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A few days ago, we reported to you that leaders in other CIS nations—including Russia—are increasing their scrutiny of Baptist churches because of the political turmoil in Ukraine. This is because they are wrongly identifying them as the cause of the unrest and because President Turchynov happens to be Baptist.

Has the Russian Orthodox church condemned the ongoing persecution of Born Again Christians? They are the ones that have Putin's ear.

Russian law prevents “proselytism” of the sort where one religion seeks to gain converts by bad-mouthing another. Universally disparaging Orthodox Christians as non-Christian is a good way to get a get a wary eye cast on you by the Russian authorities, and no, the ROC does not side with the people slandering them. Foreign-based missions who lump the ROC with the KGB often also come up short. Some make Pussy Riot seem tactful.

The ROC doesn’t want what has happened in Brazil to the Catholics to happen to Protestants in Brazil, where Protestants gleefully savaged the Catholic Church as the the anti-Christ, only to see all sorts of diabolical quasi-Christian cults spring up in their salted Earth and lay waste to Christianity in general. The unfortunate thing is the mechanisms put in place to allow the prevention of such abuses often make it tougher for legitimate religious groups.