What do you think about the brutal slaying of Christians in The State of Orissa, India?

Question

- Orissa Violence Forces 60,000 Christians to Take Refuge in Forests.

- Archdiocesan Pastoral Center Destroyed with Bombs

- List of churches demolished: 41 includes Catholic and Protestant Churches

(For a complete list see the blog http://orissaburning.blogspot.com/)

- Arsoned 225 houses just because christians live in it

- 5 hostels , 6 institutions (like catholic schools) and 5 convents destroyed

- A 20 Year Old Girl Was Burnt to Death Watched by a Cheering Mob

- Many people burned alive because they are christians

- Many baptist and catholic churchs vandalised and ransacked

What do you think about this?

What is the reason behind this?

http://orissaburning.blogspot.com/

Answer 1

I think it is disgusting and my prayers go out to them over there. I hope these mobs are stopped!. There was also a murder of a Catholic priest premeditated,

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles...

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews...

Edit;I also agree with Rebbecca I wonder too why there is barely any coverage about it in the mainstream media!.

Answer 2

In India, the caste system is very strong. There are people who are known as backward classes, high caste , low caste , dalit, untouchable etc. These people were ill treated and ignored for very long by the influential. Even today these caste systems exist.

The violence in Orissa is taking place in a place called Kandhamal which is a tribal area and a backward area where all of the population are below the poverty line.

Christian missionaries have preached the gospel in these areas and have converted a small percent of the population living there to Christianity. They have built orphanages, churches and small schools to uplift the living conditions over there.

After seeing that peoples lives were changing in these communities who were always ignored and not allowed to grow by society, people have started to become jealous and did not want to see these poor people be uplifted in society.

Hence in order to stop this, rumours of people being forced to convert to Christianity were spread all over, so that Christian missionaries would be targetted by the majority Hindu community and would flee the area.

They started saying that people were given money and goods to convert to Christianity, whereas the truth is they converted on hearing the gospel message. No tribal has become a rich man by converting to Christianity. They are still poor, but believe in Jesus. The majority are still Hindus in that area.

There are organisations such as the VHP RSS and Bajrang Dal that are spearheading these rumours of people being forced to convert to Christianity and are attacking them. One of the leaders of the VHP was gunned down few days back. It was by the Naxals and Maoists who are not part of the Christian community, but still in order to attack Christians, rumours were again spread that the VHP leader was gunned down by Christians. They have targetted all Christian homes, churches, orphanages and schools in that area and burned them down and have burned people from the Christian community alive.

To all my Hindu brothers and sisters who are reading this , I have this to say...

Visit ISKCON,Sai Baba ashram,Mata Amritananda ashram,Ravi Shankar ashram and various famous Hindu priests places, you would find so many foreigners and Indians who were Christians and have converted to Hinduism.They have liked the people and the message being taught over there and converted to Hinduism. Similarly if a Hindu likes the Christian message he is free to convert.....If we want , then even we can say that forced conversion of Christians is taking place in the various ashrams in India, but I dont want to make this an issue. This is their personal choice.I do not believe in spreading hatred since Jesus taught to live in peace with everyone and to forgive ones enemies and have love for GOD.....

Hindus are actually peace loving people. My best friends are Hindus and we live happily as neighbours. The problem is with the extremist parties.

No one knows who killed the Swami Laxmanand. But who has given the right to kill innocent people. Catch the culprit and hang him. Why kill innocent people.

When missionary Graham Staines and his sons were burned alive in 1999 by Hindus in Orissa , were any Hindus killed in retaliation. Not a single Hindu was attacked. Only protests were held and the culprit was caught. This is how it should be.

People have pasted links to various websites, to prove their points. To counter that even I can mention that in any popular search engine website you type "attacks on Christians in India" and you will get hundreds of websites showing attacks on Christian institutions and murders of Christians.

Get proof and punish the guilty person. Spreading hatred and killing is not the solution.

Answer 3

i think it's horrible. i don't know what the reason is behind it but it's just horrible

Answer 4

As sad as it is, it will just get worse and spread to other parts of the world.

The Bible says the persecution of Christians will be much worse in the end times.  Many of us will probably have to die for what we believe in.

Answer 5

all murder is  wrong  whether its  muslims  or Hindus  it is  not right.  it just shows  India  to be a barbaric land  with no proper law and order  pakistan is still the same.

Answer 6

Hello,

India still has a long way to go in social reform and toleration. Just last month several doctors turned an untouchable woman away who was having a drearful children birth and she died on route to another institution which catered to her caste. The attacks against Muslims who stir up problems are legendary. Thus I am not surprised at all.

Perhaps the only short term solution is strict martial law.

Cheers,

Michael Kelly

Answer 7

I am a first generation Indian American Christian that belongs to the Mar Thoma Church in the US. It was today I heard my priest tell the my church that a hostel and school belonging to the Mar Thoma Church was burned by hindu fanatics. An evangelists home was burned and everything was destroyed. The church has many congregations in the state, and now all the mar thoma priests and some evangelists are living in one house, and scared out of their minds, they might even need to go hid in the forest. There are also amazing hindu families not associated with the militants that have helped christians. I am so thankful for that. However this conflict is really sick, and i have no words to explain this stupid conflict that has aroused with the hindu militants wanting death, blood and sadness. I and the 20,000+ Marthoma christians in USA, Canada and Europe, and many more around the world with our Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant brothers and sisters will pray for Orissia. Please keep both the Christians and Hindus in your prayers.

Answer 8

I think it is horrible when there is violence and killing towards humans, regardless of their faith. I also wonder why this isn't being covered by mainstream media.

Edit - Thanks for the link, Yup. It's good to know it isn't being ignored by mainstream media after all.

Answer 9

The blog link did not work but it did make in yahoo news and india news as well.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080829/wl_...