“A PERSON IS AT LIBERTY TO CONVERT TO ANY RELIGION AT ANY TIME,” SAYS A JUDGE. (Then why is conversion banned, and converts arrested?)

Some days ago there was an interesting piece of news (The Times of India, New Delhi, Tuesday, March 29, 2011) about an Indian Christian priest in charge of A church in Delhi who married a woman after both had secretly converted to Islam, begot a child and at his death bequeathed all his property to his child. His family when they got to know about it contested the will in court arguing the marriage was null and void as it was against the priest’s celibate vow and so the child was illegitimate.

The judge thought otherwise, and said marriage is marriage and the priest had every right to will his property to his wife and child. I tend to agree with the judge. A man has to be responsible for a wife and child, priest or no priest.

But the judge in his verdict also said something else that is very interesting, and might have been missed by many. He wrote: “A person is at liberty to convert into any religion whenever he wants. There was no legal bar for a Christian or even a priest, on converting to Islam.”

If a “person is at liberty to convert to any religion whenever he wants” why do we have the euphemistically labelled Freedom of Religion Act in some of our States that forbid conversion to another religion? I think this is an interesting point to consider and, may be these Acts need to be fought, again, in the light of the recent judgment. Why is conversion to Christianity a crime?

And incidentally today (April 03, 2011) comes the news (in CathNews-India) that “Police have arrested 12 tribals on charges of converting to Christianity in Orissa’s Mayurbhanj district….The converts were arrested for violating the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, which bans any conversion that is done without a permit issued by the authorities.”

If a “person is at liberty to convert into any religion at any time” why does he or she need a permit from the authorities to do so?

Returning to the case of the priest’s marriage, how come it remained a secret? Was it really a secret? Wouldn’t someone or other familiar with the priest known about it? Just wondering!