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special news
Russian Connection BREAKING
NEWS Received
December 29, 2005
The
Latest Update from Pastor Vsevolod Lytkin in Novosibirsk, Siberia,
Russia:
Dear Brothers
and Sisters in Christ,
We apologize
that at the time of Christmas holidays we have to inform you about sad things,
but it seems that new persecutions of the Lutherans have started in Khakassia.
You probably
heard that local government have already tried to close our mission several
years ago, and it was closed, but the Supreme Court of Russian Federation has
reversed the judgment of the court in Khakassia. These were very difficult times
for us: Tuim major and policemen visited the houses of the Lutherans, trying
to make them deny Christian faith, there were many court processes of different
level in Khakassia. (See for example: http://en.rlinfo.ru/litigation/1999/khakassia-luth.html)
So just before
Christmas time the official newspaper of the government of the Republic of Khakassia
published an “interview” with the government representative Nikolai
Volkov . S ome parts of this preposterous “interview” we
quote to you below.
_________________
Newspaper
“Khakassia” ? 238, December 16 th , 2005
A PUPPET
IN KATERNAYA STREET
Nikolai
Volkov: St. Luke Church ,
<…> is a structure, similar to “our” Lutherans, and it is carrying out
the disruptive politics. It is already the third structure with its center,
located in Novosibirsk . In contrast to German Lutherans, there are
quite a lot of Russians.
“Journalist”:
Why is that so?
Nikolai
Volkov: <...> This
new structure is sponsored by a scandalously famous American Lutheran Church
“Missouri Synod”. This structure is supported through the Evangelical Church
of Estonia by the infamous organizations in the United States. The Church
is small, but it is very well financed! Pavel Zayakin is a boss here, at our
place. (By the way, all pastors studied in America and Estonia.)
There is
another interesting fact: guests from “Missouri Synod” of the U.S.A. once visited
Tuim (in 1999 Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Zayakin was registered in Tuim).
Missionaries in Tuim were occupied not only with preaching… Certain forces would
not waste their money, so they are the ones who “pay the piper”. <…>
“Journalist”:
But Tuim is godforsaken place today …
Nikolai
Volkov: This is exactly the reason!
Zayakin, for example, once wrote that in the Chyornoe Ozero village people
“eat mixed fodder, which is fertilizer” (how do you like it, ah?). I quote,
“In such circumstances humanitarian aid in combination with the Word of the
Gospel can influence the broadest strata of poor population”. I suppose, you
get the idea now? They recruit people not only through faith, but through material
bribery. They have sources. Also, today in the town of Sorsk, which is slowly
becoming a tramp place, “religious” emissaries, sponsored by the West, are actively
and industriously recruiting the followers. They are busy proselytizing, taking
on adepts from other confessions. As there are almost no people left, who stay
indifferent to faith today, they pull them over from other “faiths”. <…>
Martin Luther
was a Catholic monk with the right to interpret the Bible. I will not get into
details here for the sake of saving paper space. I will only say that he found
the way to interpret the Scripture “in the necessary way”. He found Paul's saying
that a person is justified by faith independently of the existing authorities.
<…>
“Journalist”:
There is no more need to
drop a nuclear bomb on Russia. Information warfare is sufficient enough to change
our mentality, in addition to everything, is that right?
Nikolai
Volkov: Yes, their moral teaching
has turned Christianity upside down. A man, according to their teaching, is
saved by his activity; so it means that the more he works, the better he is
for God. Consequently, the more money he makes, the more he is loved by God.
Money have become the proof of successful work; the measure, the equivalent
of what a man is worth.
For example,
American mentality is based on Puritanism, which makes a man a cheapskate: “there
are no extra $20 in my budget on my mother's treatment”. Their children pay
them back with the same kind of attitude. As a result, there is an extreme individualism
(“My house is my fortress”).
Remember that it is possible to “successfully”
demoralize a nation with the help of religion, which is oftentimes an ideology.
Mentality of all people is mostly determined by religion, whether we want it
or not. Russian mentality is a soul (priority of a soul, the needs of a soul),
and it is determined by Russian Orthodox Church.
So this is
the kind of “St. Luke” in Katernaya Street. <…>
Editors:
Zayakin and his company engage young
recruits into the church with quite a lot of resourcefulness. For example, they
enlist them into a Boy Scout club “Vershina”, saying, “Come into the building
of the Lutheran Church to find out more”. Sometimes
(and, most probably, always) missionaries from the West “have to turn into”
whatever necessary just to entice young people into their financial and political
“worship”.
_________________
A full version of the article (in Russian
language) is available at request.
SELC has already
requested the Federal Security Service to protect her from the incursion
on the civil rights of the believers.
There is a
possibility that we will have to face new court trials, because, as a rule,
such statements made by local governments are usually followed by actions. We
are especially concerned about possible acts of vandalism in connection to the
church building by those people, who treat newspaper articles too seriously.
“But let none
of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other
people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed,
but let him glorify God in this matter” (1 Peter 4: 15-16).
Please, pray
for the Lutherans in Khakassia.
“Faith and
Hope”
Photocopy
of the article in the government newspaper of Khakassia is in attachment.
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