Isaiah 53:6, 11: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Romans 10:9–11: that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Public shaming and honour killing is a cultural value in India and in many parts of the world; as such, it is a human habit. Why do we shame others? The answer is simple. Our own emotions of envy and jealousy towards others. Most of the time, it is jealousy. I also think that we tend to shame others in vindication and vengeance, which is anger for the harm that they have done to us. We also shame others when we turn arrogant, think highly of ourselves and belittle others. Above all, public shaming, in particular sexually, is a gender-based violence tool. I am not an expert, but I knew that this is how they all do since I was in school. And we all grew up in that age group when eve teasing spree was on high and many of my classmates used to tell their stories of horror. And most of us have not been spared. I remember discussing psychological factors in “men” from countries like India, where such reporting is meagre because this is considered “everyday stress,” and often the women who report being blamed and put to further shame or mental health issues have a very high rate of such incidents. Recently, since my experience at my workplace in 2013, when I was shamed in anger at my way of dressing and such other incidences, which are also racially motivated, I understood, on recollecting the movie Indira, specifically following the “amelio” father and his friends attacking me in that manner, that they are using such acts of public shaming as a tool to oppress and lock up women inside her home. Even more recently, when I read about the beginning of Christian persecution in South India in the 19th century, the attacks actually started to happen because some of the wealthy Hindu people turned towards Christ. This was absolutely not an act that happened because of the works of British colonialism and laws when wealthy Indians turned to Christianity to save their assets, but on their own and wanting to believe in Jesus Christ. The resultant outrage was at these conversions and was not part of the Indian independent struggle. They formed a human movement to antagonise and oppose the works of the various Christian evangelical missions in these regions in the 19th century and the Indian missionaries homes were ransacked and looted, and the women were put to public shame. I, when I was in Delhi Cathedral recently a few years back, had an evangelist tell his story in the safety of the roof of the church in peace, enjoying our fellowship with no hassles about how his wife was almost attempted for rape to public shame her in vengeance and anger at their evangelical works. Well, I am not much into discussion of what they did was right or wrong, but whatever be it, she need not have to be humiliated in this manner. In short, people, by their culture and civilised habits, do not engage in dialogues because they want “obedience” and “oppression.”. This is a prevalent social evil. India is not the only place; even Jesus was shamed on the cross, and the Bible is the biggest evidence of how people parted his robes. The pastor that year in the church, in 2021, was preaching that Jesus was shamed on the cross naked. He was stripped and crucified in front of his disciples, mother, and other kin. This is why the Lord says that if, in my name and for believing in me, you are shamed, you will be delivered from this human wickedness. The Lord here is not talking merely about preaching and evangelism; persecution is being harassed for trusting in the Lord. This is what the Lord says about “confession.”. I am not going to argue about the Catholic way of confessing when one goes to the priest and shares the mistakes they have made, asking the Lord to forgive. This practice should have come because sharing helps in healing, and the best person to share should have been the priest, who is expected to pray to the Lord and who can be trusted to forget what we have shared and help them recline on the Lord. This is just, according to me, a provision for counselling. And, I am sure that they are not having a misconception about the confession that the Lord is talking about, unlike some independent groups that have the ritual of forcing people to provide witnesses and claim that I was “born again on this day” or “saved from this day” or “turned into a believer.”. Well, I am Protestant, and I will go with the church and the order, trusting in one baptism and whatever the pastors and theologians are talking about. This is because I believe that I was raised in Christ by my parents, and I learned from seeing my mother praying and believing in Jesus, my father praying and believing in the Lord, and my grandparents telling me about Jesus. This is how I learned to believe in the Lord. I do not know what more change of heart people expect and what commitment has come in me as part of being brought up in a Christian family, and that belief is not to be doubted or that I have to be framed and put through harassment and torture to become a “believer.”. I believe that I do not need a life-changing incident to believe in the Lord. The confession that the Lord asks is to be openly Christian and declare that you believe in him. You should be able to say “freely” that I am a Christian and have no loss for being one. If this is not the case, then that is persecution. This is what I say to some of the Australians whom I meet when we engage in conversations: that they are not able to say that they are Christians openly but can declare if they are of another faith more easily in Australia. They have their own unconscious bias over their claims of secularism as the religion of their state, and at the workplace, they find declaring themselves Christians by faith to be conscientious and are not realising that they are being gaslighted into such “bias” in the name of this being their religion and claiming bias. This is more because of their immigration from colonial countries like India, to the extent that I knew, and that is how I was treated, despite my not declaring in that manner to everyone. My research supervisor had told me not to talk openly about my faith as a Christian with peers, as some take it offensive, especially when they ask about my ancestry. This is not that I was not rhetorical, but I will say that it is part of the Christian persecution, and probably people doubt that these people could have started as an outrage or repercussions over the Staines murder case that was happening then. Whatever, I have always asked back when they spoke more about me securing the scholarship, pointing at my name being Biblical or Christian, and annoying me by asking to change my name for getting that opportunity to come to Australia. Why bother my faith and religion when in the university of all the Indian appointments, Muslims and Christian Indians were the least, and most of them were Hindus, and they are still not pleased about having so many Hindus, followed by Sikhs in Australia? In the end, confession declares that we trust and believe in Jesus and walk in his way openly. God does not accept our faith as a secret Christian for some gains and provisions that we can get by hiding our religion.
I liked this quote: “Law is for those who do not obey.”. But here I am talking about the law not working for those who do not obey, while those who obey are being questioned for obeying, and they are getting paid for asking. Today, again, I forgot to ask for a sponsor for the podcast. Maybe I am too hurt and weak to remember even asking what I am most in need of. This is what the Bible says: that the Holy Spirit will ask God when we are not sure what we have to ask God because of uncertain times. But any kind of support and sponsorship to help me leave India is welcome so that I can stay away from this Christian persecution that they are doing, but never acknowledging or taking action to stop it, and not allowing me to have a decent life with even basic human dignity, but being treated like a guinea pig.
His Daily Bread 