TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The National United Christian Forum has opposed the call for a national ban on conversions calling this a direct attack on the individual’s freedom of conscience to choose one’s faith and on the freedom to profess, practice and propagate the faith of one’s choice, enshrined in Article 25 of the Indian Constitution.
“The secular nature of our Constitution with different freedoms was put in there after lengthy debate on this issue by the founding fathers,” says a statement by the forum that has been endorsed by Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Filipe Neri Ferrao.
The Forum, which consists of three leading Churches of India – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) and the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) – argues that the Churches forbid religious conversion by force or by fraudulent means and that they “fully support the government to take any appropriate action against anyone under the already stringent existing laws of the country.”
The Forum has also expressed its serious concern about the current situation of the minorities, particularly the Christians in India. Stating that a circular by the Navodaya School Commissioner to keep certain government-run schools open on Christmas Day is perceived by the Christian Community as an insult to the importance of Christmas. The Forum says that Christmas is the only holiday that Christians have in the whole year when they join the rest of the world in celebrating the birth of the ‘Prince of Peace’, Jesus Christ.
“The recent happenings in Bastar forcing the school to put the statue of Saraswati Maa in a Catholic school and forbidding the children to address the Principal with the honorific ‘Father’; the burning of a church in Delhi; the declaration of ‘Good Governance Day’ on 25th December to undermine the importance of Christmas; the provocative call by some fundamentalists to convert 4000 Christians to Hinduism in Agra on Christmas Day and the regular targeting of the Christian community, calling them even anti-national is a cause of great concern for us,” says Rev Richard Howell, Secretary – NUFC.
Stating that the Christian Community being a small minority of just 2.33 percent of the Indian population, does its day-to-day work in a peaceful manner and setting a good example of how dutiful citizens must abide by law, the forum says that it is highly distressed with the types of announcements and statements made by certain groups belonging to a right wing ideology.
The NUCF has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remind the people that no development can take place in the country if there are attempts to disrupt the peaceful communal harmony prevailing in the country for centuries.
“The Christian community has been always in the forefront of providing service to the nation and would continue with its commitment to make its unique contribution for further development of our motherland. But the community cannot do that if it is being constantly harassed and labeled as being anti-national, believing in a “foreign” religion. Christianity has been on this land for nearly 2000 years,” it says.
