Dimapur, July 9 (MExN): Baptist church organizations continue to press against lifting the Prohibition. Chakhesang and Ao women church leaders today issued statement calling against lifting the Act under any circumstance.
The Fellowship of Ordained Ministers under the Chakhesang Baptist Church Council today claimed that “the enactment of the Prohibition Act is a sure sign of God’s providence and intervention in a land of Christians with Christians in authority and public leadership.” The pastors even to the extend of claiming that “the promulgation of liquor prohibition has drastically brought down the rate of crime and accident as testified by the hospitals and police stations with heightened academic acceleration and moral values.”
The statement form the Chakhesang churches said that the Prohibition, “in spite of its struggles and difficulties,” has created a “deep sense of legal awareness” and “constitutional fears since violation of Prohibition is against the enactment legally.”
“The anti-social element that has been permitted to flourish in the state in spite of the Act is a mockery to the law and must be curbed. The current debate on the withdrawal and lifting of the Act under the pretext of loss of revenue is not an acceptable reason to relax the prohibition. The issue of earning revenue from relaxing the Act is nothing but an alibi to satisfy individual interest,” the Chakhesang church leaders claimed.
The pastors have urged the implementing authorities and the Government of Nagaland to uphold Prohibition “with reinforcement by the concerned departments.” Nagaland, the pastors claimed, “being a state of Christians”, will stay alert to the influence of “evils and uphold the sanctity of a land of churches.”
Also, the Ao Baptist Church Association (ABAM) Women department expressed unhappiness over the “deliberate exclusion” of the Church organizations in the consultative meeting to discuss the Prohibition issue on July 2. “Because it was the NBCC that spearheaded the Prohibition movement in Nagaland. ABAM Women Department commends the decision of NMA in not attending the said meeting without the inclusion of the Church organizations,” the ABAM’s women department said in a note today.
The ABAM narrated how on January 4, 1989, over 2,000 women from all over Mokokchung district gathered for a second-day of mass-fasting and prayer in the Deputy Commissioner’s office complex in Mokokchung “demanding dry district”.
“Amidst miracle and visions, the then Deputy Commissioner, VN Gaur, declared Mokokchung a dry district on the same day. The declaration came after almost ten years of relentless meetings, consultations, seminars and rallies of Mokokchung people from all walks of life,” the ABAM said.
The ABAM said the Prohibition came at a point of time in Naga society and history when alcoholism became an epidemic. “To accentuate the loss of financial revenue without contemplating on the moral, social, cultural and psychological effect on the people and the nation is a strong indication of moral decay and decline in the thinking of a nation and amongst its leaders.”
The “ravage and epidemic” caused by alcohol calls for moral-sanction and the need of support and co-operation of law enforcing agents, the ABAM said.
The ABAM women department reaffirms its position to adhere to the Prohibition Act in Nagaland state ‘it have dedicated and worked for’. The church along with civil society and “support from the Government” at this juncture must continue to work vigorously to explore various ways to support people to live “free from substance and alcohol dependency and experience the fullness of live.”
“The ABAM Women department strongly supports the Nagaland Liquor Prohibition Act, and further, the Women Department of ABAM shall continue to stand firmly and work for the total implementation of the Act in Nagaland till the end,” the statement added.
