Over three hundred Christian clergy, leaders, and religious liberty advocates have signed an open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging diplomatic action to condemn the persecution of Christians in India.
Mainline Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, and independent clergy and lay leaders were among the signatories alongside leaders of ecumenical organizations, theological institutions, universities, and Christian advocacy groups. They collectively spoke out against the dramatic rise in Christian persecution in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The ecumenical Delhi-based United Christian Forum reports 720 attacks in 2023 against Christians, a stark increase from 127 in 2014 when Modi first came to power” the statement reads.
The open letter outlines the vulnerability of Christian communities, pointing out that watchdog group Open Doors USA ranked India as the 11th “most dangerous country in the world … to be a Christian,” alongside Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in their extreme persecution. The Hindu ethno-nationalist supremacist ideology known as Hindutva asserts the hegemony of Hindus in India and is attributed to the rise in persecution with the support of Modi and his political party.
Emphasizing the acts of violence, vandalism, and forced displacement of Christians committed by religious extremists against Christians and their institutions, the letter also called attention to legal persecution through prohibitions on Christian worship and anti-conversion laws under which thousands of Christians have been arrested with many still detained without a trial. The letter states that over the past two years, tens of thousands of Christians have been displaced with over 400 churches destroyed in Manipur alone with the sanction of government officials.
American Christians should view this growing persecution with grave concern, especially as the U.S. government seeks closer cooperation with India to counter China. Modi was once banned from entering the U.S. for the severe violations of religious freedom he tolerated while serving as Chief Minister of Gujarat during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Then over a year ago, Modi was invited to address the U.S. Congress and celebrated as a valued U.S. partner. Despite admitting the problem of Christian persecution and insistence that discrimination would not be tolerated, Modi has done nothing substantial to hold the government officials and mobs responsible for their crimes. Actions are far more powerful than words and the actions of the Indian government indicate continued persecution and impunity for religious violence against minorities.
The signatories of the letter called upon the State Department to implement recommendations from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern for violations of international religious freedom and hold the Indian government accountable for these infringements. The letter also calls for the consideration of targeted sanctions against Indian government agencies and officials responsible for human rights violations while supporting independent religious and human rights organizations in India and the U.S. that have been targeted by the Indian government for their advocacy on the behalf of the persecuted church.
If the State Department were to heed the recommendations of this letter and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom would send a powerful signal to the Indian government and put them on notice for the violations of international religious freedom they have tolerated or even sanctioned. Additional sanctions would be available to be applied on the officials responsible for the persecution of India’s Christians and support to their organizations would ensure future acts of persecution are properly documented and reported to the international community. As the U.S. and India expand their cooperation on countering China, we must not allow U.S. leadership on human rights and religious freedom to be undermined by a failure to confront the growing trend of religious persecution in India.
Comment by David on August 8, 2024 at 2:40 pm
This is what happens under religious nationalism. Christianity was the religion of the colonial British and Islam was that of the Mughal invaders. Both are perceived as invasive species.
Comment by John on August 8, 2024 at 4:15 pm
Muslims are being persecuted in India too, but that’s of no concern to the IRD or its allies, is it? You believe in only looking out for your own. I’ll pray that all religious persecution in India ceases.
Comment by Douglas E Ehrhardt on August 8, 2024 at 5:26 pm
I believe that this is a Christian website.
Comment by John on August 8, 2024 at 11:56 pm
Douglas E Ehrhardt,
What’s your point?
Comment by Tim Ware on August 9, 2024 at 12:13 am
In my mind, Christians in the United States have no moral leg to stand on griping about how another country treats Christians when, solely by their support, a country in the Middle East is slaughtering scores of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children, sick and old, in unspeakably brutal ways, and celebrating it, all in the name of “God.”
Get the beam out of your own eye before you try to get the speck of dust out of your brother’s eye.
Comment by Tim on August 9, 2024 at 1:03 pm
It’s worth reading the actual letter. This article claims the clergy are speaking out just for Christians, whereas the actual wording is “Christians, Muslims, Dalits, and other religious minorities.”
Good on these pastors.
Comment by MikeB on August 9, 2024 at 5:55 pm
TimW
Hamas an Islamic terrorist organization in Gaza that has been killing Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Atheists for decades, their sole purpose is to wipe out Israel and it’s allies.
Israel is a Secular Ally of the United States, that is fighting a war with Hamas, they are bombing areas of mixed civilians and Hamas Fighters and is determined to wipe out Hamas to prevent a future 10/7.
The Biden administration is not a Christian administration, they are backing an ally who will back America as well, Gaza and Hamas if they win, want to do nothing more than harm America.
The United States is not a Christian Nation, we are far from that.
That’s like me blaming you for Putin’s behavior, saying you have no leg to stand on because Russia is Orthodox.
Comment by Tim Ware on August 9, 2024 at 7:38 pm
MikeB,
The open letter the article is about is a letter from Christian leaders, not secular leaders.
I wholeheartedly agree that the country committing the slaughter in Gaza is, as you say, a secular country.
However, the only reason that country exists, and the only reason it has the backing of the U. S. government for whatever it wants to do, is because many evangelical Christians believe God requires them to support that country. The U. S. gvernment would not be supporting that country if that were not the case.
Thus, in the final analysis, it is evangelical Christians in the U. S. who are the proximate cause of the slaughter going on in Gaza.
Whatever Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, or whoever might do, it is not an excuse for what is going on in Gaza, unless someone holds the belief that those being slaughtered matter less in God’s sight than the people doing the slaughter. I suspect that is actually what many do believe and why the slaughter is actually happening.
After all, if the sick, elderly, and children in Gaza are nothing more than insects to God, why should I care about them?
Comment by MikeB on August 9, 2024 at 10:23 pm
TimW
Joe Biden hates evangelicals. Do you think Presidents Obama or Clinton like them?
You are engaging in ugly conspiracy theory.
The fact is that they are a great ally for the United States and that all of Gaza is not.
That is why the US supports them. Evangelicals might be a convincing scapegoat to you, but again why aren’t you calling out orthodox leaders for not standing up to Putin.
The US leaders wrote a letter to India about Christians. We are our brothers keepers.
Hamas has murdered a number of Christians in Gaza.
US political leaders give very little to evangelicals. Democrats and Republicans support Israel. Because for a secular government willing to abort its own babies, who cares if Palestinians die.
I’m disappointed that you care so little about the half million in America that are executed every year.
Comment by Td on August 10, 2024 at 3:06 pm
Hahaha. It is hilarious to think that his administration would do anything to address Christian persecution- they are persecuters themselves!
Comment by David on August 10, 2024 at 8:56 pm
“Israel is a Secular Ally of the United States…” If Israel is secular, why is it that Jews have more religious freedom in the US than in Israel? Do not dismiss this without considering marriage laws in Israel or the status of Reform Judaism.
As far as Israel being an ally of the US, I would like to know in what way. Do they send us money? Do they allow us to have military bases in their country? Do they regularly send troops to support international efforts? Does Israel support US positions on international matters?
Israel is actually more of a parasite. People whine about “little Israel” when its population is 9.5 million— greater than the individual populations of 40 US states and Austria. Its territory is larger than New Jersey and I do not hear people talking about “little New Jersey.” Israel’s GDP per capita is larger than that of Japan which does not normally get US aid except for some relief supplies after the East Japan Earthquake.
Comment by MikeB on August 11, 2024 at 11:17 am
David,
Israel is still secular, if not as much as the United States. A non-secular country would be Saudi Arabia for example which is a religious state.
Israel buys US defense goods like F-35s, they co-develop military technology with us like Iron Dome, their units train with US units, their intel agencies send reports to our agencies, and we do have one military base there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site_512
The US aid is almost entirely military, funding co-development efforts and subsidizing FMS sales, they have a world class military R&D industry.
You might not like these facts David, but they are true, and they make Israeli/US relations make sense.
Comment by David on August 11, 2024 at 4:46 pm
Getting involved in the Middle East was probably our biggest foreign policy mistake. All of our interference has come back to haunt us—helping to overthrow the liberal democratic government of Iran, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, incursions in Lebanon, and looking the other way at the displacement of the native Palestinians for European refugees which we did not want coming here. Israel will be the death of the US.
Comment by MikeB on August 11, 2024 at 7:03 pm
David,
I have no idea who you are speaking for, You aren’t a Christian, Israel won’t be the death of the US. Palestinians are a shockingly hateful bunch who actually don’t have any claim to the land. I don’t expect Israel or the USA to act as if they are Christian nations, just like Russia, Poland, France, Italy etc… After WW2 borders changed. The fact that Palestinians are still bitter over that has no basis in truth.
Palestine is full of people who hate American, America knows that. Only a fool wouldnt get that.
Comment by Tim Ware on August 11, 2024 at 9:52 pm
It’s amazing to me how people who pose as Christians can be full of so much hate. I guess their modern, dynamically equivalent Bible translations must have Jesus saying, “A new commandment I give you, that you hate everyone who doesn’t have the same sectarian beliefs that you have.” There’s really no other way to explain it.
Do Christians really believe that God became incarnate, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven in order to birth a following of hateful, judgmental, condemning, holy-righteous know-it-alls?
Comment by MikeB on August 12, 2024 at 6:45 am
TimW,
What the heck are you talking about.
You the guy who was willing to throw hands over if original sin cam from Paul or from Augustine?
The real Tim Ware would have been mortified over some of your behaviors.
David is not nor has ever claimed to be a Christian, it’s one of the things I appreciate about him. He is very much a foil who fences with Christians here.
That is very respectable. However you may have missed it, the conversation has gone from Christians are causing Israel, to American foreign policies as a very secular state supporting Israel for very secular reasons.
When David says we, he means we Americans, not we Christians. That was why I pointed out which we, we are now talking about.
I am personally of a much more limited foreign policy than the list of post British, foreign entanglement in the middle east like those David pointed out.
But we must understand why they happen so we don’t fall into rank antisemitic insinuation
like you do. You have engaged in ugly hateful conspiracy theory. You should try to know more so you do not fall prey to such traps.