a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

me the wisdom’ to take such a step. He is the chairman of the Association and
argues that only because of his position could he approach the Member of
Parliament for his constituency when there was persecution against local
Christians. He also serves as the joint secretary of the Rajasthan chapter of the
Public Union for Civil Liberty (PUCL), an organization of the Human Rights
Commission. He states that ‘because of my involvement in such organizations, I
can now approach any government official; otherwise we cannot even go near to
any of these officials, for they do not consider us.’ 69 Tribal Christians in the state
have formed the TCWSI, and some prominent Pentecostal leaders hold some of
its key positions. For example, Jaswant Rana, an executive Overseer of FFCI, has
been serving as the Founder Patron of TCWSI, and Tajendra Masih, another
executive member of FFCI, has been serving as its convenor.
There was a time when Pentecostals were not interested in using their legal rights.
They were even unwilling to report attacks against their person to the police or to
register a case against the perpetrators. They used to say that they should not take
revenge, but rather pray for their enemies. They believed that God alone would
vindicate their cause, and so their responsibility was to pray that the culprit would
turn to the Lord. However, the trend has changed, and they try to report such
incidents to the police, even though they insist that they do not get justice or
protection from them. The attack on a senior Pentecostal leader and one of his
colleagues during the summer outreach week organized together by FBC and RPC
in March 1997 illustrates this fact. Some people surrounded these two pastors
69 Pathras Masih, interview by author, Banaswara, Rajasthan, 11 May 2006.
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