The Rt. Rev. Vinodkumar Malaviya, a Protestant bishop in western India, is accustomed to providing food, cattle fodder, clothes and medical care to anyone in need.
But under a new law passed by the Hindu fundamentalist government of India's Gujarat state which prohibits religious conversions without official permission he fears his actions may make him a criminal.
The law "looks very simple and harmless, but the implications will not be," Malaviya says.
Gujarat is the latest of six Indian states to approve measures aimed at ending conversions in this majority Hindu nation, where the 56-year-old constitution requires a secular government and guarantees the freedom to practice and propagate religion.
Signed April 9, the law establishes prison sentences of up to four years along with fines for converting someone by force, fraud or allurement.
Christians say it also sets up such broad definitions of what constitutes "force" and "allurement" that their mission to serve the poor and sick is threatened. For instance, the law says "any gift" or "material benefit" is an allurement to convert.
"So from now on you can't help a person?" asks Malaviya. "I don't know how to deal with it."
Sermons may also be affected. The law says that warning someone about "divine displeasure" telling them that God hates sin is a threat, and therefore an illegal use of force.
Malaviya also objects to the new requirement that Gujaratis must get permission from a magistrate before changing religions. "This is a matter of one's personal relationship with God," he says.
Across this nation, the new laws are becoming stricter under the encouragement of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party that has led India's government since 1998, when a wave of anti-Muslim, anti-Christian violence began sweeping the country.
Some 40 churches were burned in Gujarat in 1998.
In 1999, more than 50 Christian prayer halls and churches were burned in Gujarat, Orissa and Bihar states, and Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burned to death in their jeep by a Hindu mob in Orissa. More than 1,000 people mostly Muslims were killed in rioting last year that the Gujarat government is accused of abetting.
Hindu hard-liners contend anti-conversion laws are needed to combat what they say is a Western conspiracy to undermine India's majority Hindu faith and culture. Hinduism recognizes thousands of gods and goddesses in contrast to the monotheism of Christianity and Islam.
The Hindu groups accuse Christian missionaries most of them Indians of tempting poor tribal people and low-caste Hindus to convert by offering jobs and money. Mass reconversion ceremonies busing people to Hindu temples where they bathe and make offerings are being organized throughout the country.
A basic difference between the Hindu groups and the Christians is their view of women, children, tribals and the "untouchables."
The tribals are believed to be India's native peoples, and many come from animistic religious backgrounds. They live in forests, jungles and remote regions, and are ethnically and linguistically different from most Indians.
The new law provides stiffer penalties for converting them because the Hindu fundamentalists believe the lower strata of society are more easily duped.
"The illiterate tribals, how can they understand the theology of Christianity?" says Dr. Pravin Togadiya, a cancer surgeon and general secretary of the World Hindu Council, which sponsored the new law and the reconversion ceremonies.
"Am I not better able to understand than an illiterate tribal woman, who is not able to understand religion clearly?"
Protected by khaki-dressed guards with automatic rifles, Togadiya spoke to The Associated Press two days before he was arrested in neighboring Rajasthan state for passing out sharp spears to his supporters and urging them to defend Hindu culture.
His view that religion is less important and harder to fathom for the poor and uneducated has roots in India's Hindu caste system.
Until recently, only the highest caste Brahmans could act as temple priests. "Untouchables," those required to do the dirtiest jobs, were barred from Hindu temples until independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi went on a hunger strike for them in the 1940s.
The caste system allocates jobs and social status at birth, based on the Hindu belief that one's fate is determined by actions in a previous life.
But Christians, who make up 2.4 percent of India's more than 1 billion people, say every human has a spiritual aspect, and a true conversion of the heart and mind cannot be brought about through force or payment.
"Salvation is made available to all through Christ, but there is no force," says Bishop Malaviya. "It's the work of the Holy Spirit."
The Christians who teach that there is only one life on earth, as opposed to the Hindu belief in reincarnation say the Hindu nationalists did not care about the poor until they saw them becoming educated and empowered through Christian schools and development projects.
D.K. Akruwala, the World Hindu Council's vice president in Gujarat, counters that he is concerned about tribals' religious beliefs because, "India is a place where Hindus live. We educated, patriotic citizens are worried that these converted people will lose their roots and their national identity.
"If someone becomes a Christian, he ceases to be Indian," Akruwala says.
Unsurprisingly, India's religious minorities take strong exception to that view, and say history backs them up.
Christian tradition holds that Thomas, one of Jesus' 12 apostles, established India's first church almost 2,000 years ago, while the first Muslims arrived in 712 A.D. The age of Hinduism, and the date of its appearance in India, are uncertain, but most experts say it is at least 5,000 years old.
Meanwhile, in the southern Gujarat town of Varya, the Rev. Navnit Gamethi, a Pentecostal preacher, prepares for an Easter Sunday service while reluctantly accepting that for the time being, he'll be performing no baptisms. Hundreds come to the healing services he holds, and some want to become Christians.
"The law says we should apply to the district magistrate, but no one knows when permission will ever come," he says.
"I fear the magistrate, but I also fear Jesus, who said we should baptize. I will pray to Jesus and ask him to save me out of this predicament. I will not pray before the magistrate, because he will not listen to me."