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23-Jul-2002

Mission Network News reports these incidents of believers being persecuted.

India:

Nationals evangelize in spite of persecution.

Hindus continue to try to getChristians to renounce their faith in Christ and turn to Hinduism. Asviolence against Christians continues, Dayspring International’s JohnGilman says it’s not having an impact on their work. "This movie, actedwith all Indian actors telling the story of Jesus in the language andculture of the people is that they are comfortable and they don’t feelthat it’s an invasion or a foreign Gospel and so the feelings are notstirred up. So, maybe that’s the reason we’re experiencing reception." Gilman doesn’t believe the reconversion effort will be successful. He saysthey’re raising money to support additional film teams. "We can equip ateam with all the equipment they need for about $4,500.and then thesupport for the team for the first year is $5,000. When we figure up allthe costs it might be about 10-cents per person to reach them."

Uganda:

Gospel workers robbed!

African media reports say armed thugs robbed a group ofChristian missionaries returning from a preaching mission this pastweekend in Luweero district, Uganda. A generator, screen bag, filmprojector, personal effects and money were taken from the victims. No onewas reported injured. Authorities are looking into another incident in thesame area that involved the arson of a bus, but aren’t sure if the two arerelated. Please continue to pray for the safety of those in evangelisticwork in Uganda.

India:

Christians forced to reconvert.

More than five-thousand Christians have been reconverted toHinduism in India by the militant group known as the VHP. VWorld The VHPis an organization that is increasingly being supported for itsanti-Christian activities by expatriate Hindus from Britain and the UnitedStates. According to Compass Direct, the latest reconversion drive saw 143tribal people reconvert. Christian leaders say intimidation and violenceare used to force the conversions. Hindus are recruiting more people tohelp in this anti-Christian program.

Please go to http://www.mnnonline.org to learn about mission work and to hear a weekday news broadcast.

The Voice Of The Martyrs has the following stories to report.

Indonesia:

Attacks on Christians Raise Fear of Retaliation.

Mob violence has struck again in Indonesia, with several Christians injured and homes destroyed. Christian Aid Mission reported that, on July 12, 10 Christians were travelling by vehicle to Ruku, near Tobelo on the northern Halmahera Island when they were attacked by a mob of around 300 people armed with rocks and machetes. The driver was struck several times, but managed to get away. No one was killed, but several were injured and admitted to hospital in Tobelo. Nearby, the village of Tolonuo on a small island two kilometres from Tobelo also came under attack. Though the village was guarded by the Brawijaya 512 (a division of military from East Java), it was reported that the military watched passively and did nothing to protect the Christians or their property. The Christians fled the village in canoes, but it was reported that one family was left behind. There is no news on the fate of that family. When the villagers fled, the Muslim mob looted and destroyed the homes. While Christians have not retaliated for these and similar attacks, church leaders in Tobelo are concerned that the fear and anger could lead to a violent response. Any action could give militant Muslim groups justification to attack.

Pakistan:

Witnessing for Christ from Death Row.

Though locked in solitary confinement awaiting a death sentence, Ayub Masih has found ways to continue serving the Lord. Though he has little contact with other prisoners, in part for his own protection, he has found ways of ministering to others around him. According to a July 11 news release from Open Doors USA, Ayub told his family recently that as a result of conversations, Bible reading and prayer with a fellow prisoner, Ashraf Masih, "Ashraf has accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord." Ayub has designed a system with mirrors so they can see each other while Ayub reads his Bible and prays with Ashraf. Ayub has also been writing extensively about his spiritual journey, including several of his favourite scriptures such as "Love your enemies";

"God works all things together for good to those who love Him";

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything." In 1998, Ayub Masih was sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. His appeals have repeatedly been denied and his case is presently before the Pakistani Supreme Court.

Georgia:

Church Groups Attacked by Mobs.

Two Orthodox priests led an attack on a Russian-speaking Pentecostal church in the Nadzaladevi district of Tbilisi over the weekend, resulting in several people being beaten. "They arrived to blockade the house on Friday evening," the daughter of Pastor Nikolai Kalutsky told Keston Institute. "On Saturday, incited by the priests, the mob of about thirty or forty people burst into the house, beat people, frightened the children, stole Bibles, rummaged through people’s bags and uttered very many threats - to the believers and to our family." Unlike similar attacks in the past, the police arrived to intervene and help the people. In a separate incident, a mob led by two Orthodox priests attacked a Catholic pilgrimage in eastern Georgia on July 3. They told the pilgrims that they had no right to walk in their diocese. The headquarters of a leading human rights organization in Tbilisi was also attacked. According to eyewitnesses, ten to fifteen young men walked into the headquarters of Liberty Institute around 2:30 p.m. on July 10. Without saying a word, they severely beat the director and other staff and smashed computers, furniture and other equipment. While the Liberty Institute is not a Christian organization, they have been working vigorously to confront the religious mob violence and intolerance that has led to many attacks on non-Orthodox groups in the country.

Latvia:

Police Question Activities of Church Leaders.

The head of the Confessional Lutheran Church in Latvia, Gundars Bakulis,has raised concerned about a "dangerous precedent" of police questioning of leaders of local congregations about their activity. According to Keston Institute, this church group has been denied registration as a "religious association" under Latvia’s religion law, but instead has the lesser status of a "new religious movement", which requires registration to be renewed every year for the first ten years. Acting under instructions from the Religious Affairs Board of the Interior Ministry, police interviewed Bakulis as well as lay members of the church. Ringolds Balodis, the head of the Religious Affairs Board, told Keston that he had no knowledge of any police questioning of Confessional Lutheran leaders and he denied that there was any demand that the municipal authorities or the police question individual members of such communities. "We don’t ask them to go and ask questions." However, police showed Bakulis a letter from the Board asking for very detailed information. While the police were polite, actions such as this raise concerns about government interference in this former Soviet republic. The lay members were also quite upset about having police coming to their homes to interview them.

Please go to http://www.persecution.net to learn more about Christians being persecuted around the world and practical suggestions on what can be done to help them.

Keston News Service reports these incidents of persecution.

Serbia - Kosovo:

Arson Attack After Monastery Liturgy.

Soon after Serbian Orthodox priests and monks left a ruined monasteryin south western Kosovo where they had conducted the liturgy, twosurviving monastery buildings were set on fire by unknown attackers.The 14 July liturgy was also disrupted by abuse from local people. Itwas the first service held at the site of the demolished church in themonastery at Zociste (Zozishte in Albanian) in the three years sinceYugoslav forces withdrew from Kosovo and the monastery was largelydestroyed. As part of an international plan to support the return ofexpelled Serbs to the area, the site is due for reconstruction. Thelocal Serbian Orthodox bishop has complained, however, about a letter he has received from the peacekeeping force KFOR saying security forthe reconstruction of the monastery cannot be guaranteed. A leadingOrthodox monk in Kosovo claimed to Keston News Service that the firein the monastery is "a clear message from the local population".

Turkmenistan:

Imam Joins Moves to Deport Baptists.

State officials were joined by the imam of the Muslim community in theCaspian port of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk) when they visitedthe homes of two Baptist families on 14 July to order theirdeportation from Turkmenistan, local Baptists reported in a statementreceived by Keston News Service. Nadezhda Potolova (and her fourchildren) and Valentina Kalataevskaya (and the six of her seven children still living at home) were told they must leave the countrywithin a month, as they were not citizens of Turkmenistan and their residence permits had been revoked. In June 2001 the women’s husbandswere deported to neighbouring Kazakhstan, but they managed to remain behind, with their children. The deportation moves come as conditionsfor Protestant churches in Turkmenistan are reported to have eased recently.

Russia:

Court Authorises Use of Secret Filming in Churches.

The lawyer for a Protestant church in the town of Kostroma,370 kilometres (230 miles) from Moscow, has condemned a court rulingwhich has once again given the go-ahead for a suit to liquidate thechurch based on secretly-filmed footage of a religious service. Theregional public prosecutor has been seeking to have the Kostroma Christian Centre closed down for what he claims is the use of hypnosisduring services. "This is a dangerous precedent," the church’s lawyer,Vladimir Ryakhovsky, told Keston News Service on 12 July. He said theSlavic Centre for Law and Justice, of which he is a director, intendedto lodge a complaint in the Russian Supreme Court against the decisionto declare secret recordings of services admissible as "a scandalousviolation of citizens’ privacy".

Russia:

Diverse Opposition to Measures Outlawing ‘Religious Extremism’.

Approved by the upper house of the Russianparliament on 10 July and currently awaiting the signature ofPresident Vladimir Putin, "On Counteracting Extremist Activity" isprovoking vehement, albeit low-level, criticism from diverse quarters(see KNS 3 July 2002). At a round table in Moscow on 8 July, some 20representatives of a variety of public spheres as remote from oneanother as the Orthodox "patriotic" movement and the radicalunderground press declared the law to be "anti-democratic andanti-constitutional". Particular concern has been expressed about thedefinition of extremist activity as "the propaganda of exclusivity,superiority or inferiority of citizens on account of their attitudetowards religion". "Any religious organization considers its doctrineto be the true one," one lawyer told Keston News Service, "and a stateofficial might find incitement to religious discord in that".

Russia:

Latvian-Based Pastor is Latest Visa Victim.

Latvian-based Protestant pastor Aleksei Ledyayev’s one-yearmulti-entry Russian visa was abruptly cancelled on 7 June by border guards as he tried to enter Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.Like two Catholic clerics, Bishop Jerzy Mazur and Father StefanoCaprio, whose valid visas were summarily revoked in April, PastorLedyayev he has been unable to discover how he ended up on Russia’sentry blacklist. An official of Russia’s Federal Security Service, theFSB, declined to discuss such visa denials with Keston News Service,insisting that his organization does not maintain a "blacklist".Keston has also learned that in the early summer several U.S. citizenswho had been working with religious visas with a Protestant church ina town in European Russia had their visa renewal applications turneddown without explanation.

Please go to http://www.keston.org to learn more about religious persecution in communist and post-communist lands.

Yours,

Bruce Atchison: electronic music composer, writer, Jesus freak, and lover of rabbits. Please visit my site at http://gideon.www2.50megs.com Dominion Day Enterprises, P.O. Box 188, Radway, Alberta, Canada, T0A 2V0.

email: ve6xtc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca

   

email: ve6xtc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca