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17th October 2010 |
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Population 21.3 Million with 325 people per sq km Religion 70% Buddhist 7% Christian Positives Evangelicals have reversed the Christian decline with a surge of spiritual life and vision. The revival has deepened faith, raised expectancy, hastened indigenization, prepared many for persecution and stimulated vigorous outreach. There are many new Christians from the Buddhist and Hindu communities. Revival and strong evangelical growth since 1980 — all during the most harrowing warfare and militant opposition from the majority religion and despite a high rate of Christian emigration. In 1980 Evangelicals numbered around 50,000 (0.36%) but by 2000 were nearly 240,000 (1.25%).
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Prayer needs Claimed by some to be the site of the Garden of Eden, Sri Lanka is now an island of tears. The ugly conflict between the Sinhala and Tamil has brought great suffering with an estimated 100,000 killed, 800,000 Sri Lankans (mainly Tamil) have emigrated or fled to India and the West, and between 700,000 and 1.5 million displaced in Sri Lanka. Buddhism is the state religion and, as such, is protected and promoted. Although freedom for other religions is assured, there has been a steady erosion of that freedom with discrimination against minority religions in taxation, employment and education and, since 1988, a rising anti-Christian feeling. Christianity is perceived as foreign and a colonial imposition (sadly a partial truth under Portuguese and Dutch rule) and Evangelicals as using financial inducements to poor Buddhists for unethical conversions.
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