Abstract:
“Have the religions lost their nature and purpose in Sri Lanka?’’ The prolonged
civil war, attacks on religious worshiping places and the hatred attitude and rivalry
among the religions make one to ask this question frequently. The end of civil war
brought in a shift in the perspective of Sri Lankan people from ethnicity to religious
fundamentalism which has never been experienced as such in the history of Sri Lanka.
The fact is that Christianity has fallen a prey to this religious fundamentalism. The
Hindu fundamentalist groups join hands with Buddhist fundamentalists with the concept
that both Hinduism and Buddhism are ancient religions of Sri Lanka. This concept
creates suspicion and fear towards Christians and any effort taken by Christians are
viewed as threats. In addition, the Easter attack, carried by Islamic fundamentalist
group is another challenge encountered by Christians. Considering the ground reality,
there lies big responsibility in front of all Christians in Sri Lanka to engage in dialogue
and thus to ensure religious harmony and being tolerant. The purpose of dialogue is
growth and change. It must lead to a mutual growth in understanding of truth on the
part of dialogue partners. The life of Jesus shows the way to encounter such a situation.
He embraced everyone and initiated conversations not conversion spontaneously which
made the people who listened, to have a change in their lives. Christians must analyze
and study the roots for this fundamentalistic acts and work on it. By our acts of love
and service we must eradicate misconceptions and fear that were basically created in the
past. Imparting the knowledge has been a great endeavour of Christians in Sri Lanka.
We can make use of this as a common platform to guide people to promote religious
harmony and righteousness. Therefore, the rise of religious fundamentalism in Sri
Lanka is not the biggest challenge compared to the experience of coexistence of all
religious people but at the same time we, Christians cannot be indifferent to it.
