Christians face persecution in Chhattisgarh

Last month, 175 people in Chhattisgarh, India, renounced the Christian faith and went back to their previous belief system as part of a reconversion event arranged by a member of the Indian parliament, Dilip Singh Judev.

Responding to complaints that Christians were forcibly converting villagers, Judev conducted programs in various villages across Chhattisgarh.

"Do not follow Christianity," Judev urged the villagers. "Come back to your own religion."

As an incentive for returning to their religious roots, women were given saris and men were given dhotis, traditional Indian clothing.

A few days later on November 20, in a separate incident, a Christian pastor serving in Chhattisgarh was beaten up while conducting a prayer meeting in the home of a new believer. A mob of around 50 people broke in and beat him, leaving him half dead with severe injuries on his body. The local believers and another pastor rushed him to the hospital, where he remains in critical condition.

On November 22, anti-Christian extremists searched the house of every Christian in this village and painted phrases on the walls that praised their deity or said, "Leave this place. Stop the conversion work."

Christians from various churches appealed to the local police, but the authorities simply directed the believers to remain in their homes or at the church while conducting worship services and not in the house of any non-Christian.

Then, on November 25, while Gospel for Asia-supported missionary Baruch Yadav was at a district pastors' meeting, anti-Christian extremists interrogated his neighbors, trying to dig up any information relating to the meeting.

No harm was done to Baruch or the other pastors at the meeting. But the situation remains tense as the extremists appear to be targeting a GFA-supported missionary leader, Chetan Mayur, and the believers of his church.

"There is uncertainty and fear not knowing what the extremists are going to do," a GFA field correspondent reports.

He asks for prayers of protection over the Christians living and serving in Chhattisgarh and that God would intervene and soften the hearts of the extremists.