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 May be these greedy leaders will now flee the nation and the real Christianity will take root and hopefully the foes also will realize that the cause of Christian growth in our nation is not money but something else which is also equally attractive to them as well. May be we might have to pay the ultimate price until every Nepali sees the real face of Christianity and experiences the love of God.
Nepali Church leaders are now crying foul against certain terror group for demanding to pay huge sum of ransom for their security and some seemed to have bought their security with the hard currency. This group chasing the wealthy Christian leaders appears to be well aware of the corrupt practices among the Christians leaders which otherwise go unnoticed by the simple minded Nepalese in general and Christians in particular. It is possible that the group members or the leaders of this outfit might even be some of the disgruntled former Christians themselves because there is half truth behind the rumor that becoming a Christian fetches dollars. This half truth behind the rumor is evidenced in the life style of some of these Christian leaders who have embezzled mission funds to build their own houses, start their businesses and buy visas for their children to live and study in some other developed nations; this is no different than the news which we hear from Pasupatinath and other temples. The only difference is that the Hindu temples get money from the Nepalese (Indians as well at times) where as these wealthy Christian leaders deceive the foreign donors. Just as it is not the devotee with bheti (offering) that is to be blamed for the corruption in the temples, so are the Christians, whether foreign or national, in putting their hard earned money in the hands of these Christian contractors in Nepal with the hope of seeing someone in need being helped.
Because these Christian leaders have demonstrated well, the half truth remains the full truth for the outsiders (non-Christians) who have never really understood what it is to become a Christian. Becoming a Christian and becoming a Christian religious leader in Nepal are two very different things. These Christian leaders who have become wealthy today by deceiving the foreign donors might have become Christian at a certain time in their past and might have endured some of the suffering that comes with becoming one. Until few years ago and even today, becoming a Christian is a very challenging thing in our nation. Our society is still very religious and conservative when it comes to other religions and even the caste system is very much a reality in Hindu ceremonies and rituals (except with Maoist forced exceptions). In a society like this, becoming a Christian means a total ostracism from the family, friends and local community. Sometimes wife is divorced or a husband is abandoned and parents are chased out by the children just become they believe in Jesus Christ. But if someone hears the truth about who Jesus Christ really is; the chances are that he or she will desire to be the follower of Jesus Christ regardless of the price to be paid. When someone really understands the message of the Bible, there is no power or threat that can stop that individual from accepting it. Once the choice is made to be the follower of Jesus Christ, then comes the inevitable case in our nation; the family gets upset and shuns the person regardless of who the person is. If the person is an unemployed young man or a woman, things become more complicated. But it is also not easy when one family in a village decides to become Christian and the whole village comes against them, they are not allowed to drink the water from the same tap, no one goes to their house and no helping hand is given in their times of tragedies. Even in death, most local villages come against the Christians and do not allow their dead to be buried in the same burial jungles. In circumstances like these, the already existing Christian community tries to minimize the suffering of their new brothers and sisters by offering any help they can find. In some cases, they would ask to their known contacts in affluent nations to help these suffering Christians. Such help, not always, comes and suffering is sometimes relieved. But then the real cycle of greed begins by those watching the help come; it is because of the merciless poverty. A non-Christian sees the help from the Christians and becomes tempted to go the easy way, thinking that if he or she can find financial help, it is worth the risk. Poverty is such a powerful task master that it reduces human dignity to the dust and no religious convictions are worth cherishing while in its grip. If there is some relief, it does not matter what religious clothes one wears, and some people do choose Christianity with this false hope and who later become disgruntled if they do not succeed in getting what they came for. Some do succeed.
It is these people who we have to be weary of and make sure that they really know why they want to become Christian. Why one becomes a Christian in the first place will determine the kind of life that person will have. If we see a Christian leader whose conscience is dead, it is possible that he or she had come to Christianity with such a wrong motivation. The right motivation of becoming Christian is to recognize that Jesus is the only way for us to be saved from our sin and restore our relationship with God our creator. It is to recognize our sinfulness and repent from it with a desire to be a better person of honesty, integrity and credibility. It is to be a human with love and compassion for the fellow human beings. But some of these people who are now wealthy and control the church in a nation like ours do not exhibit any of the right motives of becoming a Christian. They appear to have become Christian for the material motivation only.
Since their aim is to gain material success, they do not mind to compromise their doctrinal and moral convictions to please any foreign donors. On the other hand, because they are good at pleasing the human beings, the foreign mission leaders trust these people with their life and resources. Once they have the backing of the foreign Christian leaders and the power of money in their hands, these leaders climb the leadership ladder to the top and control the local church under their vice like grip. They want to attend any world level Christian gatherings, they want to be the main body of Christians with whom the government should deal, and they want to be the main body for any possible donation to run NGO and INGOs. But these people have no concern for the welfare of the Church and the Christians in Nepal. Nepali Christians have now become victims from both the sides. They have been cheated and betrayed by their so called leaders. In the name of these real Nepali Christians who have shown great courage in following Jesus that these wealthy Christians leaders have collected enormous amount of money for themselves. From the other side; the terror group threatens to attack these poor and defenseless Nepali Christians while these wealthy Christians leaders will flee the nation and live in the security of Europe or America. Some of them have already done so and others will follow soon and the rest can pay the ransom, but the innocent Christians will have to pay for the sins of these wealthy Christians leaders all over again.
When a nation crumbles, everything crumbles along with it and the church is not immune to that. The level of corruption in the government is now matched with the Christian mission work where the innocent are only used as baits to catch for the wealthier ones. Some of the foreign missionaries are also achieving great success because they have realized that these poor Christians in Nepal can never voice their grievances against them. A foreign missionary went so far as to tell (to the seminary president where I studied) that the Nepali Christians should not be given admission in seminaries in his country because after their education they know more about the missionary and they do not obey. With this kind of religious betrayal and a real threat from the terror group, Nepali Christians need to voice their concerns and let it be heard from one way or the other. The real Christianity in Nepal is not represented by these gospel agents either national or foreign, but by believers who live in the simplicity of life with all its suffering; from the plains of Madhes to the foot hills of the Himalayas, from the far west to the far east. In order to redeem the face of Christianity, every local church needs to rise up and evaluate its leader because due to the influence of these wealthy leaders, the low level Christians leaders are also contaminated and they are using their congregations for their personal gains. Some of these leaders do not want to be paid by their local congregations because that hinders their freedom to beg from multiple others. But the local congregations need to be given authority to choose their pastors and take care of the needs of their leaders. Unfortunately, some of these congregations are entirely infected with this false Christianity of greed that it is hard for them to think that they are supposed to feed their leaders. This is because for years, these corrupt Christian leaders used such congregations for their advertisement and now the damage to real Christianity is irreparable.
Yet, if there is any hope for the Church in Nepal, this cycle of greed needs to be broken and Christians must take responsibility for their own destiny. It is going to be difficult and sometimes, it may cost lives. But there is no alternative to the authentic Christianity because we are now witnessing the consequences of a false Christianity. If from the beginning days, these leaders were honest and were content with the support from their own local congregations, the rumors of dollars might not have become a problem today. If the Nepali Christians still do not learn the lessons, then God might have to use anyone or anything as he did in China because Nepal is dear to God. The Nepali believer in general is still one of the finest Christians in the world today and God will not abandon him or her because compared to the godless Christianity of Europe, pagan Christianity of Americas and the ritualistic Christianity of the Far East Asia, Nepali Christianity is much closer to the heart of what Jesus taught. May be these greedy leaders will now flee the nation and the real Christianity will take root and hopefully the foes also will realize that the cause of Christian growth in our nation is not money but something else which is also equally attractive to them as well. May be we might have to pay the ultimate price until every Nepali sees the real face of Christianity and experiences the love of God.
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