Christians in india

Violence against Christians in Orissa State, India

There is nothing harder to comprehend than violence of people against people. But yet, it happens every day and right now at a large scale in the state of Orissa in India. I visited the state and the Lutheran Church there just a few months ago and many of our friends work there.

The situation is tense:

    * Dozens of Christians have been killed.
    * Many have been attacked and wounded.
    * Dozens of churches have been attacked, burned and demolished
    * Thousands of people had to flee their homes, hide in the jungle or seek refuge in camps.

(A list of the incidents is compiled by the Evangelical Fellowship of India.)

The violence broke out after the leader of a Hindu political party had been killed and his supporters blamed the Christians for this. The people analyzing the conflict agree that it is more politically driven than purely religiously. But that doesn’t help the victims. I don’t know enough to comment on the theories about the underlying reasons for the violence.

However, everybody agrees that the government has not been active enough to  quell the violence and did not deploy enough police to contain the violent mob and to persecute the offenders. Therefore, the LWF and the World Council of Churches have called on the government of Orissa to take a more active role.

The churches of India observed a nationwide Day of Prayer and Fasting. The liturgy can be an inspiration also in your prayer.

Violence against a certain group destroys not only houses, it does not only kill people, it endangers the peace and the mutual understanding for years, maybe decades to come. Let us pray for the prosecuted Christians but let us also stand together in prayer that reconciliation will be possible after order has been restored. It is a reminder for everybody how fragile the relations between different religious groups can be. And it reinforces how crucial it is that we all have work that we all understand and respect each other.