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UCAN: Catholic leaflets warn of Asian fundamentalist 'danger'

5/7/2007

UCANews (www.ucanews.com)

NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka (UCAN) – “Beware of Fundamentalists" warned the thousands of leaflets Church workers handed out to the 25,000 Catholics who gathered on Divine Mercy Sunday at Risen Christ Church.

The volunteers were busy on the hot afternoon of April 15 in front of the church in Kadolkelle, Negombo, about 25 kilometers (about 15 miles) north of Colombo. According to local church sources, the 4,000-seat church will be one of Asia's largest when it is completed in the coming months.

Slogans printed across the yellow leaflets charged fundamentalists with "converting people by distorting the gospel," "spreading false information regarding Lord Jesus" and "insulting our mother Mary." The leaflets warned: "Don't enter into their churches or partake in their activities. Avoid accepting help and gifts from them."

Father Gyom Nonis, the risen Christ parish priest, organized the campaign. "We used Divine Mercy Day because there was a big crowd," he told UCA News.

The campaign was aimed at new Christian groups that have sprung up the last few decades in the Catholic stronghold of Negombo, also known as "Little Rome." About 75 percent of the town's residents are Catholics.

According to the priest, there are more than 25 Christian fundamentalist groups in Negombo. They including Apostolic Church, Assemblies of God, Calvary Church, Gethsamane Prayer Centre, Jeewana Divia Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Spiritual Christian Fellowship and Swarna Church.

"It is a trying time for us, because new theologies on the gospel are being given to our people by the 'fundamentalists,'" continued Father Nonis. "They give money and materials to the people."

To Stanislaus Logaraja, 53, it almost seems that "every day there is a new church." They all proclaim their views in the name of Lord Jesus, and "their activities have created confusion among our youth." the Catholic man said.

W. Renuka Fernando, 45, found the leaflets useful. "Every word in these leaflets is very meaningful and answers many questions and challenges from the 'fundamentalists,'" he said.

In his analysis, the new groups are effective because members go door to door with the Bible in hand. They will visit the same house and preach for several days, then invite the people to their church to see how they pray.

"It is attractive, but I don't like it," he said, adding that some Catholics have taken up these invitations. "Now they attend church with their children all in white dress."

Other Catholics do not like the new groups' way of praying.

Suseela Jesuthasan finds the services too Western and raucous. "They mainly come from the West, but then they say they are locals," she told UCA News.

Jesuthasan, 53, said she prefers hymns and prayers in moderation, as in the Catholic Church. "I don't like their big sound," she said, referring to Jesus Lives Church, which has churches around the country.

One "fundamentalist" pastor said critics should first visit his church, where they will see "God's love in action."

Pastor B.T.D. Mendis of Disciples for Christ Ministry preaches at Gethsamane Prayer Center in Negombo. "I know the comments from the Catholic Church," he told UCA News, "but I can say we are engaged in conversion through reality. People pray here and experience God. We preach and tell the truth. God's love is more than words." He also insisted that his group does not bribe laypeople with money or gifts.

Lawrence Sebamalai, a former Catholic, now attends Jesus Lives Church.

"Many people turn away from the Catholic faith and try other churches," the middle-aged man told UCA News in Colombo. He joined Jesus Lives 20 years ago.

"Two years ago the church council gave me a motorbike," he said. "I was having trouble traveling.
It was hard to take goods to remote areas for business. Every member of Jesus Lives sets aside money to help the other poor people. They also provide materials for building houses and for farming."

His story, however, also showed another side of the rapid rise in the number of new denominations.

"Some laypeople openly criticized me. They said that I was not entitled to a motorbike, and that I influenced the pastor to get it," he recalled. "So it created a division among us. Now these dissidents have formed another church."

http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=24004

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