American Christian body IMB draws ambitious conversion plan for India

Richmond (USA), Jan 27: The International Mission Board (IMB) a Southern Baptist Convention of the USA has chalked out an ambitious conversion plan for India and set aside $175 billion to convert the people of India to Christianity.

According to a report in ‘The Commune’ (which claims to be online news platform that presents news as news and opinions as opinions) the members of the IMB are engaged in religious conversions targeting the Indian population professing Buddhism, Sikhism or Islam.

However, the report stated that the IMB has primarily focused their attention on Hindus. The IMB shares a deep hatred for the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. The IMB website describes South Asia as ‘awe-inspiring’ and ‘heart-wrenching’ as it has the largest concentration of non-Hindus.

The IMB has officially and openly stated on their website that they are recruiting converted Hindus to champion the cause of converting other Hindus and, they have around 3,535 missionary families working on the directions of the IMB to carry out their conversion program in India. The organization has allotted an annual budget for their mission of converting people which is touted to be around $175 billion.

To implement their mission, they run several programs in the name of tours for sending out missionaries. One such program is called “Bring Hope To The Slums – Track 1” under which college students aged between 18-25 will be send on missions to slums and villages in ‘South Asia’ (read India). This is set to happen during May 10 to July 26 of this year.

Another program named “Get Your Extreme Hiking Boots on – Track 2” which is to happen in May – July of this year will have teams visiting ‘unreached places and peoples in the hills’.

Though these do not exclusively mention the country, IMB’s operations and their spread indicate that these trips are being arranged to primarily India.

Many such trips are being arranged for college students and those involved in other professions. You can find a list of their trips being organized in this link here.

The IMB is located in 3806 Monument Ave. Richmond, VA 23230, USA. Currently, one Paul Chitwood heads the organization. He previously served as the executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

The website has several courses for becoming a missionary and also has modules for churches on how to ‘spread the gospel’ (read conversions and church planting).

So far, a total of 103,328 people have been evangelized through their representatives in ‘south Asia’. 65,334 have been trained to convert and another 89,385 are likely to convert with 35,183 in the process of conversion. 29,286 have been fully converted.

Members associated with IMB are said to have come to India many times. It is to be noted that a tourist visa can only be used for non-business purposes, such as tourism or visiting family and friends. Even if one holds a missionary visa, the person cannot use it for proselytizing activities and can only join a missionary organization approved by the Government of India for which the organization must receive a certificate indicating it is compliant with the Foreign Contributions Regulatory Act.

A complaint has been filed by ‘Mission Kaali’, a Christian missionary watch for violating the terms and conditions of the India visa.