Joginder Witnesses - Are You Witnessing ?

Joginder Singh at the age of 89 is forced to flee from his house in Kalinga area of Kandhamal district in Orissa, to live in a refugee camp in Bhubaneswar. The reason, the Sangh Parivar Hindu nationalists, who hate Christian identity, threatened him to change his religion. Joginder refuses to give up his worship of Christ. He says, "My Lord has been all along with me. My future is in my Lord's hands."

Joginder Singh, originally from Amritsar in Punjab, was baptised in Lahore at the age of 19 and he then moved to Madras where his father was a civil surgeon. In 1939, Joginder joined the fighter squadron of the Royal Air Force. He fought in World War II against Germany and Japan. After the war, Singh returned to India in 1945 and started working in the Exploratory Tube well Organisation as a mechanical drilling engineer. In 1953, he came on deputation to the Orissa government as a drilling engineer. In 1965, he was posted in Kandhamal and his first assignment was to explore the water supply to the D.A.V School in Kalinga.

Recalling his stay for 43 years in Kandhamal, Joginder Singh said: "When I moved in, the district was called Phulbani and the area was very peaceful. There were no divisions among people on the basis of caste and religion. I blame politics entirely for the sudden turn of events. It's because of politics that innocent persons have lost their lives." Indeed Orissa carnage of Christians has a strong political dimension. Let's reflect on this further.

Freedom of Religion

Why has peaceful Kandhamal turned into a laboratory of hate crimes and killing? The BJP, Sangh Parivar has a long term agenda: Ban Conversions. In order for Sangh Parivar to achieve their undemocratic agenda the constitution of India poses a hindrance. The constitution of India article 25 provides for: Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion.

Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice and propagate.

The section of Sangh Parivar has orchestrated social disharmony and public disorder by ethnic cleansing of Christians. They are inciting ideologies of hatred, convinced their action serves the nation. No right-thinking person can support such an ideology. This is a demonic way to prepare a case for ban on conversions. At stake are the human rights enshrined in the secular democratic constitution of India.

To be Human

The fundamental question for human rights is 'what does it mean to be human?' The dignity of human beings is declared in Genesis 1:27-28. "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Human beings are self-conscious and self-determining subjects and moral agents and possess rights. God-given rights are inalienable, and no power on earth has the authority to abrogate them in any culture anywhere in the world. They are superior to any policy. God-given rights are universal and obligatory everywhere, always.

Hatred of the World

Joginder has rightly testified, "the Lord is with me." Jesus indeed promised His disciples, "And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age (Matt 28:20)". Jesus also warmed his disciples of the hatred of the world.

18 "If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the worldâ€"therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, 'Servants are not greater than their master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 It was to fulfill the word that is written in their law, 'They hated me without a cause.' (John 15:18-25).

The world's hatred for the disciples of Christ is a factor with which the Church has to come to terms. Two roots of that hatred are here mentioned: the world's prior hatred for Jesus, which unavoidably becomes directed to the disciples through their connection with him, and second and its perception that the disciples are not "of" the world.

This warning of Christ to his disciples is fulfilled over and over again in the history of the world. The Christians in Kandhamal are hated for their association and worship of Christ and are labelled by the Sangh Parivar as anti national. However the minority Christian community is committed to serving the people of India specially the poor and the marginalised.

The saying of which the disciples are reminded is in 13:16, "A servant is not greater than his master. The Mission of the Church will result in the same twofold response as the work of Jesus himself.

Guilt of the World

The guilt of the world consists in its rejection of the revelation of God brought by Jesus; this involves the rejection of God himself, which is an awful sin (v 22). Moreover the works of Jesus are God's works. In Christ the world has seen God in action in the person of Jesus Christ. However, its response has been to hate both the Son and the Father in him (v 24). Jesus Christ was hated during his days of sojourn on earth for he witnessed to the gospel of the Kingdom of God, a gospel of truth, justice, love and reconciliation with God and neighbour.

Empowered to Witness

Jesus further promises his disciples, 26 "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27 You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning."

The disciples of Christ are empowered by the Holy Spirit to witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This witness of the Church brings to light the truth of the revelation of Jesus in his word and deed, and death and resurrection.

The disciples are capable of witnessing because they have experienced the crucified and resurrected Christ. In these trying times of the Church in India, let's remind ourselves Christ is risen and he is with us and in us. The power of the Holy Spirit is given to the Church to witness.

Joginder is witnessing. Are you also witnessing?