Joseph DSouza

Growing up in India, I remember slowly realising that not everyone in my country was treated the same or as equals. Depending on their birth - and sometimes color of skin - some of my friends were not allowed to go into the houses of wealthier people or even into some public places, such as places of worship. On the other hand, friends who belonged to families from higher castes that were often wealthier and had better social standing were treated better. Because the caste system was not abolished by law during India’s independence, many people are still given preferential treatment over others because they were born in the right caste. This is obviously not right, but it is how much of the world operates. Human discrimination is still the curse of societies, including parts of Europe and Arica. What is most tragic, though, is to see countries that chastise those who deprive others of their human rights behave the same way. Britain’s new asylum resettlement plan is a prime example. Earlier in May Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new scheme to process asylum seekers, whereby anyone entering the country without permission will be relocated thousands of miles away to Rwanda for processing. The first batch of asylum seekers have arrived in Rwanda even as the European human rights court has halted sending any more asylum seekers. Meanwhile Britain - like many other European countries - has opened its doors generously to Ukrainians fleeing the war in their country. The British government has even announced it will pay families who provide housing for these refugees a monthly stipend. This is good and affirms basic human values. Of course, the world should do as much as [...]

We live in an age of self-obsession. But one of the great characteristics of Christianity is that personal, spiritual renewal is ultimately always about the world we’re living in and not just our own individual lives. This is a lesson of the Charismatic renewal a century ago that we must pass along to a new generation. In the spring of 1906, a series of revivals erupted in a neighborhood of Los Angeles. People spoke in tongues, miracles took place and many reported experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. At the center of it all was the great African-American preacher William Seymour. Today millions of Christians trace the history of their faith back to those days in that Los Angeles neighborhood. Known as the Azusa Street Revival, this revival — along with other similar events in Asia, Europe, and Latin America — ignited the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements, which today number more than 630 million people. As an unapologetic, self-confessed Charismatic bishop from India, I believe global Christianity owes an enormous debt to the pioneers of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement. The movement brought into sharp focus how the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs are met by the baptism or filling of the Spirit. It insisted that the Spirit of God is present in our world and that we can expect to see His manifestations in our lives. This was a much-needed reform. Christianity, under the influence of modernism, had grown to dismiss the experiential dimensions of the Kingdom of God and the holistic needs of the human person. Modernism had turned rationalism into the new deity, a point argued and developed well by the late, great scholar of ancient Christianity, Thomas Oden. In effect, the church had [...]

I’m perplexed. This week a Russian Orthodox priest said to his congregation, “Hopefully soon, we’ll have Moldova, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Georgia, and the Baltic states join our great Russia.” I feel like someone put me in a time machine and transported me back to the dark ages. Are the Russians engaging in some kind of crusade? This behaviour by a person of the cloth is, simply put, abominable. How is it possible for any Christian leader who reads the Bible that I read, to do anything but condemn - in the most direct terms - the senseless, brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia? How many civilians must die before the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Kirill of Moscow, intervenes? How much of the global credibility of the Christian faith must be destroyed before he disassociates from the state power that is causing the biggest man-made disaster in Europe since the Second World War? Let’s be clear: this is Putin’s war in Europe. And he has co-opted the Russian Orthodox Church in his venture. AN UNJUST WAR It is not the war of the Russian people against Ukraine, and it certainly isn’t some kind of arcane holy war. On the contrary, the powerful Russian Orthodox Church ought to be appropriating whatever influence they have to stop these senseless acts. Putin’s descent into the madness of power may be a surprise to some but it shouldn’t have been a surprise to our Russian Orthodox brothers and sisters, as his ascent has run parallel to the ascent of the political influence of the Church under Patriarch Kirill. PUTIN’S SPIRITUAL OLIGARCH NEEDS SANCTIONING BY OUR PRAYERS AND FROM OUR PULPITS Along the way, he destroyed dissent. He ensured the longevity of his power [...]

Thanks to international pressure, the Indian government has finally renewed the license of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. But there are thousands more Christian organizations still in limbo. In the aftermath of Covid-19, we need them more than ever, says Archbishop Joseph D’Souza. If you could apply for sainthood at the Catholic Church, you would be hard-pressed to find a more impressive resume than Mother Teresa’s. Teresa, who died in 1997, spent decades caring for the poor, sick, and destitute in India’s slums. She founded Missionaries of Charity, a Catholic institution that now cares for the homeless and poor in dozens of countries. She received countless humanitarian awards, among them the Nobel Peace Prize. Many considered her a real-life saint and, in 2016, Pope Francis officially recognized her as one. Yet none of this seemed to matter to Indian authorities when Missionaries of Charity tried to renew their permit to operate as a nonprofit (which it has held since 1950) last December. FUNDING BLOWS To those who have been keeping an eye on the state of the nonprofit sector in India, and the treatment of Christians there, it came as no surprise. In 2020, the government amended the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), a law that regulates money that nonprofits receive from overseas. Nonprofits have long complied with the FCRA, but the new changes have seriously compromised their ability to continue operating. For example, nonprofits can no longer receive funds from each other, even if they are both licensed under the FCRA. This is a blow to smaller organizations who do not have the capacity to fundraise internationally. It is not uncommon for larger nonprofits to partner with other smaller ones; in many cases, doing so [...]

Western nations have always been interested in leveraging India, but increasingly, it is India that is in the driver’s seat. India is the world’s great hedge against China’s worst vices. So, some of us are asking: Why then is the Indian government risking this golden moment of international power and prestige by neglecting, and sometimes enabling, the harassment of its ancient and cherished Christian community? Violence against Christians in India is rapidly increasing, and authorities are doing too little about it. Unfortunately, their nonchalance, intentional or not, is being taken as an ad hoc endorsement by extremists who now have crossed the red line by walking into Christian worship services and conducting their own services. We have not seen anything like this before. The violence isn’t happening in the shadows either. Recently, a video of extremists attacking a Christian school in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh went viral. There is also footage of extremists attacking a church in Karnataka, where the Christian women were seen both defending their church and confronting the extremist group. The women were adamant that none of them were converted forcefully. The Catholic archbishop of Bangalore now says that it is difficult to be a Christian at all in the once-safe state of Karnataka. This sentiment is echoed by a number of Indian Christian leaders across the nation, including revered figures such as Mumbai’s famed retired police chief Julio Ribeiro, who fought against the Khalistan insurgency in Punjab. This year alone, there have been more than 300 violent attacks against Christians across the country, not to mention the constant harassment by government authorities under one pretext or another. Extremists also routinely interrupt services during worship with their Hindu chants. These extremists [...]

In a landmark judgment in 2017, the Supreme Court of India recognized the ‘right to privacy’ as a fundamental right of every Indian citizen. This essential human right extends to every citizen in the world, and should be protected by all governments. Naturally, it ought to be recognized as an indispensable democratic value. In the famous story of creation, God covered Adam and Eve with animal skins. His act illustrated that humans were not meant to live naked and exposed. God provided clothing to protect the privacy of both the body and the person. Yet with the growth of human civilization, and now with advanced technology, this basic right is often greatly impaired. It is dehumanizing when some of India’s low caste and poor have to bathe semi-naked in public in crowded slums and villages. Thankfully, India’s Prime Minister Modi made a singular achievement in preserving human privacy and dignity by building hundreds of thousands of toilets across India in the ‘Clean India’ campaign. Unfortunately, most governments today ascribe to themselves god-like powers, attempting to know the private lives of all citizens. But when privacy is violated, free will is jeopardized. God knows all, yet does not violate our free will. Governments around the world, including my own Indian government, stand accused of technological snooping on societal leaders—specifically, using Pegasus software. Pegasus is sold only to governments, not individuals, which in itself implies a layer of power that is assumed by the State. Pegasus’ stated goal is to save lives. Its founders claim the intention to catch criminals, terrorists, drug traffickers, and human traffickers, not to destroy the lives of civil society leaders, activists, or political opponents. Now, they propose the need for a global cyber [...]

Many Indian citizens across all religious and social lines are shocked that Father Stan Swamy died while in police custody in prison. The United Nations, the European Union and a host of other forums have stated that he was arrested under false charges. His death under the most inhumane conditions is a blot against Indian society. Looking at this tragedy, this much is clear: Father Stan Swamy is a martyr and the Catholic church should proclaim him a saint. The 84-year-old Jesuit priest, Stan Swamy, was born in Tamil Nadu on April 26, 1937. For nearly a half-century, he struggled for the basic rights of tribal communities, especially in the tribal belt of Jharkhand. Since India’s independence, the abuse of tribal rights in the name of development, big business, and government policies, has displaced millions of India’s 180 million tribals from their lands and livelihood.  Following the example of Jesus, Fr Swamy took up the struggle for the community’s rights to its land, forest, and water. Many view tribals as India’s original inhabitants. Nations like Canada, the U.S., and Australia struggle with the rights of peoples called “first nations.” Reports of new discoveries of tribal children buried in Canada horrify us. Yet India and the world have ignored the abuse of tribals’ rights, even in past centuries under British rule. A judgment by India’s Supreme Court declared these native Indians as the purest and sincere of Indians, especially compared to those in society’s upper sections. Yet, the corporates of the world turn a greedy eye on ancient tribal lands rich in water, forests and minerals, and influence government agencies to encroach on those lands. Over the decades, violent extremist groups have emerged among the tribals, influenced [...]

The United States, along with the rest of the world, is struggling bitterly over issues of race, history, caste, identity, and power politics. “Globalization” means that these problems once thought local are now global issues. Before the global outrage over these issues, the Gospel already provided both the theory and the action plan that unites humans rather than sowing hatred, violence, wars, or the disintegration of society. I write as a sufferer of prejudice and blind racism in many forms. I am a brown person, a citizen of a formerly colonized nation, a part of India’s caste system, a Christian who ministers to peoples of all ethnicities worldwide, a cultural observer, and a frequent member of organizations and meetings in which I am the only brown person present. I’ve spent my life standing up for the rights of India’s Dalits. Even beggars are separated from each other by castes in India. The dehumanization of individuals and groups has a long history. It is easy to slip into anger, hatred, and the safety of a particular identity when confronted with the systemic issue of human oppression, racism, or even colonialism. We’re having to deal with the psychosociological damage of generations. Many treat these complex issues with hate, anger, and violence. But I wonder if we, as Christians, have missed the point by embracing the world’s solutions to problems of the soul? Does not our salvation include reconciling human relationships, along with being reconciled to God? Certainly, our Bible speaks at length about this. Have we been deceived into thinking the only answer for systemic racism and blind discrimination is political? Do we take sides and argue, believing our duty is now done and, by so doing, nullify [...]

Jesus has called each of his followers to love God with all we have and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus made it clear that this love toward God and others has to be demonstrated in action, not just words. This fundamental commitment to love God and our neighbor helps us to develop a fully Christian character. We must demonstrate to a watching world the fuller life that Jesus promised us. Without apology, I confess to being a Christian evangelical, emphasis on “Christian.” Despite the checkered history of the Church, Christianity still has broad acceptance in many societies. The word “evangelical,” however, has lost some of its original meaning and often creates hostility in people of other faiths. This phrase once had meaning in the development of western Christianity but now is too easily misconstrued essentially as an American cultural Christianity. In America, “evangelical Christianity,” whether from left or right perspectives, is strongly infused with American values. Not everyone thinks this is a good thing. One theologian I know calls this evangelical Christianity — that for two hundred years has been sent out to the world — “the export of a half-baked Christianity.” I think he’s wrong, but I think he has a point. For one thing, to those in the non-Christian world, the bitter and sometimes violent divisions within Christianity are confusing. Some evangelicals are quick to define who is a true Christian and consign all others to hell. Some even consign the great Billy Graham to hell. This is embarrassing and represents a decline in western Christianity. The great intellectual Dr B. R. Ambedkar, architect of the Indian Constitution and a Dalit leader, once considered Christianity as an option for Dalit people who had [...]

The world needs to know that the situation in India is far worse than people realise and it will be so long after the final effect of this surge in Covid-19 infections ends. When a tsunami hits a coastline, the vulnerable and poor suffer more than the rich. The wealthy can afford to build disaster-proof houses and structures. They can get "anything money can buy." While it takes the lower class years to rebuild their lives, those in power recover at a faster rate. Yet, the second wave of Covid-19 in India is not discriminating between the rich and the poor. This generation will never forget the piles of corpses burning across the country and the sight of dead bodies floating in rivers as crematoriums and burial grounds struggle to keep up with the disposal of the deceased. In large part, we successfully managed the first wave of Covid-19, but we were fooled into believing we were immune to a second. Medical experts were the only ones in India warning us of a second wave of the pandemic that wreaked havoc throughout Europe and the United States. Sadly, politicians fell into a frenzied triumphalism based on how the first wave of Covid-19 affected India. They postulated about "Indian immunity" and praised the efficacy of local, unscientific "cures," including statements like the waters of the Ganges River would kill the virus as tens of millions thronged at Haridwar for a holy dip. People have been dying with virtually no access to necessities like rapid tests, oxygen and medical care, especially in rural India. While the world is now focused on the conflict in Israel, our situation remains catastrophic. A trip to the main district hospital for those [...]