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Christian group denies charge of forced conversion
MANGALORE: The members of the New Life Fellowship Trust, which has been the main target of the Bajrang Dal for allegedly distributing seditious literature during its meetings, is pained that even the Christian community is accusing them of forcible conversions.

"We admit that there are conversions. But they are not with inducement. It's happening out of people's own will after 'inner experience' with the Lord, like me," said NLFT pastor Donald P Menezes, an executive committee member of Karnataka Missions Network. "According to the Bible, it's a sin to offer inducement and convert people."
"Please don't kill us!"
Menezes, a former bank manager, became a 'born again believer' in 1979 and took pastorship as his fulltime profession after quitting his job in 1987.

"People from different religions come to our meeting for healing. They have been cured of deadly diseases like cancer," he claimed. Regarding allegations of foreign funding, Menezes said NLFT gets donations from its members worldwide. "My son from America, who is also a member of NLFT, sends money. Actually we all give 1/10th of our earnings to this trust," he said, adding that their accounts were open to scrutiny for the government. "We have nothing to hide."

On the 'Satyadarshini' pamphlet, which Bajrang Dal claimed as NLFT's, Menezes said he heard about "it four days back and saw it physically today" (when this correspondent showed him a copy.)

Menezes also showed NLFT literature, which is all about Jesus Christ. "We don't believe in derogatory remarks against any religion, because it again amounts to sin," he said.

He challenged Bajrang Dal to come with proof that they actually got the controversial literature from a NLFT centre. There are two centres in the city active for the past 25 years.

Its Moodabidri centre was attacked in April 2002 and got police protection during Sunday services. Even on Sunday, a police call alerted them and the deflected attack was on Adoration Monastery. Menezes said about 500 people attend its services in English (150), Kannada (250), Konkani (80) and Malayalam (20).
Posted by: Fred 2008-09-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=250206