(Opinion) More than three hundred Christian clergy, leaders, and religious liberty advocates have signed an carta abierta to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging diplomatic action to condemn the persecution of Christians in India.

Mainline Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, and independent clergy and lay leaders were among the signatories alongside leaders of ecumenical organizations, theological institutions, universities, and Christian advocacy groups. They collectively spoke out against the dramatic rise in Christian persecution in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The ecumenical Delhi-based United Christian Forum reports 720 attacks in 2023 against Christians, a stark increase from 127 in 2014 when Modi first came to power” the statement reads.

The open letter outlines the vulnerability of Christian communities, pointing out that watchdog group Open Doors USA ranked India as the 11th “most dangerous country in the world … to be a Christian,” alongside Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in their extreme persecution. The Hindu ethno-nationalist supremacist ideology known as Hindutva asserts the hegemony of Hindus in India and is attributed to the rise in persecution with the support of Modi and his political party.

Emphasizing the acts of violence, vandalism, and forced displacement of Christians committed by religious extremists against Christians and their institutions, the letter also called attention to legal persecution through prohibitions on Christian worship and anti-conversion laws under which thousands of Christians have been arrested with many still detained without a trial. The letter states that over the past two years, tens of thousands of Christians have been displaced with over 400 churches destroyed in Manipur alone with the sanction of government officials.

Many American Christians view this growing persecution with grave concern, especially as the U.S. government seeks closer cooperation with India to counter China.

Modi was once banned from entering the U.S. for the severe violations of religious freedom he tolerated while serving as Chief Minister of Gujarat during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Then over a year ago, Modi was invited to address the U.S. Congress and celebrated as a valued U.S. partner.

Despite admitting the problem of Christian persecution and insistence that discrimination would not be tolerated, Modi has done nothing substantial to hold the government officials and mobs responsible for their crimes. Actions are far more powerful than words and the actions of the Indian government indicate continued persecution and impunity for religious violence against minorities.

A first-ever letra produced by U.S. Christian leaders addressing religious persecution in India, it includes over 300 signatories include 18 bishops, three archbishops and 166 clergy from diverse denominational and non-denominational backgrounds. Eight current or former presidents and deans from five theological schools and leaders from over 40 Christian organizations also signed on.

Notably, signatories include the immediate past president of the National Council of Churches; the president, immediate past president, and ecumenical officer of the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church (UMC); the chancellor emeritus of the Orthodox Church in America; the presidents of Wesley Theological Seminary y Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary; the president of International Christian Concern; national ecumenical office leaders from both the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA); the executive director of the Paulist Fathers Ecumenical and Multi-Faith Relations; the Catholic bishop of the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Diocese of Chicago.

The signatories of the letter called upon the State Department to implement recommendations from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern for violations of international religious freedom and hold the Indian government accountable for these infringements.

The letter also calls for the consideration of targeted sanctions against Indian government agencies and officials responsible for human rights violations while supporting independent religious and human rights organizations in India and the U.S. that have been targeted by the Indian government for their advocacy on the behalf of the persecuted church.

If the State Department were to heed the recommendations of this letter and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom would send a powerful signal to the Indian government and put them on notice for the violations of international religious freedom they have tolerated or even sanctioned. Additional sanctions would be available to be applied on the officials responsible for the persecution of India’s Christians and support to their organizations would ensure future acts of persecution are properly documented and reported to the international community.

As the U.S. and India expand their cooperation on countering China, faith leaders say that policymakers must not allow U.S. leadership on human rights and religious freedom to be undermined by a failure to confront the growing trend of religious persecution in India.

Este artículo apareció originalmente en Ecumenismo Jugoso.

William Roberts is a Government Relations Associate at In Defense of Christians, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.