Tele evangelist Mohan C Lazarus has abused Hindu dharma again and his assistant threatened a reporter for publishing it on a news channel. Lazarus had called other faiths as “evil” and asked people to turn away from them. He also asked people to stop following their traditions and aachar. Last year he had apologised for calling Hindu temples as forts of Satan.

News Tamil, a news channel run by the Tamil Nadu Cable Corporation Limited, had telecasted a report about evangelist Lazarus abusing other religions, especially Hindu Dharma. The report exposed his fakery in faith healing and earning money through tithe by raising relevant questions. 

In the speech reported by the media, Lazarus can be heard saying, “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 away 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”.

The media had included his other hate speeches like calling Hindu temples forts of Satan and the videos where he made people claim that they were cured of diseases through his prayers. They also questioned the power of his prayers as he built a multi-specialty hospital using the funds he received from foreign countries and tithes collected from his followers.

In another video, Lazarus had ‘lamented’ that nowadays pastors open churches to earn money in the form of tithe and not to preach the gospel. He said that it has become a business. News Tamil found the old video in which he asked people to give tithe generously as what they give will be returned in multifold. He had said, “Jesus will bless you only as much as you donate. If you give only 1000 Jesus will be able to bless you only to that extent. If you give him generously he will also bless you generously”.

Lazarus, on one hand, abused politicians as corrupt and oppressing people but invited some of them to his multi-specialty hospital’s inauguration. He described the latter as the “blessed children of Jesus”. Enraged by this expose, Lazarus’ assistant Jacob called News Tamil reporter Muthuraman and asked him with whose permission he dared to publish news about the evangelist. He threatened him saying, “Something will happen in the reporter’s family in 6 months”.

News Tamil spoke to a Christian man Charles who says that followers of denominations like that of Lazarus are threatened with curses to not ‘stray from the flock’. “Even if a pastor raped their daughter, these people will lock the doors and pray to god. That is the extent of brainwashing going on in such places”, Charles says. “For every small issue, they will say that you begot this problem because you spoke against/ill of your pastor”, he further says.

There have been several incidents to prove these allegations. Lazarus himself had admitted his wife to Apollo hospital for treatment despite owning a multi-specialty hospital and advising people to pray to Jesus instead of getting medical aid for diseases. At the peak of the pandemic Covid-19, he preached that “Vaccines, Booster doses and masks are all conspiracy of WHO and corporate companies, all this are done to intimidate and enslave you and keep you in fear it is the work of Antichrist, proof for all this is in the Bible”.

Even though in the recent video he hasn’t explicitly mentioned Hindu dharma, his target is Hindus as he says “people should turn away from tradition and aachar”. Only last year, Lazarus tendered an unconditional apology in court for his hate speech against Hindu dharma at the 2016 Evangelists Conference. His speech calling temples forts of Satan went viral on social media and multiple complaints were filed against him. He filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking to quash the FIRs against him and during the hearing his counsel assured that such instances would not be repeated. However he is back to abusing Hindu dharma again.

He has a notorious history of abusing Hindu dharma repeatedly. Once, he advised his followers to convert 6 lakh Hindus in the temple town of Tiruchendur. Now, in a video shared by twitter user @HLkodo, he can be heard describing how evangelists lure children into conversion in the guise of helping them with their studies. He talks about a tuition teacher “introducing” Jesus Christ to children who come to study.

In another video shared by the same Twitter user, Lazarus can be heard saying, “The Bible says “vigraha aradhana” and prostitution will bring the wrath of God on the country. He also said that the 2006 tsunami wrecked Velankanni because “vigraha aradhana” is prevalent there.

Mohan C Lazarus runs his ministries through the Jesus Redeems Trust, an FCRA NGO. He has built the multi-specialty hospital in Thoothukudi using the funds received from foreign countries through this FCRA NGO. Ironically, he mocks other pastors, saying they run ministries to earn money. Legal advocacy organisations wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking to cancel his NGO’s FCRA license for violating the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010. Yet he continues to spew hatred against Hindu dharma, convert gullible Hindus and is scot-free.