Members of Protestant churches in Belarus held services of prayer and fasting June 15 and 16 in response to a sweeping new religion draft law that was preliminarily approved by Belarus’ parliament in May. The law is similar to current laws enforced in Russia and other former communist countries in requiring religious groups to register with the government and meet certain guidelines.
In order to register with the government under the law, religious organizations would be required to have at least 20 members or to have existed for at least 20 years. Ales Velichko, a spokesman for the Union of Evangelical Christians, told the Associated Press that between 30 and 40 percent of Belarus’ Protestant congregations can’t meet these requirements because of their small size. Others were established during the 1990s after the Soviet regime collapsed and have not met the age restriction. These groups would be forced to disband or face possible persecution under the law.
The draft law also requires that all religious material slated for distribution within Belarus be examined by “experts” before dissemination. “Isn’t that censorship?” asked Bishop Leonid Tsvitsky, leader of the Lutheran Church in Belarus. Lutheran congregations under Tsvitsky would cease to exist if the law is approved by the parliament. “It shouldn't be adopted and I hope it won’t,” he told Keston News Service.
Debating the law
Parliament members are still debating the merits of the draft law. The Associated Press quoted one member of parliament the law is necessary to keep out Western preachers who “creep into Belarus and discredit our Slavic values.” Another declared it unconstitutional and said it would ban certain Jewish and Protestant congregations.
Ivan Pashkevich, a member of the parliament’s human rights commission, told Keston that the law would go even further by banning nonregistered groups from running schools, educational activities and charitable work. Members of minority faiths, including Muslims and Jews, are joining with Protestants to call for a halt to the bill. Leaders of four Christian denominations specifically called for prayer in a statement released June 7, reported Keston.
“If this law passes its second reading and is signed by the country’s president, many of our congregations will have great difficulties in passing the obligatory re-registration,” said leaders of Baptist, Pentecostal, Adventist and Full Gospel churches.
The leaders noted the draft law gives the Russian Orthodox Church a privileged position in the eyes of the state.
“A range of political figures are promoting the need to strengthen the legal recognition of a determining role of the Orthodox Church in the historical setup and development of spiritual, cultural and state traditions of the Belarusian nation,” the leaders wrote. (EP)
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