The Church of Christ

(Based on the Word of God; dedicated to the promotion of independence, Indianisation, unity, co-operation, and to the removal of corruption and evil in all forms and in all places.)

Word of Peace and Joy

“Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people” Luke 2:10.

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled” John 15:11.

“I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you.” John 16:22.

Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled.” John 16:24

“And on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased” Luke 2:14.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you” John 11:27.

“Think ye that I have come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.” Luke 12:51.

Only when joy or peace is based on truth and justice it is fruitful and lasting. And only true children of God deserve them.

A Happy Christmas and A Brighter New Year to all Children of God

Peace? In Our Time?

With due deference to the weighty views of Shrimati Marjorie Sykas in regard to Christian attitude to war published in the United Church Review of September 1965, I want to make a few comments for her consideration of the Christian public.

I agree with almost every thing she says about Christ and His way which is incumbent on His followers to tread. But she is ignoring, either deliberately or through ignorance, certain fundamental and essential factors involved for a proper understanding of this vital subject and with a view to involving a way of life both for the individual person and for a country or its Government.

1. First, let us always keep in mind that we are dealing with a concrete world in which evil is not just a mental aberration but a personal objective reality and an active power. Had there been more adequate realisation of this moral and material fact, some of her propositions would have been somewhat qualified.

2. The deep and extreme implications of Christian love cannot be fully understood or implemented in this inextricably mixed up world of good and evil. The party showing acts of love is misunderstood to be weak by the other party in conflict and makes it an occasion for a fatal blow. The cross is the end of true love if acted upon consistently. The cross may or may not lead to resurrection. Individuals and groups can, and should, go to the cross in order to induce love and truth in others by concrete examples. A Government can by no means undertake this extreme measure and self-immolation as they are responsible for law and order and for the protection of the hearth and home and every citizen.

3. No Government and no country in the world up-to-date has been, fully or even by majority, a Christian Government or a Christian nation. And it is not likely to be in a world believing in personal and collective freedom and a world in which evil pervades. Such easy optimism is discouraged by prophetic teaching. If this is a fact, how can we expect a mixed Government and a multi-religious or largely irreligious nation to take up a Christian stand or even to adopt a Christian attitude in an emergency?

4. Ethical principles apply only to equals, morality has no meaning between man and beast. Some human beings sink not only below what may be called a subhuman level but are far worse than animals. They are obviously satanic. History is full of examples of millions of such beings wrongly called men. Ethics applies only in a world of more or less similar intelligence and understanding, of more or less equal spiritual discernment and response to the dictates of conscience and reason. It cannot apply when one party is sensitive to moral issues another is just blunt like a brute. Has it not been proved to be true in the last two world wars? How can you be sure that your Christian behaviour will have a reciprocal response from the other side? If not, you as a nation and a Government cannot allow yourselves to be crucified because you are not all and fully Christian, and even many Christians do not understand the full implications of Christian love.

   What right have you to adopt a particular ethical stand, which you may claim to be perfect and right, but others do not, and you have a terrible responsibility for the preservation of the life and culture of a whole nation? It would not be right, rather it would be meaningless, to apply certain moral standards to a nation or a Government, who do not understand them, and who really belong to a different World of other values? This point must be understood properly in order that we may be able to extend the right kind of treatment against our enemies in a deadly conflict.

5. Another most important consideration is the distinction, real and true, between use of force and violence. Pacifists, Pseudo-pacifists and Neo-pacifists either confuse or misconstrue this truth. I think Christ has left us with no clear doctrine of “Resist not.” On the contrary, there is enough evidence in the Gospels - both in his words and personal behaviour to warrant the conclusion that under certain circumstances the Christian like the dynamic God of history is entitled to use force as distinct from violence.

As to Pakistan. To all competent, consistent and honest observers it should be perfectly clear that in Pakistan we have an extraordinary situation. Ever since the Great Killings and Partition 1946-48, Pakistan has been committing aggression after aggression on India. Bharat has exercised great forbearance. What is a little humanism or philanthropy during a natural disaster? It cuts no ice in political circles. India has done acts of charity and humanity in a much bigger and deeper way in the matter of protecting the Muslim population within her boundary, in the matter of accepting the responsibility of millions of Hindu refugees squeezed out of Pakistan, in the matter of huge refugee properties left behind, in trade and commerce, in connection with Canal waters treaties. But is Pakistan in a sane psychological state to understand (not to speak of appreciating) this and India’s fundamental peaceful nature and other spiritual values? Take the latest phase of India Pakistan relation. What is India’s plain duty according to the laws of positive love in this precarious state of the Cease Fire ordered by the Security Council? To let Pakistan do what she likes? That will certainly lead to the overrunning of India by both China and Pakistan. We do not live in the same moral and spiritual world. This conflict is essentially between a theocratic Islamic Dictatorship and ruthless godless communistic authoritarianism on the one hand and a morally - spiritually charged secularistic Democratic way of life. Under the circumstances we cannot bow, in the name of false love, to stupid crude and brutal violence.

The present time for the publicity of Marjorie Sykes’ views, however potential and constructive in peace time, is most inappropriately chosen. It is apt to confound the minds of Christians in India at a time when integrity of purpose and single loyalty to the country is most needed.

— R.C. Das.

The Mission of the Church in a World of Revolutionary Change

A Reappraisal of Missions

(Excerpts quoted from the United Church Review, June 1962).

“The Mission of the church is unchangeable, but missions, historical expressions of the church’s calling, may be faithful or unfaithful, relevant or irrelevant.”

The Indigenous Community of the Holy Spirit

The missionary task of the church.

“The church as the first fruits is called to be the agent of the purifying, filling and unifying ministry (of Christ) to each nation so that what has been accomplished in him may permeate into all areas of life, intensively and extensively.”

This cannot happen if Christians and the church are isolated from society, it depends upon a creative relationship and participation in all aspects of national life, and a sharing in the longings and hopes of people as well as in their frustrations and despair.

“This is a difficult and dangerous mission of the church. Its identification with national life may simply mean conformity or syncretism, It is however a danger which we must face. The church as the community of the Spirit lives by the Gospel which is always a scandal and foolishness for the world. The church must be free to preserve the scandal caused by its witness which is really that of Christ and not of its own outmoded ways, foreign forms, or irrelevant actions.”

In the face of the limited effectiveness of much of our missionary outreach and the small number of conversions in many areas the feeling is growing among many Christians that one of the major causes of our failure is the ghetto (mission compound) mentality that often arises in the church. It has been easy for the Christian communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America to have a green house existence in special soil separated from their own proper soil in the centre of the life of their own people. In a period of implantation this was almost inevitable. (?) What is unfortunate is that the unnatural forms of worship and architecture, of morality and spiritual life have been preserved in some cases too long, and often absolutised rather than made indigenous.

Radio and Audio-Visual Service

1. We shall welcome songs or lyrics on Christian, national and social themes from Christian writers, but they should be written in Hindi or Urdu only. We have a music department which will try to compose a suitable tune to an accepted entry. The author of the song will be given credit for the words when the song is broadcast in our programme, It must be understood however, that Radio Department reserves the right to modify the song wherever necessary, or when music demands it.

2. If any songs have been fitted to a tune, we shall be happy to receive along with the song the tune’s notation. We can arrange to send a tape if tape recorder is available for recording the song, Orchestration for it will be provided by our music department. In this case credit for music will be given to the composer of the tune.

3. If someone has the rare combination of a lovely voice in addition to composing poetry and music we shall, be happy to give him (or her) a chance to test his vocal ability in our studio. In such cases the department will pay for the travel and hospitality, but the person concerned must be prepared to come to Jabalpur at a convenient time for 5 or 6 days.

4. Please send the compositions directly to:

Rev. Absan Masih Music Director Radio Department CARAVS Branch Office Leonard Theological College, JABALPUR, M.P.

[Our only comment is that sincere efforts should be directed to improving music in church worship and as an ally to personal evangelism! - Editor Church of Christ.]

Radical Rome

The publication of two books - Constable’s Objections to Roman Catholicism and Roberts Contraception and Holiness - registering violently non-traditional Catholic views on hell, contraception, freedom and the individual, censorship and superstition is the latest salute to Pope John’s aggiornamento! Without Pope John the radical Roman Catholics on both sides of the Atlantic would either have remained silent or have been crushed into silence. His plea to modernise has gone home to the hearts of the radicals, already privately fermenting, and has let loose a spate of questioning such as the Church of Rome has never encountered in this century.

In Britain the Catholic radicals are led by such Jesuits as Archbishop T.D. Roberts and Father Thomas Corbishley and, among the lay people, Michael de la Bedoyere, John M. Todd, H.P.R. Finberg, Mrs. Magdalen Coffin and Mrs. Rosemary Haughton. Some of them are converts to Catholicism, all of them intellectuals and all of them weary of the stuffy, formalised life of the Catholic Church as they know it and as they see it in the frozen formalism of non-intellectual hierarchy.

But this outburst of radicalism within the church is not just a national characteristic of Catholicism in Britain, for much of what is said in the two books passes as very ordinary, accepted stuff in European Catholicism. What is significant for Rome and the rest of the Christian world is the fact that radicalism is now spreading rapidly through all the Catholic ranks. It passes under the flag of aggiornamento, but it is nevertheless radicalism of the sharpest type.

The Church of Rome is challenging her own accepted positions. The weight of the centuries of tradition, authority and infallibility is no longer so formidable that the faithful, afraid to speak, will meekly accept what they, are expected to accept Reformation is beginning from within, and that movement - as Karl Barth has already warned his Protestant friends - should gather sufficient momentum the Roman church becomes a formidable claimant to the allegiance of all Christendom.

These radicals may not be the harbinger of a new springtime by the Tiber. The conservatives of the Vatican are still in power in the Curia, and when all the dust of the present council has settled there will be few practical achievements to record. But the Roman church can never be the same again. The outburst of radicalism has had its effect, even though teaching on the doctrine of hell and on birth control may not change. Pope John’s signal is still flying.

Cecil Northcott.

(Christian Century, Nov, 18, 1964.)

Presbyterians Elect Negro Moderator

The Election of the Rev. Elder G. Hawkins as the first Negro moderator of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. needs to be saluted for what it is, a recognition and acceptance of competent Christian Leadership irrespective of race by a predominantly white denomination. What this election says about the will of Presbyterians to eliminate racial stigmas and blocks in their church should not be minimised. But what it says about the calibre of the church’s new leadership and the wisdom of the delegates in choosing such leadership is equally important.

Indian Receives Award in New York

Ramkrishna Shahu Modak of Ahmednagar, India, was presented with an Award of Merit by the Interfaith Movement Inc in Central Park, New York City on October 4, 1964. The Award bore the inscription, “To Rev. Ramkrishna Shahu Modak, D.D. in recognition of outstanding achievement in attaining the highest ideals of Goodwill, Equality and Mutual Respect,” engraved on a brass plate fixed on a marble plaque. Above the inscription was mounted the gold-plated three rings representing the three principles of the Interfaith Movement.

The presentation was made at the annual meeting of the Interfaith Movement, attended by about 3000 persons. Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Senator Kenneth Keating, former Attorney General of the U.S., Robert F. Kennedy, Louis J. Lefkowitz, Attorney General of New York State, H.E. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, International President of the Interfaith Movement, Judge of the World Court were among the speakers. Sokhi Kato, of the Japanese Interfaith Movement, was on the dais. Rabbi Harold Gordon, Executive Secretary of the New York Board of Rabbis, was another speaker.

Dr. Ramkrishna S. Modak has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Interfaith Movement for several years. He was the first non-American to be appointed to the Board. H.E. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan was thereafter made International President of the Movement. Among other members of the Board are the Executive Secretary of the Protestant Council of Churches of Greater New York, and Monseigneur John P. Haverty of the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, Hon. Louis I. Kaplan, Civil Court Judge.

Rabbi Emeritus of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue, Dr. David de Sola Pool, read the Hebrew scriptures. Rev. Harold A. Salmon, Negro, Principal of Cardinal Hayes High School, New York City, gave the invocation.

The President of the Interfaith Movement Inc of New York is Dr. Herman Mantell, Deputy Comptroller of New York City.

Church Union, a Help to the Spread of the Gospel?

H. Kaveri Bai writes her father’s testimony and her own observations.

Dear Editor,

My grandfather went to Kashi to have his sins washed away in the Ganga. When returning, he very nearly lost his life at the hands of a thug. Unknown to him, the horse he rode on was a military one, perhaps stolen and sold to him. As it galloped away, closely pursued by the thug, it passed a military cantonment area where a cavalry parade was taking place. The animal turned aside, joined the cavalry horses and started performing exercises with them, thus saving the pilgrim’s life. His son, my father, born years later, never undertook such a dangerous pilgrimage for he did not believe in the power of the Ganga to wash away sins.

In the article on page three of the June 1965, Biblical Witness concerning Bishop Newbigin’s secret talks with the papists, you wrote concerning the fragmentary communique issued by them: “By inference, the communique includes a patent untruth - that is, that the main hindrance to the spread of the Gospel is the divisions among Christians, and, of course, Protestants in particular.” Please let me offer a few remarks for your statement called to my mind what my father used to tell of his own experience.

Father had wanted to become a Christian, but was bewildered which church to join. Each claimed itself to be the right one, and all wanted to secure him - a Brahmin being considered a good prize in the last century. Finally, he happened to join the Anglican Church and was baptised by the Rev. Carr. Later on, he was confirmed by Bishop Gell. Among my near relatives, in the generation preceding mine, were many converts. The divisions of the church, though tragic, nevertheless did not hinder any of them from joining one or the other denomination nor did they hinder anyone else of my acquaintance. They heard of the selfsame Christ and the selfsame way of salvation was ‘preached everywhere.’ All the Protestant denominations preached forgiveness of sins and cleansing through the blood of Christ. They preached the same atoning death of the virgin-born Son of God in Whom everyone could partake of life everlasting.

Thus, it is my own observation and the testimony of the members of my family, who have come out of Hinduism, that those who lay hold of the eternal life and security of Christ and forsake the passing pleasures of sin do not worry over much in which church they should hear the Gospel of salvation nor do they worry in which particular church they should confess their faith in the Saviour. Yes, in those far off days when my relatives of the preceding generation were coming to the Lord, all the divisions of Protestantism preached the same historical Christ of the Scriptures and confessed the same faith “once delivered unto the saints”. When Christ is taken hold of, or men are taken hold of by Him, the Holy Spirit does the rest, and they are prepared to be turned out of home, ex-communicated by their society, forsake all their inheritance and to suffer persecution for His Name’s sake. They will go into any denominational affiliation where they can learn more of their Saviour generally to the one through which they heard of him first.

But, Editor, I would like you to tell me what sort of Gospel these union-mad people are going to spread which could be hindered by the unfortunate divisions among Protestants? Will this Gospel prepare men for that event which is most surely going to overtake them - DEATH. Will it prepare them for what awaits them after death? Does the Ecumenical Gospel warn them against SIN, whose wages are death? Does their Gospel show them the way of salvation and escape from hell and from that awful day of Judgement by taking hold of Jesus Christ Who became man for the sole purpose of dying and rising again to conquer Death? Does it tell of the offer of everlasting life to everyone who will receive it? Is it the Gospel of the apostles?

My reading of the published speeches and writings of the top leaders of the church-union movement, and many, many, other outstanding men and women in it, forces me to the conclusion that the Gospel they want to spread has nothing to do with man’s immortal soul, his eternal future in heaven or hell, the Virgin-born Christ of the Scriptures. It is not the glorious Gospel preached by the disciples and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the founding fathers of the various denominations in India.

Yours in Christ,

H. Kaveri Bai,

(Biblical Witness, August 1965.)

How to Make Your Child Into a Delinquent

These satirical “Rules of Raising Delinquent Children” were prepared by the Houston, Texas, Police Department.

1. Begin with infancy to give the child everything he wants. In this way he will grow up to believe the world owes him a living.
2. When he picks up bad words, laugh at him. This will make him think he is cute. It will also encourage him to pick up “cuter” phrases that will blow off the top of your head later.
3. Never give him any spiritual training. Wait until he is 21 and then let him “decide for himself.”
4. Avoid the use of the word “wrong.” It may develop a guilt complex. This will condition him to believe later, when he is arrested for stealing a car, that society is against him, and he is being persecuted.
5. Pick up everything he leaves lying around - books, shoes, clothes. Do everything for him so that he will be experienced in throwing all responsibility on others.
6. Let him read any printed matter he can get his hands on. Be careful that the silverware and drinking glasses are sterilised, but let his mind feast on garbage.
7. Quarrel frequently in the presence of your children. In this way they will not be too shocked when the home is broken up later.
8. Give a child all the spending money he wants. Never let him earn his own. Why should he have things as tough as you had them?
9. Satisfy his every craving for food, drink, and comfort. See that every sensual desire is gratified. Denial may lead to harmful frustration.
10. Take his part against neighbours, teachers, policemen. They are all prejudiced against your child.
11. When he gets into real trouble, apologise for yourself by saying, I never could do anything with him.
12. Prepare for a life of grief. You will be likely to have it.

— From Sabbath Recorder.

Notes

1. Kashmir

In the Guardian of the 16th October 1965 Mr. Rouner in his letter is harping on an alternative solution of Kashmir problem. He fumbles and muffles his mouth. He says yet he says not. What is this alternative? He must have something in his mind. Some friends in other Christian journals have dimly suggested something or are prevaricating. They are all non-Indians and it is rather significant. What are these alternatives, which they say India should accommodate, except vivisection of Kashmir or its internationalisation - nothing new or surprising in the context of power politics of some western nations. Division will keep the fire burning in more senses than one and will weaken both India and Pakistan - a state of affairs which probably some nations want for their own interest. Internationalisation is heartily desired by the same powers for in that case they will establish air-bases and spying centres there, apparently to contain Communism but really to dominate Asia and to keep rising India down. Independence of Kashmir will serve the same purpose. In both cases Kashmir will additionally provide a fascinating and even riotous pleasure garden for the world. Pleasures and morals do not go together. Lack of rectitude and justice lead to a fall.

India’s case has been clear from the beginning. She has sought relief from naked aggression continuing ever since 1948 and ruthlessly renewed in recent weeks. The present Ceasefire has been made precarious and perilous. Legally, constitutionally and morally Kashmir is part of India like any other state in the Union. Has there been a popular uprising since 1948 in Kashmir against India and for Pakistan demanding a plebiscite? Who is Pakistan to foment this discontent through its agents and saboteurs? Both in 1948 and in 1965 India has placed her grievance before the U.N.O. who have appeared unable or unwilling to do justice to India. On the contrary this time U.K. has accused India of aggression against Pakistan in the face of clear facts endorsed by U.N.O, observers themselves. Both U.K. and U.S.A. have been supplying heavy military aid and modern arms apparently to be used against Communism but in reality, as is now evident to enable Pakistan to fight India. There is enough proof for this. The Press and people of both U.K. and U.S.A. have been very unfair and unsympathetic to India during the present conflict. Though they have enough knowledge of the case they have been reluctant to confess the truth and do the right. In particular, U.S.A. even after Pak-Chinese collusion had been established and China actually attacked India, has not halted Pakistan from using American arms against India. Political discussion about Kashmir cannot start until the Ceasefire is stabilised and withdrawals are effected. India’s stand is that Kashmir is not negotiable. There is no dispute over, and problem of Kashmir except the question of Pakistan’s vocation of her aggression on India which has been admitted in the U.N.O. both then in 1948 and now in 1965.

Under these circumstances, there is no alternative for India to accept or work for. There has been too much appeasement of Pakistan and India has exercised great patience and generosity even under severe provocations. For Western Christians living in this country to suggest that India should not sit on this rigid line is to say the least very unkind. The sufferer is asked to propitiate for the sins of the tyrant. Such Christian love does not apply to Pakistan or Islam. History proves that Then, what right has anyone to ask Hindu India (by overwhelming majority) to use the dictates of absolutist Christian ethics to another non-Christian country? Are they anywhere near understanding it? A Government has its solemn duty of defending the hearth and home of every citizen of the country. Truth and Justice are simple and rigid verities which apply to relations between nations. Generosity has a place in mollifying the strictness of justice. But there must be appreciative response from the other side. But the truth is that no liberal concession by the gift of Kashmir will quench the thirst of the present military Dictator of the Theocratic State of Pakistan. They have constantly demanded from the beginning a corridor through India for East Bengal, and Hyderabad and will soon demand separated land for the 50 million Muslims in India. Pakistan’s recalcitrance and undue greed has been fed by Britain and America by conniving her clear aggression on India and by equipping her with heavy modern armament from head to foot.

So-called Christian leaders (both lay and clerical) have not given any clear lead to Indian Christians. They are neither here nor there in this grim struggle of India with perfidious enemies. A brother in the latest issue of “Arunoday” has suggested that Christians in India should be pacifists and do peace-making in this serious situation of the country. Is the climate for reconciliation present in Pakistan and China? What is the stand of Christians in this peril India is facing today?

2. Foreign Help

Apropos an Editorial on Overseas Aid in the Guardian of 21st Oct. 1965, we must make a few brief remarks.

There is truth and relevancy in the words of Mr. S.C. Jamir - Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for External Affairs - who spoke at a Methodist Sponsored Prayer Service for Indian Frontier Guards. Foreign aid given to Indian Christians through the scores of missionary agencies continuing for more than a century has actually and naturally divided their loyalty. Under certain circumstances the Christians automatically look to their western patrons for guidance in making their decisions when reacting to the situation, even where no strings have been attached to the help given. Or they take no decisions and remain indifferent. This is the mentality among Christians at least in North India where mission influence has been stronger than in the South. Of course, there are individual except tons. Classical and unpleasant examples of disloyalty and unpatriotic conduct have been the Karens of Burma, the Adibasi Christians in and around Ranchi, the Nagas of Assam, etc. Even today in this crisis the Christians seem to lack the emotional into ration and patriotic fervour so necessary for a successful outcome of the emergency. On the contrary many leaders especially missionaries are wanting us to pursue peacemaking and cultivate goodwill when our immediate duty is the defence of the country. That some Christians are serving in the armed forces is not relevant to the issue at stake.

Some of the older missions as such have been winding up but channelling their aid in other ways directly to church Treasuries possibly to create an appearance that Missions do not help Indian Christians. You think there are areas where overseas aid is necessary. Certainly Theological seminaries are not such an area. It is here where the Indian church should provide training for the ministry with its own resources to give an Indian bias to the growing church. It is in this area of western influence which offers the stiffest challenge to naturalisation of Christianity in India. Certainly, the secular educational institutions managed by foreign missions or churches can and should find their support within the country. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs are running their own institutions with Indian money, management and initiative. I agree that in the field of philanthropy foreign missions are doing a service of high grade and quality (in medical colleges, Leprosaria, Orphanages for the helpless, the underprivileged, the sinning and the criminal) which neither Indian Christians nor Hindus nor Muslims nor the State can hope to tackle yet. For this noble work everybody must be grateful. But gratitude should not lead to subservience.

The baneful effect of foreign aid for the religious life of Indian Christians is seen in the lethargy, the lack of initiative, of self-respect and of the sense of Mission in the Church. Our bishops and other leaders are so helplessly begging help from overseas churches even today. This help from western churches to the Indian church should never be compared to what India as a State and nation is borrowing or receiving gratis from other countries in the political, military or economic field. Religious life of the Indian Christian should never have been so costly. The blind imitation of western economic standards has been fatal in its effect upon church life. It is strange and sad that the life of the young convert churches in Asia and Africa has been so antithetic to the spiritually buoyant and fruitful life of the apostolic church. This imposition of western materialistic outlook in a dominantly spiritual eastern context is a source of tensions among Christians and is not healthy for either Christianity or Hinduism.

Food for Christian Thought

The 38th Eucharistic Congress to be held in Bombay and the projected visit of Pope Paul VI have been received warmly by the government, Congress leaders and most people in the country. But it must be noted that the Hindu Mahasabha and others of its way of thinking have protested both the holding of the Congress and the visit of the Pope to the Congress. The reasons given are that the Congress might lead to a wave of conversions as it did on previous occasions, that the Pope is coming as a missionary to help in this movement of conversion, and that his plans to distribute food and medicines in India is an “insult” to India’s poverty.

In this context, some of the views put forward by Dr. K.M. Munshi on the subject last week are very welcome and significant, because they give weight to similar views expressed by others in the press recently criticising the Mahasabha’s stand, and significant because they point to the need still in India for defining and explaining what democracy means in practice under India’s Constitution. Many persons wrote to him asking him to join the protest against the Eucharistic Congress, presumably expecting such a staunch Hindu and proponent of India’s culture and traditions as himself to jump into the very undemocratic and communal agitation organised against a religious function. Pointing out that the constitution confers on Christian citizens the right to exercise religious freedom like others, he says that no one can object to the Congress or the Pope’s visit. He welcomes the Eucharistic Congress as an attempt by the Roman Catholic Church to help in the renewal of man which is intimately linked with “the renewal of the family, with the sacredness and inviolability of the marriage bond and the devotion of parents to the full formation of their children.” He feels Christians’ efforts in this direction “will have a wholesome reaction upon the Hindus.”

While Christians might find encouragement in these views of Dr. Munshi, what he has to say on some people’s fears of conversions is thought-provoking. He says sustained efforts by Christianity to convert India came in three periods: with the visit of St. Thomas to India, with the coming of the Portuguese, and with missionary work under British rule. He puts forward the familiar fallacy that missionary work was successful in conversions only under British political patronage, and points out that all these efforts have resulted in the conversion of only a small proportion of people. He goes on to assure his worried fellowmen that the present, resurgence of Hinduism “will make it impossible for Christianity to make any headway in India.”

“To a thinking Hindu, with his broad outlook on religion, the exclusiveness of the Christian dogma has practically no appeal,” says this eminent Hindu scholar and former political leader. These are all challenging thoughts. Is the Gospel accepted only under patronage, pressures and inducements? Is it presented in terms of an exclusive dogma, rather than as a message of love? What circumstances of the Church make Dr. Munshi believe that the Church in India has spent itself and become ineffective in calling men to Christ? Has the obtaining and preserving of religious freedom become an end in itself for Christians in India?

— Editorial, Indian Witness, Nov. 12, 1964.

Edited and Published by:

Rev. R.C. Das, M.A.,
Khristpanthi Ashram,
129, Dashashwamedh, Varanasi, India

Printed at:

Evangelical Press,
“CHRIST NAGAR MISSION”,
Badagayedapadavu Post, Mangalore Taluk, S. India