Fasting, Prayer Urged As Courts Consider Equal Rights for Dalit Christians
by Allie Martin
October 11, 2005
(AgapePress) - The president of a ministry that trains native missionaries to evangelize Asia is encouraging Christians worldwide to fast and pray for two days next week as lawmakers in India decide whether basic human rights will be granted to that nation's Dalit Christians. On October 18, India's Supreme Court will review a case that could grant to millions of Christian Dalits the rights that Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist Dalits already enjoy. Under current law Dalits, members of the lowest caste in India, have virtually no rights once they convert to Christianity.
However, Gospel for Asia president K.P. Yohannan says that could change when India's high court reviews the matter. "Through our prayer and fasting, we are standing in the gap," he notes, "and it takes a massive amount of prayer and fasting and intercession to break the hands of the evil one and make this thing work."
Yohannan is encouraging other believers to pray and fast Monday and Tuesday of next week as this momentous human rights case is weighed in India's high court. He points out that there is a great deal at stake in the Dalits' cause, more even than the principle of equality.
After all, the Gospel for Asia spokesman notes, there are approximately 300 million Dalits in India; and if those who convert to Christianity from Hinduism are guaranteed basic human rights, many will be open to the gospel of Christ, no longer hindered by fear of systemic discrimination and anti-Christian oppression.
"Jesus Himself said these things can only go with fasting and prayer," Yohannan says. "We are dealing with not just one person [who is] demon-possessed; we are dealing with millions upon millions and multitudes in the valley of decision, not knowing what to do, and Satanic forces want to take them all to hell. We need to wake up and give up our food and drink and cry out to God at this time on behalf of people."
If the court rules favorably, Yohannan says hundreds of millions of people trapped in a modern-day system of slavery could soon have a major obstacle removed, freeing them to respond that much more readily to the gospel.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
