ICC Note:
Christians across India are faced with growing resentment and persecution. According to Open Doors USA, Christians in India have been attacked 410 times in just the first six months of 2017. That marks a dramatic increase on the total number of attacks in 2016, 441. With this growing tide of persecution, many church planters in India are finding it dangerous to spread the Gospel. Often the target of many attacks, church planters are often on the front lines of persecution.
09/05/2017 India (Mission Network News) – Christians in India face a growing tide of resentment and persecution, and it means the risk factor for church planters and evangelists is growing.
According to the Open Doors World Watch List, India is currently the 15th harshest country in the world for Christians to live. Under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, radical Hinduism has grown as a nationalist movement.
Hindu extremists have made it known that their goal is to establish India as a completely Hindu nation by 2020, propelled in a public statement by VHP patron Ashok Singhal in 2015. Currently, India is nearly 80 percent Hindu, according to the CIA World Factbook. Christians only make up 2.3 percent of the Indian population.
Global Disciples recently traveled to Sikkim in northeast India for a small business training with local Christian leaders, evangelists, and church planters. There, they spoke with the believers and heard of the difficulties they face.
Tim Kennell with Global Disciples explains, “There is a little more pressure from the government and from communities where Christians are living…. I think the government in India has said that by 2020 they want to be a total Hindu country. The Christians have sort of taken that up and said, ‘Well, by 2020 we would love to see 20 percent of India be Christian!’”
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