Follow Up On My Friends in Belarus

I had no idea until someone sent me an article but my friend Anya downplayed what a big deal the incident was:

http://www.data.minsk.by/belarusnews/022007/130.html

and the more creditable (although they don’t mention the church name which is why I included the other one) AP article:

2/16/2007 5:05:00 PM
10 Americans Ordered to Leave Belarus

Ten Americans left Belarus on Friday after authorities ordered them deported for allegedly singing religious songs and reading spiritual literature, in violation of laws restricting religious activity in the former Soviet republic.

The Americans “preferred to leave Belarus voluntarily” after authorities decided they should be deported, said Interior Ministry spokesman Oleg Slepchenko.

Slepchenko said police raided what was supposed to be a seminar in conversational English at an evangelical Protestant church in the eastern city of Mogilev. He said police found bibles on the tables, and participants were singing religious songs instead of talking.

The Americans, who arrived in Belarus Feb. 5, were fined and warned they were violating the law with their activities, Slepchenko said. But authorities later caught them repeating the alleged violations, he said.

Distrust of foreign missionaries and Protestant churches is strong in many largely Orthodox Christian and Muslim nations of the former Soviet Union.

President Alexander Lukashenko, accused by the West of crushing democracy in Belarus, signed legislation in 2002 that strongly favors the dominant Russian Orthodox church and limits the activities of smaller religious groups.

The United States has criticized the government of Belarus, a nation of 10 million, for discriminating against minority religions.

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Content Provided By A.P.

PS: Belarus is not a primarily Muslim country…they face the same persecution Catholics, Protestant Christians face.

It got media coverage both locally and abroad. It is also being followed by several prominent Religious Freedom groups The raid was at Emmanuel the church I preached at and partnered with when I was working in Belarus. I was there for one of their English Clubs and it really was not overly evangelical, those who wanted to participate in bible studies and worship were encouraged but no one was forced and there were separate from the classes themselves. At the final meeting of the club we sang Old McDonald had a Farm not Amazing Grace. After the final class, there was a youth meeting upstairs and it was optional (and when I was there it was nearly all church members who attended), I am 90% certain this is what was raided. I am so sad. :(

Anya was taken in for questioning, thank God they released her. She made it sound it was mostly her who got in trouble, but from what I have read it is the whole organization she works for which is really unfortunate. Now that their non-profit group has gotten negative media coverage and is being watched by the government, it will be very hard for them to continue their programs (like the one I helped start which looks after disabled folks and their families or providing housing for the poor and in general caring for people who no one else cares about).
I also didn’t know the incident had happened at that church but that is even more unfortunate. The church is unregistered (would you register if historically when religious bodies registered in your country, they ended up in a gulag?) and I fear that the government will crackdown on them.

All this over bibles and a hymn. I am of course personally sad and scared for my friends. But I would be sad no matter what religious group it was. Substitute the Koran, Torah, Book of Mormon, etc and I am still sad. Religious freedom is a beautiful, fragile thing and it should be fought for. Everyone should have the freedom to believe and practice their faith or lack their of (with limits that keep them from harming themselves or others of course…terrorism=BAD, faith that spreads racial hatred=BAD, etc).

and I would like to write more eloquently on the subject but I have three finals

but keep my friends and their country in your thoughts, prayers, mediations, etc