Blunder Repair

I made myself crazy after I sent for and recieved a birth certificate from the New York City Dept. of Health. It included very little information and I was afraid that it would not be accepted by the Indian Embassy. So I emailed the company I got the certificate from and I emailed the company that handles the visas for India. My "issue" was that the visa instructions said information on the certificate must include parents names, date of birth and nationality. My interpretation was that date of birth and nationality pertained to the parents. But it didn't and all went smoothly. (After I had to call Gerard two times; once for the exact address of where I was going and the second time for a telephone number where I can be reached in India. Good thing he decided not to go with me.)

I was lucky that Lois was in Manhattan that day as well to visit the Met with a friend, so I joined them for the costume exhibit and lunch. It made the day go quickly in a very pleasant way.

Earlier in the week our group of four met Professor Richard Young at Princeton Theological Seminary. He teaches World Religions and is extremely knowledgeable about Christianity in India. He had many insights to share about political situations that could affect our reception in Etah and about the plight of Indian Christians in general. so many Christians have converted from Hinduism where they were Dalit or Outcaste people. Indian laws have penalized these people in terms of educational opportunities and government job set asides that they no longer qualify for once they convert. Unfortunately conversion alone does not magically raise them out of dire poverty. The situation now with fundamentalist Hindus and the Hindutva movement also present potentially life threatening challenges to Christians as well as to Moslems. We don't know of this type of violence in the Etah area to date.

Professor Young also expressed concern about groups who do mission without connection to the established churches of India. There is no communication between these groups and the indigenous churches. This is not only disrespectful, it can be dangerous to those they are converting and is illegal. Two groups in particular enjoy the support of PCUSA, even as they disregard basic tenets of working in foreign cultures. We hope that our reports upon return can help alleviate some of these tensions.