Pastor Prince Calvin of CSI Immanuel Church in Uppilipalayam, Coimbatore, publicly apologized for his extremely derogatory Hinduphobic speech during a prayer meeting on 16 June 2024, which was criticized for allegedly fostering discord between Hindu and Christian communities. The incident sparked outrage among Hindu groups, leading to a police complaint.
The church regularly broadcasts its prayer meetings on social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube, where the controversial speech was live-streamed, drawing significant attention and condemnation for its perceived inflammatory content.
Derogating Sanathana Dharma by explaining some verses from the Bible about untouchability, he suddenly started talking about Sanatana Dharma and Hindus. Prince Calvin said, “Today it is the 2 descendants who are ruling the world, one is Abraham’s descendants and the other Ishmael’s descendants. Christians and Muslims are the ones ruling the world. Here people talk about Sanatanam and spirituality. They eat dumplings (kozhakattai) and coconut meat (Thenga moodi), and they drink cow urine. What is spirituality in this? They say those who eat beef are lower caste while those who drink cow urine are upper caste. Do they even have brains? One who eats cow dung is upper caste, “crossbelt” (a derogatory reference to one wearing sacred thread janeu/poonool) – the one who eats the cow that gives this cow dung is lower caste.”
He further said, “The only race which eats dung lives here. No other race in the entire world eats dung. Only in India do they eat the dung and drink the urine. We have such a disgusting race in India, and he proudly says that he came from Lord Brahma’s head. If you came from the head, why are you eating what fell on the ground? The one who comes from the head must stand on his head. We all stand in front of the cow, but these people stand behind the cow waiting for it to lift its tail. And they call us savage. They call us uncivilized people and say don’t touch them; they are untouchable. We feel ashamed to touch them, they do such dirty things.”
Towards the end of the sermon where he was describing how a character from the Bible verse he was explaining asked for water, he again delved into making Hinduphobic remarks. Prince Calvin said, “Water is a big problem here. Go to the villages and see, you cannot draw water from any well just like that. If you do that, they will chop you into pieces and put you inside the same well. It used to be like that at one point in time. There used to be a well for the village, a well for the slum (Cheri), and one well for every place. You cannot take water from a well that is not yours. You cannot drink any water, as if they discovered water. God gave us water. He gave it to everyone. Nature is for everyone but these people took it away and created rules. They created water politics. Even today it is occurring.” And then he continues his sermon. He ended the sermon with the comment that Jesus was a very progressive person who never cared about anything and defied all rules (of untouchability and such).
The Race Course police in Coimbatore filed a case against Presbyter Prince Calvin of CSI Immanuel Church for a sermon deemed controversial, where he allegedly made defamatory remarks about another religion. The case was registered under Sections 153 A, 295 A, 504, and 505 (ii) of the IPC, following a complaint by Priyanka, a sub-inspector at Race Course police station. According to the police, specific comments in the sermon were considered sufficiently offensive to potentially stoke hostility and communal discord between the two religions. Currently, the controversial sermon video by the pastor has been made private on the church’s YouTube channel.
Last Sunday coimbatore CSI Church father instead of talking about christ and Christianity is spread hatred and communal disharmony .
Hope @tnpoliceoffl will take legal action.@legalhindudef @VHPDigital @hindumunnani_tn @hindumunnaniFC @RSSorg @friendsofrss pic.twitter.com/G2LrvqM1LQ
— Saravanaprasad Balasubramanian (Modi ka Pariwar) (@BS_Prasad) July 2, 2024
Currently the original controversial sermon video of the pastor is kept private in the youtuve channel of the church.
Following the escalating controversy, Pastor Prince Calvin has issued a video expressing regret for his past statements. He acknowledged, “Last Sunday on 16/06/2024 I delivered a sermon at 9 o’clock in the worship service, while talking about superstitions and cultural degradation, I spoke a few words about beef and related social views. I came to know that some words that were recorded has caused much grief and hurt to the Hindu brothers. I am aware that some Hindu brothers have filed a case against me in the police department as well.”
The pastor clarified that his comments were intended to address issues of cultural decline and caste discrimination and said, “At this point I would like to give this explanation. I have been in close contact with many fellow Hindus since my childhood, even today all my friends are Hindus, and I am living in social harmony as a good citizen of India. In that speech, my intention was not to offend any religion and their beliefs, but I talked about the beef politics to tell about the superstitions and the discrimination in cultural degradation, especially about the caste inequality.”
He further stated, “Therefore, I would like to inform you that I have no intention to hurt the Hindu brothers in any way, in a way that is degrading, demean or slanderous and I extend my heartfelt apologies to the Hindu community for any hurt caused by my words and express my deep regret.”
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