That was a report from the Malayalam newspaper, Kerala Kaumdi (March 3, 2009), about an organization called Love Jihad whose goal is to convert girls from “other religions”, marry them, and produce at least four children. Around 4000 such marriages happened in the past 6 months, inviting the attention of the Special Branch. No religion was mentioned, except that most marriages happened in Malappuram district.
The second report comes from Bangalore, where Father Joseph Menengis of St. James Church tells the B K Somashekhara Commission of inquiry that idol worship was practiced in churches to attract Hindus with the aim of converting them to Christianity.
What happened to those times when folks worked hard to convert people?
In MMW4, Prof. Matthew Herbst talks about the time when Jesuits converted 300,000 Japanese to Christianity in 1600 CE. The Jesuits, members of the Society of Jesus formed by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, emerged from Paris to spread Catholicism.
They did it the hard way. They adopted local dress instead of staying in robes like the Franciscans or Dominicans. They learned the local language. They learned the classical texts. Then through the local language, using the classical text as a bridge, they spread the “good word.”
But this story had a tragic ending – for the Jesuit priests.
The Tokugawa shoguns who ruled Japan after 1600 knew their history for they had seen what happened in Philippines: first came the missionaries, then the army. There was also the question of loyalty. When someone became a Christian, the Tokugawa wondered, were the converts loyal to Tokugawa or the priests.?
Realizing that the Jesuits would undermine Japan, the Tokugawa asked Jesuits to leave. Being Japanese and Christian was outlawed and Christians were asked to convert back to Buddhism. Even Jesuit priests were made to convert and forced to take an oath declaring Christianity was evil.
For couple of centuries the Japan was free of missionaries. But they came back again, in the 19th century.
(Hat tip: Ranjith, Dheeraj)
The news about ‘Love Jihad is terrifying. This almost seems like a dramatical play to me. How is it possible that 4000 marriages planned in such a way go unnoticed! There must be a political hand in this as well.
Unbelievable…the bit about “Love Jihad”…I am going to put this up on my blog JK..
one of the zealous guys in the 1563 team that went to Japan for the said conversions ( following his own and the great success of St Xavier with the Paravas in S India) was Miguel Vaz a the VG of Cochin and later head honcho at Goa ( A Malabar yogi who had apparently been converted by Cabral).