By M L Satyan

Bengaluru, June 14, 2020: The whole world is waging a war against the deadly Coronavirus. For many countries, including India, it is becoming a critical situation of ‘life’ or ‘death.’ Everyone, irrespective of caste, colour, class, culture, language and region, is living with constant fear and tension caused by the uncertainty of the future.

In this critical and painful situation, a “word war” is going on among some Christian preachers in Tamil Nadu. The reason: One preacher, having his own church/group, recently made some statements about the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health located at Velankanni (Tamil Nadu).

The brief summary of what he spoke in a prayer meeting is: Idol worship is going on at Velankanni. Prostitution also is prevalent there. Wherever there is idol worship, there will be prostitution also as both are inseparable. Tsunami in 2004 hit Velankanni very badly and it was God’s punishment.

The ‘word war-2020’ was initiated by the preacher and his video became viral. It woke up the Catholic community (clergy and laity). Till date I had seen quite a number of WhatsApp messages (with abusive words) circulated by the lay Catholics condemning the preacher and demanding for his apology.

Quite many Catholic priests circulated their ‘protest speeches’ through WhatsApp and YouTube. I had read a few WhatsApp messages and watched some videos. The highlights of their ‘word war’:
• The Catholic Church is the only true church as it was established by St. Peter who was authorized by Jesus. All other Christian denominations are not true.
• True worship through Eucharistic celebration is done only in the Catholic church.
• Only Catholic churches have altars for the true worship called Mass.
• Catholic priests are trained and ordained to preach the Bible. They are the authorised preachers of the Catholic Church.
• Most Christian denominations do not have a specified place for prayer.
• They gather in Function Halls, Marriage Halls, School Auditoriums and pray. They call it ‘worship’.
• Their prayer is not worship. For a worship you need an altar where Eucharist is celebrated.
• During the prayer meetings of other Christian denominations, the participants clap their hands, dance and shout at the top of their voice. This is not prayer.
• The preachers/evangelists of other Christian denominations interpret the Bible as they like to suit their situations. Who gave them authority to preach the Bible?
• The preachers of other Christian denominations are false and fake. They mislead the members of their churches.
• The main purpose of starting a Christian denomination is money. Most of the preachers/evangelists are money-minded. They collect money from the people and create wealth for themselves.
• No Catholic must watch the preaching/prayer videos of the preacher who preached against Mother Mary’s church, Velankanni.
• This preacher is a ‘Satan’. Hence all Catholics must reject him, be alert and safeguard themselves.

There was an interesting video prepared by a Catholic priest. It shows the photos of the popular Christian preachers (some are individual photos and some are family photos) of Tamil Nadu.

The important points highlight the spirit of “triumphalism” of the Catholic Clergy and laity. They all follow the wrong psychological approach – i.e. I am OK and you are not OK. I wish to raise a few questions to these priests and laity who are waging a word war with the ‘accused preacher’:
1) Where will these ‘counter-attacks’ and the ‘unending word war’ lead to?
2) What are you going to achieve by this type of negative ‘retaliation’?
3) Is there no scope for having a ‘healthy dialogue’ with the accused preacher and try to understand his point of view?
4) Where is the Christian spirit of dialogue and reconciliation?
5) Is it not time for you to sit and do a sincere introspection?
6) Why don’t you initiate a study and find out whether prostitution is prevalent at Velankanni?
7) Do you think that putting all Christian denominations together and brand them as ‘fake and cheats’ is right?
8) Don’t you know the bitter truth that most of the members belonging to other denominations made an exodus from the Catholic Church?
9) Have you ever tried to understand why the Catholics continue to exit from the Catholic Church?

The Holy Bible speaks of ONE Jesus of Nazareth who is also known as “Son of Man”, “Son of God”, “Saviour”, “Messiah”, “Redeemer”, “Good Shepherd”, “Truth”, “Way” and “Life” etc. The early Christians followed this Jesus as ‘one community’. In course of time, this one community got split into many small fragments for various types of ‘selfish agenda’.

Today we see many churches/small groups preaching Jesus. Each church/group is ‘self-righteous’. Each one has the superiority complex and considers other groups as inferior. “I am OK and you are not OK” mindset is quite strong in every group.

When there is “hatred” and “enmity” among these churches/groups, Christ will never be present. Today’s churches lack the “true spirit of Christ”. What we see today is not Christianity but only ‘Churchianity’. It is very unfortunate that Christ has been converted into an “object of worship” and a “commercial commodity”. The urgent call today is to practice the values of Christ in our daily life and be the “salt of the earth and the light of the world.”

(Note: I do not want to mention anyone’s name. I wish to maintain their anonymity)