Longstanding readers of TII are familiar with my views on institutionalized faith through middlemen vs personal faith in God. One keeps you horizontally bound to man-made dictates, the other vertically connects with the Creator. In my own spiritual journey I discovered there is a life changing difference between following something called Christianity and genuine faith in Christ. So my reaction to the current destruction of Christian worship places in India that people call “church’’ differs from the general outcry. The word ‘church’ is not an exclusive Christian term anymore than geographically ‘Hindu’ is exclusively for practitioners of Hinduism. It originates from ekklesia, a word used in the context of Athenian democracy by referring to a chosen assembly of individuals. Somehow church buildings have acquired unnecessary religious significance, missing the wood for the trees. In destroying churches, the perpetrators of violence against Indian Christians need to understand that true faith-not the cultural variety is impossible to eradicate. They only have to study ancient Rome, Russia or Communist China’s relentless attempts to wipe out their people’s faith and carefully evaluate the situation there today. It is now obvious what the Sangh Parivar is up to across the country, but if the BJP’s proxy army of goons doesn’t halt ‘Operation Persecute’ they could eventually be responsible for altering India’s spiritual landscape into one they least expect. Wishful thinking? Not really, just a lesson from the pages of history. Genuine faith in Christ is not like a club membership-it cannot be inherited, bought, sold, transferred or forcibly implanted. The scriptures (John 15: 16) in fact clarify that God chooses people, not the other way around. Paradoxically in his great mercy he also says, “Ask, and you will receive.” That incredible transaction for salvation is not signing up to something man-made called Christianity, it is fulfilling the longing of every human heart to be freed from sin and certain of a place in eternity. It is a privilege to interact with people of various faiths who genuinely seek the vertical divine connection and share important convictions. Long ago I stopped seeing people as Hindus, Muslims, Christians etc., so taking sides and joining the blame game against a particular religious community for the atrocities in India is not an option. All we Indians need to be clear about is that a nexus of criminal politicians, disaffected individuals goaded by unlawful political and religious groups is single-mindedly at work in our land. If they succeed in dividing us, they win. India is being taken over by hoodlums and neither the state nor the citizenry seem to understand the grave danger. Petty rajahs ruled before and the British seized their kingdoms, but today individuals with private armies possess wealth and influence from established power bases throughout the country. Lawless organisations like the Bajrang Dal, MNS etc., effortlessly challenge the state. Someone like a Raj Thackeray is only a more prominent incarnation of local goondas in every state who operate with impunity. Long before Indira Gandhi allowed the likes of Bhindranwalle to run free, India has been turning a blind eye to a growing network of political and criminal masterminds who know how to subvert democracy, and manipulate our unwieldy parliamentary government. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. We are casual about injustice in India but whatever our stand on faith or politics the slaughter of innocents and the plight of our fellow Indians is heartbreaking. They are being blown up by fanatics manipulated to believe their religion calls for revenge or butchered by rented mobs for political mileage. Hordes are motivated strategically by the absurd religious conversion issue that clearly violates our fundamental rights. If you belong to the silent, impotent majority of Indians who remain mute bystanders as the killings continue, you have only an illusion of safety. The forces being unleashed in our land may kill your neighbors in the name of religion today; unchecked, they will find other reasons to deal with you tomorrow. German Chancellor Bismarck once observed that, “God looked after idiots, drunks and the United States of America.” But publications like Der Spiegel in Germany say the era of American fiscal dominance in the world has ended. But India’s corrupt, pus infected underbelly is even more vulnerable and our most essential social foundations highly uncertain. Indian democracy may have withstood six decades of social, economic and political challenges, but the rule of law is still not established in the country. Religion in India is controlled by politicians and tainted in blood, the Indian tendency to claim spiritual high ground is a bad joke. There is something seriously wrong with India. In the past I have speculated that in a country with plural beliefs like ours, an idea to consider is combined places of worship for all, where we could share the most meaningful truths of our faiths. In community halls where there is harmony, our understanding of each other would radically improve and large chunks of prime real estate put to more practical use! Popular belief often ignores the fact that while places of worship have religious and historical significance, they are also monuments to the ambitions and dubious motivations of various institutions and clergy hooked on expansion. Jesus set no such example for earthly increase - religious empires are entirely man’s idea.