India: Two US Christians Fined $500 For Allegedly Preaching The Gospel

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Authorities in India’s Assam state have fined two American Christians $500 each for allegedly violating their tourist visas by preaching the Gospel and leading people to Christ at various locations, Christian Today India (CTI) reports.

US citizens James Michael Flinchum, 73, and Matthew Jon Boone, 64, were detained by the Superintendent of Police of the Sonitpur district of Assam while they attended an inauguration event for the North Bank Baptist Christian Association at the Baptist Christian Hospital at Tezpur’s Mission Chariali on Feb. 2, CTI reports.

The two men were not kept in detention but were each issued with a $500 fine following government allegations that they had engaged in religious activities in violation of their Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) papers which allowed only “Recreation/Sight-Seeing” activities.

The Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Sonitpur district, Madhurima Das, was quoted by local media as stating: “A Baptist association had held a building inauguration function in Tezpur and Baptist leaders from different parts of Assam had gathered there. The two US nationals were also present there. The building itself is incomplete, it is half-done, so we have to say that they had come for conversion activities. Since they were in the country on tourist visas, they cannot participate in any religious meet.”

In a website statement about the situation facing Christians in India, the Open Doors international Christian advocacy group says: “Christians around the nation of India find themselves increasingly under threat. This hostility is often driven by an ongoing belief among some Hindu extremists that Indians ought to be Hindu—and any faith outside of Hinduism is not welcome in India.”

India ranks 11th on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

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