Posted on 08/21/2024 8:39:55 PM PDT by Cronos
Amid ideological hurdles facing Russia in occupied regions in Ukraine, evangelical churches are targets for Russian soldiers to allegedly root out anti-Russian sentiment, if not levy allegations of American havens for "spies."
"You don't run a church: You run a nest of American spies," Russian soldiers who stormed Melitopol's Church of God's Grace told its Baptist pastor Mykhailo Brytsyn during interrogation after an armed takeover
The evangelical churches are being targeted because the ideology is not in line with Putin's favored Russian Orthodox Church as Putin attempts to turn contested regions into full-hearted Russian territories after his years long war on the South and East of Ukraine.
there have been dozens of evangelical pastors abducted, tortured, exiled, and killed in an attempt at a religious whitewashing of ideological diversions from Russian orthodoxy.
There have been at least 30 Ukrainian clergy killed, 26 taken as hostages, according to a February report by the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance.
"They have to control everything," Ukrainian-American Baptist pastor Dmytro Bodyu, who was a hostage for eight days but lived to be returned, told the Journal. "If you're a Christian, you are freethinking, and can discern what is good and what is bad.
"In a country like Russia, they don't like that."
Russian denies targeting churches for religious persecution, countering it is a Ukraine narrative for its own religious war on the Russian Orthodox Church in contest regions, according to the Journal.
The evangelical church rose to be influential in eastern Ukraine after its breaking from the former Soviet Union, another mark that might create Russian animosity.
"The fear of America disappeared, and it happened very fast," Hennadiy Mokhnenko, a Ukrainian Baptist pastor told the Journal. "The doors opened from the East and the West, and a breeze passed right through Ukraine."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, to which the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine transferred its communion in 2018, far from being ‘false’, is actually the senior Patriarchate of Orthodoxy, predating the Moscow Patriarchate by many centuries.
The dating of the Egyptian Era’s has been known to be wrong for a VERY long time. One of the reasons they desperately refuse to correct it is our current best understanding would align the Egyptian timelines with the Biblical narrative quite well.
"Turkish Foreign Ministry reacts to Ecumenical Patriarch’s participation in Ukraine Summit"
“dating of the Egyptian era is wrong”
could you elaborate please?
Indeed:
Russia's Newest Law: No Evangelizing Outside of Church | News ...
Christians are Severely Persecuted in Putin's Russia – But That Could ...
Christian Persecution Increasing in Russia - Christian News Headlines
Report: Non-Orthodox Christians Face 'Strong Discrimination' in Russia
Russia, other former Soviet republics persecuting Christians, new ...
Moscow church destroyed in sign of new Russian repression Posted on Sep 26, 2012 | by Jill Nelson
MOSCOW (BP) -- It was in the early hours of the morning on Sept. 6 when Pastor Vasili Romanyuk's phone rang. A group of men backed by local police were demolishing his Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church, housed in a three-story building nestled in a Moscow suburb. As word spread, congregants arrived at the scene hoping to save the building, but their efforts were futile. By dawn the church was in ruins and some of its most valuable contents were missing.
An isolated incident? A misunderstanding? Analysts watching the current climate in the former Cold War country don't think so: "This destruction of the church is about as concrete of evidence as you can get that something very bad and very troubling is taking place," said Katrina Lantos Swett, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. "This could not have happened without the backing, support, and implicit blessing of the police."
The incident is just one sign of deteriorating freedoms in Russia, and behind the scenes a cozy relationship between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church has raised more than a few eyebrows. As President Vladimir Putin digs into his third term, a number of Kremlin crackdowns involving vague interpretations of the country's extremism law and other human-rights abuses are troubling signs that the country has slipped into a familiar, repressive era.
"When you have unknown people backed by the police coming out at midnight to begin tearing down a church, you know something doesn't smell right," Lantos Swett said.
Officials evicted Holy Trinity Church from its original building in 1995 and relocated the church to the eastern Moscow suburb. The congregation used its own funds to construct a new building and repeatedly battled officials over permits. The church demolition and its history reflect an emerging pattern: Authorities confiscate land from non-favored religious communities and force the congregation to relocate to a remote suburb, the religious leaders apply for permits that are subsequently denied, and officials confiscate (once again) or demolish the relocated congregation, citing lack of proper documentation.
Pastor Romanyuk and a small group of the church's 550 congregants arrived on site around 3:30 a.m. as about 45 men claiming to be civil volunteers blocked them from the building and threw stones. "When I arrived, I just burst into tears," 25-year-old Natalya Cherevichinik told The Moscow Times as she surveyed the destruction. "I couldn't believe that something that had been built over several years could be destroyed in a few hours."
Russian Evangelicals Leery of Orthodox Church, Friday, December 30, 2011:
class="adjusted">MOSCOW, Russia -- For decades, the Russian Orthodox Church was persecuted under the Soviet Union's Communist Party.
Since the early 1990s, the church has grown in size and influence as its relationship with the Russian government has improved significantly.
However, that cozy relationship worries the country's evangelicals.
Threats Against Evangelicals
For eight years, Yuri Sipko ran one of the largest Baptist organizations in Russia. Now, 20 years after the fall of Communism, he worries about the growing threats against the country's evangelical movement.
"The collapse of Communism was supposed to usher in an era of greater religious freedom, but I'm concerned we are moving in the wrong direction," Sipko said.
What makes the Russian evangelicals very concerned is an emerging relationship between the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church.
"For example, the government recently introduced religious classes based on the principals of the Orthodox Church in public schools," Sipko said.
"Then late last year, the Russian president announced an initiative to appoint Orthodox chaplains to all army units," he said. "Our constitution clearly states no religion can be the state religion."
Russia Church-State Relations
Russia watchers credit two men, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, for elevating the church's prominence. The state media has also played a key role, often showing the leaders attending church services.
Sergey Ryakhovski knows both men well. As head of Russia's Pentecostal Union, he meets regularly with top government and Orthodox Church leaders.
Ryakhovski worries that the Orthodox Church's influence is coming at the expense of religious freedom, especially for minority groups such as Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists.
"There are so many laws and by-laws that regulate religious life in Russia," Ryakhovski said. "For example, evangelical Christians just can't go out and buy a church building or buy a piece of land to build a church."
"Plus, criticizing or challenging the Orthodox Church is not a task for all," he added.
Orthodox Church Revival
The Russian Orthodox Church on the other hand has had it easy in recent times after decades of state persecution.
Church buildings that were destroyed during the Soviet era have been rebuilt with Russian taxpayer money. In the past 20 years, the government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars restoring some 23,000 churches.
Most Russians say they belong to the Orthodox Church. Yet CBN News found mixed reactions on the streets of Moscow to the growing bond between church and state
At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks a Church
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY Published: April 24, 2008
STARY OSKOL, Russia —
It was not long after a Methodist church put down roots here that the troubles began.
First came visits from agents of the F.S.B., a successor to the K.G.B., who evidently saw a threat in a few dozen searching souls who liked to huddle in cramped apartments to read the Bible and, perhaps, drink a little tea. Local officials then labeled the church a “sect.” Finally, last month, they shut it down.
There was a time after the fall of Communism when small Protestant congregations blossomed here in southwestern Russia, when a church was almost as easy to set up as a general store. Today, this industrial region has become emblematic of the suppression of religious freedom under President Vladimir V. Putin.
Just as the government has tightened control over political life, so, too, has it intruded in matters of faith. The Kremlin’s surrogates in many areas have turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a de facto official religion, warding off other Christian denominations that seem to offer the most significant competition for worshipers. They have all but banned proselytizing by Protestants and discouraged Protestant worship through a variety of harassing measures, according to dozens of interviews with government officials and religious leaders across Russia.
Russia's De-Facto State Religion : Persecution : http://www ... www.persecution.org/?p=9350&upm... International Christian Co... Putin frequently appears with the Orthodox head, Patriarch Aleksei II, ... Baptists, evangelicals, Pentecostals and many others who cut Christ's robes like bandits, ...
Government Returning Land to Religious Organizations to Favor Orthodox Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009: An ambitious draft law on the transfer of property of religious significance to religious organisations may reignite a process begun in 1993.
Pentecostal Seminary Targeted for Liquidation
Pentecostal Church Forced to Meet Outside in Moscow Winter
Russia: Governor Orders Church Land Grab
Council of Religious Experts threatens religious freedom
Russia “You have the law, we have orders ”
In addition,
"63% of Russians consider themselves Orthodox believers" and 66% of Russians – the population as a whole, without reference to one’s faith – trust the Russian Orthodox Church." - https://www.pravmir.com/over-65-of-russians-trust-the-russian-orthodox-church-poll/
More findings from that same source are that,
For many people, however, “Orthodox” is basically a cultural identification label and does not necessarily imply adherence to specific religious doctrines—a Levada poll found that 30 percent of those who saw themselves as “Orthodox” did not even believe in the existence of God. To single out the believers from the “culturally Orthodox,” we started by asking whether respondents considered themselves as belonging to any religion at all. Slightly more than half, 55 percent, answered in the affirmative. Of these, 81 percent indicated Russian Orthodoxy. This means that altogether 45 percent of our respondents considered themselves Orthodox believers.
Moreover...we found that Orthodox Christians, despite the ROC’s strong stance on abortions, were only marginally more opposed (48 percent) than the non-Orthodox/nonbelievers (46 percent) (see Table 2).On whether certain other behavior could be justified, 55% of self-declared Orthodox believers affirmed fornication could be, which is actually just slightly less than non-Orthodox/nonbelievers (57%)
Pew research finds that in Russia,
just 6% of Orthodox Christian adults say they attend church at least weekly, 15% say religion is “very important” in their lives, and 18% say they pray daily. Other former Soviet republics display similarly low levels of religious observance. Together, these countries are home to a majority of the world’s Orthodox Christians.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/11/08/orthodox-take-socially-conservative-views-on-gender-issues-homosexuality/
Across all three waves of ISSP data, no more than about one-in-ten Russians said they attend religious services at least once a month.
Meanwhile,
America has incurred the wrath of God, being more blessed and accountable than others. To which applies:
Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. (Hosea 8:3-4) I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. (Hosea 8:12) For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof. (Hosea 8:14)
Yet,
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (1 Peter 4:17-18)
The World Congress of Families—perhaps the single most important forum for collaborative efforts between West European, American, and Russian hardline religious conservatives... A rebranded WCF VIII went ahead with Russian financing, much of it linked to the ostentatiously Orthodox oligarchs Konstantin Malofeev and Vladimir Yakunin. Now billed as a forum called “Large Families: The Future of Humanity,” the event featured American WCF leaders as planned....A year later, WCF IX was hosted in Salt Lake City, and Russian Orthodox Christians played a prominent role there...
The first sign of fraying relations came when the preparing for a World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians that Graham planned to host in Moscow, in collaboration with the ROC, was quietly put on hold by the Russian side last spring. In August 2016, however, Graham announced that the summit would be moved from Moscow to Washington, D.C. and take place May 10-13, 2017.
Acting as if the initiative to break with Russia was his own, Graham cited Russia’s recent passage of an “anti-terrorism” package known as the Yarovaya Laws (for the key role of United Russia Duma deputy Irina Yarovaya in their passage) as his reason for moving the summit. These laws place severe restrictions on Protestants and other minority religious groups in Russia, essentially banning proselytizing. In effect from July 20 of this year, the Yarovaya Laws are already being enforced. Protestants are being detained and fined for conducting ordinary religious activities.
I reached out to William Yoder, a Belarus-based writer on church affairs who has decades of on the ground experience working with Protestant communities in Eastern Europe and Russia, to get his opinion on the current state of affairs. In his view, “the Yarovaya Laws are putting a damper on the budding relationship between the Christian right in the US and the Orthodox in Russia ... by persecuting Protestants, the Russian state is making it considerably more difficult for American Christian conservatives to count themselves among Putin’s right-wing fellow travelers. - https://publicorthodoxy.org/2016/10/25/yarovaya-conservatives-traditional-values/
Christians in Russia are now banned from discussing their faith outside of churches and other designated places under new anti-terror laws.
Wed 20 Jul 2016 by Antony Bushfield Russia:From Wednesday onwards it is illegal to preach, teach or share faith outside state-controlled settings. Senior Protestant church leader in Russia, Sergei Ryakhovsky, said the law 'creates the basis for the mass persecution of believers'. The new law was passed almost unanimously by Russian MPs and means anyone caught sharing their faith outside church faces a fine of at least £600. Some fear it's a way of clamping down on the growing number of house churches across the country. Currently there are around 1,000 in Moscow alone.
Sergey Vdovin, from the Russia Evangelical Alliance, said he'd considered leaving the country because of the new law....I'm staying here no matter what and the Lord is greater than anything people can do, so if you're under His protection what can be people do to you? "What can this law do against real Christians? Nothing. They will just continuing serving together and be more purified, more united and more dedicated." - https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/russia-christians-banned-from-discussing-faith-outside-church
LIVING AS A PERSECUTED CHRISTIAN IN RUSSIA
November 21, 2019Andrei was a youth pastor and contractor in Russia. An oppressive law that passed in 2016 banned the public sharing of one’s Christian faith. After receiving threats from Russian officials on the lives of his two children, Andrei, his wife Galina and their children fled from Russia as refugees, and arrived in Minnesota in 2019. We interviewed Andrei about life in Russia and the persecution he left behind:....
(The Yarovaya law increases regulation of evangelism, including a ban on the performance of “missionary activities” in non-religious settings.) Based on this law, which is active right now, if you declare that you belief this or that or if you publically invite someone to church, of if you share an invitation to a Christian conference or service on facebook, sometimes even if you just attend church you will receive a huge fine or you can be jailed for up to 3 years. If you represent a church as a pastor or leader, then the fine is $1M rubles ($15,700) and up to 5 years in jail, if they can prove that you were promoting your faith....
The (Russian security service) investigators would just show up at a church service and would ask around for more information on specific people. Then they would subtly threaten people by reminding them that kids often use drugs in Russia, and you never know what could happen to your kids. Investigators wanted me to cooperate and inform on other people.I was refused jobs because I am a Protestant. I was working as a contractor on the house of a Russian parliament member (part of the Russia Unite party); when he found out I was a pastor at a church, he took all of my tools, kicked me out, and refused to pay me for any of the work I did on his house. I hired a lawyer to receive payment, but since the justice system is very much in submission to the government, I was found guilty.
Religious Repression in Putin’s Russia By Antonio Graceffo on January 11, 2023
Under the Russian Constitution, though citizens are guaranteed religious freedom, authorities may suspend religious activity in the name of national security. Although the constitution specifically cites extremism as a cause for the suspension of religious freedom, it does not provide a robust definition of which activities could be considered “extremism.” .
Additionally, Russia has strict laws on the registration of clergy and places of worship in addition to staunch prohibitions against missionary work. The term “missionary work” is broadly applied to “preaching, praying, disseminating religious materials, and answering questions about religion outside of officially designated sites.”...
Russian law technically recognizes Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism as the four “traditional” religions. But, only the Russian Orthodox Church is elevated to the role of representing the ideals and faith of Russia... About 63% of Russia’s population are Orthodox Christian, 7% are Muslim, and 26% identify as agnostic. Buddhists, Jews, other Christians, and animists each comprise about 1% or less of the population. - https://providencemag.com/2023/01/religious-repression-in-putins-russia/
Russian persecution of evangelicals exceeding that of Soviet era, Mission Eurasia president says
By Scott Barkley, posted August 23, 2023 in International News, Persecution
MOSCOW (BP) — The raid by secret police of Russian evangelical leader Yuri Sipko’s home will not silence the former Baptist Union president’s “uncompromised” stance. Sergey Rakhuba, president of Mission Eurasia, promised as much in comments he shared with Baptist Press. (See related story.) “I have personally known Yuri Sipko for a long time,” Rakhuba said. “He is an uncompromised, powerful leader and preacher of the Gospel for whom truth is the most important thing.” Sipko’s home was one of many among prominent evangelical leaders that was raided by the FSB, Russia’s secret police, Mission Eurasia reported on Aug. 8...
Sipko’s opposition to Vladimir Putin extends back to the Russian president’s early days in power, particularly Putin’s past as a KGB officer. Those stances continued with Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. The next year Sipko spoke at a consultation hosted by Mission Eurasia at the Bishop of Canterbury’s headquarters in London to raise awareness over the invasion...
“Most deny that this is the beginning of a new wave of repression by the Russian regime. [But] we are monitoring churches in the occupied territories in Ukraine through our Religious Freedom Initiative and have discovered that more than 500 churches have been seized, many pastors have been deported, some have disappeared and many have been killed by the Russian regime.” A common thread is emerging in those areas, he noted. Only the Russian Orthodox Church is allowed to remain. Religions and “any foreign religious influences” are being removed from the nation.
Russians are Torturing Ukrainian Christians
STEVEN MOORE NOV 27, 2023
Protestants are 4% of Ukraine's population but account for a third of the cases of persecution by the Russians...As one example, a Pentecostal pastor in occupied Kherson region was abducted along with his 19 year old son. Eyewitnesses to the abduction say the soldiers told the pastor “Your church has no right to exist, as it has connections with America.” Their bodies turned up four days later, almost too mutilated to be identified.
An evangelical Christian pastor from Luhansk was held by Russians for 25 days, tortured with electrical shocks and being beaten with a baseball bat. He says a Russian Orthodox priest was present during his torture and tried to cast the demons out of him in an exorcism that included a taser.
Protestants are targeted disproportionately. While Protestants make up about 4% of the Ukrainian population, they comprise more than a third of the documented incidents of Russian persecution.
Baptists are particularly hard hit. The Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary reports the loss of some 400 Baptist congregations since the beginning of the full scale Russian invasion.
Russians associate Protestants, particularly evangelicals, with the United States and think they are American spies. The Russian Orthodox Church is a working arm of the Kremlin, so Russian troops assume that Baptist and Pentecostal ministers are working for the American government. They arrest them, torture them and sometimes murder them. - https://stevenmoore.substack.com/p/russians-are-torturing-ukrainian
Church leader Dimitry is familiar with fleeing from Russian persecution of Christians. During the course of his life it has happened not once, not twice – but on three occasions.The first of these was as a young man, when his family fled from the former Soviet Union. Years later, as a pastor, he was forced to leave the Crimea when the Russians took over that part of Ukraine. Last year it happened again, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine saw him once again suffering for his evangelical faith.
‘Lenin initially thought Christians were an asset; but eventually realised Christians were a problem. It was a difficult time under the Soviet Union; many people were killed. Christians were frequently targeted most because they always think freely: because they know the truth that sets you free. Communism is not just political: it is more of a religion – but a religion that hates God and his Son, Jesus Christ.’...
Charge: https://releaseinternational.org/we-hate-americans-evangelicals-and-nazis-and-you-are-all-three-r125/... in February 2022, Dmitry found himself – for the third time in his life – confronted by hostility, as the Russians began their invasion of Ukraine. ‘At 5.30am rockets came to our city. We all woke up and said, “It’s war.” Everything changed. Within a week our city looked like Armageddon. No gas, groceries, telephone lines, internet, electricity. It was crazy: in the middle of Europe! I had a church of 500 people. I had a business. I was doing good until the Russians came to free us up! They freed us from everything. Now we are completely free – we have nothing!’
In the Russian-dominated regions of Donetsk and Luhansk Dmitry was involved in running a rehabilitation centre. ‘The Russians took all of our workers there and put them in a basement. They spent almost a week there. They beat them and finally let them go, but they took the building, cars, everything.’..
On March 19 Dmitry himself was arrested. ‘ They searched the building; took everything: computers, data, everything. Then they put a black bag over my head and took me away.’...Dmitry spent a total of eight days in prison, in appalling conditions. ‘Every time they took me for interrogation they put a bag back over my head and dragged me through the corridors. Every day I thought it could be the last day of my life.’..
Although he could hear screams when other prisoners were being interrogated, Dmitry said the Lord gave him a peace in his heart during his time in custody. ‘I had no fear. It was supernatural. I began witnessing to them and talked about the Bible to them. I had a sleeping bag and a Bible. They said they had watched my sermons online. I said, “Good, let’s talk!...”’
After his arrest Christians were praying for him and Dmitry says those prayers were answered with a miracle when he was released. However, the secret police continued coming to his home and so, for his family’s safety, he made the decision to flee the country. ....From Poland Dmitry now serves and supports an underground network of churches in Melitopol where he once lived and pastored....
‘If people are to be changed they need Christ. Only Christ can change the problem. Until the end we will have more problems – and then Jesus will come. In the meantime we change a nation by changing a person – one by one. Our goal is not the nation; it is people.’
How Russia persecutes occupied Christians; Myroslava housing complex bombed....
Since the beginning of the war with Russia in 2014, Russian occupiers have put pressure on Protestant communities, while favoring Orthodox churches that were subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate and, in turn, to Moscow.... Church workers and pastors have been regularly summoned for interrogation in places like Donetsk, and there have been numerous cases of people disappearing.
Evangelical Christians, such as those of the Baptist denomination like Tymur, are frequently harassed by Russian authorities who consider them to be spies. Tymur ended up in captivity only because of a desire to help a friend. ...In the days prior, the Russians had repeatedly accused Tymur of being a spy. He knew he was taking a risk by seeking help. But rather than assist his friend, they detained him and began interrogating him.... "They saw my photos from [church] services, they probably realized that I was just an ordinary citizen,” he said. None of the photos would be useful for espionage purposes. “So the Russians just said ‘Run home.”
But one day their church was visited by more Russians. "They stopped the whole service and started checking [our] documents. But at that moment a heavy firefight started right in our yard. Ukrainian snipers shot them. We had dead soldiers lying in our yard for several days after that, and we didn't know what to do with them," Tymur said. "When the Russian soldiers came, they did not see it as a church, but as a kind of cult...
Another person who has experienced Russia’s disdainful attitude towards Protestants is Oleksandr Vaschinin. He has been a Protestant since childhood...."There were times when they said, 'You are Americans, this is an American church, this is not [a Russian] church. We said we have been in Ukraine for almost a hundred years. But no one believed us," Oleksandr Vaschinin said. And if someone disagreed with something, they could be taken to the basement, where they were tortured or abused, or imprisoned.
"We were treated like dogs. They beat us. Some were killed. Some disappeared. We had a pastor who was beaten very badly. One pastor from Horlivka [occupied Donetsk Region] was kept in prison for 21 days," Oleksandr Vaschinin recalls. The pastor stayed in Donetsk until the so-called Russian authorities forced everyone to get Russian passports. Vaschinin and most of the other pastors refused and decided to leave their hometown. - https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/how-russia-persecutes-occupied-christians
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