<\/p>\n
As Nepal deals with the horrific toll of tragic flooding that killed more than 1,000 people, at least 20 churches have reportedly been destroyed by the damaging waters.<\/p>\n
Joel Veldkamp, head of international communications at Christian Solidarity International (CSI), told CBN News that one congregation has 80 individuals and families who lost their homes \u2014 and that\u2019s just one example.<\/p>\n
Listen to the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n CSI has been working to get food, mattresses, mosquito nets, cleaning supplies, and other items to people in Nepal to help meet basic needs.<\/p>\n Veldkamp said there\u2019s another dynamic unfolding inside the South Asian nation: persecution, an issue gaining steam and attention before the deadly flooding began.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen in the last 10 years \u2026 persecution of Christians has spiked in Nepal,\u201d he said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t really a big problem before, and today it\u2019s still not on the scale like we\u2019ll see in India, or Pakistan, or other nearby countries. But there is now a law against conversion, so it\u2019s illegal to try to get someone else to change their religion.\u201d<\/p>\n Veldkamp said this is a violation of human rights standards, but that this law is used to prosecute pastors and missionaries \u2014 even Christians who might happen to visit and speak with Hindu friends.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen an uptick in these cases of Christians being jailed on accusations,\u201d he said, noting that sharing the Gospel can be enough to spark legal chaos.<\/p>\n Veldkamp said there\u2019s a new government in Nepal after the previous regime was overthrown in a revolution. An election unfolded in March, which has only added to the uncertainty.<\/p>\n \u201cWe still don\u2019t know really what that means, but the country is in flux [and] is headed in a new political direction,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are some good signs and some bad signs from the new government, so Christians in Nepal are very concerned about which way the country is going to go now.\u201d<\/p>\n Nepal is one of two Hindu-majority nations in the world, with India joining it in that distinction. Until 2008, Nepal was a Hindu nation before becoming a federal republic. Today, there are new calls to return to that previous designation \u2014 something that should be of concern to Christians and other religious minorities.<\/p>\n India has been reportedly putting pressure on Nepal to embrace Hindu nationalism, funding groups that seek to push Christians to reconvert, among other issues.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are serious efforts to change Nepal\u2019s constitution to make it officially a Hindu country again,\u201d Veldkamp said. \u201cAnd in the current environment, that would mean probably the harassment of Christians. Attacks on churches would only increase because then it would be official that this country does not belong to Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n With pastors, missionaries, and Christians already under fire, he said there\u2019s a \u201creal threat that is having a chilling effect\u201d on believers in Nepal.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, when these things happen to Christians, Christians can say, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re a secular country. Nepal is a country for everyone. It says so in our Constitution,’\u201d Veldkamp said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s \u2026 a good argument. That\u2019s a good lever that they can use to appeal to their fellow Nepali citizens for justice.\u201d<\/p>\n But if Nepal becomes a Hindu nation, these arguments dissipate both legally and in the public sphere. Veldkamp encouraged believers worldwide to pray for the church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Nepal deals with the horrific toll of tragic flooding that killed more than 1,000 people, at least 20 churches have reportedly been destroyed by the damaging waters. Joel Veldkamp, head of international communications at Christian Solidarity International (CSI), told CBN News that one congregation has 80 individuals and families who lost their homes \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1941,8135,119,1002,8969,10727,2225,10596,3213],"class_list":["post-32195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-chaos","tag-chilling","tag-christians","tag-face","tag-flooding","tag-grapples","tag-horror","tag-nepal","tag-potential"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}