Servants of the Moscow ECB Church ask the President to ensure that the state protects the rights and freedoms of believers

Portal-Credo.ru publishes a letter dated August 14 from ministers of the Moscow Church of Evangelical Christian Baptists P.D. Peters and A.A. Kalyashin to President Putin. “We note with regret,” the letter says, “that in recent years, the gradual restriction of religious freedom and the formation of a negative image of “sects” have purposefully and significantly changed public opinion in relation to the believers of the ECB. This circumstance allows the authorities to move again from granting freedom of conscience to persecution of believers who do not just adhere to any religion, but confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior."

“For more than a year,” the ministers of the ECB church write, “contrary to the Constitution of Russia (Article 71, paragraph “c” and Article 72, paragraph “b”), normative documents in the field of human rights have been developed and implemented in the subjects of the state, aimed at restricting the freedom to preach the gospel.Such laws have already been adopted in the Belgorod, Magadan, Smolensk, Kursk regions, as well as in other subjects of the Russian Federation.Thus, the Duma of Moscow adopted in the first reading the norm of the Code of the City of Moscow on administrative offenses, which includes the following : "Violation of public order, expressed in pestering citizens for the purpose of ... religious agitation ... in public places - entails a warning or the imposition of an administrative fine on citizens in the amount of from one to three times the minimum wage" (Article 3.8.) .

In addition, we have learned that cases against believers of the ECB, collected and compiled during the years of repressions, have been raised again. We also learned that the relevant government authorities intend to begin to physically eliminate Christians who have or are potentially able to influence their fellow believers, so that they unswervingly adhere to the teachings of Jesus Christ and firmly stand on the positions of the independence of church from state.

From the experience of past years, we know that technical means, medicine, imitation of suicides, car accidents, accidents, etc. can serve quite effectively to achieve the goal."

The authors of the letter emphasize: "Our long-term service to God shows that the believers of the SC ECB do not touch upon issues that are within the competence of the state, therefore the only goal of the rising new wave of repression is to eradicate faith in Jesus Christ."

Therefore, ministers of the Baptist Church are asking "that the state should move from the encroachment on the rights and freedoms of a citizen and a person organized at the state level to the protection of these rights in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of Russia."

Sources

• DOCUMENT: Letter from Ministers of Unregistered Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches to End State Violations of Human Rights // Portal-Credo.ru. 2006. October 30.