Controversial missionary activities by fundamentalist Christian sects in Sri Lanka have inflamed passions among the predominantly Buddhist population to an extent that could rebound against older, established Christian groups such as the Catholics.
New evangelicals, often flush with American funding and eager to spread the fundamentalist gospel in the island, have been targeting the poorer sections of Sri Lankan society. Jehovah's Witnesses, the Assembly of God, Southern Baptists and several others sects have established churches in remote rural areas that have remained Buddhist through the centuries. They distribute food, clothes and other basic essentials and even cash to the deprived people, encouraging them to attend prayer sessions.
This has antagonized Buddhists, who have launched attacks on some of these churches and preachers. Many have called for a law prohibiting "unethical" religious conversion and demanded that evangelists set up shop in predominantly Christian, rather than Buddhist, areas.
The zeal of the fundamentalists has also affected Sri Lanka's established churches, especially the Roman Catholic community, the largest and oldest Christian church, introduced by Portuguese colonizers in 1505.
Matters came to a head last August when Sri Lanka's Supreme Court ruled in a landmark judgement that the constitution's guarantee of freedom of worship did not extend to the right to propagate religion.
The judgment also noted the constitution's acknowledgement of Buddhism as the country's foremost religion and the state's duty to protect and foster it.
The court was responding to a petition by Buddhists against the legal incorporation of a Roman Catholic order of missionary nuns seeking to carry out teaching, vocational youth training, nursing and care of the elderly, together with missionary work. It ruled that "the spread of knowledge to youth" by a Christian missionary order was inconsistent with the constitutional requirement to protect and foster Buddhism, the religion of 69 percent of the population.
Hindus (15 percent) are the next biggest group, followed by Christians (8 percent), Muslims (7 percent) and others (1 percent).
The Supreme Court also held that Christian institutions should not couple religious instruction with charitable deeds and agreed with the petitioners that young, inexperienced and elderly people could be lured to other religions by charitable activities.
Although fundamentalist Christians number less than 1 percent of the population, their activities are highly visible among the urban middle class and are spreading increasingly to the rural poor. More than 10 attacks on new evangelist churches have been recorded this year compared with five last year.
‘CHINESE ASSET’: The senate cited Bamban Mayor Alice Guo in contempt after a police raid revealed a scam center operating at a facility on land she partially owned The Philippine Senate yesterday threatened to arrest a mayor for contempt during a hearing investigating her alleged ties to Chinese criminal syndicates. The arrest threat came after Bamban Mayor Alice Guo (郭華萍) failed to appear for a second consecutive hearing, citing stress. The case that began in March, when authorities raided a casino in Guo’s farming town of Bamban, has shed light on criminal activity in the mostly Chinese-backed online casino industry in the Philippines. It gained national attention after one senator asked whether Guo might not have been born in the Philippines and could even be a Chinese “asset,” an accusation she
‘DO WHATEVER’: US Representative Nancy Pelosi said on MSNBC the decision was up to Joe Biden, but her lack of a full statement backing him is likely to send a signal The re-election campaign of US President Joe Biden on Wednesday hit new trouble as US Representative Nancy Pelosi said merely “it’s up to the president to decide” if he should stay in the race, celebrity donor George Clooney said he should not run, and Democratic senators and lawmakers expressed fresh fear about his ability to challenge former US president Donald Trump. Late in the evening, US Senator Peter Welch called on Biden to withdraw from the election, becoming the first Senate Democrat to do so. Welch said he is worried because “the stakes could not be higher.” The sudden flurry of pronouncements, despite
THREATS: The Japanese leader signaled concern over Russia’s war in Ukraine, its deepening cooperation with North Korea and Chinese posturing against Taiwan Russia’s deepening military cooperation with North Korea has underlined the need for Japan to forge closer ties with NATO as regional security threats become increasingly intertwined, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told Reuters. In written remarks ahead of his attendance at a NATO summit in Washington this week, Kishida also signaled concern over Beijing’s alleged role in aiding Moscow’s two-year-old war in Ukraine, although he did not name China. “The securities of the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific are inseparable, and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and its deepened military cooperation with North Korea are strong reminders of that,” Kishida said. “Japan is determined to
‘STARWARS’: The weapons would make South Korea the first country to deploy and operate laser weapons, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said South Korea is to deploy laser weapons to shoot down North Korean drones this year, becoming the world’s first country to deploy and operate such weapons in the military, the country’s arms procurement agency said yesterday. South Korea has called its laser program the “StarWars project.” The drone-zapping laser weapons that the South Korean military has developed with Hanwha Aerospace are effective and cheap, with each shot costing 2,000 won (US$1.45), and also quiet and “invisible,” the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a statement. “Our country is becoming the first country in the world to deploy and operate laser weapons, and