Sri Lanka:
Buddhists Devastate An Evangelical Church
German Evangelical News Agency idea, July 16, 2008

Church members were beaten severely and had to be hospitalized - police just watching. Photo: Allianz-Mission

C o l o m b o (idea) – A brutal Buddhist mob has attacked a church in Sri Lanka. According to German Alliance-Mission (Dietzhölztal/Germany) on July 15, Buddhists incited by a monch invaded the church building, situated in a suburb of Sri Lanka's capitol Colombo on July 6, smashing the whole interior with wooden bats. Some church members, among them the pastor, were beaten so severely that they had to be hospitalized. According to a speaker of the church, who is connected with the Alliance-Mission, the sole reason for this outrage is that it is an assembly of Christians and the Buddhists feel kind

of threatened by everything that is not Buddhist. Police armed with machine guns, were watching inactively. The State has commanded the police not to intervene in any assaults when Buddhist clergy is involved. Such incidents are no single cases in Sri Lanka, but the media is hardly reporting on them.

Pacific Buddhism?
The reality of Buddhism in Sri Lanka does not agree with their pacific image being spread in western countries. The Alliance-Mission is calling for prayers for the affected church members and the family of the pastor. As recently as last February an evangelical pastor was being shot to death on the streets in southern Sri Lanka; his wife and their two year old son were injured. According to World Evangelical Alliance, about 70% of the 20 million inhabitants in Sri Lanka are Buddhists, 14% Hindus, 8% Muslims and 8% Christians, mainly Catholic. For many years already, there are bloody fights on and off in former Ceylon between Buddhist Singhalese and Hindu Tamiles, who are aiming for their own State. The Alliance-Mission, attending to around 120 missionaries in more or less 20 countries, belongs to the federation of Free Evangelical churches.