Two women died after attending an open air prayer healing service which had been conducted by a Christian fundamentalist  prayer group ‘Jesu Ath Nohari’ (‘Jesus Never Fails’) during the 31st October weekend at the Vihara Mahadevi Park in Colombo, Srilanka.

Neminona, a woman aged 59 from Ambalangoda and Damayanthi Samaratunge from Matale, a mother of two young children were the unfortunate victims. They were both Buddhist. It was subsequently revealed that the two victims had not been suffering from any major illness when they attended the healing session.
According to the son of Neminona, she decided to attend the prayer sessions after viewing a CD which had been sold by this group in her town in the Southern Province. (This prayer group advertises their healing sessions in national newspapers and also employs agents to distribute their CD and attract persons from all over the country.) Attending the session, she had gone into a trance and had started dancing. At that moment she had been taken onto the stage where the service was being conducted. Neminona’s son and her husband approached the stage on hearing an announcement that a woman had taken ill, but they were chased away by the organizers. Later Neminona’s son and husband took her to hospital but the doctors had pronounced that the patient was dead.
The second victim, Damayanthi too did not have any ailment but had gone there as the group claimed they would resolve her family problems through prayer. She had joined a group of people who were coming from Anuradhapura to attend the healing session.
The magisterial inquiry held into the deaths had revealed that all those participating in the ‘healing sessions’ had been told not to take any meals making it easier for even healthy people to fall ill.

A common happening
This is not the first time that this type deaths took place in Sri Lanka. It has been documented that way back in 1923, a ‘pastor’ of the Pentecostal Order prevented a follower from going to hospital to deliver a baby and the woman died. She was surreptitiously buried in his garden. Several similar cases have been reported over the years.  The Buddhist Times has publicized such events in its pages and editorials.

At the end of September, an evangelical prayer group had made preparations for an open air prayer healing session at the sports stadium in Sripura in the North Eastern Province. They had also planned to sprinkle holy water into the wells in the same area where kidney diseases have been mostly prevalent due to contaminated water. At the initiative of Ven. Medagama Dhammananda Thera, Buddhist organizations were able to stop these activities and save several lives in the area.
Usually, a healing session begins with several people including well known personalities such as movie stars coming on stage and announcing that they were cured miraculously through prayer of incurable diseases such as cancer. Then with music and drumming, the pastor begins his loud prayer which instantly makes the audience swing and dance in trance.
The prayer session held at Vihara Mahadevi park caught every one’s attention as two deaths took place on the same day and a national TV channel reported on the incident for several days. Buddhist monks and the general public were alarmed at the incident. Over 70 per cent of the population in Sri Lanka are Buddhist and the majority of the people who attended these sessions are Buddhists who come even from remote villages. It is like ignorant Buddhists going to a thovil excorcism.

A strategy to convert Buddhists and Hindus
Faith healing is yet another strategy used to convert the gullible. Aggressive strategies used by the fundamentalist sects are not new. “Church planting” is the most common one in remote villages where all residents are Buddhist. The modus operandi employed in “church planting’ is that an evangelist will befriend a household which has some problem like illness or drug addiction, hold prayer meetings, convert them, and subsequently the house gets converted into a church. There have been several instances reported where the newly converted Buddhists are asked to spit at, trample on or dash the Buddha statues on the floor. Sometimes, the lamp lit in front of the Buddha statue is made to be thrown away. A common strategy adopted was the demonization of the Buddha.
Anti-conversion Bill
An anti-conversion bill was proposed in the parliament to curb unethical conversion of Buddhists, Hindus (Hindus are the more easily affected, especially estate sector Hindus fall easy prey because of their severe impoverished situation) and even mainline Christians who are also converted into Evangelical sects.
During recent years, widespread unethical conversions have caused serious unrest and disharmony among communities. Therefore, the Bill is essential and timely. A major reason why legislation is necessary is that the law is one of the most effective ways to prevent further religious disharmony and further unnecessary deaths.

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