Jeevan, a Pentecostal, was told by his pastor that his marriage under Hindu rites was wrong and that it must be corrected. As such the pastor has instructed the couple to have a wedding under Christian rites.
Jeevan came from a marginal Hindu family. He and his five siblings did not complete primary education. His mother and father are illiterates. In the neighborhood where they reside among cousins, there are always conflicts- fighting over road, boundaries, and dog mess and their pastime is drinking alcohol, making cooks, and playing music.
It is people like Jeevan who are preyed upon by the Christian missionaries coming out of the USA. Firstly, they recruit marginal people like Jeevan and train them to be pastors. Never respected in the Hindu community, their marginal existence was shunned by the more progressive families. Ignored by the community, the missionaries befriend them for conversion. Their backwardness becomes an opportunity for a pastor who wants to build a flock to generate some income for himself and his equally backward spouse and siblings.
I knew Jeevan when he was active in a weekly satsangh in the neighborhood. The leader of the satsangh would visit his home, provide hampers to his family, neighbors and relatives, and assist with repairs to the dilapidated homes. The leader of the satsangh and his wife have always demonstrated genuine concern for the welfare of the poor and marginalized.
Jeevan, though a skilled tradesman, does not have a house of his own. For the past four years he has been living in the house of a relative who now requests that he vacates the premises. Jeevan and his wife plan to return to his parents’ home which is old and crumbling. The room they once occupied would be vacated to accommodate them.
Now that the date has been fixed for the marriage under Pentecostal rites, Jeevan’s parents would not be invited to the wedding because they are Hindus. The pastor has impressed upon Jeevan his duty to move his parents from darkness toward the Light of the Lord Jesus.
Jeevan is a victim of global politics. The plot to convert him was hatched in the White House and is an integral part of the foreign policies of the USA. These converts are pawn in the claws of global politics to leverage policies in favor of the US. For example, if the government plans to develop policies to become self-sufficient in rice, the importers of rice from the Mississippi basin can mobilize these churches to protest the government on the ground of saving the environment and other natural species. This strategy was employed when the Panday government was leasing lands to the Akallo family to expand rice in the Nariva Swamp and the project had to be aborted.
Jeevan’s grandfather was always laid back, never demanding too much from life. Today his grandchildren are no different. Their illiteracy and poverty have bored a deep void of inferiority which they hope the church can fil. The pastor, winning their trust and confidence, has them like potty in his hands to mold in whichever figure he desires.
Hating one’s ancestral culture and religious tradition is central to the mission of the church but more than that is the global economic interest of the USA. Fortunately, the US economy is now in decline and so will the church which does not produce real men and women, but individuals robbed of their self-esteem. The church is nothing more than a vehicle to exploit the innocence of the weak and the marginalized, thus explaining it presence among the lumpen elements who see it as their last hope.