A New Russian Law Against Christians?
By Julio Severo
A new anti-terrorism law in Russia has been criticized in
headlines in the Western media as tailored to target Christians, especially
evangelicals and Pentecostals. Others denounce that it was tailored to ban
evangelism. Some have labeled it as a “communist” law to persecute evangelicals
and Pentecostals.
Just wanted to give you my perspective on the set of
the “anti-terrorism” amendments that became law in Russia recently. The main
purpose was to amend several laws in a way allowing better anti-terrorism
protection/prevention (that other countries including the US and EU already
have). Now cell phone operators and internet providers will have to store data
for some time and make it available if needed for an investigation, etc. The
main and real threat is the activities of various radical Islamic missionaries
who are rather active in Russia. We have around 9% of Muslim population that
have been historically peaceful, but in the recent decades is being
artificially radicalized by foreign radical sects like ISIS and other
wahhabi/salafi sponsored imams (just today I’ve seen in the news that a radical
imam who has publicly supported terrorism has been arrested in Moscow). Youth
is particularly vulnerable and is the target.
New regulation of the missionary activities is just a
minor part within the set of the new amendments to various laws. It basically
says that foreign missionaries need to receive a permission/registration to do
their work, and that they should preach only at their mosque/church/etc. But
this concerns only official representatives of a religious organization. All normal people can freely
express/preach/promote their religious and other beliefs with no limitations
(which is a Constitutional right), and the law does not regulate that. The
final law was seriously amended and many controversial things were deleted.
So the conclusion is that many negative reports on
this topic in the Western mass media are:
1) Biased against Russia.
2) Use the draft of the bill, and not its final
version.
3) Misinterpret actual text of the law.
I personally think that those amendments regarding the
regulation of the missionary work could be softer, but even in the current form
there is nothing really dramatic (I’ve read them). Plus the actual
implementation and practice is now aimed at the radical Islamists. Of course
there is also a prejudice against some innovative Western protestant groups and
Eastern sects that have been calling for illegal actions, drugs, violence,
preaching suicide or terrorism, etc. Plus many non-Orthodox religious groups
have played an important role in anti-Russian coup d’etat in Ukraine. Also
Russia has a centuries old tradition of over-regulating things.
So there are some worrying factors in this new law,
but nothing really dramatic, as the press reports.
This is the view of Alexey Komov, the most prominent pro-life
leader in Russia.
What are my thoughts?
The new law was drafted, and eventually enacted, in Russia
after the Islamic bombing of a Russian jet in Egypt. It hits millions of
Muslims in Russia, and affects also Christians of other persuasions (Catholics
and evangelicals), who are not so numerous as Muslims are in Russia. Islam has
about 10,000,000 members in Russia.
The Catholic Church has 140,000 members, thus about 0.1% of
the total of the Russian population.
Jehovah’s Witnesses has 300,000 members, thus about 0.2% of
the total.
Protestantism in its various denominations, both historical
and Evangelical or Pentecostal, has also 300,000 members, thus about 0.2% of
the total.
The Russian Orthodox Church has 58,800,000 members, thus 41%
of the total.
So the two only major religions in Russia are the Orthodox
Christian Church and Islam, and it is very obvious that the anti-terrorism law
hits Islam head-on.
Differently from the U.S., where anti-terrorism laws increasingly
stifle her major religions (especially evangelicalism) and grant more power to
Islam and homosexual activism, and specially a massive secular State, Russia
has been stifling homosexual activism and radical Islamic expansion and
granting more power to its major Christian religion, the Orthodox Church.
The difference is while U.S. anti-terrorism laws protect an
anti-Christian secular State, in Russia anti-terrorism laws protect the
Orthodox Church. At least in Russia they are protecting its form of traditional
Christianity.
My worry is that anti-Christian and anti-family laws and
measures in the United States target not only U.S. citizens, but people around
the world. In 2011, WND
reported about Homeland Security surveillance on my blog, even though I am
not an American citizen. Yes, DHS
watches conservative blogs.
In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former CIA agent who has lambasted
the Russian law, exposed
to the world that the U.S. government was, contrary to the U.S.
Constitution, spying on Americans and people around the world. “The (National
Security Agency) NSA surveillance scandal is the biggest story of your lifetime,”
said Michael Savage in a WND report.
It is very troubling that even without laws and measures
allowing surveillance and spying on innocent Christians around the world, the
U.S. government is engaged in this behavior in a global scale. If the Russian
law is a threat because of the data store of its cell phone operators and
internet providers, it is a threat only in Russia. But what about the massive surveillance
and spying scandal of NSA? It is a threat hovering illegally not only over
Americans, but also over multitudes of people around the world.
The new Russian law was not tailored to target specifically
evangelicals and Pentecostals. It targets millions of Muslims. It can also
affect other religions, including many U.S. sects as Jehovah’s Witnesses and
Mormonism that are operating in Russia, but it will not affect the power and
status of the Orthodox Church.
According to Charisma
magazine, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom,
a government panel headed by Jesuit priest Thomas J. Reese, condemned the
new law.
Charisma reported,
Religious organizations directly affected by the new
laws are those with strong evangelization programs in Russia — the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), International Society for Krishna
Consciousness, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists and other Protestant
organizations with Baptist, Pentecostal and independent Christian roots.
“The Russian Orthodox church is part of a bulwark of
Russian nationalism stirred up by Vladimir Putin,” David Aikman, author of
“One Nation Without God,” told Christianity Today.
It is a pity that evangelicalism, which was a part of early
American nationalism, is not longer essential for the U.S. government, which
has discarded it.
Charisma also said, “Only about 1 percent of the Russian
population is Protestant; the majority religion is Russian Orthodox Christian.”
Interestingly, Charisma showed no concern and made no mention that
in a much larger scale the law hits millions of Muslims.
Even though evangelicals are a very tiny minority in Russia,
the Orthodox Church has partnered with them in common missions. The Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association and the Russian Orthodox Church will be hosting a
summit in Moscow on persecution against Christians next October.
“I met with Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox
Church, and evangelical leaders, and we discussed at length the persecution of
the Church worldwide,” said
Rev. Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association. He added, “The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians
will shed a global spotlight on this crisis. We will bring delegates from
around the world and will be able to join hands with people of other churches
and denominations of the Christian faith to pray for our brothers and sisters in
Christ and to hear firsthand reports of the suffering that is taking place.”
“In the years under Communist rule, virtually all of the [orthodox]
priests, pastors, and church leaders in Russia were imprisoned or executed by
the Communists, and their graves are on the outskirts of Moscow and throughout
the country serving as a reminder,” continued Graham.
“No church in modern history has suffered more than the church
in Russia. … So Moscow will be a fitting and meaningful location for this
much-needed summit.”
Portuguese
version of this article: Uma nova lei russa contra os cristãos?
Source: Last Days Watchman
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