How many Sudhir Mondithokas prey daily on Tirumala?

Author: Sandeep Balakrishna
Publication: India Facts
Date: November 3, 2014
URL: http://www.indiafacts.co.in/how-many-suresh-mondithokas-prey-daily-on-tirumala/#.VFXAYPmUe-0

“The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the calibre of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites.” This quote is said to be found in a letter by Thomas Jefferson to his nephew Peter Carr.

Of all states in India, Andhra Pradesh (including the new Telangana state) has perhaps registered an explosive growth both in cause and consequence: massive missionary activity followed by large-scale conversions of Hindus to Christianity. And this explosion has occurred in the last ten years. It is estimated that nearly 30 per cent of Coastal Andhra is now Christian, and growing.

That this huge spurt in missionary activity occurred under the watch of the deceased Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy is also public knowledge. A separate Andhra Pradesh State Christian Finance Corporation was established under his rule, which included a whopping 14 schemes meant solely for Christians. Notable among them was financial assistance for pilgrimages to Jerusalem! This was later stopped by a High Court order. And all of this was funded by taxpayer money.

Then there’s the visible proof of this phenomenon when one visits almost any city, town, or village in these regions. Churches dot almost the entire landscape and announcements and banners and handouts for prayer meetings, healing camps, and so on are commonplace. Needless, these are all attempts to lure gullible and devout Hindus and convert them into Christianity.

State patronage especially for destructive activities breeds a certain sense of impunity among the purveyors of such activities. So it is with conversions. As these IndiaFacts investigative reports show, Andhra Pradesh has received hundreds of crores in foreign money routed via FCRA ever since the UPA came to power in 2004 and ever since Y S Rajashekhara Reddy became Chief Minister. What was more dangerous is the fact that Brother Anil Kumar, the Chief Minister’s son-in-law has a sprawling missionary empire named Anil World Evangelism, and is hugely influential in the Evangelical circles. He frequently embarks on blitzkrieg campaigns aimed at converting Hindus en masse, and has been hugely successful.

The emphasis on Coastal Andhra is essential if we wish to understand the damage it continues to reel under the chronic assault of missionaries of all hues. It was once the hub of culture—in many ways it defined, upheld and preserved the classical Hinduism, which saw a great revival under the Vijayanagara Empire and its feudatories. Nellore, Guntur, Vijayawada, Tenali, and the twin Godavaris still continued to produce accomplished scholars, poets, writers, and singers. The medieval temples were largely left untouched—if they were not actively patronized, they at least didn’t face a destructive threat. And in less than ten years, all of this changed drastically, mordantly.

Consider these from an old VHP report on the state of temples in Andhra Pradesh:

* Somewhere in 2006-2007, of the 420,028 acres owned by temples in Vishakhapatnam, Kakinada, Guntur, Kurnool, Warangal and Hyderabad, 60,843 acres were allowed to be occupied illegally while 2,349 acres are in litigation.

* On November 23, 2005, the government decided to take complete control of Hindu mutts such as Hathiramji of Tirupati, Raghavendra Swamy mutt in Mantralayam, billions of rupees.

* In August 2005, government decided to sell 100,000 acres of Sri Narasimha Swamy Temple in Simhachalam and other nearby temples.

* On March 14, 2006, government auctioned 3,000 acres of Temple lands in East Godavari District.

* The AP Government allocated 11 million Rupees to Churches for their repairs and renovations.

* The AP Government allocated 65 million Rupees to Mosques for their repairs and renovations.

* Per 8/22/2006 GO 21, the AP Government allocated Rs. 80,000 for each church for its repairs and renovations and 15 million Rupees for constructing a new church.

This detailed background is essential to understand the existential threat Hinduism and Hindus face in Andhra Pradesh. And this background also clearly explains the predatory phenomenon named Sudhir Mondithoka who was arrested by the Tirupati police on 30 October. The arrest comes in the wake of his video abusing Lord Venkateshwara of Tirumala, one of the most sacred pilgrimage spots for millions of Hindus worldwide.

Not much was known about this rabid evangelist but if one were to hit below the belt, his last name seems apt considering its meaning: stubborn tail.

A quick examination of Sudhir Mondithoka’s record reveals him to be a pretty brazen evangelist Pastor, and the Director of Immanuel Baptist Ministry of India (IBMI). On his LinkedIn profile, he claims to be associated with these evangelical organizations:

Indeed, his full career experience shows that he earned his Evangelical spurs while working as Community Development Project Manager at World Vision India.

In July 2013, Sudhir travelled with his younger brother, Sukumar, and Pastors David, Joseph and Yesu Ratnam to Tirumala and video-recorded the entire journey with detailed descriptions of Tirupati and Tirumala and their significance. The purpose of the commentary-accompanied video was to seek more funding from his American Evangelical donor, Faith International Partners. This video is part of the regular reporting procedure that Indian soul-harvesters follow when updating their foreign benefactors on the progress of conversions.

Now, Faith International Partners, like Sudhir is pretty brazen about its intent. Here’s what it intends to do in India, in its own words:
Faith International Partners exists to mobilize national church-planting pastors in the 10/40 window and beyond to preach the Gospel, plant churches, and disciple their own people. There are four billion people in this area of the world, and virtually all of these 67 countries are either Buddhist, Communist, Hindu, or Islamic. They are 95% un-evangelized due to the vast majority of them forbidding western Christian missionaries to do long term work, yet we will still be held accountable at the Judgment Seat of Christ for His mandate to “…preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Since the door is closed to western missionaries, we are going through “the window” of raising support for these indigenous men of God. As Saul from Tarsus, Celicia, partnered with the church of Antioch, Syria, we are creating partnerships between the church-planters of third-world countries in the 10/40 window and the churches and Christians of America.

It can’t get any more transparent than that. To understand what the “10/40 window” means, read IndiaFacts’ analysis of the Joshua Project.

And so Sudhir Mondithoka embarked on the audacious endeavour of targeting Tirumala. Here are the highlights of what he says in the video:

* By showing a Hill at the entrance to Tirumala, Sudhir says that Jesus Christ is the Rock himself, but now the devil occupied this place. In the modern world, it is occupied and Venkateswara Temple was built. This area originally belongs to Jesus. Devil has occupied this place. Jesus Christ will reign supreme and one of these days they will be overthrown.

* This Temple is located on Seven Hills, it is a beautiful place, a very popular place; but people are lost.
Millions of people come here to pray the false idol. Our burden is to pray for them and come to the real God so that their lives will be meaningful.

* Those that come are becoming impoverished, because of untruth and because of darkness.
(Pointing to the people going to have a Darshan of Venkateshwara, Sudhir says) our hearts are filled with much burden for these lost people.

* (Pointing to the shoes left before entrance to the temple, Sudhir says) they leave these shoes because they think it is a holy ground, but it is not.

* He identified one young man and introduced him as Tirupalu from Nellore District, prayed with him and shared with him the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

After the Tirumala visit, Sudhir and his team visit some schools en route and prey on the small schoolchildren by distributing missionary literature and asking them to share it with their friends and family.

The point in this sordid saga is not that of Sudhir visiting Tirumala but the sheer gumption he could summon up to make it his target knowing fully well what it means to Hindus. And that gumption comes from Y S Rajashekhara Reddy’s shameless state patronage for Evangelism.

And neither is this the first time Tirumala has been the target of missionaries.

In 2006, the Andhra Government attempted to take over five out of the seven Tirumala Hills for Church and tourism purposes. In March 2006, the Government demolished the 1000-pillar Mantapam at Tirumala. Following a fierce backlash, the Government enacted the AP Propagation of Other Religions in Places of Worship or Prayer (Prohibition) Act in 2007. In the same year, the Government also passed two ordinances:

But the damage had already been done. The gates to Evangelize in Tirumala had been thrown open. In 2012, the Hindu reported that a significant number of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) staff were Christians and were actively engaged in proselytization in Tirumala.
the problem of proselytization….which rocked the TTD about six years ago, has erupted again as evidenced by the fact that in a raid conducted by the TTD’s Vigilance and Security personnel on three houses in the TTD staff quarters at Tirumala late on Monday night following a tip-off, bundles of religious publications, wall-posters and such other propaganda material belonging to Christian missionaries were reportedly recovered.

And the TTD still doesn’t have a clue how many such closet Christians are on their payroll, actively or covertly engaged in proselytization activities.

It is not merely the fault of the scary worldwide missionary nexus operating with near perfection and impunity in India. The fault lies equally at the doorstep of Hindus for allowing things to come to such a pass. Let’s also not forget the fact that an Islamic college was slated to come up very near to Tirupati on temple land.

Indeed, there is something deeply disturbing about predatory faiths like Islam and Christianity that hold such a negative sway over the hearts and minds of their adherents. To think that the Tirumala staff at one time were devout Hindus and post conversion, engaged themselves in attempts at destroying the very dharma that had sustained them for so long, gave them employment and a dignified life. To paraphrase King Lear, “is there any cause in the nature of these faiths that makes these hard hearts?”

Till yesterday these would be Hindus, and now suddenly, they become minorities out to swallow the majority till the majority becomes a minority in its own homeland.

It is laudable that the missionary predator Sudhir Mondithoka was arrested and even better that he confessed to his crime. The question remains: how many Mondithokas roam around Tirumala everyday wearing various raptorial garbs?