Pictured above are the wife and four children of a Hindu man in India who disowned them after they found Jesus and converted to Christianity.
In February of this year, according to this report, Ramesh Kumar decided he could no longer tolerate his family’s attendance at a local church, and demanded that they cease observing Christian worship.
When they did not give in to his demand he began beating his wife and children and, despite his well paying job as a government employee, he cut them off financially in September.
Matters turned really ugly when Kumar submitted a complaint to the police in which he “fabricated” a story claiming that his family threatened to “take me church forcefully” and “want me to change my religion” .
Kumar further alleged that when he refused to do that:
Family members tied my legs and hands and took me to the church. My son said if you will not go to church with us then we can kill you.
On three occasions times the entire family were called into the police station in the State of Haryana in Northern India for questioning and asked:
Why you have changed your religion and beat your father?
The police, however, refused to believe any statement that his wife and kids made in their own defence and joined in pressuring the family to meet the father’s demands to stop attending church.
But the children and their mother have said:
We will not stop going to the church because we know Jesus is the True God who died for us.
On November 17 Kumar put an advertisement in a local newspaper alleging physical abuse, disowning his family and disavowing any responsibility for what might happen to them.
This advertisement was repetition of his earlier report on September 25 when Kumar went to a court and made a signed official statement in which he claimed:
My wife Sunita and my elder Son Neeraj, Pardeep, Sapna and Gaytari are out of my control and they beat me.
He also said that that if anyone makes contact with his family or gives them money, they will be responsible for them. And he also targeted a pastor called Ramesh, above right, saying that the minister had converted his family and has disturbed his home life. As a consequence the police have repeatedly called the pastor to the police station, but he lawyer has advised him to ignore these calls.
Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the British Asian Christian Association, said:
The disownment of his children by a patriarch has left this family very vulnerable. They have been targeted by a father who is caught up in the religious zeal that has become more commonplace in India since the Modi regime came into power.
Proliferation of anti-minority propaganda, and a biased national curriculum that continues to demonise other faiths, has had the effect of polarising communities. Moreover a growing number of incidents of minority persecution, is a poor indictment of Indian society which lacks harmony and tolerance in many regions.
The Indian Government must retract the anti-conversion bill or the future for Christians and other minorities in their nation will remain bleak, as the law will serve as a weapon for extremists.
Chowdhry wrote that he hoped the father’s actions will not be a prelude to violence against the family.