Letters to the Editor

I continue to appreciate the timely articles that come out in the East-West Church & Ministry Report. In the last two years we have been observing a tightening of the reins around religions not sanctioned by the state in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. The new tactics being used include administrative restrictions which are generally not viewed as violating religious rights, namely visa cancellations or denials to foreign workers, refusal to register valid visas and limiting them to three months, undue scrutiny by tax police of indigenous religious organizations, restrictions on transfer of funds to indigenous agencies from abroad, non-prosecution of hate crimes, slanted media coverage, fines, delaying registration of religious organizations, etc.

These restrictions are often applied selectively, which only confirms the suspicion that they were "ordered from above." Individually, each administrative measure may not amount to much, but taken together they are like the threads that bound Gulliver and made the sleeping giant immobile.

A missionary who prefers to remain anonymous

I enjoyed reading Bradley Nassif's article on what Orthodox believers can learn from Evangelicals--see East-West Church and Ministry Report 11 (Spring 2003), 3-4. Not many people in that tradition have the courage and humility to admit to this. The same is true in the opposite direction.

Danut Manastireanu, World Vision, Romania

Letters to the Editor, East-West Church & Ministry Report 11 (Fall 2003), 11.

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© 2003 East-West Church and Ministry Report
ISSN 1069-5664