MOSCOW — Jimmy Carter has written a personal letter to the president of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, praising him for his commitment to religious freedom.
The former U.S. president’s letter, published April 2 on the front page of a Georgian government newspaper, Sakartvelos Respublika, came in response to Shevardnadze’s strongest show yet of support for the lawless country’s embattled Christian minorities.
Shevardnadze, a strong supporter of the country’s dominant Georgian Orthodox Church, attended a March 14 ecumenical Christian prayer service held in the Baptist church in the capital, Tbilisi, and spoke of the importance of tolerance and religious freedom, according to Baptist Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili in an April 8 telephone interview.
The Georgian president’s statement was especially significant because it came two months after a mob of militant Orthodox Christians attacked the Baptist church during a previous attempt to hold an ecumenical service.
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