Author: Christine Jayasinghe, Colombo
Publication: India Abroad News
Service
Date: March 6, 2001
Buddhists in Sri Lanka are up in
arms over foreign and local Christian evangelical organizations converting
villagers in remote areas using "unethical, coercive and sometimes barbaric
methods."
The Centre for Buddhism International
(CBI) in Kandy, the central province hill town where the Temple of the
Buddha's Tooth is the focal point, has accused Christian missionaries of
invading rural villages and tea and rubber plantations to proselytize their
faith.
"Such missionary activity has upset
the quiet and peaceful life of the rural community by the unethical, coercive
and sometimes barbaric methods of conversion adopted by these evangelical
groups thus creating a conflict situation which often leads to a breach
of peace," the organization said in a statement.
The statement said the work of at
least 73 foreign and local evangelical groups, with names like Campus Crusade
for Christ and Christian Literary Crusade, had been studied by the South
Asian think tank, the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies.
Calling on the government to act
according to the country's Constitution and protect the Buddhist faith,
the CBI charged that other Christian organizations tried to justify the
work of the evangelists and decry opposition from Buddhists as "the work
of extremists."
Last month, the small town of Hingurakgoda
in the north central province was shocked by a Sunday morning attack by
club-wielding mobs on a Christian prayer hall as services were being held.
At least 38 people were seriously injured and the hall badly damaged.
Three people were arrested and President
Chandrika Kumaratunga had to call for a special inquiry into the incident
to forestall any fanning of inter-religious rancor.
Local residents said they were angry
about the conversions being carried out by the evangelists who are largely
without support from the larger mainstream Christian sects.
With 70 percent of the country's
population being Buddhist, the other major religions of Hinduism, Islam,
Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism have always steered away from controversy
and co-existed peacefully.
The evangelists are from among newly
sprung up groups with foreign links who blend religion with relief work,
doling out jobs and material aid to converts, say their detractors.