What to Do About India?

Each week, as my staff and I discuss what stories we will focus on in our weekly email news service, The Persecution and Prayer Alert, it seems that events out of India dominate. The rising tide of persecution in the world's largest democracy has got to be one of the great religious liberty tragedies of the last decade. The federal government is largely helpless to stop it, as individual states seek to legislate religious conversion out of existence and authorities turn a blind eye to acts of violence against Christian minorities. Even the traditionally secular Congress Party is getting into the act in such states as Himachal Pradesh, as they vie for popularity with the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Anti-conversion laws are now in place in seven states (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh), giving support to militant groups and resulting in ongoing violence against Christians.

I would urge you to make India a particular matter of prayer in the coming month. It saddens me to read of incident after incident after incident each week, and wondering how we can possibly cover each story adequately. I watch scenes from our latest video. Faith Under Fire: India and while I am grateful to God for what The Voice of the Martyrs is able to do in India through our partner ministries there, I feel that there is so much more to do. When we sent Bernie Daniel there to teach two seminars to equip church leaders on the biblical teaching on persecution early this year, it became obvious that we are only reaching the tip of the iceberg. God has opened some tremendous doors for us in India, but there are clouds on the horizon that cause me great concern for this wondrous but religiously troubled country. Again, I urge you to make India a matter of special prayer in the days to come.