Dr T Hanuman Chowdary Conversion to Christianity is a multi-national religious business. Just as business multinationals compete with one another to sell the same commodity or service, a number of church groups and missionary organizations are competitively marketing and selling their ware -Christianity. In fact, in a debate on conversions on TV-9, a Telugu TV channel the Rev.Secretary of an association of Churches when asked as to why lot of time is purchased on different TV channels to propagate Christianity, he said that they are engaged in a competitive market, the market for allegiance of humans, to different religions.
Just as cell phones are commodities, so are the souls of Hindus; they can be purchased by the religious enterprise. The want the largest market share; monopoly is the goal set for them by third God an d fonder-Prophet . Among the various Christian organizations the Seventh Day Adventist Church is one of the most aggressive ones, operating globally and fiercely in India. The 7th Day Adventists in India received $1.3 bln ( Rs. 5,850cr) in the year 2004 to convert 10 lakhs Hindus till date. From their website ( www.adventistreveiw.org) under the title global mission the following statistics are taken. Mark Finlay, Director of Global evangelism reporting to the church’s World Head Quarters said that 1,071,135 people were baptized in 2004, the highest total in 15 years. More than 30,000 pastors+ world wide conducted some from of evangelistic outreach and almost 4 mln lay people* participated in evangelistic meetings. Nearly 600,000 youth between ages of 15-30 were also actively involved (i.e paid propagandists, mobilisers of crowds, stage miracle cures etc.) in evangelism through the project code named Elijah. One Ron Watts, President of the Southern Asia Division of he 7th Day Adventist Church reported that as of 31 Dec 2004 his church in India had grown to 919,782 members, an increase of 162% in the last 5 years he said that contrasted with the 7 years it took early pioneers in India to win a single convert. So, money speaks not the message of Jesus Christ . The 7th Day Adventist Church received more than tithe contributions in the West . The improvements in the stock market got more money i.e the Church invested in shares and traded in them and used the profits for buying converts. This particular church is intensifying its operations among those who live in the ten- forty window, an area that extents between 10 degrees and 40 degree north of equator stretching from West Africa to East Asia. How can any one call this a religious activity? The activity to propagate religion by informing and educating and winning the hearts of non-Christian by showing to them that Christianity is superior to the faiths in which they were born not by business-like evangelist/converting organizations but by individuals maybe tolerated but not an enterprise, incorporated like a company.
The Indian constitution Art-30 gives freedom for practising and propagating one’s religion but here is a business with targets budgets, annual reports and tactics and strategy to buy converts. How can, such organised trade be accorded freedom to convert ? Just as there are laws to prevent the exploitation of as sale of consumers, there must be laws to regulate this business of religious conversion. Just spurious drugs is a crime, staged spurious cures are a fraud, even though it is in the name of religion. A civilized, self-conscious respecting nation and a civilization and culture as hoary as that of Bharat should not suffer the invasion of these multi-national religious conversion enterprise. + Leader of street/area squadron of converters, full time * paid daily/ monthly wages to follow the pastor along roads and into homes.