There is one country that has presented a huge problem for Christian ministries around the world – India. The government of India has placed tight controls on banking regulations which purposefully target Christian activities. Banking is the number one challenge to sharing the Gospel in India.
“When we do ministry projects [in India] we are forced to use cash,” one pastor shares from central India. “Most people in India use PayTM or Google Pay, but not Christians,” he admits. “Christians have to use cash to keep the government from tracking everything that we do.” This might not seem like a huge problem to many people, but in India, using cash is extremely challenging – and that is how the government wants it.
Whenever BTJ sends money to India, special routes and methods have to be deployed to get around current government regulations, because normal bank transfers are automatically flagged and rejected if they come from unauthorized non-profit organizations, like Back to Jerusalem. Back to Jerusalem is not a registered entity in India. The government will not approve BTJ as an official NGO. As a result, all of BTJ’s partners are forced to use illegal means to pay for ministry travel, Bible printing, children’s programs, and evangelistic efforts.
It is not just the Christians who are suffering from these draconian regulations. India has one of the largest populations of slum dwellers in the world. Poor people who live far below the international poverty line are everywhere, yet, like Christians, they are completely left out of the modern-banking system. They are unable to use digital pay systems or send money to their families. Banks in India make it almost impossible for poor people to even set up bank accounts.
Among the obstacles are the bank’s unwillingness to accept proof of identity like birth certificates issued by village panchayats (local authorities). Some banks refuse to deposit money for poor people at more than one branch, forcing them to stay in one area. A big challenge are the banking fees for beggars. Donations beggars get on the street might not be enough to pay the bank fees associated with deposits and spending fees.
For Christians however, using cash has a limited time frame. Many nations are getting rid of cash specifically because it is not possible for ‘Big Brother’ to follow it. India tried to switch the entire nation over to digital currency overnight and it was a complete disaster.
The truth is, banks in India and around the world have positioned themselves to be the number one obstacle to ministry in the 10/40 Window between China and Jerusalem. Until a solution is found, the problems in India will be magnified in other parts of the world as well.
