India – Passionate Call for Justice
If the Church in India is committed to following the liberative and prophetic vision of Jesus Christ, it is meant to be counter-cultural. This implies saying ‘No’ repeatedly to the unjust and discriminatory cultural practices of our society that are marked by caste, class, religion and gender hierarchies.
The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us, observes Walter Brueggemann (2001, 3). For the Church to become a credible witness of Jesus Christ, apparently this is the only way.
The Bilkis Bano case is a litmus test for the political regime of this country to prove its credibility. For the Church, this is a wake-up call to come out of its stagnating slumber and reclaim its prophetic mission in today’s India.
“The Church is nothing if not prophetic,” asserts the visionary Indian theologian George Soares Prabhu (1999: 170).
Source: UCANews
