Tamil Nadu have closed down a thriving Pentecostal church and expelled the pastor and his wife from the village, church officials said Friday, July 15. Apparently Hindu locals drove the Christian couple against their will out of the village on charges of "forcible" converting Hindus to Christianity, Pastor P.M. Daniel of the well informed Church of Christ in Tamil Nadu told the BosNewsLife New Delhi Bureau.
The incident happened in Murichambedu in Tamil Nadu’s north-eastern district of Tiruvallur, about 30 kilometers (almost 19 miles) from the state capital Chennai.
Daniel said 45-year old Pastor Steven and his wife Annammal, whose family names were not known, were accused "of conversions because there was a lesser participation of villagers in Hindu festivals than earlier." Due to the tensions the couple could not be reached for comment.
NEGOTIATING PEACE
Local police has been involved in negotiating peace with the villagers after Steven and Annammal filed a complaint at the local Minjur Police Station, reported Dinamalar, a leading regional daily, on Wednesday, July 13.
The Christian couple was living in Murichambedu village for the last two years. Dinamalar said Pastor Steven bought a land in Murichambedu and "instantly constructed a church on it." He reportedly also bought a land to establish a Christian cemetery in the village.
"Steven used to visit every house in Murichambedu and apply undue pressure to convert. He also started spreading his tentacles to the neighboring villages [and] even managed to convert the local school teacher," commented the daily.
TEMPLE ACTIVITY
"Even local Hindu festivals and a Hindu temple activity had stopped taking place in the village" due to "conversions on a large scale," Dinamalar added.
"Angered by this, the villagers met Steven and told him to stop his proselytizing activities. [However,] Steven ignored their representation and continued with his virulent activity. This infuriated the villagers who went to the church and locked it, and then drove the Steven family out of the village," the paper said.
However Daniel denied the accusations. "He was not converting anyone by force, and, therefore, such a move of the villagers was illegal," he said. Evangelical Christians have also argued that nobody can be forced to accept faith in Christ as this is a free choice.
CONTROVERSIAL LAW
The issue of conversion was brought to the limelight in Tamil Nadu in 2002 by State Chief Minister, Ms. J. Jayalalithaa, who enacted a controversial state anti-conversion law in October.
Analysts say the legislation was to please the influential Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, the law was repealed in May 2004, a month after the BJP was defeated in national elections.
There are roughly 3.8 million Christians out of the total population of 62.4 million in Tamil Nadu, according a 2001 Census.
