I wonder whether our Christian brothers and sisters would like it if Buddhist or Hindu preachers enter an overwhelmingly Christian village and start enticing the poor villagers to adopt either Buddhism or Hinduism by providing clothes, money, medicine, and declare that everyone will be delivered from poverty and sickness if they accept the Buddha or Brahma as their only saviour. I wonder if our Christian brothers and sisters would like it if Buddhist or Hindu preachers encourage Christian converts to Buddhism or Hinduism to take up a statue of Jesus Christ or the Mother Mary and smash it on the ground, in order to declare their faith in Buddhism or Hinduism. I wonder whether our Christian brothers and sisters would like it if when the Buddhists and Hindus are challenged with the inhumanity of such activities, the Buddhists and Hindus reply "Our religion orders us to propagate our religion, we are only practicing our religion." Does not such an attitude smack of religious extremism and intolerance? Is it not correct to say that only a person with no scruples would engage in and encourage such activities? But it is happening in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, many Christian evangelists are engaged in such activites among the poor and destitue Buddhists and Hindus of Sri Lanka. Their activities only serve to rile up religious tension and cause the disintegration of the community. Does not the buying of converts cheapen Jesus Christ? Does not the smashing of Buddha statues go against Christ's teachings of love and compassion? Does not buying souls for God make a mockery of him? Why are these Christian evangelists so blind to their intolerance of other religions? Is it really so necessary for the whole world to become Christian? These are some of the questions that Christian evangelists should ask themselves. Fundamentalism only engenders problems wherever it goes, and one can only hope that Christian evangelism (or fundamentalism) in Sri Lanka will not cause any religious problems in our country.

Achala Perera, Colombo
via email

[Edited for clarity]