Complaint filed against India Rural Evangelical Fellowship for violating FCRA and converting gullible non-Christian children

Following the earlier complaints filed against two evangelical organizations – Gospel for Tribals Social Service Society and Serve India Ministries, the Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF) has filed a complaint with the Ministry of Home Affairs against another evangelical organization based out of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh named India Rural Evangelical Fellowship (IREP).

LRPF found that the evangelical NGO was involved in various illegal activities like: conversion of minor non-Christian children to Christianity without the consent of their parents/guardians, planting churches, forcible conversion through enticements and miracle healings, bringing in foreign preachers, and making statements against India.

Mismatch in stated objectives

The stated objective of the IREP as recovered from Darpan portal states as “providing free educational services to the poorest of the poor, uplift the poor and downtrodden by rural development activities and relief, conducting moral and spiritual retreats, seminars and worship services, providing medical assistance to the poor and down trodden.”

However its original intentions become apparent from the following sources:

The IREP’s income tax returns filed in the US states as follows:

Christian Charitable and Missionary, to promote the Gospel Message of Christianity within the State of Andhra Pradesh, South India, with the help of God, to print and publish Christian literature

The IREF’s US Website says that it “works in regions devastated by violence and human trafficking where Christians are persecuted and the caste system has resulted in abject poverty”

Its UK Website says it is “an evangelical Christian development organization, dedicated to reaching the rural villages of Andhra Pradesh in South India with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.” It further goes on to say that it works towards this goal by “mobilizing individual Christians, planting and enabling churches and caring for children by providing them with a Christian education”.

Using children for religious conversion

The IREF has been involved in a number of deplorable activities. They are guilty of converting non-Christian children to Christianity even without the knowledge of their parents/guardians. They have openly stated in their UK website that “on an average, around 20 young people are baptized every week even though taking such a public state may result in persecution and ostracism from their family members and friends”. They themselves have admitted to converting children as young as 10 year old.

There are even several testimonies of young children’s conversion to Christianity like this one:

Mahendra decided to give his life to Christ at this year’s Youth Conference. He was always afraid of his parents’ reaction to baptism; but this year, he decided it was time to make that public confession of faith and trust in the Lord with all of his heart

The children studying in the institutions run by the NGO are given Bible and are forced to put up with Bible classes with the goal of making them “Future Christian Warriors” in their own villages. They even admit to the forced Bible preaching in their newsletters like this one:

Please pray for IREF staff and students as they prepare to close the 2019-2020 academic year in March and April. Many of these young people return to idol-worshipping families for the summer holiday and need your prayers as they stand firm for Christ.

To raise funds for their activities, the NGO uses images of these children and share them with their sponsors abroad. These children are shown as orphans or coming from homes with “severe abuse”.

The IREF scouts for poor and gullible people in villages and entice the families with “free education with boarding and lodging”. However, the children of many of these non-Christian families are put through rigorous Christian education. They are trained to become missionaries in their villages.

The evangelical organization also conducts an Annual Youth Conference attended by a large delegation of evangelists from the UK and US. As part of this event, large number of conversions and baptising activities take place. Reports, newsletters, and presentations are given about the number of students converted. In the Youth Conference held in January 2020, President of IERF declared that 30 youth have been baptised.

Other violations

The NGO is also guilty of other violations:

• Influencing elections: The President of IREF Mr. Rebba Emmanuel has participated in the political rally of YSRCP at Repalle in Andhra Pradesh. He also released a video asking Christians to vote for the YSRCP during the last elections.
• Violation of visa norms: Ever since the NGO was started, it has been bringing in foreign preachers and has been indulging in conversion activities. The LRPF had mentioned that as per the newsletters of the IREF the earliest visit by a foreign preacher goes back to 1986 when one Mr. Art Gay had visited and had conducted several baptizing activities.
• Making statements against India: India is referred to as a “dark place” where majority are living in darkness, an indirect reference and hate speech towards Hinduism.
• Church planting: The NGO has claimed to have planted 1000 churches. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has a scheme for construction of new churches/ repair of old churches. Around 800 churches are said to be funded this way during the previous regime between 2014 and 2019.
• Miracle healing: The NGO is also accused of propagating magic remedies and miracle healings, an offence under Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 in an attempt to convert non-Christians.

Investigations by LRPF found that the NGO was earlier receiving funds through Compassion International which has now exited from India. However, it was found that the funding to IERF in the last two years has nearly doubled. In view of these above acts, the LRPF has filed a complaint against the NGO and has called for taking action against the NGO and its head Mr. Rebba Emmanuel.

LRPF is an NGO working in the area of national security. It has been vocal about the rights of tribes and exposing fraudulent organisations.