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Responsibilities Of Christians in the Indian Setting
Sam. J. Abraham, GFABS, Tiruvalla

        India is one of the most religious and the least Christian countries in Asia and the world. We live in a decisive moment in history when the Christian faith is facing on sloughts from all fronts. The communist countries like Russia and Romania where the doors have been closed for centuries is now opened for gospel. But it is highly unfortunate that the religious freedom we had in India for the past fifty years is now being threatened. The hour has come for the "community of cross " in India to be sagacious and pragmatic in their profession and propagation of their faith.

        Religious fundamentalism is an emerging trend in India and we need to join our hands with all the secular forces to curb it at the earliest. The lotus is flourishing in the dirty waters of Indian politics. The amount of persecution unleashed on the Christian minority is staggering. The anti social elements have a diabolic conspiracy to get the rid of Christians with their three fold strategy. First their targeted International missionaries, followed by interstate missionaries and then the local missionaries.

        There was a time when the whole world looked upon India for spirituality. But the secular image and tradition of our country has been irreparably damaged. The great Indians like Ask, Akbar and Gandhi who taught the world the principles of tolerance and accommodation must have had a turn in their graves on the fateful night hearing the shrieks and pains of Graham staines and his minor kids. It is against such a background that we need to introspect our responsibilities to our nation and society. We live at an age when there is a frightful negligence of Christian responsibilities. We have substituted a plastic and watered down Christianity in the place of strong and dynamic apostolic faith. Christianity has failed in India not because of the lack of true and skillful preachers, but because of the lack of true disciples of ' Jesus Christ are ready to witness their faith with integrity' of life and conviction of their hearts.

         There has been a lot of havoc against religious conversion for past some time. But we need to be on our guard against temptation to neglect Christian witnessing. Religious syncretism is sadly the distinctive characteristic of our age. But we need to realise that church is instituted in the world to witness the world about personal, social and cosmic salvation.

          Early Christianity thrived, flourished and exoanded under the in human and gruesome persecution of Roman Emperors. The church in India is going through tremendous threat and persecution. But we can take strength in the fact that church has survived persecution over the centuries and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. We need to proclaim the redemptive activity of God in Jesus Christ and usher men in to the 'Fullness of life' He brought forth .

           We need to preach the Christian Ethos , morality and ideologies to our society. Christianity is one of the most intelligent religious ever originated in the history of mankind. The greatest moral and spiritual revolutions in world history were based on Christian convictions. Christianity is a Dynamic religion an it can transform a culture, a nation and a society.

            Christianity has partly failed in India because we have concentrated on the abuse of others instead of propagating our own ideologies. We should be rude or disrespectful to people of other faiths in our proclamation of Christ. We will do well if we remember the advice our master " Be wise as serpents and harmless as Doves". It is sad that many Christians are " Wise ' as doves and "harmless " as serpents.

            Much of our evangelization in India is 'Kabaddi' evangelism. We just go and tell people Jesus, Jesus, Jesus instead of presenting the real Christ or the whole gospel. Moreover India does not need another religion or a Godfather. As a matter of fact, India has been the cradle of so many world religions - Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism , sikkism -to mention a few. Nobody has ever accused us of not having enough Godfathers, Bhagawan Rajaneesh is still fresh in our minds. He turned pune which was Punya- Nagari ( Holy city ) into Paap- Nagari ( unholy -city). India needs Christ who beckons mankind with his kind words. "Come unto me all those who are weary and heavy ladended I shall give you rest". India needs a God who can purge away her sins.

            We find such a God in Bible, proclaiming "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool".

            One of the major trends in the missions in India has been the conversion of entire tribe or community in to Christianity, We need to avert this trend at the earliest in view of its pitfalls. We need to see that conversion should be to Christ and not to Christianity. Paul was converted to Christ and Constantine was converted to Christianity. Paul's conversion was the greatest milestone in entire church history whereas Constantine's conversion was the greatest tragedy in church history. We need to attract people to Christ and not to Christianity.

             Jesus also emphasized the social responsibilities of Christians in Mathew :25. We need to express our solidarity with the last, least and the lost. The church in India should become a healing and prophetic community. Recent statistics show that although Christian constitute only 4% of the entire population, they cater to the 27% of the health needs of this country. We can take strength in the fact that we are a minority with the influence of a majority. Christians are undertaking a lion's share of educational and medical institutions of this country.

             Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had said in prophetic voice fifty years ago that democracy cannot succeed in India unless the people are literate. With the exploding population , the illiteracy rate is increasing. We need to understand that dissiminating education to the illiterate masses of our country is also apart of our mission. Untouchability, child abuse , prostitution, ill treatment of women and female infanticide are tampant in our land. We need to join hands with the marginalised people in this land to secure them their rights and human dignity. Christianity respects the sanctify of life and dignifies human life. Christ has proclaimed that he has come that we may have life and life in abundance. We need to direct the millions in this land who are living in subhuman conditions to the Universal Christ and fight for their cause. Inspite of all the hindrances and obstacles we need to continue our mission to heal the festering wounds of our society.

             The hour has come for Christians to actively involve in politics. There are only 14 Christian M.P"s in 540 member parliament. There is no meaning in crying our rulers are bad. If good people refuse to enter into politics they must be ready to be ruled by bad people. We need to fight corruption in our legislative system. Before 200 years Britishers had come to India as traders. Gradually they become rulers. Now the role has been reversed. We send our representatives as rulers. But they have become the traders. They are trading the flesh and blood of our nation. We are a prophetic community and the correcting force in the society. Let us not only be the Good Samaritans. Who will bind the wounds of the people but let us also get rid of the robbers in the Jericho Road. Emerson had once sarcastically remarked that ' your actions speaks so loud that I cannot hear your word's. There is an inexplicable power in example and lifestyle. Looking at our lives nobody will believe that we are followers of a poor carpenter. We need to exhibit Christ likeness in our life. We need to authentically imitate Christ in our daily conduct. We need to ask ourselves how dear and dedicated we are to Christ. We need to examine if we have moved away from His principles. We cannot chase the shadows when we have realities to face. Let all the Christians in India first seek the kingdom of God. We got our names as Christians in Antioch. Do we still retain it ? We will fail if we go in our own strength. Let us go in the strength of the Lord and He will grant us great victories.