Archbishop Vianney Fernando of Kandy, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka talks to Fides news service about a proposed anti-conversion bill.
A sample:
Why does Sri Lanka want to approve the anti-conversion Bill? What lies at the root of this decision?
Over the past thirty years a proliferation of fundamentalist Christian sects in Sri Lanka has irritated the Island’s Buddhist majority. The members of these sects are militant proselytisers who totally ignore the fact that they are in a multi-religious, multicultural, multi-linguistic context. It appears that to swell their numbers these people often resort to questionable methods. This situation has given rise to growing concern particularly among the Buddhist clerics and as a result, to counter Christian fundamentalism we have seen the growth of Buddhist fundamentalism. Now some Buddhist extremists accuse all Christians in general of proselytising and using unethical means to obtain forced conversions. And since last year to give support to legislation against unethical conversions, parliament has nine Buddhist monks as especially appointed members.
