Calling Worship ‘Unlawful Assembly,’ Police in Uttar Pradesh, India, Arrest Six Christians

Officers verbally, physically harass congregation

HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) - Berating and slapping a pastor for reading the Bible instead of Hindu texts, police in Uttar Pradesh state, India last month detained six Christians under “unlawful assembly” laws for worshiping together, sources said.

After traveling from Etah village to a church in nearby Pujaripurvah, the six Christians were detained for nine days before they were granted bail by Bahriach District’s Second Class Judicial Magistrate Court on July 5.

Police on June 25 arrived at the worship service in Pujaripurvah village and confiscated Bibles, hymn books and devotionals. Station House Officer (SHO) Aravind Kumar of Nanpara demanded that Pastor Asha Ram Sahni hand over literature he suspected was used to convert people, the church leader said.

When Pastor Sahni showed him copies of the New Testament and gospel tracts, Kumar said, “Not this ‘thing,’ give us the material with which you do conversions.”
Kumar further badgered him, saying, “You are paid eight to 10 lakhs [US$12,420 to US$15,520] for converting people,” the pastor said.

“I told the officer, ‘Sir, if I’m paid such hefty amounts, why would I live in a mud house? I follow Jesus Christ with all my heart, I serve Christ, I share the gospel, but I never forcefully converted anyone. I don’t have any other books,’” he said.

The prior Sunday, relatives of village President Raj Kumar took photographs of Bibles and gospel tracts and complained to police about the church, Pastor Sahni told Morning Star News. The police harassment began the following Sunday, with SHO Kumar eventually ordering him to write down the names of everyone who attended worship, he said. On June 27, the officer ordered the 38-year-old pastor and five others to the police station, where they were taken into custody.

Police charged the six Christians with knowingly joining or continuing in any assembly of five or more persons after being commanded to disperse (Section 151 of the Indian Penal Code).
While in custody, SHO Kumar asked Pastor Sahni what his favorite part of the Bible was, the pastor said. He answered Matt. 7:7-11, which he read to him, explaining that a child asking for a fish is not given a snake, and how much more the Father in heaven cares for His children.
“He started slapping me and asked, ‘Why do you read only Naya Niyam [the New Testament]? Why not Ram Charit Manas and Mahabharat? There are many holy books, why did you not read them?’” Pastor Sahni said. “He slapped me again.”
Ram Charit Manas is a 16th century Hindu devotional classic, and Mahabharat is an ancient Sanskrit epic tale.

One of the Christians arrested, identified only as 35-year-old Gurudeen, said that SHO Kumar accused him of forcible conversion in the majority-Hindu country where eating beef is outlawed in many states, telling him, “You instigate people and convert them to Christianity, and you consume beef too. You will spend your life in jail.”

“I don’t do any such thing. I only believe in Jesus Christ. Christ has done many wondrous things in my life. Sir, I did not do anything that I have to be jailed,” Gurudeen told him. He told Morning Star News, “He kept tormenting, saying ‘I will bring your wife and put her to shame.’”
For four days during Gurudeen’s incarceration, the inspector sent male and female police officers to his house to harass his wife, he said.

Also jailed was Lal Bihari Verma 35; Ram Naresh 35; Gobrey Nishad, 45; and Chote Lal, 45.
Nanpara Police SHO Kumar avoided Morning Star News questioning about accusations that he harassed the Christians at a legal assembly and slapped the pastor.
“We arrested them based on the complaint received from the villagers, and lodged an FIR [First Information Report] charging them under Indian Penal Code section 151,” he said. “It’s about dispersing illegal assemblies.”

Asked if he had any evidence against the Christians and could prove the charges in court, Kumar said, “They vandalized an idol of a Hindu goddess. I received a video of it.”
Attorney Pankaj Pathak, who represented the Christians in court, said there was no truth to the accusations.

“The court, after examining the statements given by the witnesses of the village, who clarified that there was no truth in the accusations, decided to grant the bail to all of the six accused,” Pathak said. “The police did not mention about any video before the court. The Christians were framed on false charges.”

One of the accused Christians, who requested anonymity, said they have been falsely accused.
“The SHO himself had cooked up this tale of vandalizing idols,” he said. “We never committed any such act. We only gather and pray as church or families at our own houses peacefully, and they labelled it as ‘unlawful.’”

Verma, one of those detained, told Morning Star News that opposition to the growth of Christianity has been growing in his native Etah village the past three months.

“The villagers respected my belief and even requested us to pray for their illnesses and problems since I accepted Christ as my personal Savior three years ago,” Verma said. “There have been divisional politics and conspiracies cooking in the village for three months as the Christians are growing in numbers. The same people who earlier told us we can assemble and pray as church are now opposing us.”

In May and June, traditionally regarded as wedding season in rural Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states, Christians who abstain from the accompanying alcohol and rituals that involve idol worship face severe opposition from villagers.

While police were harassing the Christians in Pujaripurvah on June 25, police arrived at their native village of Etah of Nanpara Mandal, Bahriach District, and harassed their families worshipping at a house there, sources said.

Gurudeen was worshipping with the women in Etah when police arrived with former village head Ram Kumar Verma, he said.
“Police snatched away the Bible in my hands, and Ram Kumar Verma started using foul language against me, my wife and children,” he said. “He was crossing the limits. The police did not stop him.”
Police warned the Christians not to assemble for worship in the village and told the women to send their husbands to the police station.

Demanding Money

While in custody at the Nanpara Police Station, SHO Kumar demanded security deposits of 1,900 rupees from Nishad (US$30) and 2,900 rupees (US$45) from Lal Bihari Verma, sources said.
“He did not issue any receipt for the sum collected,” said Luvkush Verma, Lal Bihari Verma’s nephew. “I approached him several times in vain, but he did not return the amounts.”
The SHO also took 4,000 rupees (US$62) from Sri Ramathrey, a relative of Pastor Sahni, saying, “Christian worship is crime. If you pay the amount, there won’t be charges against you,” the pastor told Morning Star News.

Lallan Prasad, a relative of Gurudeen, said Kumar is threatening to re-arrest the Christians on charges of destroying, damaging and defiling a place of worship or sacred object with intent to insult the religion of any class of persons (Section 295), punishable by two years in prison, a fine or both. Kumar is also threatening to re-arrest them on charges of circulating false statements with intent to cause mutiny or offense against the public peace (Section 505), punishable by imprisonment of three years, a fine or both, he said.

“If they don’t pay him 5,000 rupees [US$77] each, he said there would be charges against them again,” Prasad told Morning Star News. “I told the officer my relatives are poor people, they have nothing; he is working very hard to bring up his children, please don’t frame him up.”

On Thursday (July 20), Kumar called Lal Bihari Verma and issued a threat, saying, “Whatever happened was just a trailer, and the picture [movie] is still remaining [to come],” Verma said.
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, the hostile tone of his National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), against non-Hindus has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians, religious rights advocates say.

India ranked 15th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2017 World Watch List of the countries where Christians experience the most persecution.





cred: The Morning Star News

Be humble and gentle

Bible Verse of the Day: Ephesians 4:2 (KJV)

2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

Renew Your Mind

Today's Scripture: Proverbs 7

Proverbs 7 (KJV)

1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

4 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

8 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:

10 And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

11 (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

12 Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

14 I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

Scripture Meaning

Invitations to learn wisdom. (1-5) The arts of seducers, with warnings against them. (6-27)

Verses 1-5: We must lay up God's commandments safely. Not only, Keep them, and you shall live; but, Keep them as those that cannot live without them. Those that blame strict and careful walking as needless and too precise, consider not that the law is to be kept as the apple of the eye; indeed the law in the heart is the eye of the soul.
Let the word of God dwell in us, and so be written where it will be always at hand to be read. Thus we shall be kept from the fatal effects of our own passions, and the snares of Satan. Let God's word confirm our dread of sin, and resolutions against it.

Verses 6-27: Here is an affecting example of the danger of youthful lusts. It is a history or a parable of the most instructive kind. Will any one dare to venture on temptations that lead to impurity, after Solomon has set before his eyes in so lively and plain a manner, the danger of even going near them? Then is he as the man who would dance on the edge of a lofty rock, when he has just seen another fall headlong from the same place.

The misery of self-ruined sinners began in disregard to God's blessed commands. We ought daily to pray that we may be kept from running into temptation, else we invite the enemies of our souls to spread snares for us. Ever avoid the neighbourhood of vice. Beware of sins which are said to be pleasant sins. They are the more dangerous, because they most easily gain the heart, and close it against repentance. Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it.
Were a man to live as long as Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights sin can offer, one hour of the anguish and tribulation that must follow, would far outweigh them.

Scripture Application

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue with the Book of Proverbs with Chapter 7. In our text today we see how Wisdom guards against immorality. In making application we see that living in this imperfect world we need wisdom to navigate through this world of sin.

Today the moral fabric of the world is full of immorality. If we are not careful we will be influenced by others in the worlds system. We need to constantly renew our mind with the Word of God. How about you?  Do your read the Bible daily? Let us learn from our text today to remember that we live in an imperfect world and we need to renew our mind daily to navigate our lives

Pakistan’s Calculated Spin on Apparent Killing of Chinese Evangelists

Interior ministry’s statement sends chilling message to foreign Christians.

Pakistan: (Morning Star News) - Islamabad’s claim that “violations” of business visas contributed to the murder of two Chinese evangelists last month served key government purposes.

Lee Zing Yang (Li Xinheng is said to be the more accurate rendering), 24, and Meng Li Si (Meng Lisi), 26, were teaching Chinese to people in Pakistan, and, like any Christian, they also intended to share the gospel with people they met. Pakistani media dutifully broadcast the Interior Ministry spin on their apparent deaths, which accused the couple of “preaching” - suggesting that it violated terms of their business visas (it was not clear how), and wrongly implying that they were exhorting crowds of people to believe in Christ.

Reports state that Lee and Meng were paid 30,000 rupees (US$280) per month to teach Chinese to people in Pakistan at a language institute run by a South Korean, Juan Won Seo. The interior ministry released a statement asserting that security officials told Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in a June 12 meeting that, “Instead of engaging in any business activity, they went to Quetta and under the garb of learning [the] Urdu language from a Korean national …were actually engaged in preaching.”

The apparent error that they were there to learn Urdu aside, Khan’s announcement, which included a call to tighten processes for issuing business visas, sent the message that the pair’s kidnapping and apparent murder resulted from allegedly violating terms of their visas.

Lee and Meng were kidnapped off the streets of Quetta, capital of northwestern Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, on May 24. The Islamic State-affiliated news agency Amaq reported on June 8 that IS fighters had killed two Chinese teachers being held in Mastung, Balochistan, and IS released a video showing what are believed to be their bodies shot and bleeding.
Pakistan reportedly confirmed that the Chinese teachers had been killed, though it was unclear if officials had recovered their bodies.

The interior minister’s emphasis on the need to shore up the visa process, rather than improving security against Islamic extremists, served the government’s purpose of deflecting blame. It also sent a chilling message to foreign Christian evangelists. Previously the government had leaked news that two Korean Christians, 27-year-old Kown Ki Ye and 23-year-old Lee Ha Gyeong, had been expelled from a private hostel in Quetta after they were discovered “preaching Christianity” to students at Sardur Bahadur Khan Women’s University in Quetta.
“The government has deliberately leaked this information to create panic in the foreign missionary circles,” a source told Morning Star News.

The interior ministry’s spin on the murder of the Chinese pair also served its purpose in relations with China, which has pledged to invest $57 billion in infrastructure in Pakistan designed to link China with the Middle East and Europe. The capital for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPC) has put China in position to make demands of Pakistan that have raised criticism within Pakistan.

Besides helping to preserve the enormous CPC investment, the government’s statements on the killing of Lee and Meng were done deliberately to check China’s position in bilateral relations, a Foreign Affairs ministry contact told Morning Star News. Pakistan has since bolstered its position vis-a-visa China by boosting security for Chinese nationals.

Pakistan has also deported Juan Won Seo, accusing him of setting up a phony business as a cover for a church and “preaching activities.” A South Korean official has denied this claim. True or not, whether Seo broke any laws by telling others about Christ while operating a language institute in Pakistan remains unclear.

While Islam is the state religion of Pakistan, its constitution states that all citizens have the right to profess, practice, and propagate their religion, as well as the right to freedom of speech subject to “reasonable restrictions in the interest of the glory of Islam.”

What does seem certain is that Pakistani officials have violated international standards of religious freedom and free speech by deporting foreign evangelists and suggesting that those who exercise their faith are responsible for violence done to them.






cred: The Morning Star News

Buddhists Attacks Newly Converted Christians

Buddhists in Burma Attack, Injure Newly Converted Christians

YANGON, Burma (Morning Star News) - About 150 angry Buddhists and monks this month attacked newly converted Christians in Burma (Myanmar), destroying their homes and property and injuring seven people.

In Thi Taw village in northwest Burma’s Sagaing Region, the mob threw stones and broke into houses on July 6, two days after two families put their trust in Christ and left Buddhism, a local official told Morning Star News. Four women and three men who were hit with stones and sticks and suffered injuries on their heads, faces and backs. Three motorbikes were destroyed.

The Buddhists told local press that the Christian villagers sang and preached late into the night to celebrate and welcome the new Christians. The local Buddhists told Morning Star News that the Assembly of God Church members, visiting from neighboring Chin state, held services for three days, prompting them to attack on the third day.
The two converted families are ethnic majority Burman who put their faith in Christ on July 4.

Prior to the attack, a monk in Thi Taw told the worshiping Christians to be quiet and stop making noise late at night, several residents told Morning Star News.

“They made noise every night when neighbors were asleep,” a local Thi Taw official, Soe Thura Hlaing, told Morning Star News. “They were clapping, and dancing until late at night. On the third day, neighbors were angry and went to attack them. They took sticks and stones with them.”
As is common in Burma, the Buddhists made unfounded accusations that the Christians gave money to the two Buddhist families to convert to Christianity.

“I don’t know whether they were given money,” Hlaing told Morning Star News. “But what I know is that they were attacked because they were converted to Christianity.”

Several witnesses told Morning Star News that the mob got very angry after local police and local authorities tried to stop them from attacking the Christians’ houses. Police shot into the sky to warn and frighten the assailants, which only further infuriated them, and they destroyed the Christians’ furniture and other belongings, besides beating them, Hlaing said.

“When we turned on the torch [light] toward them [the assailants], they threw stones also toward us,” said Hlaing, who tried to help police stop the attackers. “So a policeman in our group fired the gun in the air three times. When they heard gunfire, they become more aggressive and threw more stones at us.”
Unable to stop the attack, he and police asked other monks to help them, he said.
“When the monks arrived, we shouted for them not to throw stones,” Hlaing said. “And the monks took pastors and injured people and sent them to local clinics.”
Christian families have relocated to a compound belonging to a local church until their houses can be rebuilt.

The Chinland Guardian reported that the attack was well-organized, as local monks and authorities brought villagers in five vehicles to hurl stones at the Christians’ homes, where the worship services were taking place. The attack reportedly lasted four hours.

Monks and authorities tried to pressure the newly converted Christians to return to Buddhism by making them choose between “re-conversion” and being banished from the village, local press reported.





cred: The Morning Star News

Consider the Ant

Today's Scripture: Proverbs 6

Proverbs 6 (KJV)

1 My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,

2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.

4 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.

5 Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

8 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

12 A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

13 He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

14 Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.

16 These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

20 My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

21 Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

22 When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

24 To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

26 For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adultress will hunt for the precious life.

27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?

29 So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

31 But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

32 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

33 A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

34 For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.

Scripture Meaning

Cautions against rash suretiship. (1-5) A rebuke to slothfulness. (6-11) Seven things hateful to God. (12-19) Exhortations to walk according to God's commandments. (20-35)

Verses 1-5: If we live as directed by the word of God, we shall find it profitable even in this present world. We are stewards of our worldly substance, and have to answer to the Lord for our disposal of it; to waste it in rash schemes, or such plans as may entangle us in difficulties and temptations, is wrong.
A man ought never to be surety for more than he is able and willing to pay, and can afford to pay, without wronging his family; he ought to look upon every sum he is engaged for, as his own debt. If we must take all this care to get our debts to men forgiven, much more to obtain forgiveness with God. Humble thyself to him, make sure of Christ as thy Friend, to plead for thee; pray earnestly that thy sins may be pardoned, and that thou mayest be kept from going down to the pit.

Verses 6-11: Diligence in business is every man's wisdom and duty; not so much that he may attain worldly wealth, as that he may not be a burden to others, or a scandal to the church. The ants are more diligent than slothful men. We may learn wisdom from the meanest insects, and be shamed by them. Habits of indolence and indulgence grow upon people.
Thus life runs to waste; and poverty, though at first at a distance, gradually draws near, like a traveller; and when it arrives, is like an armed man, too strong to be resisted. All this may be applied to the concerns of our souls. How many love their sleep of sin, and their dreams of worldly happiness! Shall we not seek to awaken such? Shall we not give diligence to secure our own salvation?

Verses 12-19: If the slothful are to be condemned, who do nothing, much more those that do all the ill they can. Observe how such a man is described. He says and does every thing artfully, and with design. His ruin shall come without warning, and without relief. Here is a list of things hateful to God.
Those sins are in a special manner provoking to God, which are hurtful to the comfort of human life. These things which God hates, we must hate in ourselves; it is nothing to hate them in others. Let us shun all such practices, and watch and pray against them; and avoid, with marked disapproval, all who are guilty of them, whatever may be their rank.

Verses 20-35: The word of God has something to say to us upon all occasions. Let not faithful reproofs ever make us uneasy. When we consider how much this sin abounds, how heinous adultery is in its own nature, of what evil consequence it is, and how certainly it destroys the spiritual life in the soul, we shall not wonder that the cautions against it are so often repeated. Let us notice the subjects of this chapter.
Let us remember Him who willingly became our Surety, when we were strangers and enemies. And shall Christians, who have such prospects, motives, and examples, be slothful and careless? Shall we neglect what is pleasing to God, and what he will graciously reward? May we closely watch every sense by which poison can enter our minds or affections.

Scripture Application

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue with the Book of Proverbs with Chapter 6. In our text today we see the warning against foolish actions. We are given the example of the ant and how his diligence produces prosperity. In making application we see how we need to consider the ant.
How he works hard in the harvest, is not lazy, and is diligent. If we follow the ants example we will prosper in this world. How about you? Are you diligent with the responsibilities the Lord gives you? Let us learn form our text today to remember to not be foolish but consider the Ant and be focused, diligent, and focused on what the Lord would have us to do..

God's Lovingkindness

Bible Verse of the Day: Psalm 36:7 (KJV)

7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.