Christian Families in India Threatened with Death if They do not Reconvert to Animism
Sixteen Christian families from a church in India’s Jharkhand were physically threatened every night for nearly three weeks by gangs of animist worshippers demanding they reconvert to the Sarna religion, Morning Star News reported on May 26. The families (around 130 people) have ancestral connections to the religion, whose followers worship a god called Dharmes.
Pastor Sarabjit Bharati of the Kirpa Bhavan Salom Church in the Palamu District told Morning Star News that bands of local villagers armed with clubs had been terrorizing the families. “The persecutors were going with batons and wooden sticks, not giving the Christians any chance to say no, but emphasizing that either they reconvert to the Sarna fold or they would kill them right then and there. They purposely went in the dark so that none of the [outlying] Christians would be able to reach the families to help and support them,” the pastor...