AUTHORITIES CLAMP DOWN ON BAPTISTS
Confiscation of houses of worship is beginning in Russia
by Roman Lunkin
Religiia i Pravo, 10 November 2017
In soviet times, those who suffered to the greatest extent were those who did not agree to live in accordance with atheist rules and refused to register with agencies of the government. After perestroika and all the way to the adoption of the Yarovaya Law in 2016, unregistered Baptists (the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists [Sovet Tserkvei Evangelskikh Khristian-Baptistov—STsEKhB]—the movement arose in the 1960s) lived and held forth in peace, although they also maintained their suspicion with respect to the authorities. The STsEKhB even now in principle will not register their churches. History has partially returned the Baptists to soviet times and has shown that their suspicions were not without foundation. Martyrs of soviet times again are forbidden to pray.
The most egregious case of violation of both common sense and the constitution of the RF is the case of the confiscation of a parcel of land and house of worship in Tula, in which Baptists have been assembling for 26 years now. A deputy chief inspector of Tula province for use and protection of land, Viktoria Ishutina, issued order No. 118-UR-T/17 of 31 August 2017 for prescribing for them an administrative penalty in the form of a fine of 10,000 rubles for each owner (there are two, retirees Olga Astakhova and Liubov Bogdanova) for use of the land allegedly not in accordance with its intent. The building consists of residences as well as rooms where worship services of the Baptist congregation are conducted.
A protocol concerning an administrative violation was drawn up in August 2017 by the state inspector of Tula province for use and protection of land, Anastasia Petruk. As evidence of the improper use of the building it indicated: the presence of a sign with the designation "Tula Church of STsEKhB," on the doors of the building there is a schedule of operating hours of the library and record library, and also the times of worship services are posted. The warning of 3 August 2017 regarding the removal of the exposed violations specifically states that after 8 February 2018 the parcel of land and house of worship will be confiscated.
According to the congregation itself, the deputy chief inspector for protection of land, V.I. Ishutina, said in a conversation with believers on 31 August 2017: "There is almost no judicial practice in your matter. This will be the case. If the court determines in your case the presence of an administrative violation of law, such a practice will be employed throughout Tula province."
As reported by the Department of Intercession of the International Council of Churches of EKhB (Mezhdunarodnyi Soviet Tserkvei EKhB--MSTsEKhB), Ishutina justified her order regarding the fine thus: "Religious organizations have the right to conduct worship services and other religious rituals in residences, but they do not have the right to use residences and the land on which they are located as houses of worship without a change of their intended use in accordance with procedure established by law." At the same time, the Yarovaya Law forbids transforming a residential building into a house of worship and engaging in evangelistic activity within a residential building (Housing Code of RF, point 3.2, article 22).
The believers have tried to show that the sign on the building, "House of Worship," evidences a permissible use of the residential building and it does not give to the residential building any other or additional status, since point 2 of article 16 of the law "On freedom of conscience" permits the unimpeded conduct of worship services and religious rituals by citizens and religious groups in residential buildings belonging to them. Judging by the way the authorities are dealing with the Baptist congregation, one gets the impression that the issue is not at all compliance with the law but the existence of a political decision for the liquidation of the religious congregation. In October, the Tula energy networks temporarily cut off the electric and gas services to the building, including heating. Bureaucrats unofficially told the believers, who tried to learn what was happening: "Collect the documents and transform the residential building into a legal entity." The believers tried to challenge the order concerning the fine and the protocol regarding violations.
Baptists of the Council of Churches of EKhB are ever more being subjected to fines for illegal missionary activity. For the police it is the easiest thing to fine Baptists by sending to their service in a private home a person who is supposedly interested in faith. Then the pastor is accused of not having a registered society and that the religious group is operating without having given notification, which means that he cannot have the documents giving the right to preach. On 4 August 2017 a magistrate judge of the Pochep district of Briansk province, K.A. Samantsov, fined Pastor Dmitry Berdnikov 15,000 rubles (based on a secretly made video) in just such a case. On 26 July 2017, a judge of the Central district court of the city of Simferopol, O.A. Gordienko, fined Pastor Pavel Shpak 10,000 rubles (based on the testimony of police school students). On 26 July 2017 a magistrate judge of judicial precinct No. 3 of the Lenin district of the city of Voronezh, I.V. Polianskaia, fined two women from a STsEKhB congregation 5,000 rubles each for giving to a passer-by on the street a New Testament and a newspaper "Do you believe?". And these are only some of the judicial cases against the STsEKhB based on the Yarovaya Law.
The policy of discrimination of a Christian church, which has survived from the era of the U.S.S.R., has evoked a natural emotional reaction by believers. The more so because by their own worldview congregations of the Council of Churches of EKhB cannot register themselves and their groups will not give notification of their existence to agencies of government. This means that the Baptists will follow their principle and crowds of believers will worship and sing hymns while their houses of worship are occupied by court bailiffs.
The Department of Intercession of the MSTsEKhB quotes an appeal of the Baptists of Tula province, which contains these words:
"In the past, the lawlessness of authorities cost the lives and liberties of thousands of believing citizens. The horrible past summons us to vigilance in the present. . . . On our land poisonous plants are not grown, drugs are not sold in our building, and nothing that the law prohibits is produced. This forces us to wonder: what kind of law and what kind of lawyer would dare to attribute joint prayers to God to such an impermissible use of land that it can be taken away even without a trial? Such an insulting attitude toward God, churches, and worship services was the horrible norm of the years of rampant atheism. . . .
"We still have not been able to forget the pogroms of buildings where our parents worshiped, themselves defending us, their small children attending the services, from the blows of police clubs. . . .
"If this practice takes effect, then 70,000 Christians (that's how many church members the brotherhood of the MSTsEKhB numbers, not counting unbaptized youth, teenagers, and children) will all wind up thrown out onto the street and again will be forced to conduct worship services in both rain and snow under the open sky in suburban fields and forests like it was in the recent past."
Persecution of a truly heroic Christian movement, within which there were many martyrs who suffered for faith and for the right to speak about God and conduct worship services, violates both the law and human morality, to say nothing of evangelical principles that are common to all Christians. This speaks of the fact that at least a portion of Russian society is ready in soviet fashion to humiliate believers, seek enemies, and turn the tables on the weak for the sake of statistics and promotions. It is this kind of stupid lawlessness that destroys a legal civilized society. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 November 2017)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.