2008 Woodie Awards
Crisis in India:
Hopegivers president captured
By: Erica Pittman
Issue date: 3/29/06 Section: News
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Staff Writer
For over a month a well orchestrated campaign of terror and persecution has been launched against Hopegivers International in Rajasthan, India cumulating in the arrest of organization president Samuel Thomas.
Hopegivers, founded by Dr. M.A. Thomas and operated by President Dr. Sam Thomas (father and son) some 46 years ago, has dedicated its organization to providing shelter, food, clothing and education to the many orphans in India.
A Christian booklet that is being circulated throughout India condemning Hindu deities and Hindu radicals pointed the finger at M.A. and Sam Thomas as well as the rest of the organization. "These radicals falsely blame Hopegivers for printing and distributing the booklet entitled, "Haquikatt" (meaning reality) by M.J. Mathew," said Dr. Sam Thomas in an underground letter secretly dictated and mailed March 3 to Hopegivers supporters in the U.S.
Hindu extremists are inciting violence against any professing Christian. Churches, orphanages, and Christian schools are being burned and vandalized. There are open burnings of Bibles and crosses. Hopegivers International's bank accounts have been frozen and the organization is now struggling to get desperately needed food and supplies to their established orphanages.
"This crisis is very real to my heart because I have spent days with those specific orphaned children who are in danger right now," said Nikki Clifton, sophomore Christian studies. "I think it is something that very few, if any, Americans have experienced so it makes it that much tougher to even fathom. Those children whole-heartedly put their lives on the line for their faith in Jesus Christ. They do not back down."
Dr. M.A. Thomas and Dr. Samuel Thomas were to remain out of sight as false arrest warrants were issued against them. On March 16 Dr. Sam Thomas was arrested in New Delhi by a dozen men claiming to be police. A prominent Hindu militant leader through local Hindi newspapers offered a bounty of $26,000 for Dr. Sam Thomas' "head on a plate."
Meanwhile, Dr. M.A. Thomas is in hiding though radicals are still hounding him.