Religious persecution is being ushered into Russia under the package of the new anti-terrorism laws which will go into effect on July 20, 2016. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed legislation which was passed in the Duma, the Russian upper house, almost unanimously on Friday, and in the lower house, the Federation Council, late in June.
Although the Russian Protestant minority—”estimated around 1 percent of the population—prayed, fasted, and sent petitions to President Vladimir Putin,” the President ignored their voices and adopted the measure.
“Most evangelicals—leaders from all seven denominations—have expressed concerns,” Sergey Rakhuba, president of Mission Eurasia and a former Moscow church-planter, told CT. “They’re calling on the global Christian community to pray that Putin can intervene and God can miraculously work in this process.”
Opponents of the measure hope that the legislation will be repealed in court or that elected officials will amend the law.
The proposed laws, considered the country’s most restrictive measures in post-Soviet history, place broad limitations on missionary work, including preaching, teaching, and engaging in any activity designed to recruit people into a religious group.
To share their faith, citizens must secure a government permit through a registered religious organization, and they cannot evangelize anywhere besides churches and other religious sites. The restrictions even apply to activity in private residences and online.
How the legislation will be enforced is yet to be seen, but the religious persecution that will occur is inevitable.
Sergei Ryakhovsky, head of the Protestant Churches of Russia, and several other evangelical leaders called the law a violation of religious freedom and personal conscience in a letter to Putin posted on the Russian site Portal-Credo. The letter reads, in part:
The obligation on every believer to have a special permit to spread his or her beliefs, as well as hand out religious literature and material outside of places of worship and used structures is not only absurd and offensive, but also creates the basis for mass persecution of believers for violating these provisions.
Under Stalin, religious restrictions included the outlawing of all religious activity that was other than Sunday services and only in registered churches. Parents were banned from teaching their faith to their children. Until the collapse of the Soviet Union, this law remained in effect. It has resurfaced again in the form of the anti-terrorism measure.
How this new law will be implemented is yet to be seen and some question if the government will actually implement it fully, but others have a more grim perspective.
“I don’t think you can overestimate the Russian government’s willingness to exert control,” Aikman told Christianity Today. If history is any indication, the proposed regulations reveal a pattern of “creeping totalitarianism” in the country, he said.
The anti-evangelism law carries fines up to US $780 for an individual and $15,500 for an organization. Foreign visitors who violate the law face deportation.
The “foreign agent” law, which was adopted in Russia in 2012, demands that groups from abroad complete detailed paperwork on their activities, which is subject to government raids and audits. The result has been a shrinking of one-third of the NGO groups that once were a part Russia.
“In Moscow, we shared an office with 24 organizations. Not a single foreign expatriate mission is there now,” Rakhuba previously told CT. “They could not re-register. Missionaries could not return to Russia because they could not renew their visas. It is next to impossible to get registration as a foreign organization today.”
Christian persecution is on the rise world wide, and Russia is no stranger to killing Christians, like Ivan Moiseyev, or sending them to prison, as Richard Wurmbrand experienced under communism.
“They say, ‘If it will come to it, it’s not going to stop us from worshiping and sharing our faith,’” he wrote. “The Great Commission isn’t just for a time of freedom.”
Source: Christianity Today
The only way to guarantee no mosques are getting built by the Daesh
And that is what Putin is trying to do. its a shame he has to throw out the baby with the bathwater but without the backing of the Orthodox Church he won’t succeed here. Without a strongman at the helm, Russia will not survive. Russia dosen’t do democracy. The fact is, Russian society is not ready for freedom and the kinds of things the West is used to, they are only 60 years away from Stalin and until you instil in a society a way to control THEMSELVES, they will need external control. Why do you think liberals push promiscuity, perversion and encourage lawlessness? The less control people have over their own behavior, the more external control is justified. With a re-surgeance of Christian values and morals and societal strictures, hopefully the up and coming generation will be less addicted to alcohol, more work-oriented, have more pride and self esteem.
Chuck Sanders you are so full of it. Stop spreading manure. What in Trump’s background makes you think he dosen’t want freedom? Obumba and Killary-who put down Christians every time they turn around-THEY are the ones to fear! Who was it said….’you angry people, with your guns and your Bibles…’ well thanks to Mr. Trump I am going to keep BOTH. Libtard.
Josie Tyner I don’t believe the baby has to go out with the bathwater in Russia, but maybe so?
The way he praises dictators both living and dead. I think he is an opportunist con-man, and now a want to be dictator himself. I have plenty of guns and Bibles.
Well..maybe so…Sure does follow inline With The Gobalism and One World Order. Once We remove God from our Life. It’d pretty much over !
That is so wrong. Is he afraid?
There will be no persecution.
In Western World, to be Christian – Orthodox only means to be isolated as a mad person and possible terrorist – this is the culture of re;igious persecution; cannot dislpay the Cross, cannot wear barb without being assimilated to possible terrorist.
The Orthodox sites are under permanent surveillance…
All the culture is directed toward hedonistic life and the spirituality is now covered hinduism /yoga “friendly” and devoted.
Don’t tell me that Papacy and its Sects are part of the Christianity – they left the True Faith one thousand year ago and invented a theocracy and derived philosophies without The LOrd, against The Lord by stealing ideas, dresiing, symbols and simulating some rituals – all are part of idolatry, the pray to the human and to the matter and not to the Lord.
They say about Wurmbrand – he was saved not to die in prison by a orthodox romanian who died by giving him the medication…
Why did not Wurmbrand give him his portion to help him survive?
… because the Orthodox was Christian and the sectarian was not… and he could testify how generous is a real Christian, not the joy to survive and talk…
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All the sects and Papacy are struggling to change people’s mnd, in order to leave the Christian faith, to be dirty as them by changing the Teaching and the Tradition.
This is the reason why these heretics and pagans want to enjoy “the freedom of conscience”…
They do not work to help, to improve, to adjust their infamies and perversions but to destroy the true beliefs.
This is the real face of the “freedom of conscience” coming from outside Orthodox world.
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The non-Christian propmotors do not believe in the eternal heavenly life, they wnt you to build your “heaven” in the biological life and are tempting people with hidden traps taught by many slaves of the demons like the Popes, Luther, Methodius, Hus, Copernic, Bruno, Galileus, Darwin, Nietzsche, Jung, … Buddha, all “Lama”-s, Krishna (and all Sri and… “-ananda”-s, Mohammad, shamans and [too] many liars.
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If you want “freedom” – leave Satan and change your life according to the Ortodox Christianity – only way to avoid the Hell.