(Photos by Jack Lazar)
Nepal (MNN) ― The re-write of Nepal's constitution is moving forward at a glacier's pace. This week, leaders from the major political parties are supposedly forming a subcommittee to hammer out disputes as they relate to the restructuring.
Nepal's parliament missed a May 28 deadline two years after being given a mandate to write a new constitution. They re-expressed commitment to prepare the integrated draft of the new constitution by August 31.
However, one element of the new draft is causing great concern amongst believers. Carl Moeller with Open Doors says, "Christians had been experiencing freedom that they hadn't experienced in past years. Now, this seems to create an additional level of legal constraint on anyone who would convert from one religion to another." An attached bill is a kind of an anti-conversion law, which Moeller says is "always going to particularly single out Christianity."
Since a full constitution won't be ready to implement by August, the mandate has been simplified to hammering out a first draft for the public to see. On June 23, officials presented new penal codes that could see the return of a ban on religious conversions. Many of the revisions were to revamp outdated codes, but the timing is critical. "How this impacts the formation of a new constitution is going to be very much on our radar screen," notes Moeller, adding that "there are groups that are going to try to get in and create situations in the writing of the constitution that are advantageous to them."
The new codes would effectively re-criminalize evangelization and religious conversion. "Some of the Hindu extremists in that area--those that are far more fundamentalist--are pushing these things forward. That's taken a lot of the Christian community there by surprise."
The lack of a Constitution and the presence of a confused government lulled people into a false sense of security. "Christians there have been blindsided by this, but they are pushing forward to try to make their case before these changes take place in the Constitution."
There is still a possibility that believers can turn the situation around. "In any situation where there's a protracted lack of governing authority like a constitutional process, it becomes less and less respected as that process goes on, and some of the direction of the new have not yet been fully formed," Moeller says.
Adding the revised penal codes as written would reverse the secularism embraced by the Himalayan country in 2006. Moeller agrees. "Wherever we see these sorts of restrictive laws, it puts a strain on evangelistic efforts."
Now that the anti-conversion vocabulary has been added back into the conversation, it could change the definitions of ministry. In speaking to a Nepalese Christian worker, Moeller says one of the greatest challenges is already on their doorstep. "It's not necessarily just the passage of the laws, but the change of the common dialogue to where any evangelistic efforts are viewed as bribery against people."
In other words, an open dialogue that involves truth claims about Christ will be viewed with suspicion. Any effort to meet both physical and spiritual needs puts a ministry at risk. As a result, Moeller says, "People are going to experience a lot of ‘chilling effect' when it comes to evangelistic efforts."
However, the new codes are not yet set in stone. "We really have to consider what it means for us to stand with them and to let our voice be heard to say, ‘This is the right thing to do.'" Other than the August 28 deadline, there is little public information about the time frames of the Constitutional re-work.
Pray that the freedom to share the hope of faith in Christ will remain established in this country.
