been to take recourse to some consumer protection act! And also to the laws pertaining to unfair trade practices!
(The italicised sentences have been culled out of the surfeit of ‘sales manuals’ and ‘project reports’ that are easily accessible. I have left out several other telling and disturbing statements out of sheer consideration for the Readers’ hearts!)
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