The series of violence against Christians on Christmas day and one in the neighbouring state of Assam should shake the conscience of all who believe in freedom of religion as guaranteed in the Indian Constitution. What is strange is that each time the churches are attacked the laity (congregation) look up to the church leadership. That’s because the church is a hierarchical structure where the Laity is not empowered to act as members of the church. Perhaps this hierarchy is itself a defining fault-line. On Christmas day services very little mention was made of the grave danger that Christians as a minority are facing in this country. On Christmas Day the central government froze all bank accounts of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in India. This when the Missionaries of Charity have been in the forefront of looking after the destitute and orphans across the country including in Meghalaya. What else is in the offing, no one knows.
Christian missionaries have set up the best educational and health care institutions in every part of the world and many of those who hold positions of authority in this country today were educated in these institutions. Then why this new-found vengeance against Christians?
At this point the laity has to rise to the fore and speak up for that is what Christ’s teachings were all about – to stand up against injustices of all kinds and to spread love and peace. But that also means that all Christians and not just the leadership have the onus of standing up for what they believe in. Being Christian means much more than just church attendance and the church is not a social space. But it would seem that Christians have entered a comfort zone of weekly worshipping without being trained to use their resources to also engage with the politics of the times. Perhaps Christians have over time forgotten that Christ was political in the sense that he took on the rulers of the time for which he was finally nailed on the cross. At one time the churches would call for special prayers and fasting when issues such as attacks on churches happened. These days there is only a stunning silence. But at what cost? It is time that Christian churches come together on this issue and make common cause. If Christianity is under attack, it is the idea of Christ that is under attack and that the pretext should be about forced conversion is a slur on Christianity.
