{"id":129,"date":"2011-03-30T17:05:47","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T21:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/?p=129"},"modified":"2011-05-22T17:37:12","modified_gmt":"2011-05-22T21:37:12","slug":"russian-parliament-considers-new-restrictions-on-christian-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/03\/russian-parliament-considers-new-restrictions-on-christian-literature.html","title":{"rendered":"Russian parliament considers new restrictions on Christian literature"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_133\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-133\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/217\/2011\/03\/russia-st-basils.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-133\" title=\"russia st basil's\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/217\/2011\/03\/russia-st-basils.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"252\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-133\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Basil&#39;s Cathedral in Moscow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Claiming to be afraid that too many religious groups are &#8220;actively propagandizing their religious views,&#8221; a committee of the Russian parliament is considering a bill that would restrict who can pass out religious literature.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters of the law claim that the regulations\u00a0merely clarify existing restrictions in Russia&#8217;s controversial 1997 Religion Law.<\/p>\n<p>For 70 years, the Soviet Union was officially atheistic and hostile to\u00a0religion.<\/p>\n<p>Under the 1990 Constitution, Russians\u00a0had been free to worship as they wished. Then in\u00a01997,\u00a0Russians&#8217; newfound\u00a0freedoms were restricted by\u00a0a new\u00a0Religion Law which was aimed at\u00a0halting the growth of\u00a0the Hare Krishnas, Scientologists, Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses, Mormons and a number of cults. The 1997 law:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>specifically protected the Russian Orthodox Church as an &#8220;inalienable part of Russian historical, spiritual and cultural heritage,&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>denied faith groups &#8220;all-Russian status&#8221; unless they have been in existence for 50 years, have congregations in at least half of Russia&#8217;s provinces or have at least 100,000 members in the country,<\/li>\n<li>denied rights to any religious group that has not been operating in Russia for at least 15 years, limiting their rights to publish literature, worship in public places, invite foreign guests, lease buildings, establish schools, have bank accounts, hire employees, obtain military deferments for their clergy or own property,<\/li>\n<li>gave second-class status to\u00a0such faiths as Buddhism, Islam and Judaism,<\/li>\n<li>banned activity by foreign\u00a0missionaries without invitations from Russian organizations,\u00a0and<\/li>\n<li>permited suppression\u00a0of\u00a0religious groups\u00a0that promote &#8220;religious dissension&#8221;&#8216; or harm the morality or health of the people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_137\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-137\" style=\"width: 344px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/217\/2011\/03\/russia-christians.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-137\" title=\"russia christians\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/217\/2011\/03\/russia-christians.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"344\" height=\"232\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-137\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Evangelical Russian Christians<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The new\u00a0legal amendments would ban anyone except registered religious organizations from distributing religious literature.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Some do not think the draft will be adopted,&#8221; reports Felix Corley of Forum 18, a Norway-based religious rights group,\u00a0&#8220;but it has aroused concern from human rights defenders and some religious communities. Similar proposals have regularly been made, but this is the first time to Forum 18&#8217;s knowledge that such a proposal has had initial Committee backing.<\/p>\n<p>Alexander Verkhovsky, director of the Moscow-based Sova Center, which monitors religious freedom violations, says that the proposal violates Russia&#8217;s Constitution &#8212; and that his group is campaigning against it.<\/p>\n<p>If approved by the committee, then by whole Duma, the\u00a0new restrictions would need to be then approved by parliament&#8217;s upper house, the Federation Council. Then they would have to\u00a0 be signed by President Dmitry Medvedev before becoming law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Claiming to be afraid that too many religious groups are &#8220;actively propagandizing their religious views,&#8221; a committee of the Russian parliament is considering a bill that would restrict who can pass out religious literature. Supporters of the law claim that the regulations\u00a0merely clarify existing restrictions in Russia&#8217;s controversial 1997 Religion Law. For 70 years, the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,10,5,4,1],"tags":[53,67,69,117,119,122,113,112],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-pakistan","category-persecuted-christians","category-persecution","category-uncategorized","tag-blasphemy-law","tag-blasphemy-laws","tag-christian-children","tag-islam","tag-muslim","tag-news","tag-persecuted-christians","tag-persecution"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Russian parliament considers new restrictions on Christian literature - Pray for the Persecuted Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pray_for_the_persecuted_church\/2011\/03\/russian-parliament-considers-new-restrictions-on-christian-literature.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russian parliament considers new restrictions on Christian literature - Pray for the Persecuted Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Claiming to be afraid that too many religious groups are &#8220;actively propagandizing their religious views,&#8221; a committee of the Russian parliament is considering a bill that would restrict who can pass out religious literature. Supporters of the law claim that the regulations\u00a0merely clarify existing restrictions in Russia&#8217;s controversial 1997 Religion Law. 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