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News April 1998 | International Religious Liberty Association

Russians Passed Law Restricting Religious Freedom Because They’re ‘Scared of Sects,’ says Former Yeltsin Aide

Anatoly Krasikov used to be Boris Yeltsin’s press aide and advisor on religions. Now, as head of the Russian Chapter of the International Religious Liberty Association, he’s leading the opposition to the nation’s new and highly restrictive law on religion.

"A large proportion of the population is scared of sects--a term used to describe various denominations," says Krasikov. "This also explains why Parliament passed the law with such a large majority."

The impact of the law, formally adopted in September 1997, is magnified by an ongoing propaganda campaign against religious sects.

A well-coordinated, unified response from various religious organizations was clearly lacking, Krasikov noted during a March visit to IRLA headquarters in Silver Spring.

"The various religious groups took widely different positions on the legislation. The Christian churches varied in their reactions, with some accepting the legislation with reservations. This lack of unity compromised an effective response. But the Seventh-day Adventist Church maintained a clear and correct position of opposition all the way through," Krasikov commented.

Ultimately, IRLA-Russia, an organization composed of representatives of 59 religious groups, established a consensus of opposition based on support of the Russian Federation Constitution and various international declarations of human rights.

"Despite the implementation of the legislation, IRLA-Russia continues to oppose certain articles in the law--and we may have to go to the Constitutional Court," Krasikov said.

Krasikov cited instances of religious liberty restriction. In early March a Pentecostal group’s prayer meeting in a private home was disrupted by police in a Moscow suburb, action illegal even under the new law. The leader of the group was arrested, jailed for two days, and then told to sign a statement that he would never return to that town.

IRLA-Russia’s leader pleaded for more support for religious liberty in Russia and for greater communication with organizations supporting principles of freedom and democracy.

Krasikov worked for TASS, the Soviet press agency, for 37 years--including 14 as deputy director general.

Based on an Adventist News Network dispatch by Jonathan Gallagher.

NARLA Chief Encounters Limitations to Religious Liberty in Indonesia

Following a late-1997 sojourn in Indonesia, Clarence E. Hodges, president of the North American Religious Liberty Association, understands how religious liberty works in the fourth largest nation in the world.

"I was asked to conduct an evangelistic campaign of 12 evening meetings and two Sabbath-morning services," reports Hodges. "Government officials monitored my meetings. On two occasions police came for passport information. These moves were seen as efforts to harass or intimidate me. But it was a delight to work as requested. The Spirit of God blessed. More than 60 persons were baptized."

Indonesia has a population of approximately 200 million--90% Muslim. Hodges notes that Protestants are denied opportunities to build large churches because they do not have large memberships in any given community.

"Members of families are threatened with physical violence or social isolation if they convert from Islam to Christianity," Hodges observes. "Within the past year more than 50 Protestant churches have been burned with some loss of life. Photos were taken of these daylight events, but no one has been prosecuted. Now legislation has been proposed to make it a capital offense to convert from Islam to Christianity."

Before entering denominational service, Hodges was an officer with the U.S. Department of State. While he was in Indonesia, Hodges visited with the U.S. ambassador-- "an old friend from my days at the State Department. He confirmed some of the concerns expressed by church leaders regarding religious persecution."

IRLA-Russia Holds Annual Conference, Issues Statement on Human Rights

The Russian Chapter of the International Religious Liberty Association conducted its annual conference in Moscow on February 26. Theme of the meeting was "Freedom of Conscience: New Approaches and New Challenges." During the conference IRLA-Russia adopted an official statement and appeal. An abridged and edited version follows.

With deep satisfaction the Russian Chapter of the International Religious Liberty Association accepts and supports the decree of the President of the Russian Federation announcing 1998 as the Year of Human Rights. We are ready to help the President and the executive authorities of Russia in its realization.

This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. IRLA-Russia’s main goal is to give utmost assistance in the fulfillment of Articles 18 and 19 which guarantee each person and group the right to free thought, conscience, and belief, and the freedom to change religion or religious belief.

IRLA-Russia supports Article 29 of the Russian Federal Law: "Using his/her rights and freedoms, each person should be subject only to those restrictions which are established by the law exclusively in order to provide acceptance and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and satisfaction of just requirements of moral public order and public well-being in a democratic society."

However, participants in IRLA-Russia’s 1998 conference believe that Article 27 of the Federal law contradicts the Constitution on several points. We therefore appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation to investigate this law to see if it is in accordance with the Russian Constitution and the international conventions to which Russia subscribes.

IRLA-Russia is further concerned because of the failure of various regional and municipal governments to maintain the principles of freedom of conscience set forth in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. In nearly 30 regions of the Russian Federation, local legislation has been adopted, or is being prepared for adoption, which violates the rights of believers and violates the Constitution. In this context, it is necessary for the Russian Federation to establish a system of national review of the constitutionality of provincial and municipal legislation, especially in matters of freedom of conscience and the activities of religious organization.

IRLA-Russia notes that attempts to violate freedom of conscience often also come from representatives of the Federal Government itself. Such action does great harm to the cause of human rights and the freedom of conscience in Russia. We emphasize that the evaluation of alleged violations should be done in strict accordance with judicial procedures and with full consideration of the presumption of innocence.

The most important aspect of human rights is the right of freedom of conscience. The Year of Human Rights, as declared by the President, must not be limited to mere rhetorical assurances of state officers of their devotion to human rights. In his message to the Federal Assembly, Joint Efforts to Free Russia (1998), the President himself said: "Particular attention should be paid to the legislatively shaped Institute of Public Investigation."

IRLA-Russia is ready to provide to the President, the State Duma, the Federation Council, and the various ministries of the federation government information about violations of freedom of conscience. Additionally, IRLA-Russia is eager to cooperate more closely with the mass media. We propose to the national government television network the joint production of a series of programs about the roles of different religious organizations in society.

Finally, IRLA-Russia will continue to encourage peacemaking dialogue among activitists of different confessions.

‘ONE STEP TO HEALING AND WHOLENESS’
By Richard Lee Fenn

The mail from South Africa brought Michael Lapsley two religious journals--one English, one Afrikaans--in a single envelope. The mail from South Africa that day changed Michael Lapsley’s life forever. Wrapped within the magazines was a letter bomb. In a moment the white Anglican chaplain to the African National Congress lost his right eye and both hands.

Born in New Zealand, but a naturalized citizen of South Africa, the Rev. Michael Lapsley is chaplain and workshop director at the Capetown Trauma Center. At the precise moment he’s standing in front of an audience in the Church Center of the United Nations, just one floor up from IRLA’s New York office on UN Plaza.

As he tells the story of his journey from pacifism to armed struggle to healing and wholeness, Michael gestures with his prosthetic hooks as freely and naturally as he would with hands of flesh and blood and bone. He grabs a pen. With the right hook, he smooths down a flying rooster tail on the back of his head. The left he slides in and out of a pocket.

Michael must sense that at least some in the group do not know where to look and would not know what to say. They sit in a state of shocked confusion. They’re embarrassed; he’s not. Long stares or averted gazes--these are not a bother.

"I’m committed," he tells the non-governmental organization Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief, "to turning what happened into an act of redemption--to bring good out of evil."

When Michael Lapsley arrived in South Africa in the early 70s "apartheid was total. It defined every single aspect of existence. Whiteness defined my existence--not that I was a child of God.

"I was a convinced pacifist then. I preached pacifism. This is not a traditional Anglican position. Just look" (he says this with a wry twinkle) "at the war memorials in any Anglican church."

The problem with President de Klerk was that "he never saw apartheid as a moral call. It was a political issue to be negotiated." Consider, he urges, "the power of language. Acts against apartheid were called terrorism. But acts of naked violence by the state were acts in defense of law and order."

Then came Soweto. At the time, Lapsley was a national chaplain to students--black and white.

"My pacifism fell apart when I saw kids shot at Soweto by Bible-believing persons. I became an old fashioned Anglican--one in support of armed struggle."

Father Michael was expelled from his adopted country. "Freedom had to be for everybody--or nobody. So, outside of South Africa, up in Zimbabwe, I was for 16 years a chaplain to the African National Congress."

The cleric’s voice takes an edge. "I was bombed," he says, "because of my theology." He believes it was a deed of desperate cynicism simply because "it happened three months after the release of Nelson Mandela."

But he sheathes the edge as he evokes a philosophy of restorative justice:

"It’s concerned with relationship--the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. But retributive justice ignores relationship. It simply removes the perpetrator from society. This is" (again, the edge) "the American nightmare: Build more prisons, execute more people."

Lapsley quotes President Mandela on the question of the restoration of the death penalty in South Africa: "We will not even entertain the discussion."

Michael Lapsley returned to South Africa four years ago. He’s proud of the way the ANC has responded to accusations of its own violations of civil rights. "It set up a commission and the commission is saying, ‘Yes, these things are true. These things happened.’"

The Capetown Trauma Center sponsors workshops throughout South Africa to provide people with an opportunity to tell aloud what really happened--whether they go before the Truth Commission or not.

"There are no guarantees that the center’s workshops will make you clean," the chaplain says. "But we will guarantee this: It’s one step to healing and wholeness."

INFO BITS

* Poland’s ambassador to the U.S. was IRLA’s guest of honor at ceremonies early this month. Ambassador Jerzy Kozminski and Second Secretary Artur Harazim were conducted on a brief tour of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and hosted at a protocol luncheon.

* Dr. Courtney N. Blackman is the distinguished ambassador to the U.S. from Barbados, "gem of the Caribbean." He and the embassy’s news and information officer, Jasmin E. Hewitt (a Seventh-day Adventist) were guests of IRLA in April.

* Rafael Eduardo Noriega Fernandez visited IRLA offices in late March. Senor Noriega is the third secretary of the Cuban Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland.

* During an extensive tour of the U.S., Zha Ga, a scholar at the China Research Center for Tibetan Studies, looked at IRLA operations and asked questions about religious freedom in America.

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE IRLA

The IRLA has a branch United Nations Liaison Office: 777 UN Plaza, Room 9-H, New York, NY 10017-3585 USA; Phone (212) 687-6488.
The IRLA is represented at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
Executive Officer: John Graz, Secretary-General.
Statement of Purpose:
- To disseminate the principles of religious liberty throughout the world.
- To defend and safeguard the civil right of all people to worship, to adopt a religion or belief of their choice, to manifest their religious convictions in observance, promulgation, and teaching, subject only to the respect for the equivalent rights of others.
- To support the right of religious organizations to operate freely in every country by their establishing and owning charitable or educational institutions.
- To organize local, national, and regional chapters, as well as seminars and congresses.
Publication: LIBERTY Magazine, published bi-monthly.
Tax status: The IRLA is incorporated and tax exempt.
Principal function: The IRLA organizes world and regional religious liberty congresses:
- 1977 Amsterdam, Netherlands*
- 1984 Rome, Italy*
- 1986 New Delhi, India
- 1989 London, England*
- 1991 Nairobi, Kenya
- 1993 Moscow, Russia
- 1993 Suva, Fiji
- 1996 Moscow, Russia
- 1997 Moscow, Russia
- 1997 Budapest, Hungary
- 1997 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil*

(*Indicates world congresses)

QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK

Is this a religious organization? Chartered in 1893, the IRLA was originally organized by leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. On the board at the present time are religious liberty supporters who represent various religious traditions. The presidency rotates among the vice presidents of the IRLA. The purposes of the IRLA are nonsectarian. The president for 1989 was the former general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, and in 1991, the president was the general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance. Considerable progress has been made in the direction of the internationalization of the IRLA.

How is the IRLA financed? There is no paid staff of the IRLA. Those in the secretariat or on the board serve in a voluntary capacity. When it comes to the congresses of the IRLA, the funding comes form registration fees and appropriations from organizations supportive of the IRLA’s aims.