New Delhi: Baptism is one of Christianity’s most sacred rites symbolising purification and a person’s admission to the religion. But for some priests baptism has become a money-spinner.
A CNN-IBN and Cobrapost investigation has found that some unscrupulous members of the church are selling baptism certificates, which are needed to prove that a person is Christian.
Father Benjamin Das, pastor of the Idgaah Baptist Church in Paharganj, New Delhi, sells baptism certificates. The investigation team goes undercover and tells him that we need baptism certificates.
Das agrees and fakes a backdated entry in the church register to show us as old members of the church.
Reporter: Achcha jo baptism banayenge, purani date ka bana denge… (We will have to back date the certificate. People must not get a chance to say how did you get a new certificate.)
Das: Haan usmein aisa ki aajkal ke time se saare log jaante hain ki paise se sab kuchh ho sakta hai. Theek hai ya nahin paisa imaan ko bhi kayam nahin rakhta hai, saare kaam ho sakte hain. (People know that money can get anything nowadays. Wrong or right, money can get any work done. Money can even buy your conscience)
Then Das fixes the cost of a certificate. For Rs 15,000 he sells us a certificate. “Total jo hai, mere 15 ho gaye. Two affidavit ke ho gaye and aur 13 yeh ho gaye,” says Das. (Rs 15,000 is for me: Rs 2,000 for the affidavits and Rs 13,000 more)
Reporter: Ek baar inhe check bhi kar lijiye, note kai baar nakli bhi nikal jaate hain. (Check the notes, Father. Sometimes the Rs 500 notes turn out to be fakes)
“Nakli kaise honge bhai jab asli kaam ho raha hai toh?” says Das while counting the notes. (How can the notes be fake when you are doing real work?)
“Ise sambhal ke rakhna,” says Das. (Keep the certificate safe)
Reporter: Aaj se matlab hum Christian ho gaye aur yeh aapne hamein baptism ka certificate de diya. (This means that you have given us baptism certificate and we can prove ourselves as Christians from now)
The investigation team then approached Father Henrich James, of the Holy Gospel Baptist Church in Delhi University’s Christian colony, for another baptism certificate.
We told James we need the certificate for a job in a missionary school in Meerut. We got one for Rs 5,000.
Next, the team goes to Father Cecil Newton of the Assembly of Believers Church. We tell Newton we need a baptism certificate to secure admission in a Christian college. He agrees to supply us one, along with a mandatory affidavit signed by a magistrate that declares that we are voluntarily converting to Christianity.
“Vakeel ke yahan se banta hai. Woh toh hum logon ko jaan pehchaan rakhni padti hai har kaam ke liye. Agar jaan pehchaan nahin hoti toh aapka yeh kaam nahin ho pata,” says Newton. (We have to keep in touch with lawyers to get this affidavit. If we didn’t know lawyers your work wouldn’t have got completed.
Father Cecil Newton says we need a backdated membership of the church. He charges us Rs 10,000 for it.
Priests from the Baptist Union of India and the Evangelical Church of India in Delhi also agreed to give us fake baptism certificates in lieu of money.
(With inputs from Ashish Saraswat, Neeraj K Singh and Rohit Khanna)
