Jiji Thomson – Kerala state Chief Secretary or #IASEvangelist ?

Kottayam: State chief secretary Jiji Thomson have given a clarion call for the entire Christian community of the state to be evangelized. The statement came while delivering the key note address of the bicentenary celebrations of Kottayam Orthodox Theological Seminary (Old seminary).

Quoting the instance of the orphan boy Tomy who was handicapped and confined to the wheelchair, “who became an evangelist by spreading the word of God through bits of paper, without moving from his multi-storeyed apartment”, Jiji said that “physically efficient two limbed beings (humans) should also resort to the same.”

Jiji Thomson’s controversial statements calling for evangelization came out, ignoring the presence of state governor Justice P Sadasivam. The chief secretary is said to have stated that he was exhorting “not as chief secretary, but as the dear son of Malankara Orthodox Church” and used the grab for unleashing his clarion call for evangelization.

Towing the lines of the American evangelist William Bernard, notorious for his conversion spree, Jiji said that “every believer of Christ should come forward to spell out their faith and that every Christian including himself should undertake the task of spread Christianity”.

The issue touched upon by Jiji Thomson is something that even the bigwigs of Malankara Orthodox Church refrained from stating in the key note addresses. Statements and utterances of this kind, from a government official has raked up a raging controversy.

As per Indian Express report, Jiji Thomson said, “The ultimate mission of the Church is to spread Christianity and I am thinking of ways to fulfil this mission. There are three ways to achieve this goal, which are Church evangelisation, personal evangelisation and mass evangelisation. While mass evangelisation is being held through Bible conventions, everyone can go on the path of personal evangelisation,” he said, elaborating the term gospel as ‘go’ and ‘spell.’

When Thomson was later contacted by Indian Express over phone and asked whether his speech amounted to evangelisation, he justified himself stating that “being a Christian he had the right to speak about Christianity” and that “everyone has religious freedom and he could speak about it as a person” when asked whether it is proper for him to speak about attracting people to Christianity while holding the Chief Secretary’s post.

“There is nothing wrong in speaking about Christianity while being a Chief Secretary,” he is supposed to have said.

We demand immediate dismissal of #Kerala Chief Sec. for promoting evangelism misusing his position.https://t.co/r4a7nMDlp5@Oommen_Chandy

— Kummanam Rajasekharan (@Kummanam) November 27, 2015

Responding to the issue, Hindu Aikyavedi state General Secretary Kummanam Rajasekharan demanded to state govt. for the immediate dismissal of Jiji Thomson.