Anti-Christian violence is on the rise in India, much of which occurred in Karnataka. Especially on the eve of the winter session of the assembly in Belagavi, Southern India. Basavaraj Bommai, Chief Minister of Karnataka, hinted at the possibility of banning religious conversion altogether.
On December 14th, local Indian police in Vadodara City began investigating accusations of forced conversion by the Makarpura facility for Missionaries of Charity (MOC), the charity famously started by Mother Teresa in 1950. The charity was started in Vadodara, in the Makarpura area of the state of Gujarat, which is also the home state of the Hindu Nationalist Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
On November 19, Friday, an unknown person delivered a letter to the police headquarters in Gusau, a city in northwestern Nigeria. The letter threatened Christians in the Zamfara state not to hold public worship or Sunday services. If they do, they will be attacked; their members will be abducted, and their churches will be burned.
Christian groups in Belagavi City in Karnataka, India, were told by police to avoid meetings and gatherings for prayer until the end of the Winter Session. Belagavi will be hosting the Karnataka legislative session scheduled for December 13 to 24. A controversial anti-conversion bill will be discussed during the session, according to the police.
On Saturday, November 13, Burnett Robinson, a senior pastor at the Grand Concourse Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church, told husbands in his sermon that “the best person to rape is your wife.” Less than two weeks after Robinson’s insensitive and disrespectful approval on marital rape, his resignation was announced.
In September 2019, Mattia Nanetti filled out a de-baptism form he found online and sent it, along with a letter explaining why, to his parish church. Two weeks later, sbattezzo was written next to his name in his parish’s baptism registry. Sbattezzo means he is de-baptized in Italian.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) began tracking vandalism and other forms of attacks on Catholic sites across the country. Aaron Weldon of the Office of Religious Liberty of the USCCB said the attacks on the historic Catholic sites were “the impetus for us to start monitoring these sorts of events.”
On Tuesday, November 2, The Guardian published an article detailing their investigation into an ultra-conservative evangelical church in Moscow, Idaho. Christ Church of Moscow is known for its ultra-conservative ideologies. The Guardian reported that Christ Church’s leadership has openly announced their desire to establish a theocracy.
A March 2021 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that most adult US Americans support the separation of church and state. With 69% of the respondents agreeing that the federal government should never declare any state religion. At the same time, 67% agree that the US Constitution was written by humans and reflects their vision, not necessarily God’s vision.
In an October 21 episode of the radio show Liveline, an upset caller complained about a mobile coffee shop set up in the church grounds calling it blasphemous. According to the show, the coffee shop trailer was set up outside the St Peter’s Church in Phibsborough, but it was inside the railings of the church grounds.
