Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu are calling for religious freedom rights to be upheld in the face of threatened legislation that would “ban conversions.”

Recent press reports accusing Adventists and other religious minorities of offering inducements to converts have led to the introduction of a decree in the state assembly that would criminalize conversions in certain circumstances.

Pastor John Rathinaraj, president of the Adventist Church in south India, commented that such a decree would have a “great negative impact” on the church’s contribution to society. “This proposal is based on false reports circulating in the press,” he added. “Despite issuing a denial of these reports, and providing the facts, the church finds that these contradictory accounts are still circulating.”

One press article accused the Adventist church of providing clothes, money, employment, and free education as inducements to make people convert. Pastors were said to have convinced those baptized by presenting the benefits they would receive if they accepted Christianity.

Such “allurements” to conversion would be illegal under the proposed legislation and would be punishable by fines and imprisonment for both those who convert and those offering the supposed “inducements.”

“In these press reports, false information was given,” says Rathinaraj. One newspaper suggested that a mass conversion was conducted by the Adventist Church. “In fact this event was a camp meeting on the campus of one of our schools, and most of those baptized were children of church members.”

Rathinaraj said that the decree could be used by anyone to attack the church, claiming illegal inducements for conversion. Though serious opposition to the law is expected in the state assembly, it is feared that it may be passed due to the false “conversion” reports in the media.

“The Adventist Church defends religious freedom and human rights,” Rathinaraj concluded. “We believe in the right to freely choose one’s religion, as clearly declared in the Indian constitution, and insist that such basic rights be respected.”