Persecution Against Christians in India Increased Since Christmas

Things are escalating everywhere in the world, and India is no exception.

My phone had been very quiet, and I assumed things were calm. Little did I know that many believers had been arrested, and many others were too tired and broken even to speak about their suffering. However, when I called Brother Victor to wish him a Happy New Year, he told me he was on his way to the police station to help pastors secure bail. He shared that more than 36 people had been arrested in his district alone. I was shocked.

He said the arrests have increased since Christmas Eve. As we spoke, he also mentioned that his wife was in labor at the hospital. After finishing his work at the police station, he had to rush back to be with his wife for the delivery of their baby.

When he later had time to talk, he said, “We are tired and broken.” The information I received from different states was brutal. Many pastors have no energy left even to tell anyone about their suffering.

Let me give you a few glimpses of what has happened over the last three to four weeks, with evidence in pictures and videos. You do not need to understand the language—the pictures and videos speak for themselves.

• A pastor in Odisha was forced to eat cow dung

• A believer had his throat slit at the border of Telangana.
• In Uttar Pradesh, mobs break into prayer meetings, disrupt worship, and falsely accuse new believers of being paid for converting. They claim that people who become Christians are paid different amounts according to which caste they come from—10 lakhs for an upper caste and other amounts for others. This is completely false. Many pastors in North India live in extreme poverty; how could the churches possibly pay anyone to convert?
• In Chhattisgarh, tribal people who have become Christians are being beaten severely.

• On Christmas Eve, many churches were attacked. To my shock, even churches in Kerala—one of the least persecuted states—were targeted. In the video, you can see a mother and her children being attacked by a mob.

Brother Victor, with whom I work closely, also shared that there is pressure to arrest him. Because he picks people up from the streets, shelters them, feeds them, and shows them the love of Christ, they want to falsely accuse him of grooming.

The list goes on and on. These are only a few examples.

Please continue to pray. We are living in times when being a Christian alone is enough to be attacked. Pray that the arrested pastors and their families will not lose hope. The Gospel must be preached.