Hindu persecution campaign targets pastor

Another Christian has been victimized by a growing campaign by Hindus to persecute Christians, with a beating that left Pastor Pabitra Kata hospitalized and a series of threats that may, in fact, keep him out of his home, according to a new report from Voice of the Martyrs.

The Christian organization was founded in 1967 by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who starting their ministry smuggling Bibles into Russia in 1947, and publishes a newsletter that provides regular updates about attacks, and the steadfast faith of persecuted Christians in the modern world.

Various organizations have documented that there are about 200 million Christians in the world who this year will face persecution ranging from discrimination to death for their faith in Jesus Christ.

In a new report, VOM has documented the harassment and assaults on Pastor Pabitra.

The recent attack involved an estimated 35 Hindu radicals and happened while he was returning from the home of a convert he'd been ministering to, according to VOM contacts in India.

"He was beaten with thick sticks, kicked on his jaw and face and dragged on the road," according to statements obtained by VOM from witnesses. "He was screaming because of the pain and praying out loud, asking God to forgive the attackers.

"He was bleeding profusely from his jaw and ear, and was unable to see. In spite of his painful cries, the attackers continued striking him until the police arrived and stopped the beating," the sources reported.

He remains alive only because of that reluctant intervention, because VOM sources reported that after the attack it was discovered the extremists planned to murder him, then make a false report claiming he had died in an automobile accident.

The pastor, who had come to Christ in 1999 from a background of Hindu extremism, has brought a number of people in his region to Christ since that time, VOM sources reported. At the same time, he was being threatened with "dire consequences" for being a Christian, the news from VOM confirmed.

The report said the police who actually halted the attack, when they discovered what was happening, did not take the pastor to the hospital. "Instead they made him sit in a veranda overnight and threatened to arrest him for 'forcibly converting Hindus,'" the sources for VOM reported.

The police are believed to be members of the "radical Swami Laxmanananda" group of Hindu extremists, one of the most powerful anti-Christian sects in Hinduism, the VOM reported.

Following the unsuccessful attempt to kill him, the extremists have threatened to destroy his house and church, and attack his family.

"The pastor's family and his new convert have been expelled from their village. Another convert has been forced to perform Hindu rituals and renounced Christianity. Hindu leaders have said if Pastor Pabitra does not do the same, or if he returns to the village, they will kill him and his family," VOM sources reported.

"The Voice of the Martyrs is assisting and encouraging Pastor Pabitra during this difficult time," the organization said. "Pray for him and his family and ask God to protect other Christians in Indian who face great persecution."

The attacks on Christians by Hindus appears to be on the rise in recent weeks and months. In Hindu-dominated regions of the world, the attacks often are violent and sometimes lethal.

Even within the United States, as WND reported, the Hindu American Foundation has attacked Christian organizations ranging from the Southern Baptists' missions board and Gospel for Asia to Olive Tree Ministries, which aims to teach Christians about their beliefs.

"The proliferation of websites promoting religious hatred is an unfortunate consequence of the universality of access to the Internet," said Vinay Vallabh, the lead author of a report that attacked the Christian groups for their expression of their beliefs.

"We must vigorously identify, condemn and counter those who use the Internet to espouse chauvinism and bigotry over the principles of pluralism and tolerance," Vallabh said.

Vallabh's report, called "Hyperlink to Hinduphobia: Online Hatred, Extremism and Bigotry Against Hindus," expresses his hope that Internet Service Providers will start censoring Christian postings of their beliefs, "a necessary step as we continue our balancing act between free speech and licentious speech that leads to violence in the electronic age."

WND also has reported on a "Christian college," St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., where officials recently appointed a Hindu activist to head the school's religion department.

That professor, Anantanand Rambachan, in an interview with Hinduism Today, has condemned one of the principal tenets of Christianity – sharing one's faith, calling that an "obsession."

"Last year we met in Rome in a joint consultation with the World Council of Churches to discuss conversion. This was the first meeting of a three-year project to study the issue and to develop an acceptable code of conduct. Certain forms of Christian proselytization have given rise to tension and even violence between some religious communities," he said.

"Our discussion was frank and at times difficult, but we agreed that while everyone has a right to invite others to an understanding of their faith, no one has the right to violate others' rights and religious sensibilities. At the same time, all should heal themselves from the obsession of converting others," he wrote.

His writings also have been featured on the website of the Hindu-American Foundation, and in some of his writings for the World Council of Churches, he called biblically-based Christians na?ve.

He wrote, "It is only ignorance of other traditions or the refusal to be challenged by their claims which enables one to explain away religious pluralism by the na?ve conclusion that one's own tradition is true to the nature of God and that all others are false."

The Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, available through an online signup process, is available to provide constant updates on the situations Christians are facing in 2007.

"Because we are so free and so comfortable, a lot of us don't ask about how it is for Christians in the rest of the world. We've never been reminded, don't think about it, and sad to say in some cases, we don't care," VOM spokesman Todd Nettleton told WND.

Unlike the popular contemporary concept that the persecution of Christians happened in biblical times and then ended, he said, such attacks now are escalating in dozens of nations around the world.

But before supporters can get involved in the battles over steadfastness in the faith, they have to understand what is developing, Nettleton said.

"One of our purposes is to be a wake-up call to the American church, and say, 'Here's what reality is for our spiritual brothers and sisters in restricted nations,'" he said of the newsletter.

Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.

Shortly after the Wurmbrands began their smuggling operations, Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his refusal to recant Christianity.

He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound scars on his body.

The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released.

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