This week’s briefing centres on India’s regulatory escalation: new FCRA Rules 2026 (22 June) explicitly bar foreign funds for religious conversion, reinforced by the Timothy Initiative UAPA case and seven pastors sentenced in Madhya Pradesh. The Vatican consistory (26–27 June) saw Pope Leo XIV restate the witness-vs-proselytism line. Adventists publicly questioned their own evangelism’s cultural sensitivity.
Proselytism and Religious Outreach Worldwide: Conflicts, Policies, and Trends – 5-12 June 2026
This week’s conflicts over proselytism clustered in South Asia, but the patterns travel. In Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh, “cash-for-conversion” allegations and a VHP demand for a foreign-funding probe showed the financialised anti-conversion frame outrunning party lines; fresh arrests in Uttar Pradesh and a Catholic bail fight under Rajasthan’s new 2025 law confirmed that the accusation itself does the work. Against this, Mongolia’s Buddhist relic exposition drew 100,000 — outreach honoured, not policed.