For decades, I traveled and volunteered in India freely, distributing food, clothing and other vital supplies as part of charity work sponsored by my church in Tennessee. When I returned in October 2019, I expected the visit to be no different. But immediately upon my arrival, my documents were confiscated and I was imprisoned for six days in a dark cell. For the next seven months, I was prevented from leaving India. My crime? Being Christian.
Held on spurious charges, the real reason I was targeted was because I, like countless other Christians throughout India who have been arrested, imprisoned and even killed for their beliefs, practiced a faith deemed anathema by India’s ruling Hindu nationalist political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Under the leadership of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, India has bulldozed churches, passed laws to criminalize conversion to Christianity, imprisoned pastors, and helped inflame anti-Christian atrocities in Manipur, all in pursuit of rendering India a pure Hindu nation. One BJP official told my lawyer that ...
