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India

On Christmas Eve 2007 coordinated attacks on Christians in Orissa state left several people dead, and many Christian homes and churches burned. Eight months later more attacks began on Christians in the same state, killing at least 50.

These were the worst examples of a trend towards anti-Christian violence by Hindu extremists. An average of four attacks occur every week across India. Many go unpunished, and sometimes the police arrest the Christian victims.

India_church
Indian Christians gather
for teaching and worship
According to tradition, the apostle Thomas brought the Gospel to India, and there has been an established Christian community since at least the 2nd century. Later there were a number of mass conversions, especially among the lowest levels of the Hindu caste system. Christians now number about 6% of the population.

India’s constitution guarantees religious liberty, but in the last few years seven states have introduced “anti-conversion laws”. Under these laws, non-Hindus are liable to penalties for converting someone by “force”, “fraud” or “allurement”. Anyone who changes their faith must report it to the secular authorities. These laws are mostly used to prevent legitimate Christian evangelism.

Other challenges faced by Indian Christians include campaigns by Hindu nationalists to convert Christians back to Hinduism. There are also attacks on Muslim converts to Christianity in Kashmir, where Muslims are the majority.

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  • The new president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has promised to make the protection of repressed Christians in foreign countries one of his foreign policy priorities. During the presidential election he met with a group of church leaders in Moscow on 8 February, who told him that Christians were suffering persecution all over the world, with one Christian dying for his or her faith every five minutes. When they asked him to give attention to this problem, he replied, “This is how it will be, have no doubt.” Give thanks for this undertaking, and pray that the president will honour it. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Thu, Jan 1970 01:00

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