In Chains: Christian Persecution - 2019, Issue 1

attackers or the leaders who provoked
them,” Pastor Lazarus told Morning Star
News. “The discussion hasn’t yielded any
positive outcome. Hence, we are hoping the
police book a case and conduct a fair
investigation.”
India this year cracked the top 10 on
Christian support organization Open Doors’
2019 World Watch List of countries where
Christians experience the most persecution,
ranking 10 th , up from 11 th the previous year.
“We stopped, and the person driving the car
could see the Bible verses written on the
van, and he started abusing us in vulgar
language,” Gunti told Morning Star News. “He
made some calls, and within a few minutes,
about 15 to 20 people had gathered. Then
they started beating me and unloaded the
van, dumped all the Bibles and Christian
literature at one place and lit Yire.”
Video of the incident the Hindus circulated
on social media does not show how they
beat Gunti before setting the Christian
literature on Yire, the 51-year-old father of
three said.
“At least 350 Bibles were burned, but we did
not stop,” Gunti said. “That week we
continued sharing gospel. We must seek
strength from the Lord and must strive to do
more work.”
If Christ’s disciples and missionaries
throughout history had stopped when they
faced persecution, the gospel wouldn’t have
reached him or his friends, he said.
Bibles Ablaze
Earlier in neighboring Telangana state,
radical Hindus stopped a Christian group’s
van and set Bibles and gospel tracts on Yire,
sources said.
In the Kismatpur area southwest of
Hyderabad, Christians on Dec. 11 were on
their way to meet friends at a construction
site after a Christmas-themed outreach of
singing and passing out tracts and Bibles,
said one of the Christians, veterinarian Noah
Gunti.
Realizing their construction worker friends
had been sent to another site, they were
returning to the main road when a car
darted in front of them, nearly hitting the
van, he said.
“They target us because they are ignorant,
they do not know what they are doing,” he
said. “Governments cannot protect us from
persecution. Any kind of protests or
representation to the authorities will not
help. We should not be afraid to be used by
the Lord, in fact we must be prepared to be
persecuted.”
Church Attacked
Also in Telangana state, a Christian’s request
to an upper-caste Hindu neighbor that he not
dump construction debris at a church site in
a suburb of Hyderabad led to a group of
radical Hindus attacking a church – and
police Yiling a FIR against the Christians.
The upper-caste Hindu who dumped the
construction trash on Hebron Church
premises in Jagathgir Gutta had regularly