Persecution of Minorities in India: The National Council of Churches, USA unanimously adopted historic resolution.

Nashville, TN. October 18, 2024.

The National Council of Churches, USA, the apex body of 37 member Christian communions which represents 30 million faithful in the United States, convened its annual Christian Unity Gathering from October15-18 in Nashville, Tennessee. On October 18, 2024, the Executive Council of the Church representatives convened and adopted a unanimous resolution condemning the persecution of religious minorities in India. The resolution called for the Government of India to respect human rights and religious freedom of its citizens as it demanded in the Constitution of India. This is an historic resolution adopted by this apex body. Earlier in the meeting, the Church body condemned the religious nationalism in the USA and across the world and advised to guard against the Religious Nationalism springing up various parts of the world. The resolution mentioned specifically about the Hindu nationalism, the Hindutva, the condemned it in merging with Hindu culture and politics in India. The resolution called upon the member churches and the partners to raise the awareness of financial and other community support Hindu nationalism receives in some sectors of the US, and to denounce any actions that aim to provide such support. The resolution also called the local leaders and legislators to bring pressure on the Government of India to uphold the human rights in India.

This historic resolution is one of its kind and has large impact on the inter-religious relations and dialogues with our partners, said Father Joseph Varghese. Since the National Council of Churches previously take a stand against and condemned the Christian Nationalism in the USA and seeking same playing field with other Religious Nationalism in other parts of the world, Father Varghese said. The resolution was aimed to curb the fund-raising activities of the Hindu nationalists in the USA and made awareness of the hidden agenda behind such activities. The National Council of Churches support the freedom for religious practices for everyone and seek the same freedom in India as well. It is deplorable that those who want to build temples in the United States are supporting the destruction of Church buildings in Tirupathi, Father Varghese pointed out.

This resolution was made possible by the work of our various church communion leaders and specifically the hard work Rev. Chakravarty Zadda of the Methodist Church along with the support of Rev. Peter Cook of the New York Council of Churches, Rev. Margaret Taylor of the Episcopal Church, Katherine Lohre of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Rev. Dr. Tony Kirepoulos, Associate Secretary of NCC, Rev. Fr. Dr. Joseph Varghese, Co-Convener, Inter-Religious Convening Table of NCC.