Posted on 12/27/2001 11:37:09 AM PST by The Truth Will Make You Free
Report #1 (12/17/01)
"We were informed today by the local municipality that we will be given formal notice next Tuesday or Wednesday that our church building is illegal (not conforming to local zoning laws) and that we will be given 7 days to bring ourselves into conformity or else be shut down! Two newly opened buildings in other provinces were sealed this week and a couple of Turkish pastors questioned about their status by Turkish security officers."
"We were among the earliest fellowships to follow this process and have met openly for 10 years now, with full government awareness and tacit acceptance (for example, written permission from the government and police protection for showings of the Jesus Film, collecting tax from us as a "church," exempting us from water bills, and changing identity cards on the basis of documents issued by our church). But now the growing number of groups as well as unwise approaches by some groups have prompted the government to abandon their passive attitude and move to close down at least some of our buildings, beginning with ours. They are seeking to find and use laws that somehow may fit our situation, since there are really no direct laws dealing with the establishing of a church and opening of a church building."
"Accompanying this government action have been some major media coverage of "missionary" and evangelistic work, which has been wildly presented (as usual) as covert attempts to undermine the Turkish Republic and regain this land for Christendom! Two Turkish national pastors went on a widely-watched national talk show, and openly presented themselves and their calling. They represented the national believers with dignity and God-given patience under severe hassling by journalists, a turncoat former "believer" and a theologian from an Islamic seminary. The legal basis for this action will have to be contested immediately by a lawyer on behalf of national churches, and Turkish believers may need to petition the government to show them a different route unless they are going to blatantly deny them their constitutional rights to worship freely and spread their faith! But first and most importantly we are beginning to petition the High King of Heaven and ask you to join us in this."
Report #2 (12/24/01)
It all started when the TV here did several shows about the Chr. Faith in late Nov. and Dec. Each time they had one or two pastors on the defense chair being targeted by the TV host and other "experts" on the prevailing faith. They tried to couch it all in one religion being valid and the other invalid, but they really were just using political clout. It was strange to see this uprising especially when the whole of the West is looking closely at the radical side of this religion.
Some have said this was all prompted by the recent annual month of fasting and the zealous desire for the more radical faithful to rise to prominence and gain more power. We know the real force behind all this. These shows set things off within the gov’t and soon churches were being visited again. Several were closed down and eventually almost all, including us, received official gov’t notice that their validity and right to exist was in question. Surprisingly even the one church in this city and country which has achieved official standing after a couple of years of legal appeals and much money spent was served notice.
A second round of visits were made to get statistical information and it was learned that on Dec. 29 there will be a meeting of the gov’t heads to decide what to do and what status to give. The encouraging thing in all this is that this time there are many Turkish believers who are not in fear, although some have reacted in fear canceling everything and hoping that it will all go away somehow. But many are saying this is actually good because for years there have been laws granting foreigners a right to worship, but no such laws existed for Turkish believers. Now they hope this will change with the upcoming meeting. This past week the ***** Church met. There was a lawyer present to answer questions. He feels they have a good case to present to the gov’t. The agreement is the Church will pool the resources and retain the lawyer to take the case to the gov’t. ***** and I have decided this is the best way.
Welcome to California "truth" ... er-uh
oh, I see now this was Turkey... another nation's zoning laws... NONE Of my business. This ain't persecution in Turkey anymore than it is here in California...
Humbly yours in Christ,
Dr. S
(nothing new- Turkish government closed permanently (destructed) 500 churches in Occcupied Cyprus since 1974 but this is no news in multi-culti world of "peaceful" muslims)
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