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SHEA: Who speaks for Pakistan minorities now?

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Baptist Press, Mar 2, 2012: http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37309

By Nina Shea

WASHINGTON (BP) — Today, March 2, is the one-year anniversary of the murder in Pakistan of 42-year-old Shahbaz Bhatti. Still no one has been charged with the crime, much less tried and held accountable.

Shahbaz Bhatti

Bhatti, minister of minorities affairs and the only Christian member of Pakistan’s cabinet, was ambushed and assassinated by gunmen as he sat in a car outside his mother’s house before leaving for work.

Bhatti’s work, his life’s work, was to struggle for equality under the law for Pakistan’s various religious minorities. He had often expressed his opposition to Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws and persistently sought to reform them. Like Punjab’s governor, Salman Taseer, who had been murdered in January 2011, Bhatti had championed the case of Asia Bibi, the mother of five sentenced to death for blaspheming Islam’s prophet, a charge brought by other villagers with whom she had a property dispute.

Bhatti had waged a strong campaign for the repeal of the blasphemy laws, both within the government and as the longtime head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, a non-governmental organization. He saw the blasphemy laws — which only protect Islam — as potently divisive to Pakistan’s society. They are used as a platform within the society for extremists to determine which ideas can be expressed and which cannot, and they are used by ordinary citizens to pursue vendettas and personal grievances.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Bhatti’s killing. Two weeks ago, Interpol agents arrested, in Dubai, Zia-ur-Rehman, and a few days later Pakistani police took custody of Abid Malik, two Pakistani suspects in the murder. But the case is far from solved. Dubai has already released Rehman.

An Islamabad police official, who requested anonymity, told Pakistan’s Tribune, “To treat them [the two] as prime suspects would be wrong. We have no evidence to suggest that they were involved in the murder even though they could have certain issues with him.” They had differences with Bhatti over property issues, “but they were not capable of carrying out such a high-profile assassination,” the official said. “Investigations regarding the case were muddy and not carried out in a proper manner,” he said, adding that “some evidence points towards sectarian or militant violence.”

Meanwhile, Shahbaz Bhatti’s old post of minority affairs has been abolished, Asia Bibi languishes on death row, and Pakistan sinks ever deeper into radical Sunni Islam. And, the blasphemy arrests continue apace.

Any person can file a complaint of blasphemy against another, and once it is lodged, there is no turning back. On Dec. 6 of last year, another Christian — 25-year-old Khurram Masih of Qazi, near Lahore — was arrested under false charges of blasphemy. A newlywed of two months, he was working as a mason at the residence of the Muslim Abdul Majeed. The night before, after work, Masih burned some waste materials, and Majeed cried out that Masih had ripped and burned parts of the Koran. Majeed took him to the police station and filed a complaint for blasphemy against him. According to the British Pakistani Christian Association, many religious leaders and human-rights activists unsuccessfully intervened on behalf of Khurram Masih, while extremist groups staged demonstrations, declaring that “a Christian has desecrated the Koran and must be punished.”

And there’s a recent case that American military would be wise to keep in mind should they continue distributing Qurans to Taliban prisoners. In October 2011, Ruqqiya Bibi, another Pakistani Christian woman, not to be confused with Asia Bibi, was sentenced to a 25-year prison term for blasphemy on accusations that she defiled a Quran after handling it with unclean hands.

Another Pakistani currently imprisoned for blasphemy is Imran John, a Christian living in Faisalabad. While cleaning his fruit and vegetable shop in July 2009, John had collected waste paper and burned it in the street. A nearby shop owner accused him of burning pages of the Quran and called this to the attention of other Muslims who proceeded to beat and torture him. Saved by police intervention, John was then arrested and formally charged with blasphemy.

Even if acquitted, the lives of those accused of blasphemy are at risk, and they have to go into hiding to escape vigilante violence. For example, on Nov. 11, 2005, Yousuf Masih, a Christian, won several thousand rupees in a card game with his Muslim neighbor. The sore loser, seeking revenge, informed the police that Yousuf had set fire to a copy of the Quran. On Feb. 18, 2006, the neighbor withdrew the charge and Yousuf was released on bail. Angered at the outcome, local Muslim clerics summoned their followers to “avenge the insult.” A 2,000-strong mob attacked Masih’s home and the homes of much of the rest of the town’s minority Christian community, set fire to three churches and vandalized a Catholic convent and a Christian elementary school.

Christians are far from the only targets of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. But, like the Ahmadiya Muslim sect officially banned as heretical in Pakistan, Christians are disproportionately prosecuted under them. Further, they are nearly always convicted, because their testimony is given only half the weight of their Muslim accusers by the sharia courts.

Shahbaz Bhatti’s death was not unforeseen. He had been continuously threatened with assassination and had spoken of its likelihood. Bhatti even left a videotaped message to be broadcast if he were murdered, in which he says that threats by al-Qaeda and the Taliban would not change his views or stop him from speaking out for “oppressed and marginalized persecuted Christians and other minorities” in Pakistan.

Who in Pakistan will speak for them now?
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Nina Shea is director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom and co-author with Paul Marshall of “Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedoms Worldwide” (Oxford University Press, 2011). Shea also is a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. www.bpnews.net. Used by permission.

Pakistan police clear educator of ‘blasphemy’

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Baptist Press, Mar 12, 2012: http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=37375

LAHORE, Pakistan (BP) — Police resisted intense pressure from Islamist protestors in Pakistan and released in February without charges a Christian educator falsely accused of desecrating the Quran.

Muslim teachers at the Lahore-area City Foundation School accused school principal Saira Khokhar of desecrating a quranic scripture booklet on Feb. 22.

Sources told Compass Direct News that police refused to bow to pressure from Islamists clamoring outside the school for registration of a case against Khokhar under Section 295-B of Pakistan’s widely condemned “blasphemy” laws. In other accusations against Christians in Pakistan, sources said, police often file charges without proper investigation to quell pressure from accusers.

When Khokhar joined the school in 2009 as the only Christian amid a 14-member faculty, she told Compass sources that one teacher resigned in protest, further predisposing other teachers against her. The only other Christian employee of the school is a security guard.

In the February incident, police sustained injuries from irate Islamists in rescuing Khokhar from the mob. Police superintendent Imtiaz Sarwar subsequently told Compass that after a thorough investigation he concluded that school staff members had falsely accused her.

“The minute I interviewed the staff members, I knew that the charge against Saira was completely fabricated,” Sarwar said.

Sarwar commended his officers for putting their lives at risk while rescuing the school principal from the mob that was demanding she be handed over to them for “swift justice.”

“Such an attitude cannot be allowed under any circumstances,” Sarwar said. “No one should dare take the law into their hands. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty.”

The police superintendent acknowledged that in most blasphemy cases not all suspects were as fortunate as Khokhar.

“Such cases are extremely sensitive,” Sarwar said. “The police had to face the severe reaction by the majority and at the same time secure the suspect. It’s regretful that in most cases officials have not been able to face the pressure.”

A school cleaner alleged that Khokhar had deliberately thrown a “Surrah-e-Yaseen” booklet into a dustbin while clearing the cupboards of her office. Upon hearing this accusation, some Muslim teachers rushed up to the principal and demanded an apology.

“I told my teachers that I didn’t even know that the booklet was there, as the maid was helping me clean the cupboards,” Khokhar told sources at the police station. “She should have brought the booklet to my notice right then, but she deliberately took the dustbin to the staff room and instigated the teachers.”

The Muslim teachers went home after she told them that she was unaware of the booklet’s presence amid the trash and was sorry for the inadvertent incident.

“The next day [Feb. 23], as soon as I reached the school and sat in my office, a teacher named Asma rushed into the village and started shouting that I, ‘a Christian,’ had desecrated the Quran yesterday,” Khokhar told Compass sources. “Within minutes, a large mob gathered outside the school and started shouting slogans against me.”

Police later arrived at the school and, led by a deputy superintendent of police, Malik Ijaz, began trying to rescue Khokhar as the Muslim mob pelted them with stones. Officers responded with a baton charge and managed to whisk her away despite several policemen, including Ijaz, receiving head and body injuries, sources said.

Police rushed Khokhar to the office of Superintendent Sarwar, who in the meantime had reached the village and had begun investigating.

“The Muslim teachers made a mountain out of a molehill just because of my faith,” Khokhar told Compass sources. “A teacher had resigned in protest the same day I joined the school, so there was an element of prejudice present in the staff.”

Three years passed without any trouble, however, and she said he was able to maintain a good working relationship with her staff.

A senior government official has taken measures to ensure that the principal remains safe following her release. Unconfirmed reports indicated Muslims have protested against police after Friday prayers for releasing Khokhar.

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Compass Direct News (www.compassdirect.org), based in Santa Ana, Calif., focuses on Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Used by permission. For a recent overview of pressures facing Christians in Pakistan, go to www.bpnews.net/printerfriendly.asp?ID=37309.

Christian charged with ‘blasphemy’ in Pakistan denied bail

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By Murad Khan

LAHORE, Pakistan, January 30 (Compass Direct News) – A judge has denied bail to a young Christian man charged with desecrating the Quran under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws despite the lack of evidence against him, sources said.

Police in Shahdara, near Lahore, had arrested 23-year-old Khuram Masih on Dec. 5 and charged him with desecrating the Quran after his landlord, Zulfiqar Ali, alleged that he had burned pages of the book in order to prepare tea. Section 295-B makes willful desecration of the Quran or use of an extract in a derogatory manner punishable with life imprisonment.

Masih’s previous lawyers, Muhammad Farhad Tirmizi and Liaqat John, on Jan. 3 petitioned for his bail. In their petition, they stated to Additional Sessions Judge Anjum Raza Syed that police had registered a false case against Masih based on hearsay, and that police had not found any incriminating evidence.

Judge Syed, however, refused to grant bail to Masih on grounds that the case was “very sensitive, and bail to the accused would fan religious sentiments and cause a great mishap.”

Asif Aqeel, executive director of the Community Development Initiative (CDI), an affiliate of the European Centre for Law and Justice, told Compass that the lawyers hired by Masih’s relatives should not have petitioned the trial court for Masih’s bail so soon.

“There’s no use moving for bail in the trial court, because the lower courts cannot sustain pressure in such cases,” Aqeel said. “The judges in trial court are under extreme pressure from religious quarters and simply cannot set a blasphemy accused free on bail after just a month of the incident.”

He added that, similarly, trial courts in blasphemy cases tend to deliver guilty verdicts due to the same pressures from Muslims.

CDI lawyer Niaz Amer, who has now acquired Masih’s power of attorney, would make efforts for his bail in the Lahore High Court once the proceedings begin, Aqeel added.

“It is very unfortunate for those accused of blasphemy, but this is how the legal system of Pakistan operates,” he said. ‘The accused have to spend several months, even years, in jail without bail, just because the judges are unwilling to put their own lives at risk from religious extremists.”

In their petition for bail, Masih’s lawyers stated that in First Information Report (FIR) No. 1211/2011, complainant Ali had claimed that Masih’s neighbors had tried to stop him from burning the pages of the Quran and had ignored their requests, and that the Christian ran away when Ali arrived at his home.

“It is further alleged in the FIR that the petitioner [Masih] was arrested later from the same spot when the police arrived,” the bail application states, adding that the charges against Masih were concocted and baseless because the complainant had not witnessed the alleged incident. No other person is mentioned in the FIR to substantiate the allegations.

At the same time, Napoleon Qayyum, a Christian rights advocate and field officer of CDI, denied reports that Masih has been tortured or mistreated by prison authorities.

“Someone has misreported that Masih has been tortured at the District Camp Jail, where he is currently being held,” Qayyum said. ‘I am in regular contact with Masih and his family, and he has not been harmed by anyone in jail.”

Masih has said that he was falsely accused in the case because he had had an argument with his landlord, Ali, earlier in the day over the rent of the house in which he and his wife, Bano, a convert from Hinduism, lived along with five other families.

A Christian rights activist in Shahdara, Khalid Shahzad, had earlier told Compass that police had shown unnecessary haste in registering the case (see “Christian Charged with ‘Blasphemy’ after Argument,” Dec. 26, 2011).

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Used by permission. www.compassdirect.org

One year passes since prominent Christian’s death

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By Torie Speicher

PAKISTAN — Shahbaz Bhatti, 42, was assassinated by unidentified gunmen outside his mother’s home in Islamabad on March 2, 2011. Bhatti was Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs and the only Christian in Pakistan’s government.

Before he died, Bhatti recorded a message to be released in the event of his death. In the video sent to BBC News, he said, “I believe in Jesus Christ who has given his own life for us. I know what is the meaning of the cross, and I’m following the cross — and I’m ready to die for a cause. I’m living for my community and suffering people, and I will die to defend their rights.”

One year later, Maria Woolridge, an American Christian in Pakistan, considers his impact on the Christian community and unfortunately, she doesn’t see a lot of change in the year since Bhatti’s death.

“For the average Pakistani, life has not changed much since his murder, if at all,” Woolridge said. “They were persecuted before and they are persecuted now.”

Many Christians in Pakistan were hopeful Bhatti could make a difference. His work in government produced a bill allowing Christians 5% of government jobs. Daoud,* a Christian Pakistani man, said, “This [bill] has been passed, but it is not being enforced. There is no one to enforce it.”

Persecution toward Christians can come at the hand of family members, community or religious leaders. Woolridge knows a man who was beaten and shot in both knees and another who was kidnapped and beaten, but released the next day.

One friend of Woolridge’s was tied up with chains and beaten by his uncle for many days.

Woolridge said, “One night my friend had a dream that his chains had fallen off. He woke up and his chains were laying on the ground. He said he ran and ran. He ran until he finally found a safe place,” Woolridge said.

Woolridge asks that American Christians pray for their brothers and sisters in Pakistan, that they will have a deep strong walk with the Lord, be bold in the face of persecution and be patient and persevere with their enemies.

Despite their fear of the blasphemy law, some Christians in Pakistan understand that this world will never be free from persecution. Irfan,* a Christian Pakistani man, said, “God has told us that in this world, we will have trouble. But that we should take heart because He has overcome the world.”

Others struggle to see God’s hand at work in Pakistan. Daoud,* another Christian Pakistani man, said, “We think now (after Bhatti’s death) that we really have no hope. There is no one to speak for us in the government.”

Pakistanis fear the blasphemy law not only because of the government, but even more because they fear being in jail with Muslims who know they are Christians who will not worship the prophet Muhammad, said Woolridge.

Christians who are put in jail for the blasphemy law know they could be stuck there for a while and killed in jail before they have a chance for a trial.

“If they are put in jail with Muslims who have committed a crime, then those Muslims will feel they can gain points with God if they do something good to offset their crimes,” Woolridge said. “Killing or persecuting a Christian accused of blasphemy will gain them many points in Islam.”

Woolridge’s hope is for Irfan and Daoud, as well as other Christians in Pakistan, to have peace in knowing that God is able to work everything out for good. As Job said in 2:10: “Shall we accept good from God and not also trouble?”

God is in control of everything, even governments that don’t protect Christians, Woolridge said.

Bhatti, along with Salman Taseer, governor of the country’s Punjab province, were well known for speaking out against Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, harsh laws that mandate death for people who leave Islam.

Taseer, a Muslim, was killed Jan. 5, 2011, by his bodyguard, who said he was angry that the politician opposed Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, according to Baptist Press News.

“[Bhatti] was very vocal about changing the blasphemy law. As it is now, it only takes one person to bring a charge and conviction,” Irfan said. “Just look at the case of Asia Bibi.”

Asia Bibi, a Christian and mother of five, sits on death row in Lahore, Pakistan. She is accused of blasphemy, or insulting Islam’s prophet Muhammad.

Bibi was “jailed in 2009 after a dispute with local Muslim women who later accused her of insulting Muhammad, an offense punishable by death under Pakistani law. Although she denied any wrongdoing, she was convicted a year later and sentenced to death,” according to Baptist Press News.

Today, Asia Bibi remains in prison awaiting execution. According to news reports in Pakistan, when co-workers tried to make Bibi convert to Islam, she said she knew Christ sacrificed His life on the cross for our sins…and that Christ is still alive, Woolridge said.

Last week, as reported by Compass Direct News, Muslims in Pakistan attempted to seize land from a Christian family by threatening to accuse them of blasphemy.

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*Name changed.

Torie Speicher is a writer serving among South Asian peoples.

FIRST PERSON: An audio engineer makes music in South Asia

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One of the goals of the workshop was to record all of the songs written during the workshop, so that they could be distributed to other churches — in English because it's the only common language among participants. Hear the songs at http://southasianpeoples.imb.org/?p=6152

By Rocco Speicher*

INDIA — The Indian experience of life is different than the American or French experience. If you went into an American church and used only songs originally written in Swahili and translated into English, accompanied by “talking drums,” it would be a unique experience, but I daresay that most Americans would not want to repeat that every week. If worship is most deeply experienced in your heart language, then songs for Indians need to be written by Indians.

I’m the sound guy. At least, I was until my wife and I left for South Asia. But I still think like a sound guy. My philosophy of audio is that it is never important until it’s distracting and then it’s the most important thing. We don’t notice it until there’s feedback or it sticks out too much. In worship, it can distract us from what we’re meditating on about God. At its best, though, it can unconsciously help us focus and explore the thoughts and emotions that are a part of worshiping God.

During a trip to Poland, I listened to a congregation of cross-cultural workers sing in their heart language and I saw the power of worship music. For a believer, we often take for granted how worship music ties together the theology of the heart and mind. I think there’s a reason the Bible has such a large chunk of music from Psalms to Paul’s references to hymns. God gave us music as a way to connect right thinking about Him and our emotions.

I can’t tell you how many people in Poland talked about what it meant to them to get to worship in their heart language. For someone who’s living in a culture that’s not their own, they are often going to church in a language not their own, which causes a disconnect from singing and the heart. By removing that disconnect, we can help believers engage in worship more fully.

This experience began a vision for recording and distributing worship music to believers who may not have much access to music that encourages and strengthens believers.

A few years later, I learned of a need for an audio engineer in South Asia. They wanted someone to support an ethnomusicologist who was teaching national believers how to write their own worship music. On a short-term trip to India, I had the opportunity to work on some musical tracks that were recorded as part of a songwriting workshop in a native Indian language. Indian believers came together to write songs in their own language, using their turns of phrases and their musical style. It was “their music,” sung from their hearts to our God. I mastered a CD to be used by worshipers who are native speakers of this Indian language.

This experience was instrumental in God’s calling on my life to come to South Asia for a longer season. I came to South Asia because I wanted to participate in the growth of the worship of God, to see the worship of the one, true God spread beyond numbers or geography only, but in depth of worship. I want to see churches grow in their joy and fellowship. I wanted to give the skills and talents God has given me for growing the kingdom.

While I’ve been in South Asia, I’ve worked on three audio projects, none of which is worship. I’m not complaining – I was able to use my abilities in web development, plus grow a latent skillset in video production. But the passion that brought me over here hasn’t been touched.

Until recently.

Ethan Leyton,* an ethnomusicologist, invited an old friend of mine to teach a songwriting workshop to some local believers and asked if I could help capture the songs. Jeff Bourque and I go way back. All the way back to sophomore year in college. When I was coordinating the sound team crew for Grace Community Church, Jeff jumped in on both the sound and worship teams. Now, Jeff is the worship leader at Grace. So not only would I get to hang out with a dear friend, in a land far away from our familiar, comfortable life, but I’d get to do what I thought I was coming to the field to do. Sold!

I hung out at the conference for a few hours each day, and it was a great blessing to hear from people who work IT jobs, or are in college, discovering for the first time that they could write worship music for their churches. Not just worship music – good, singable, humming-it-three-days-later songs. Songs that were full of the Gospel.

The conference met together in an open-air pavilion, and then broke into small groups spread out across the wooded campus of the conference center in threes and fours to apply the lessons Jeff discussed with them. Many of them were slowly piecing together their first songs. They’d meet back, play and sing for each other, and lovingly critique the music, sharpening each other’s songs.

The conference ended with a worship service at the sponsoring church. A combination of Jeff’s own worship songs, the songs written at the conference, and more-widely-known songs were sung. The congregation responded enthusiastically to these new songs, written by their peers. I ran sound and recorded the service. It was a thrill to know that these recordings would continue to fuel their services in the months and years to come.

Selfishly, this service was a chance to relive the hundreds of services that I’d mixed with Jeff before. But, more than that, you could hear the joy of both the writers and the congregation with these news songs. Even though they were brand new songs, they sang them with gusto as if they’d been singing for 20 years. And, just getting to be a part of that was a blessing to me.

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*Name changed.

Rocco Speicher is an audio engineer serving among South Asian peoples. Songs from the songwriting conference can be heard here.

Writing worship music for the Indian urban audience

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By Torie Speicher

INDIA — Seven months ago, Kiri Dutta* left her lucrative and fulfilling job in the corporate world to support her husband in ministry. It wasn’t an easy transition, but now God is using her to disciple urban young people in an Indian mega-city.

A lot of these young people are students, or recent graduates like Indra Sethi.* Sethi recently graduated from university with a Bachelor’s degree in engineering, one of the more rigorous and competitive degrees for Indians. He wants to serve God in the marketplace.

Sethi accidentally ended up at the songwriting workshop sponsored by Dutta and her husband Mani.* Even though he found out about it only the night before, Sethi knows it was God’s plan for him to be there.

Attendees of the Song Writer's Workshop practice their new song

The purpose of the workshop, organized by Mani and Ethan Leyton,* an ethnomusicologist (or someone who studies the cultural and social aspects of music), was to lead these young people in writing songs for worship.

“I think the most important thing that people can take away from a conference is that they have a voice,” Leyton said.

“We want to offer workshops on songwriting because music doesn’t just happen and God’s word tells us to sing new songs to Him,” Leyton said. This is one of 20 workshops Leyton has organized in the last seven years for believers around South Asia.

“Many South Asian languages (and worldwide) don’t have a single song about Jesus in them,” Leyton said. “It takes time and concentrated energy to come up with songs that are understandable, biblically accurate and culturally relevant for people.”

This workshop is unique because it was in English. The students that Kiri and Mani work with speak many different native languages or mother tongues, but because they’ve been educated in English, they are more comfortable communicating in English than their mother tongues.

Leyton hopes the songwriters will take what they learn and apply it to their mother tongues.

Sethi, along with 17 other budding songwriters, collaborated with a small group to write a song before the weekend ended. The workshop produced four songs that are now a part of worship for the church Mani started.

“The strongest songs come from co-writing,” said Jeff Bourque, the American musician who led the workshop. Bourque leads worship for Grace Community Church in Nashville, Tenn., but has been writing original songs for 22 years.

“Jeff Bourque was not the ego-driven man I was expecting to teach us songs,” Sethi said.

Instead, Sethi found Bourque down-to-earth and humble — albeit tall by Indian standards — and prepared to share the gifts God has given him.

Bourque asked all the groups to choose a passage of Scripture and pick a theme from it. The theme that Sethi’s group settled on was wanting people to know that Christianity is not only a religion, but a relationship.

“According to Indian traditions and religious views, people need to sacrifice things (for salvation),” Sethi said. “I wanted people to know about the true God who is alive, who gave His Son as a sacrifice and a ransom for all our sins [meaning] there is no need for any sacrifices.”

Since two people from Sethi’s group had to leave the workshop early, Bourque joined their group. Together, they wrote This is not Tradition.

“Even though I helped write the song, the group wasn’t looking at me and saying it was a great song, they were looking at him and giving him all the affirmation. They said, ‘We want to hear it again!,’ “ Bourque said.

Bourque was happy that the song impacted people, but not just because he helped write it. As a teacher, he was proud of Sethi for taking the concepts he learned and using them to encourage worship of the one, true God.

Bourque came to India to lead a workshop on songwriting and was impressed with the quality of musicians and their hunger to learn and practice songwriting.

Even though Sethi has written songs before, they were more personal songs with his secular band. Worship songs are different because they are written to express to God what we feel about Him.

“I feel that a person who has been smothered by the love of God writes a worship song to pour out or express his heart in words,” Sethi said.

Sethi said the pleasures of the world cannot compare to the joy from intimate worship of God.

“Once we go to heaven, the only thing we’ll be doing is worshipping our God,” Sethi said. “So, what I’m doing here is I’m actually practicing.”

When Kiri talks about the song Sethi wrote and how people in her church love it, she won’t stop there. She’s ready for the next workshop and the next batch of songs that will build up the church among Indian young people.

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*Name changed.

Torie Speicher is a writer serving among South Asian peoples. To hear This is not Tradition and the other songs from the workshop, use this link: http://southasianpeoples.imb.org/?p=6152.

Musician Jeff Bourque equips Indian believers to write worship music

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By Torie Speicher

INDIA — From Music City, USA, musician and songwriter Jeff Bourque made his way to India to share the basics of songwriting for a congregation with Indian believers. The mission: write songs.

Through a friend of a friend, Bourque was chosen by Ethan Leyton,* ethnomusicologist, and Mani Dutta,* an Indian pastor, to lead a workshop for 18 young men and women living in urban India and representing five churches.

“Dutta and I dreamed and prayed that instead of [English-speaking] Indian believers singing Hillsong and Chris Tomlin songs all the time, perhaps they could begin writing their own English songs for worship,” Leyton said.

Budding songwriters worked together to write a song that centers around God's character. Jeff Bourque, songwriter and worship leader, offered some one-on-one tips during small group time.

Roughly one out of every 70 persons in India believes in Jesus. Indian Christians are surrounded by temples full of idols and sounds like the cacophony of Muslim calls to prayer. With a unique perspective on their identity as Christians and living out their faith, these believers have a lot to offer Christian music.

In the last seven years, Leyton has organized 20 songwriting workshops for believers around South Asia. This one is unique because it’s the first one in English. In a diverse city of over 8 million people where four primary mother tongue languages are used, many Christians and young professionals are more comfortable communicating in English because it’s the language they have in common.

Leyton hopes the songwriters will take what they learn and apply it to their mother tongues, but also that these songs will be used in American churches one day.

As worship leader for Grace Community Church in Nashville, Tenn., Bourque thinks a lot about songs sung congregationally. When leading worship, he chooses songs that express the truth about who God is and what our response should be as His people.

Amit Dhawan* is studying in Bible college and serves at Dutta’s church. He has struggled to write songs before, but learned a lot at the workshop. He worked with a group of four people to write the song The Lord is Good.

“Many times I came to know the truth about God through worship songs and it encouraged me to come closer to God,” Dhawan said. “(As a songwriter), I want people to understand that God still saves, heals and delivers people from darkness.”

Like Dhawan, these budding songwriters had some experience writing songs, but almost no experience writing songs centered on God for the purpose of building up the church. Among the students were a former drug addict, an engineering student, a banker, a software developer, a pastor and the grandson of a village elder who practices witchcraft.

With 22 years of songwriting experience and a passion for the local church, Bourque’s interest in leading a workshop like this was peaked in 2005. He was leading worship overseas for a group of cross-cultural workers and heard about the importance of equipping new believers in different cultures to communicate their experience with God through song.

“When you have an experience of salvation, everyone is saved to Christ, but everyone is saved from something and that looks different,“ Bourque said. “So, the people of this country will have a completely different perspective on what it means to be a believer.”

A group of four Indians with different mother tongue languages collaborated in English to write a song about our relational God.

Bourque believes that believers from different cultures should be able to sing songs that relate to their experiences, rather than importing songs from other cultures, like the Western-sounding songs sung in American churches.

When he came to India, Bourque was expecting to offer tools that people could use to get started and hoped that with time and experience, they would learn to write lasting songs.

Instead, what he found was talented musicians hungry for the opportunity to learn and practice songwriting.

The language barrier — although minimal since the workshop was in English — was there, but it didn’t stop Bourque from connecting easily with the students from Bhutan, India and Africa.

As surprised as he was that it didn’t take long to build trust, Bourque credits their bond with knowing that their lives have been greatly impacted by Jesus. They were ready to soak in everything he had to share with them.

“I mean, it was two straight days of thinking of nothing but songs and songwriting and I started to get fatigued,” Bourque said. “But rather than taking a break, the students said, ‘Let’s write another song!’”

Sanjeet Devar* leads worship at another church in the city. He worked with a group of four to write the song You’re My Friend. Inspired by John 15:13-15, he wants his song to express God’s nature as our approachable friend.

“He created everything that we see and know and chooses to call us His friend,” Devar said. “God is nearer and more approachable than what most people in my culture think.”

Despite their different backgrounds, Bourque and the 18 young men and women living in urban India worshiped God together through familiar songs as well as songs they wrote.

By the end of the workshop, Bourque’s students had written four songs ready to use in the church context. “Their excitement to write songs motivated me to write more,” Bourque said. To hear them, use this link: http://southasianpeoples.imb.org/?p=6152.

The last night of the workshop ended with a time of worship. Together, the pastor, former drug addict and Hindu background believer jammed together singing songs they wrote with faith in Christ as their bond. No one noticed the myriad of mosquitoes or flickering electricity as they praised the one, true God with voices, shakers, djembe, guitar and keyboard.

“I looked around the circle as we were worshipping one night just playing guitars and banging on instruments and singing songs and their hearts were so humble and filled with love that came from an understanding of who God is and a desire to know more (of Him),” Bourque said. “They were just obviously committed followers of Christ, without any pretense or shells, and that was such a blessing for me to spend time with them. “

Bourque’s prayer is that seeds of Truth taken from God’s word in these songs will bear fruit in the church in India.

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*Name changed.

Torie Speicher is a writer, serving among South Asian peoples. Jeff Bourque can be found online at http://congregationalsongs.com/

Worship Music (written by South Asians)

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These songs were originally written at a songwriting workshop for believers in India. The hope is that those believers who attended will go on to write songs from their experience and perspective, encouraging other churches.

Listen. Be encouraged. And, worship our great God.

The Lord is Good: This song is a joyful celebration of God’s goodness.

This is Not Tradition: This song explains that Christianity is more than a religion of rituals.

Your Grace: This song explores the freedom from sin and shame, found in God’s grace.

You’re My Friend: This song explores the close relationship to God we are given through Christ.

Musician Troy Akers makes sure music doesn’t overshadow the Gospel in India

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By Torie Speicher

INDIA — Playing keys for the band The CO, Troy Akers is comfortable in the spotlight. At first glance, the 26-year old Nashville native smiles easily and looks trendy in fitted T-shirts and jeans that cover his seven tattoos. And, his hair gets a little crazy sometimes.

Musician Troy Akers plays keys for the band The Co and has a heart for the people of India. Used by permission. Photo credit: Jon Karr.

Akers’ band of seven years was recently named ABC Family Channel’s “Artist on the Rise” and is at work on a second album. What you can’t see from his physical appearance, but you will hear at a concert, is his heart for the people of India to be changed by the hope of the Gospel.

“I came to India because I have always been intrigued with the country and its people and how open their hearts are; how barren it can be,” Akers said, “So, when my youth leader from high school moved to India for Christian work, all I had to do was buy my tickets. I was there.”

On a scooter, running away from a storm barreling down mountain streets made of stone and loose dirt, Akers, then 19, fell in love with India. Now, he has been four times. “That first trip showed me how my life lacked the simple trusting of our Father,” Akers said. “The more I go, the more I see the need for the Gospel and for others to realize the immediacy there is for Truth to reach India.”

His travels have taken him all over the subcontinent, but in North India, there’s a taxi driver who calls him “Bro.” Santosh Patel* loves Akers. The CO’s music isn’t the Hindi music he’s used to hearing, but Patel’s happy to know that his brother in Christ is doing well.

“Santosh and I struck a friendship right off the bat on my first visit to India,” Akers said. “We have the same sense of humor.”

On his most recent visit, Akers toured schools in India, working with an organization that ministers to the Dalit (or untouchables), the largest people group of India. Their vision is to bring freedom to the Dalit through Christ’s love — a freedom that is not found in the culture. They fight for their freedom by educating them and rescuing them from sexual trafficking and slavery.

Akers teams up with an organization that ministers to the Dalit to bring them freedom through Christ's love.

As an American musician, Akers was greeted warmly among classrooms and church services. But something was missing.

Since India sometimes looks to the West for pop culture, it can become a popularity contest. “As a musician, coming to India to just play seemed to actually get in the way of the Gospel even though that wasn’t my intent,” Akers said. “So figuring out a way for that to just be a part of what my purpose is while in India is still coming to me.”

Akers finds concerts in the States to be completely the opposite. Since Americans aren’t easily accessible, music is an open door. “Fortunately, music is universal, and folks are more likely to listen initially. Once you have them listening, the hope is that they will be more willing to hear you out,” Akers said.

Earlier trips to India were different. He came as a Christian who wanted to share the Good News. Coming as a musician who happens to be a Christian made it more challenging to stay focused.

“I didn’t directly share the Gospel through conversations, but realized that many Indians view Americans and even more, American Christians, as people who do not want to go deeper than their own religious experience,” Akers said.

“As I began to see the needs around me, I could see a clear need for people who cared more about who they were reaching than themselves. Pride is deadly.”

At one church, Akers sang My Eyes are Dry — an old Keith Green song — to a few hundred Indian Christians because he thought they needed to hear it.

“I felt the words from this hymn were a vessel to me and the congregation, reminding us to reach out, to not let our faith run stagnant,” Akers said. “Like the song says, ‘our eyes can get dry, our faith can get old, our heart can get hard.’ And, while we may know exactly what we need to do, if we do not turn to Christ relentlessly we can shrivel up. Easily and deadly.”

Even in a developing country where the needs are so obvious, Akers warns that the enemy can make us lazy if we let him. “We must remember that the main focus of everything we do has to be giving Truth to the lost. Whether in America or India, we can become complacent.”

God brought Akers to India because it is a part of his calling, but Akers would say it’s a calling for all believers — to love the unloved and reach those who seem unreachable.
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*Name changed.

Torie Speicher is a writer serving among South Asian peoples. Troy Akers is a musician who tours with the band, The CO. The CO can be found online at thecomusic.com.

A couple in South Asia use art to reach Hindus

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By Kate Taylor

SOUTH ASIA — Pete, and his wife Diane Bradee,* take their calling to live cross-culturally seriously. They are committed to communicating Jesus in a way that people in South Asia will better understand.

Repentance and faith are all that is necessary, Pete said. It should be, “Jesus period, not Jesus plus.”

Instead of forcing traditional methods of sharing the Good News to work in a unique culture, the Bradees use art and creative expression to share Christ with Hindus in a large city in North India. Music, dance, painting, poetry and storytelling are intrinsic to the culture of Hindus from high castes.

Pete and Diane Bradee have collaborated with local artists on music projects that use Indian song styles and local instruments to tell God’s truth in the Hindi language.

Hindu society observes a caste system, which segments the population into a multitude of separate social groupings that are determined by one’s birth.

“(Art is) a part of who they are,” Pete said of the high caste Hindus. “It gives you an avenue to say all you want about Jesus, because (the message is) coming in the right package.”

The Bradees use a variety of art forms — painting and poetry, music and dance — to relate Biblical stories and God’s truths. They see art as one culturally appropriate package that is used to wrap the gift of God’s word.

Because Hinduism and Christianity in India are not only religions, but also legal, political and social lifestyles, high caste Hindus have been resistant to traditional methods of sharing Christ with them. Christianity has been closely associated with foreign culture since the British colonial period in India. The Bradees desire to illuminate the truth of Christ separate from any loaded political idea or cultural misrepresentation.

“We (as followers of Christ) are supposed to be the ones who adapt,” Pete said.

Hindus should not have to completely abandon their culture in order to follow Christ, but should be equipped within their own cultural framework, he added.

An ancient Indian lyrical poem says:
Lead me out of what is not true into the truth;
Lead me out of the darkness into the light;
Lead me out of death into eternal life.

Of the poem, Pete said, “This Indian cry to God for the assurance of eternal life is the right longing, but it is only answered in our Lord Jesus Christ who is the truth, who is the light, who is the only source of eternal life.”

The Bradees have been heavily involved in creating a book of 24 stories of Jesus, written in an Indian poetry form and illustrated in a popular modern symbolic art style.

They have collaborated with local artists on music projects that use Indian song styles and local instruments to tell God’s truth in the Hindi language. Indian-style interpretive dances help enhance understanding of the songs.

Every form of art, down to the smallest decoration in their home, is a way for the Bradees to share Christ’s light in a dark place. Pete said it is their desire to use familiar art forms to share an unfamiliar faith. They do not change the message of Christ, but simply repackage it to increase understanding of the Gospel for a specific culture.

“Jesus is for you, no matter what community you were born into,” Pete said.

After leading people to faith in Christ, Pete said, they encourage them to stand for Jesus in their families and their communities. By reaching people where they are, and encouraging them to stay and share Christ where they are, they hope to see a whole community move toward Christ.

“Go back to your people group, to your family and you be salt and light there and tell them what God has done for you,” Pete said.

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*Name changed.

Kate Taylor is a student at Union University who recently spent six weeks in South Asia.