{"id":25,"date":"2008-10-13T10:57:32","date_gmt":"2008-10-13T10:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/textmessages\/2008\/10\/hindu-threat-to-christians-con.html"},"modified":"2008-10-13T10:57:32","modified_gmt":"2008-10-13T10:57:32","slug":"hindu-threat-to-christians-con","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/textmessages\/2008\/10\/hindu-threat-to-christians-con.html","title":{"rendered":"Hindu Threat to Christians – Convert or Flee – NYTimes.com"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"13india03-650.jpg\"<\/span><\/div>\n
Must reading: Today’s <\/a>Times<\/a><\/span>\u00a0has a report on the persecution of Christians in India<\/a>. The photo above shows Christian refugees praying at a camp in Bhubaneshwar<\/a>.\u00a0It’s harrowing, harrowing stuff. An excerpt below, followed by a prayer. God help them:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

A few steps from where the nun had been attacked in Nuagaon, five men, their heads freshly shorn, emerged from a soggy tent in a relief camp for Christians fleeing their homes.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The men had also been summoned to a village meeting in late August, where hundreds of their neighbors stood with machetes in hand and issued a firm order: Get your heads shaved and bow down before our gods, or leave this place.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Trembling with fear, Daud Nayak, 56, submitted to a shaving, a Hindu sign of sacrifice. He drank, as instructed, a tumbler of diluted cow dung, considered to be purifying.<\/span>
In the eyes of his neighbors, he reckoned, he became a Hindu.<\/span>
In his heart, he said, he could not bear it.<\/span>
All five men said they fled the next day with their families. They refuse to return.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Prayer for social justice (revised from the BOCP<\/a>):<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, and especially the hearts of those in India’s eastern Orissa state, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Must reading: Today’s Times\u00a0has a report on the persecution of Christians in India. The photo above shows Christian refugees praying at a camp in Bhubaneshwar.\u00a0It’s harrowing, harrowing stuff. An excerpt below, followed by a prayer. God help them:\u00a0 A few steps from where the nun had been attacked in Nuagaon, five men, their heads freshly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nHindu Threat to Christians - Convert or Flee - NYTimes.com - Text Messages<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/textmessages\/2008\/10\/hindu-threat-to-christians-con.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hindu Threat to Christians - Convert or Flee - NYTimes.com - Text Messages\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Must reading: Today’s Times\u00a0has a report on the persecution of Christians in India. 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