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JHABUA, INDIA, April 5, 2005: (HPI note: This article appeared originally in the Christian Science Monitor.) Biju Verghese believes the end of the world is coming. This faith makes his work urgent: Convert as many Indians to Christianity as possible. Or, as he puts it, “reach the unreached at any cost.” Mr. Verghese is a new breed of missionary, tied not to the mainline Protestant or Catholic churches that came with European colonizers but to expansionist evangelical movements in the US, Britain, and Australia. These newer Christians are now the most active here, swiftly winning over Indians like Verghese who in turn devote themselves to expanding the church’s reach, village by village.



Aside from an attraction to the Christian message, some converts welcome the chance to free themselves from a low-caste status within Hinduism. Some may adopt Christianity by simply adding it to their existing beliefs. To others, conversions are a positive statement that you can choose your religious identity rather than have it fixed at birth. But the success of recent Christian missionaries and their methods of quick conversions have brought tensions with other religions, including some Christians who fear that certain evangelicals are contributing to a volatile – and at times violent – religious atmosphere. The new missionaries put an emphasis on speed, compelled sometimes by church quotas and a belief in the approach of the world’s end.



“Aggressive and unprincipled missionary work that exploits the distress and ignorance of marginalized groups … can constitute a catalyst to localized violence, particularly when they are brought into confrontation with other creeds,” says Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management in New Delhi.



This long and very informative article is available at “source.”

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