Some of those who voted yes had this to say:
• Yes, they are. Why?
• Various Christian denominations in Nagaland are living peacefully except for some 1 or 2 stray incidents in remote areas (villages). In Kohima some villages has 4 or 5 churches of different denomination..like Baptist, Revival, Catholic, Pentecost, AG. This church coexist peacefully n help each other. A good example is that if one denomination is having their important function, Youth conference or jubilee etc, the other denominations wud com and do all the work like cooking, serving, manual works, etc so that all the members can peacefully attend d program. And during Christmas n New Year they have combined picnic n fun thro sports. So in my opinion n my observation all denomination are been treated equally.
• Yes, they are. The fact that Baptist have been pioneers can't be disputed.
• In most places it can be said that there is respect for all denominations of Christianity. This is certainly true at the level of the people. However, amongst all the denominations, the Baptist institutions are the closest to the state machinery and so most often they benefit the most from the government and in the process they become more powerful. It is also the Baptist churches that tries to influence the government on prohibition, whereas for the Catholics and others, the act of drinking wine does not constitute something bad. I would therefore say that the people in general accept with respect all denominations, but it is the NBCC to realize that they are not the only Christian denomination in Nagaland and so they need to be more receptive to the presence of other denominations as equals.
• Yes, there is hardly any difference.
• Nagaland is a small state with people that have a big heart. Nagas have had limited exposure to the world and today this limited exposure and understanding of the world is proving to be a handicap. When Christianity came to the Nagas, it was mostly by Baptist preachers. The Nagas looked at this aspect not as Baptist, but fundamentally as Christians first. So the Naga understanding of Christianity is limited to the Baptist worldview, not by choice, but through circumstances. Yet, inspite of this, the Nagas by large have been open to different denominations of Christianity. Over the years, different denominations such as the Catholics and Revival has been growing. It is true that the Catholics today run the best educational institute in almost every district of Nagaland. So generally, people are open to the diverse denominations of Christianity. Nagas are large hearted and given the right opportunity to think more broadly, the acceptance of all denominations, and even other religions will be must more forthcoming.
• Yes. Though ours is predominately a Baptist majority state, most of the people (being Christians) treat members of other denominations with equal respect. Keeping in view of the search for peace and hope in our state, churches of all denominations should unitedly be able to stop this trend of harboring ‘the idoltry of the mind-the worship of intellectuals, philosophical ideas and conceptions created by the minds of the pagans in the same way their idols are made by hands,’ because enough damages has been inflicted upon the people by (1) the painted lies and evil designs of the pagan and anti-Christian ideologies, (2) the materialistic, lust and violent culture to contest and obscure every forward movement of faith and believers in society. Surely, God would want us to sincerely repent, never repeat the past, take a true stand of faith living, treat other with Christian attitude, show them how to pray (in mind) at all times, hate sin but pity the sinners, and strive hard to seek (above all) God’s favor in all our efforts and activities to let God guide us because we know that – “If God is leading then we don’t need to know where we’re going.” All that we need is to pray to God to help us to be more careful and not to be misled.
Some of those who voted no had this to say:
• No. It is almost certain that many of the village councils in Nagaland have made a resolution to have a single religion. It is against the constitution of India which guarantees free profession, practice and propagation of religion (article 25). As there’s a tendency of the majority group trying to dominate the minority, the Christianity in Nagaland is not an exception either. Moreover, the way NBCC was able to dictate the govt with regard to Prohibition speaks volumes of how one denomination is favored. Many efforts have been taken by the Baptist denomination to curb the advancement of other denominations. Go for any official functions of the govt, most of the time the Baptist pastor is preferred to say the invocation. To this end, the recent Anatongre incident is an eye opener to many. Well, its only an iceberg.
• No, The Christian in Nagaland is blinded by evil eye and unable to see the good in others.
• No, all the denominations are not treated equally. (eg. Prohibition Act) Why only NBCC? Is there no other Christian denomination in Nagaland? We are all using the same Bible, let all denomination come under one umbrella in all activities to solve Naga problems.
• Not at all. The very fact that people keep saying that Nagaland is fully Baptist itself shows that Nagas are not sensitive to the different denominations of Christianity. The very fact that NBCC keeps harping on prohibition is also another clear sign, because there are other denominations who do drink wine. They are not opposed to wine, but they are opposed to drunkenness. Nagas are die hard Baptist, and while this is good, this is also their downfall because they fail to see things beyond their small kitchen.
• Certainly not...!!! Most of the Baptist freak still thinks ‘Jesus is their property’.
• Basically, Nagas were Baptist by the American missionaries in the early 1900's.Since then so many sects have come out n basically due to the indifferences in ideology, teachings and so on. But the truth is We Nagas as a whole are just creating new denominations because everybody wants to the preacher, someone who can look in the church matters independently or by his class only. Hence the confusion now.
• On the surface yes, there seems to be a concern for all to be equal, but once difficult issues come out into the open and differences of opinion are discussed, than immediately everything becomes so self-centered and intolerant.
• As in the state politics, so as in our churches, we are after power. That means, being able to exercise ur wishes and Call the shots type. We now have less popular denominations like..Pentecost, Catholics just because Nagas do not imbibe any religion by their heart.
• The answer is an obvious "NO". Though Nagaland is a Christian state (shamefully only in name), pre-dominantly protestants, Baptists in particular, the acts of the people exhibit very less traits of a Christian life. We call ourselves Christians, yet we forget the good teachings of Christ and go on perpetrating on others the opposite of what is being advocated by the Church. Recent acts of opposition and demolition of Catholic Churches in Kiphire and Kezo Basa (in Southern Angami area about 2 yrs back) are some instances which shows the respect and treatment meted out to the smaller communities by the dominant denominations.
• No, all Christian denominations are and were never treated equally in Nagaland.
• No, Revivals have a ‘holier than thou’ attitude. Baptists have a ‘superiority complex’ and think other denominations are just cults. The government is trapped between the devil and the deep sea!
• No, we still have the tendency to legitimize one’s own denomination and underestimate the other denominations. Our faith and believe must be viewed beyond the boundary of one’s own denomination. For which the ecumenical movement can be more active to abrogate the misunderstandings and misconcepts against other denominations. Only through ecumenism justice and respect towards echothr can be restored.
• They are all self centered, self defence, though one belief, not aware of own ignorance.
• No, a Christian denomination is already a government. The latest incident at Anatongre and the comments given by this denomination leaders, the administration head over and the justification from that village council and seeing the ground reality of the minority over there is a shame in Nagaland. Why to condemn other religion outside for inequality when we ourself do not consider and treat each other equally. May be greed is the problem. Govt qrs and grants to a church never suits a Christian.
• There is widespread Baptist intolerance filled with all sorts of Hypocrisy.
• No, it is not so. This present society have become so selfish and morally corrupted that respect is given to persons, only to those who are rich and wealthy.
• Nagaland is overwhelmingly a Baptist centric state. Very conservative indoctrination of Christian values and principles has greatly affected the way in which the Naga people practice their Christian faith. The absence of analytical thinking and the ready acceptance of Biblical teaching has not allowed the Nagas to grow in their spirituality and in their faith to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. There are just too many self-styled Christian leaders and lay-pastors who have little or no theological training and yet, because they are the ones that actually reach out to the grassroots, they have a deeper impact on society. It is such narrow and wrong teachings that make the naive people become Baptist centric, even to the point that many Nagas think that Baptists are the only Christians.
Some of those who voted OTHERS had this to say:
• Yes as far as the layman believers are concerned, who have no direct contact with NBCC officials. A big No, for those people who claim themselves to be Church workers, particularly, the PhD. Theologians, Rev. Pastors and self proclaimed elites of the NBCC, who gives sermon after sermon on love, but doesn’t practice what they preach and want to enforces their will on everyone, like those Muslim fanatics, intolerable and conservative. NBCC’s 10,000 missionaries, fine, but let us pray that these missionaries are more humane than their pay masters. Whom do the NBCC (heads) worship? Jesus Christ, the all loving and tolerant almighty God or some demoniac intolerant and vengeful God?
• I really dont think there is religious freedom in Nagaland. The superficial presentation of Christianity in Nagaland actually contradicts the very fundamentals of Christianity. Unfortunately, Christianity is seen in very narrow and absolute terms in Nagaland where the scriptures are read in the literal sense without trying to understand the contexts in which it was written and presented. When such a narrow approach to Christianity is present in Nagaland, than one must say there is actually no freedom as far as expressing ones faith is concerned.
• It would have been better that Nagas were Muslims rather then have different denominations. At least we will not murder the Religion that is so sacred and Holy. May be the Americans did wrong in bringing their teachings to Nagaland. Atleast, Muslims or for that matter, any other religions have better co-existence than we Naga Christians.
• Can u count the numbers of churches, Pastors, Reverends, Deacons in respect to a particular tribe? No where in the world will u find so many diversity and ugliness in the name of Christianity. Each tribe with 2 to 3 different Association since nobody wants to be the subordinates, but wants to be the Bosses of what he surveys.
• Take 4 Example--Western Sema and Eastern Sema region have two different church leaders. Why can a single person man a small community like ours? Its not a herculean task.
• It was the American Baptist missionaries that brought the solid teaching of the Word of God to the Nagas. While we know the basic doctrines of salvation, unfortunately, the missionaries did not stay long enough to disciple the new converts. This has had some negative repercussions. One of them is that we have developed a sense of an unquestioning acceptance of all kinds of teachings. More dangerous is our acceptance of contemporary American Christianity which is either doctrinally erroneous or is based on shallow emotional experiences. Yes we ought to respect other denominations, but Naga Christians cannot afford to be so swayed by all kinds of teachings. We must be strongly rooted in Gods's Word. Only then can we discern those who teach false doctrine.
• It all depends on how awfully big is one’s church building and how many donors, patrons, income-generation capacity with purchasing power one denomination has instead of strengthening and deepening faith while making real spiritual progress for all the believers regardless of socio-economic status! But sorry this is not the case here as any man in the street can confidently tell about the two-faced practices of churches people at length which can also make the true servant of God like Mother Teresa turn in her grave. Look at those major denominations who can’t help acting like a Big Brother with sanctimonious attitude. All are born equal but inequal in physical, mental and material terms whatsoever can best be exemplified in this prevailing trend. Everything changes with time but in religion, laying so much emphasis on temporal and aesthetic beauty contravenes Holy Bible teaching and so untenable for anyone in any way.
