Christian fanatics have attacked Hindu culture ever since they set foot on our land. Recently, Tamil Nadu (TN) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Annamalai highlighted that Christian missionaries had attacked our culture since 1892.
In this article, we bring out 10 instances when missionaries spewed venom against Hindu Dharma:
1) Catholic priest George Ponnaiah, who met Rahul Gandhi during the Congress leader’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in September 2022, showed his hatred for Hindu deities. When Rahul asked whether Jesus is a form of God, George Ponnaiah said, “Jesus is the only real God. Not like Shakti…or this power. He is god in the human form”, sneering at Hindu beliefs and committing sacrilege against Dharma.
2) Ezra Sargunam, a Protestant Christian Bishop and a close friend of the DMK first family, has repeatedly derided Hindu Dharma. “Hindu Dharma is not a religion. It is a very artificial religion. There is no religion as Hindu Dharma. Take this challenge and tell everyone. Tell them there is no such religion; they are fooling the world. If you are not telling then I suggest that you punch them a couple of times in the face. It’s okay. Say ‘God please forgive me, I got angry’ and punch them in the face and bleed them”, Ezra had said in one of his most vitriolic speeches.
3) In October 2021, Hinduphobic Christian Evangelist Mohan Lazarus termed Hindu temples ‘forts of satan’ and compared vigraha Aradhana (or murti puja, aka ‘idol worship’ for Abrahamics) with prostitution.
4) Last May, it came to light that Christian professor Dr Gilbert Sebastian from the Central University of Kerala slandered Hindus and Puja rituals during his online classes.
5) It is not just in Bharat but overseas also Christian evangelists have denigrated Hindu Dharma. In 2020, South Africa’s Hindu Dharma Sabha filed a case against evangelists Simeon Bradley Chetty and reverend, Llewellyn Joseph for slandering Hindu Dharma.
6) Last year, evangelist Mohan C Lazarus abused Hindu dharma again. “You don’t have the heart to turn away from sin. Your heart doesn’t want to turn away from the ‘Dur Marg’ (evil path/religion). You don’t want to turn away from following the traditional ways. I have come so far for you and opened my hands for you…I showed you my might..dear India I came here and opened my hands widely to show you my love and might..but you don’t want to turn away from your bad ways, tradition, rituals and aachar”, he has been quoted as saying by Tamil media.
7) In 2020, at a church mass, Ezra Sargunam called Bhagwan Ram someone who was not actually born but was only an imagination. He also termed Deepavali ‘a festival of darkness’.
8) Jegath Gaspar Raj, a Jesuit priest and a close aide of DMK MP Kanimozhi openly instigated Muslims to stage another partition. He also advised Islamists to take the help of Islamic countries in declaring Hindu organisations as terrorist organisations by approaching the United Nations(UN) Organization.
9) In 2017 Christian pastor Vijaya Kumar was arrested for cursing Hindus to hell and abusing Bharat Mata. Later he came out on bail and demanded a separate country for Christians, a demand that was repeated in 2021 by a Christian sect based in Andhra Pradesh has demanded a separate Christian country. The Deputy Director of Bible Open University International (BOUI), pastor K.Upendra demanded that Christians be given a separate country by dividing Bharat.
10) In a shocking example of religious intolerance, a Christian evangelist went on an anti-Hindu rant in front of the iconic Adiyogi Shiva statue in Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s Isha Foundation complex in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore. “Neither Yoga nor Yogi can liberate you from sins, only Jesus can,” the evangelist shouted as non-plussed visitors looked on.
