Churches Fear Sri Lanka Ban on 'Distorting the Original Teachings' of Christianity

April 22, 2013

Evangelical churches not recognized by government could be deemed cults.

Melissa Steffan

Proposed legislation designed to prevent the spread of cults in Sri Lankacould impact the ministries of evangelical churches in the island nation.

According to the Daily Mirror, the Sri Lankan Religious Affairs Ministry "intends to introduce a legislation that enables authorities concerned to take action against anyone distorting the original teachings of the four main religions- Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity."

And that's bad news for evangelical churches, says Barnabas Aid.

"Evangelical churches are not recognized by the Religious Affairs Ministry and are thus liable to be labelled as 'cults' by those who do not understand the Christian faith and want to prevent activity they deem undesirable or threatening," the persecution ministry stated in a press release.

Meanwhile, Assist News reports "this proposed legislation is the latest threat to the Church in Sri Lanka, which has been facing increasing opposition."

CT previously reported attacks against evangelical churches in Sri Lankaas early as 2001. Several years later, CT reported on Buddhists' legislative attempts to "curtail Christian witness."

More recently, though, CT reported on "the joy of suffering in Sri Lanka"and profiled Ajith Fernando, a native Sri Lankan.

Basil Rajapaksa employs ‘intelligence operatives’ to monitor civil servants in East

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 April 2013, 15:21 GMT]
SL presidential sibling and Economic ‘Development’ Minister Basil Rajapaksa, has deployed three officials per division in all the three districts of the Eastern Province to monitor the activities of Divisional Secretaries and Village level (GS) officers and all other public officials, informed sources in Batticaloa say. These intelligence operatives, appointed under the ‘Divineguma’ programme, are required to send monthly reports with intelligence input to colonial Colombo. The ‘civil’ intelligence officers are tasked to oversee the process of structural genocide against Eezham Tamils. 

Tamil officials who act against illegal landgrab by the Sinhalese in the border villagers of Batticaloa district are transferred away to other areas following the reports by the new civil intelligence operatives of Basil Rajapaksa. 

Some of the Tamil officials have also been threatened over the telephone by the ‘Divineguma squad’, which monitors all the public activities, including the conduct of the ‘government servants’ at public meetings. 

The squad comprises of two Sinhalese and a pro SL government Muslim in most of the divisions. 

The activities of the Tamil public servants have been severely curtailed due to the interventions by the intelligence operatives within each divisional secretariat division.

The entire civil administration in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils is already overseen at provincial level by colonial governors, who are ex-commanders of the SL military. 

The Sri Lankan Government Agent (SLGA) of Trincomalee district is also retired Major General of the occupying Sri Lanka Army.