Remember that laws such as these were instituted because of missionaries. All it took to turn my mother into a fire-breathing dragon was to mention missionaries. They would exploit people, undoubtedly the males were sexually molesting local women and children, meanwhile talking about how they and only they knew the truth! I had three friends who grew up in China in missionary households; all three of them thought they were morally superior to us ordinary mortals.
This is not relevant to anything we normally talk about here, but the fact that this happens in India’s largest state (and eleven more besides) was news to me.
Under Uttar Pradesh’s Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, “no person shall convert or attempt to convert” another individual, directly, or otherwise, by “misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means.”
I would agree with the part about force or coercion, but “misrepresentation” (given that I don’t believe any religion accurately represents reality) and “undue influence” seem very vague.
The part about putting young children in prison with their mothers may be well intended, though if another family member is available and the mother prefers the child be be placed with him or her, I would hope that this could be arranged.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/pastor-wife-and-son-arrested.html
Discussion
Right. I don’t think many people have a positive impression of missionaries; I certainly don’t. This couple (Mr. and Mrs. Singh) seem to be Indian, though, and the law cited is from 2021.
Most of the problems of missionaries (especially any sexual abuse) could probably be addressed by narrower laws that apply evenly to everyone. Then, we would be down to the act of persuading people to change religions at all, and especially bribing poor people to change religions by offering meals and other rewards. I suppose I can see how it’s a sad thing, if people think their old religion is better but are just so hungry. On the other hand, if a country is letting people go hungry at all, it probably should have no say in whether people are allowed to sell their souls for a hot meal.