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admin 21 Января 2008 в 13:34:24
«Ибо и пророк и священник – лицемеры; даже в доме Моем Я нашел нечестие их». (Иер. 23, 11.)
Глядя со стороны, создается впечатление, что государственная администрация и сами американцы относятся к своей религии, как к девице по вызову: используют только тогда, когда им хочется и когда им надо. Обидные слова, не правда ли? Да, обидные, но правдивые. А правда, иногда, бывает не лестной. Факты подтверждают, что американская церковь постоянно выступает именно в этой роли не только внутри страны, но и глобально за ее пределами.
Парадоксально, что, подавляя истинную религиозную свободу в своей стране, американцы ревностно и с рвением насаживают ее почти во всех остальных странах мира. Америка критикует Россию за отказ регистрировать религиозные организации Свидетелей Иеговых. А сама она разве относится к ним лучше? В русском глазе соринку увидели, (видимо, хорошей оптикой ЦРУ снабдило), а в своем бревно не заметили (наверное, потому что подготовка слабая).
Какую религию они несут этим странам, уже знает весь мир.
«Иисус сказал им в ответ: берегитесь, чтобы кто не прельстил вас;
Ибо многие придут под именем Моим и будут говорить: «я Христос», и многих прельстят». (Мат. 24, 4-5).
Откуда же берется такое фанатичное рвение? Наверное, от солидного финансирования, если все миссии более чем в 120 странах мира безбедно функционируют годами. Надеюсь, вы не думаете, что все миссии финансируются своими приходами? Церквей в Америке не хватит даже на одну треть религиозных американских миссий за ее пределами.
Не из центров ли подготовки агентов ЦРУ и диверсионных групп выходят новоиспеченные священники – миссионеры, владеющие языками тех стран, где они находятся с миссией? Ведь очень не типично для американцев владеть иностранными языками. У них в отличие от русских второй язык в школах не преподают. Да, и в языковых вузах, по официальным данным американской прессы и личному опыту, методика преподавания находится на довольно низком уровне.
Я не хочу сказать, что все религиозные американские миссии за пределами США занимаются шпионажем. Есть священники, которые искренне верят и в Бога, и в то, что их помощь приносит облегчение страждущим в малоразвитых странах. Но, вспомните, в начале книги мы говорили о том, что иногда для прикрытия одного профессионального разведчика, в определенный регион иностранной страны может быть послано еще сто человек, инструктированных вести себя определенным образом, чтобы отвлечь внимание иностранных спецслужб на себя. Даже те миссии, которые уверены в том, что честно выполняют свой интернациональный долг, письменно отчитываются не перед своими религиозными лидерами, а перед государством.
Возьмем для примера американскую международную организацию “International Religious Freedom”. Она получает информацию от всех религиозных американских миссий за рубежом и публикует свои подробные ежегодные отчеты по каждой стране. Но эти отчеты опубликованы не на религиозных американских вебсайтах, а на сайте Государственного Департамента США.
Религия в Америке отделена от государства – это факт. Преподавание религиозных предметов в американских школах официально запрещено – это тоже факт. Поведение, связанное с религиозным самовыражением, в любой форме, в государственных учреждениях и даже в частных корпорациях является грубым нарушением рабочей этики и ведет к увольнению с работы. И, вдруг - религиозные годовые отчеты на государственном сайте. И это, скорее всего, только надводная часть айсберга. Хотя и этой части достаточно, для того чтобы политические аналитики США смогли помочь своим спецслужбам разработать стратегию и тактику будущих политических, экономических, религиозных и прочих диверсий в иностранных государствах.
(Сканированный отчет по Украине)
Ukraine
International Religious Freedom Report 2006
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Section I. Religious Demography
The country has an area of 233 thousand square miles and a population of 47 million. Estimates of those who considered themselves believers varied widely. A 2003 nationwide survey by a major independent think tank, the Razumkov Center, found that 75.2 percent of the respondents considered themselves believers, 37.4 percent said they attended church, and 21.9 percent said they did not believe in God. As of January 1,2006, there were 30,507 registered religious organizations, including 29,262 religious communities; the Government estimated that there were approximately 1,679 unregistered religious communities. More than 90 percent of religiously active citizens were Christians, the majority Orthodox. Religious practice was generally strongest in the western part of the country.
In 2004 the national newspaper Den (The Day) published the results of a major poll on religious beliefs by the All-Ukraine Sociological Service. Of the respondents who identified themselves as believers, 50.44 percent said they belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC>Kiev Patriarchate; 26.13 percent to the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate; 8.02 percent to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (sometimes referred to as the Uniate, Byzantine, or Eastern Rite Church); 7.21 percent to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church; 2,19 percent belonged to the Roman Catholic Church; 2.19 percent identified themselves as Protestants; 0.63 percent responded that they observed Jewish religious practices; and 3.2 percent said they belonged to "other denominations."
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) had 35 eparchies and 10,875 communities (approximately 68 percent of all Orthodox Christian communities in the country), most of which were located in the central, southern, and eastern oblasts. Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) of Kiev headed the denomination within the country. The UOC-MP, which had 9,072 clergy members, referred to itself as The Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP) was formed after independence and has been headed since 1995 by Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko), who was once the Russian Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine. The UOC-KP had 31 eparchies, 3,721 communities, and 2,816 clergy members. Approximately 60 percent of the UOC-KP faithful lived in the western part of the country. The UOC-KP was not recognized by the UOC-MP.
The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) was the smallest of the three Orthodox churches in the country; it was founded in 1919 in Kiev. Banned during the Soviet era, it was legalized in 1989 and had 12 eparchies and 1,166 communities, approximately 70 percent of them in the western part of the country. The UAOC had 686 clergy members. In the interest of the possible future unification of the country's Orthodox churches, it did not name a patriarch to succeed the late Patriarch Dmitriy. The UAOC was formally headed in the country by Metropolitan Mefodiy of Ternopil and Podil; however, the large eparchies of Kharkiv-Poltava, Lviv, Rivne-Volyn, and Tavriya have officially broken relations with Mefodiy and have asked to be placed under the direct jurisdiction of Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Some Muslim leaders estimated that there were two million Muslims in the country, although estimates by the government and independent think tanks were substantially lower, approximately 500 thousand. There were 457 registered Muslim communities, 320 of them on
the Crimean peninsula. Sheikh Akhmed Tamim, the mufti of Ukraine, was a member of the All-Ukraine Council. According to Sheikh Tamim, approximately fifty thousand Muslims, mostly foreign, lived in Kiev. The majority of the country's Muslims were Crimean Tatars, who were forcibly deported from Crimea to Uzbekistan by Stalin in 1944; they were permitted to return to the country in 1989. There were approximately 300 thousand Crimean Tatars in Ukraine; 267 thousand lived on the peninsula.
The Government estimated that there were more than fifteen nontraditional religious movements in the country. As of January 1,2006, twenty-nine Krishna Consciousness communities and forty-seven Buddhist communities were registered.
According to the Government, as of January 1,2006, there were 175 theological educational institutions with 9,721 full-time and 10,727 correspondence students. Foreign religious workers were active in many religious groups. The Government estimated that approximately 51 percent of priests in the Roman Catholic community were foreign citizens. Foreign religious workers also played a particularly active role in Protestant and Mormon communities, where missionary activity was central to community growth. The Jewish community also depended on foreign religious workers, since many rabbis were not citizens.
Section II. Status of Religious Freedom Legal/Policy Framework
On March 22,2006, President Yushchenko called for the creation of a unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which the UOC-MP and major Protestant denominations opposed. The UOC-MP publicly cautioned the president against "politicizing" and "artificially" speeding up the unification process.
The courts do not always interpret the law in a manner that protects religious freedom, often siding with the dominant local religious organization. For example, in a case that received national and international media and nongovernmental organization (NGO) attention, a local court in Cherkasy Oblast exonerated a UOC-MP priest of assault and hate crime charges for beating six members of Jehovah's Witnesses with his walking stick. The priest admitted that he beat the persons and publicly boasted that he would "do it again," claiming that the six came onto his property and pushed him. The Jehovah's Witnesses also reported that two female Jehovah's Witnesses were attacked in Donetsk Region. According to the Witnesses, police refused to file a complaint under Article 161 (religious enmity) of the criminal code.
Under the law, religion cannot be part of the public school curriculum. However, President Yushchenko, with the support of the country's four top Christian clergymen, instructed the Ministry of Education to introduce "ethics of faith" training courses into public school curricula beginning September 1,2005. According to the SDRI, prominent religious leaders, and the media, nationwide implementation had been haphazard, hi some schools in the eastern part of the country, students study the "ethics of faith" but also continue to take an "ethics" course developed in Soviet times based on atheist doctrine, hi Kharkiv Oblast, fifth-year students may elect to study Christian ethics, but only with their parents' consent. While Jewish leaders support the teaching of ethics and civics in school, they have insisted on a nonsectarian approach to the training. Schools run by religious communities may, and do, include religious education as an extracurricular activity.
Restrictions on Religious Freedom
Mormon leaders in Kiev complained about the Government's unwillingness to allow a Mormon representative to join the All-Ukraine Council. They argued that the refusal denied their
organization the appearance of legitimacy and discouraged broadcast media outlets from allowing the Mormons to purchase airtime
Senior leaders of the UOC-MP complained that, in the wake of the 2004 Orange Revolution and the election of President Yushchenko, the UOC-MP had been discriminated against by the Rivne, Ternopil, and Lviv oblast governments. UOC-MP representatives asserted that local officials and UOC-KP supporters in Rivne Oblast threatened UOC-MP clergy and their family members.
The law restricts the activities of foreign-based religious organizations and narrowly defines the permissible activities of members of the clergy, preachers, teachers, and other noncitizen representatives of foreign-based religious organizations; however, in practice there were no reports that the Government used the law to limit the activity of such religious organizations. Religious worker visas require invitations from registered religious organizations in the country and the approval of the Government. Foreign religious workers may preach, administer religious ordinances, or practice other canonical activities "only in those religious organizations that invited them to Ukraine and with official approval of the governmental body that registered the statutes and the articles of the pertinent religious organization." In 2005, 8349 foreigners were issued visas for religious work; approximately 3,500 of those visas were issued to clergymen who intended to preach or do long-term missionary work. According to the Government, no visa applications by foreign religious workers were rejected during the period covered by this report
Section III. Societal Attitudes
On February 6,2006, the Association of Christian Journalists, Publishers, and Broadcasters criticized the STB television network for airing a program that attacked evangelical churches. According to the association, the program misrepresented the beliefs of traditional Protestant Churches (including Lutherans and Baptists) and referred to evangelical Protestants as "Satanists."
At an April 17,2006, press conference, the president of the major Protestant Christian media group, Serhiy Belbovets, criticized what he called "a series" of television and newspaper reports mat characterized evangelical Christians as "fanatics" and "members of sects." He called on all churches in the country to "stand together, shoulder to shoulder, to defend Christian values."
Senior Mormon leaders in Kiev asserted that believers faced discrimination from some government officials and from the UOC-MP and UOC-KP. They expressed concern about efforts by these churches to prevent the establishment of a Mormon community in Chernivtsi. In official correspondence with the city government, local UOC-MP and UOC-KP leaders accused the Mormons of encroaching on an "Orthodox city."
Muslim leaders in Crimea, as well as members of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, the major, but unofficial, organization representing Crimean Tatars, accused the UOC-MP of encouraging anti-Muslim and anti-Tatar violence in Crimea. UOC-MP priests in Crimea reportedly assured ethnic Russian vigilantes, who refer to themselves as Cossacks, that violence against Muslim Tatars was justified in order to "protect Orthodoxy" in Crimea.
Section IV. U.S. Government Policy
The U.S. government frequently discusses religious freedom issues with the Government and religious leaders as part of its overall policy to promote human rights. A majority of foreign religious workers were U.S. citizens, and the embassy continued to intervene as necessary to defend their rights to due process under the law.
Данные в годовом отчете организации «Международная Религиозная Свобода» за 2006 год, на 1-ой странице в абзацах с третьего по шестой говорят о наличии трех основных направлений Православной церкви на Украине и расколе между ними. Украинская Православная Церковь Московской Патриархии (УПЦ-МП), 35 епархий которой находятся в центральной, восточной и южной части страны, не признала Украинскую Православную Церковь Киевской Патриархии (УПЦ-КП), 31 епархии которой находятся в западной части страны.
Украинская Автокефальная Православная Церковь, ранее подчинявшаяся Митрополиту Мефодию Тернопольско-Подольскому, официально разорвала с ним отношения и попросила покровительства Игумена Патриарха Варфоломея в Стамбуле.
На 2-ой странице, в шестом абзаце: «Руководство УПЦ-МП пожаловалось, что с началом Оранжевой Революции во время выборов Президента Ющенко, УПЦ-МП подвергалась дискриминации областными руководствами Ровенской, Тернопольской и Львовской областей. Представители УПЦ-МП утверждали, что местное руководство и верующие УПЦ-КП в Ровенской области угрожали служителям УПЦ-МП и членам их семей».
(Отчёт представлен в полном оригинале книги)
На первый взгляд – это просто констатация фактов, отражающих реальное положение Украинской Православной Церкви в целом.
При более детальном анализе сразу бросается в глаза, что раскол между тремя видами Православной церкви отражает внутренние политические противоречия в стране, на которых, при необходимости, может сыграть иностранная спецслужба.
Представим себе, что решили объединиться в нерушимый союз три братских славянских страны: Россия, Беларусь и Украина. Америке такой союз – абсолютно не на руку. Как остановить или прервать этот процесс?
Можно воспользоваться религиозной ненавистью населения Западной Украины к остальному населению Украины и, тем более, к России.
Спецслужбам США достаточно подбросить немного пропаганды и материальной поддержки в этот огонь ненависти, и полная политическая дестабилизация на Украине, вплоть до гражданской войны, обеспечена. Налицо – не годовой отчет, а простейший план подготовки к политической – религиозной диверсии.
Точно также, если внимательно прочитать последний абзац на второй странице, то становится очевидным, что это не просто годовой отчет, а конкретное пособие, так сказать, инструкция по легальной инфильтрации агентов спецслужб на Украину через будущие миссии. А, с учетом пятого абзаца на той же странице - четкая инструкция: «Уважаемые коллеги, господа американские шпионы! Въезжать на территорию Украины под видом мормонов категорически не рекомендуется».
Мормонская Церковь (Church of Latter Days Saints), сокращенно CLDS – это типично американская, более того, проамериканская церковь, которая начала свое существование в 1620 году. Ее основателем стал Джон Смит, которого, по его словам посетил Иисус Христос. Центром мормонской церкви является Солт Лэйк Сити, штат Юта. Сеть мормонских церквей есть в Калифорнии и Неваде, реже – в других штатах. По своим религиозным убеждениям мормоны не пьют алкоголь, кофеин и натуральный чай, не курят.
Мормонская церковь – богатейшая в США. С незапамятных времен она владеет огромными участками земли в трех вышеупомянутых штатах. Также является владельцем самой крупной нефтяной компании в США, которая когда-то носила название “American Standard Oil Company”. Сегодня эта компания носит другие названия: “Chevron”, “Shell”. Самая загадочная церковь Америки. Она не рекламирует свои богатства или свою влиятельность на экономику и политику страны. Однако Правительство Америки во все времена считалось с мнением этой церкви, а церковь всегда поддерживала самые проамериканские решения правительства в делах внутренней и внешней политики. Не смотря на то, что церковь пытается играть роль интернациональной, она строго следит за чистотой своих рядов.
Во время нескольких своих визитов на Украину я неоднократно видел
аккуратно подстриженных молодых людей в белых рубашках с черными табличками, терпеливо, пешком идущих от адреса к адресу. Я не понимал и не понимаю, что они делают в странах Восточной Европы, какую религию они несут народам Украины, России, народам с глубокими и давними религиозными традициями. Я думаю, они несут в лучшем случае только раскол в существующую и постоянно развивающуюся Православную религию этих стран: «Не верьте в вашего Иисуса, верьте в нашего». Если кто-то думает, что, став мормоном, сможет уехать в Америку, тот глубоко заблуждается. Как раз мормоны меньше всего ждут пополнения своих рядов иммигрантами. Поэтому я задаю себе вопрос, что делают мормоны в славянских странах? Неужели ищут непьющих?
По сравнению с отчетом по Украине, которая приветствует всех и всяких, отчет той же Международной Религиозной Свободы по России выглядит просто откровенной жалобой «религиозных сотрудников» своему дяде Сэму.
(сканированная копия отчета по России)
Russia International Religious Freedom Report 2006 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Section II. Status of Religious Freedom Legal/Policy Framework
The 1997 Law ostensibly targets so-called totalitarian sects or dangerous religious cults, by making it difficult for members of less well-established religions to set up religious organizations. Many officials in law enforcement and the legislative branches spoke of protecting the "spiritual security" of the country by discouraging the growth of "sects" and "cults," usually understood to include Protestant and newer religious movements. The 1997 Law is very complex, with many ambiguous provisions, creating various categories of religious communities with different levels of legal status and privileges. Most significantly, the law distinguishes between religious "groups" and "organizations." A religious "group" is not registered and consequently does not have the legal status of a juridical person; it may not open a bank account, own property, issue invitations to foreign guests, publish literature, enjoy tax benefits, or conduct worship services in prisons and state?owned hospitals and among the armed forces. However, individual members of a group may buy property for the group's use, invite personal guests to engage in religious instruction, and import religious material. In this way, authorities theoretically permitted groups to rent public spaces and hold services; however, in practice members of unregistered groups sometimes encountered significant difficulty in doing so.
The 1997 Law provides that a group that has existed for fifteen years and has at least ten citizen members may register as a "local organization." It acquires the status of a juridical person and receives certain legal advantages. A group with three functioning local organizations in different regions may found a "centralized organization," which has the right to establish affiliated local organizations without meeting the fifteen-year-rule requirement.
The 1997 Law required all religious organizations registered under a more liberal 1990 law to reregister by December 31,2000. In practice, this process, which involved simultaneous registration at the federal and local levels, required considerable time, effort, and legal expense. International and well-funded domestic religious organizations began to reregister soon after publication of the 1997 regulations; however^ some Pentecostal congregations refused to register out of religious conviction, and some Muslim groups decided that they would not benefit from reregistering, according to spokespersons for the two most prominent muftis. Representative offices of foreign religious organizations are required to register with state authorities, and they are barred from conducting services and other religious activities unless they have acquired the status of a group or organization, hi practice, many foreign religious representative offices opened without registering or were accredited to a registered religious organization.
Under a 1999 amendment to the 1997 Law, groups that failed to reregister became subject to legal dissolution (often translated as "liquidation"), i.e., deprivation of juridical status. By the deadline for reregistration, the MOJ held an estimated 2,095 religious groups subject to dissolution and dissolved approximately 980 by May 2002, asserting they were defunct, but religious minorities and NGOs contended that a significant number were active. Complaints of involuntary dissolution have decreased in recent years in part because those who fought dissolution have already taken their cases to court; however, a few groups, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, Salvation Army, the Unification Church and Scientologists, were still fighting their cases through the court system.
The 1997 Law gives officials the authority to ban religious groups. Unlike dissolution, which involves only the loss of an organization's juridical status, a ban prohibits all of the activities of a religious community. Authorities have not used the law to ban many groups to date. However, in a notable exception, the decision of a Moscow court judge in June 2004 to uphold on appeal the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses garnered significant media coverage and prompted an upswing in restrictions on Jehovah's Witnesses. As of April 2006, authorities permitted registration of Jehovah's Witnesses groups in 400 local communities in 72 regions, but problems with registration continued in some areas, notably Moscow, where the Moscow Golovinskiy
Intermunicipal District Court and the Moscow City Court (of appeal) have banned them.
A lack of specific guidelines accompanying the 1997 Law contributed to inconsistent application at the local and regional levels. Local officials, reportedly often influenced either by close relations with local ROC authorities or the FSB, sometimes refused outright to register groups or created prohibitive obstacles to registration. There were indications that the Procurator General encouraged local prosecutors to challenge the registration of some minority religious groups. A 2002 "Law on Foreigners," which transferred much of the responsibility for visa affairs from the MFA to the MVD, appeared to disrupt the visa regime for religious and other foreign workers. Immediately after implementation of this law, nontraditional groups reported problems receiving long-term visas. Although the number of such problems appeared to decrease during the previous reporting period, such reports continued, most notably with the recent ousters of the principal legal advisor for the Unification Church in January 2006 and a fellow worker in the Urals in February 2006. The former had lived in Moscow since 1990. As in the latter case, the FSB inserts itself into matters dealing with visas and religion, particularly with groups it labels "dangerous cults and sects," distinctions that it reserves for some of these nontraditional groups. Working groups within the Government continued to focus on introducing possible amendments to the controversial 1997 Law but had not introduced any by the end of the reporting period. Duma Deputy Aleksandr Chuyev was one of several officials who proposed legislative changes to formally grant special status to "traditional" religious denominations. According to Federal Registration Service statistics, authorities investigated the activities of 3,526 religious organizations during the 2005 calendar year. The MOJ sent notifications of various violations to 2,996 religious organizations. The courts made decisions on liquidating fifty-nine local organizations for violations of constitutional norms and federal legislation during that period. The courts made no decisions on banning religious organizations. In July 2004 the MOJ had reported that authorities had returned more than 4,000 churches and other property and more than 15,000 religious items to the ROC. No update on the latter was available. In 2004 Smolensk and Kursk Oblast authorities adopted local laws restricting missionary activity. Under these laws, foreigners visiting the region are forbidden to engage in missionary activity or to preach unless specifically allowed to do so according to their visas. There were no reports of enforcement.
Some religious personnel experienced visa and customs difficulties while entering or leaving the country, although such problems appeared to be decreasing for some groups. Authorities either deported or denied entry to several religious workers with valid visas during the period covered by this report, such as the January 9,2006, deportation of the founder and legal/spiritual advisor of the Unification Church in Moscow, who may not reapply for a visa for five years, despite having lived in the country since 1990. During the previous reporting period, the Forum 18 news service reported that there were fifty-five cases of foreign religious workers of various religious groups who had been barred since 1998.
In March 2005 the Government denied entry to high-ranking British and Danish Salvation Army officials, Major Robert Garrard and Colonel Karl Lydholm, respectively, who sought to attend a church congress. In explaining its decision to deny entry, the Moscow city branch of the federal MVD cited the provision of law under which foreigners may be denied entry "in the interests of state security."
Embassy officers tracked developments in religious freedom court cases involving different faiths and denominations. For example, the embassy continued to monitor the longstanding Sambir and Volodymyr-Volynsky cemetery cases and also pressed the Prosecutor General's Office for an explanation of its attempt to seize the downtown Kiev headquarters of the Baptist Union.
During the period covered by this report, embassy officers continued to maintain close contact not only with clerics but also with lay leaders in religious communities and representatives of faith-based social service organizations, such as Caritas, the American-Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, which were active in the country. In addition, the embassy facilitated similar meetings with these groups for members of Congress and other visiting U.S. officials.
Embassy officers also met with Muslim leaders in Kiev and Crimea throughout the period covered by this report in an effort to understand the concerns of those communities. For example, the ambassador attended the April 10,2006, plenary session of the Congress of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Ukraine, meeting personally with the mufti of Ukraine, Sheikh Akhmed Tamim.
Released on September 15,2006
Второй абзац на второй странице: в течение 2005 года из 3526 религиозных миссионерских организаций 2996 оказались под следствием за нарушение конституционных норм и федерального законодательства. Хуже того, в Смоленской и Курской областях был принят закон, ограничивающий деятельность миссионеров. По этому закону, иностранцам, приезжающим в эти регионы, запрещено проводить миссионерскую (читайте: шпионскую, вербовочную и т.п.) деятельность, кроме тех отдельных лиц, в визах которых оговорено разрешение на работу с религиозной миссией. Но и на этом не заканчиваются неприятности для аккуратно подстриженных американских парней в «ризах». Предпоследний абзац: многие члены религиозного персонала испытывают трудности с визами и таможней при въезде и выезде из страны... Власти либо депортировали, либо отказали во въезде многим религиозным работникам, имеющим действующие визы за период, относящийся к этому отчету. Так, например, 9 января 2006 года был депортирован основатель и юридический/духовный советник Объединенной Церкви в Москве с запретом последующего въезда (в Россию) в течение пяти лет, не смотря на то, что он жил в стране с 1990 года. В течение предыдущего отчетного периода, по сообщению канала новостей «Форум 18», таких случаев было 55, начиная с 1998 года.
В результате прочитанного возникает вопрос: «Неужели Америка послала на Украину всех хороших, а в Россию всех плохих?..» Вот уж поистине правду говорят, что пути Господни неисповедимы.
Виктор Орел.
Лас-Вегас, Невада
Глядя со стороны, создается впечатление, что государственная администрация и сами американцы относятся к своей религии, как к девице по вызову: используют только тогда, когда им хочется и когда им надо. Обидные слова, не правда ли? Да, обидные, но правдивые. А правда, иногда, бывает не лестной. Факты подтверждают, что американская церковь постоянно выступает именно в этой роли не только внутри страны, но и глобально за ее пределами.
Парадоксально, что, подавляя истинную религиозную свободу в своей стране, американцы ревностно и с рвением насаживают ее почти во всех остальных странах мира. Америка критикует Россию за отказ регистрировать религиозные организации Свидетелей Иеговых. А сама она разве относится к ним лучше? В русском глазе соринку увидели, (видимо, хорошей оптикой ЦРУ снабдило), а в своем бревно не заметили (наверное, потому что подготовка слабая).
Какую религию они несут этим странам, уже знает весь мир.
«Иисус сказал им в ответ: берегитесь, чтобы кто не прельстил вас;
Ибо многие придут под именем Моим и будут говорить: «я Христос», и многих прельстят». (Мат. 24, 4-5).
Откуда же берется такое фанатичное рвение? Наверное, от солидного финансирования, если все миссии более чем в 120 странах мира безбедно функционируют годами. Надеюсь, вы не думаете, что все миссии финансируются своими приходами? Церквей в Америке не хватит даже на одну треть религиозных американских миссий за ее пределами.
Не из центров ли подготовки агентов ЦРУ и диверсионных групп выходят новоиспеченные священники – миссионеры, владеющие языками тех стран, где они находятся с миссией? Ведь очень не типично для американцев владеть иностранными языками. У них в отличие от русских второй язык в школах не преподают. Да, и в языковых вузах, по официальным данным американской прессы и личному опыту, методика преподавания находится на довольно низком уровне.
Я не хочу сказать, что все религиозные американские миссии за пределами США занимаются шпионажем. Есть священники, которые искренне верят и в Бога, и в то, что их помощь приносит облегчение страждущим в малоразвитых странах. Но, вспомните, в начале книги мы говорили о том, что иногда для прикрытия одного профессионального разведчика, в определенный регион иностранной страны может быть послано еще сто человек, инструктированных вести себя определенным образом, чтобы отвлечь внимание иностранных спецслужб на себя. Даже те миссии, которые уверены в том, что честно выполняют свой интернациональный долг, письменно отчитываются не перед своими религиозными лидерами, а перед государством.
Возьмем для примера американскую международную организацию “International Religious Freedom”. Она получает информацию от всех религиозных американских миссий за рубежом и публикует свои подробные ежегодные отчеты по каждой стране. Но эти отчеты опубликованы не на религиозных американских вебсайтах, а на сайте Государственного Департамента США.
Религия в Америке отделена от государства – это факт. Преподавание религиозных предметов в американских школах официально запрещено – это тоже факт. Поведение, связанное с религиозным самовыражением, в любой форме, в государственных учреждениях и даже в частных корпорациях является грубым нарушением рабочей этики и ведет к увольнению с работы. И, вдруг - религиозные годовые отчеты на государственном сайте. И это, скорее всего, только надводная часть айсберга. Хотя и этой части достаточно, для того чтобы политические аналитики США смогли помочь своим спецслужбам разработать стратегию и тактику будущих политических, экономических, религиозных и прочих диверсий в иностранных государствах.
(Сканированный отчет по Украине)
Ukraine
International Religious Freedom Report 2006
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Section I. Religious Demography
The country has an area of 233 thousand square miles and a population of 47 million. Estimates of those who considered themselves believers varied widely. A 2003 nationwide survey by a major independent think tank, the Razumkov Center, found that 75.2 percent of the respondents considered themselves believers, 37.4 percent said they attended church, and 21.9 percent said they did not believe in God. As of January 1,2006, there were 30,507 registered religious organizations, including 29,262 religious communities; the Government estimated that there were approximately 1,679 unregistered religious communities. More than 90 percent of religiously active citizens were Christians, the majority Orthodox. Religious practice was generally strongest in the western part of the country.
In 2004 the national newspaper Den (The Day) published the results of a major poll on religious beliefs by the All-Ukraine Sociological Service. Of the respondents who identified themselves as believers, 50.44 percent said they belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC>Kiev Patriarchate; 26.13 percent to the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate; 8.02 percent to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (sometimes referred to as the Uniate, Byzantine, or Eastern Rite Church); 7.21 percent to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church; 2,19 percent belonged to the Roman Catholic Church; 2.19 percent identified themselves as Protestants; 0.63 percent responded that they observed Jewish religious practices; and 3.2 percent said they belonged to "other denominations."
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) had 35 eparchies and 10,875 communities (approximately 68 percent of all Orthodox Christian communities in the country), most of which were located in the central, southern, and eastern oblasts. Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) of Kiev headed the denomination within the country. The UOC-MP, which had 9,072 clergy members, referred to itself as The Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP) was formed after independence and has been headed since 1995 by Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko), who was once the Russian Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine. The UOC-KP had 31 eparchies, 3,721 communities, and 2,816 clergy members. Approximately 60 percent of the UOC-KP faithful lived in the western part of the country. The UOC-KP was not recognized by the UOC-MP.
The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) was the smallest of the three Orthodox churches in the country; it was founded in 1919 in Kiev. Banned during the Soviet era, it was legalized in 1989 and had 12 eparchies and 1,166 communities, approximately 70 percent of them in the western part of the country. The UAOC had 686 clergy members. In the interest of the possible future unification of the country's Orthodox churches, it did not name a patriarch to succeed the late Patriarch Dmitriy. The UAOC was formally headed in the country by Metropolitan Mefodiy of Ternopil and Podil; however, the large eparchies of Kharkiv-Poltava, Lviv, Rivne-Volyn, and Tavriya have officially broken relations with Mefodiy and have asked to be placed under the direct jurisdiction of Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Some Muslim leaders estimated that there were two million Muslims in the country, although estimates by the government and independent think tanks were substantially lower, approximately 500 thousand. There were 457 registered Muslim communities, 320 of them on
the Crimean peninsula. Sheikh Akhmed Tamim, the mufti of Ukraine, was a member of the All-Ukraine Council. According to Sheikh Tamim, approximately fifty thousand Muslims, mostly foreign, lived in Kiev. The majority of the country's Muslims were Crimean Tatars, who were forcibly deported from Crimea to Uzbekistan by Stalin in 1944; they were permitted to return to the country in 1989. There were approximately 300 thousand Crimean Tatars in Ukraine; 267 thousand lived on the peninsula.
The Government estimated that there were more than fifteen nontraditional religious movements in the country. As of January 1,2006, twenty-nine Krishna Consciousness communities and forty-seven Buddhist communities were registered.
According to the Government, as of January 1,2006, there were 175 theological educational institutions with 9,721 full-time and 10,727 correspondence students. Foreign religious workers were active in many religious groups. The Government estimated that approximately 51 percent of priests in the Roman Catholic community were foreign citizens. Foreign religious workers also played a particularly active role in Protestant and Mormon communities, where missionary activity was central to community growth. The Jewish community also depended on foreign religious workers, since many rabbis were not citizens.
Section II. Status of Religious Freedom Legal/Policy Framework
On March 22,2006, President Yushchenko called for the creation of a unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which the UOC-MP and major Protestant denominations opposed. The UOC-MP publicly cautioned the president against "politicizing" and "artificially" speeding up the unification process.
The courts do not always interpret the law in a manner that protects religious freedom, often siding with the dominant local religious organization. For example, in a case that received national and international media and nongovernmental organization (NGO) attention, a local court in Cherkasy Oblast exonerated a UOC-MP priest of assault and hate crime charges for beating six members of Jehovah's Witnesses with his walking stick. The priest admitted that he beat the persons and publicly boasted that he would "do it again," claiming that the six came onto his property and pushed him. The Jehovah's Witnesses also reported that two female Jehovah's Witnesses were attacked in Donetsk Region. According to the Witnesses, police refused to file a complaint under Article 161 (religious enmity) of the criminal code.
Under the law, religion cannot be part of the public school curriculum. However, President Yushchenko, with the support of the country's four top Christian clergymen, instructed the Ministry of Education to introduce "ethics of faith" training courses into public school curricula beginning September 1,2005. According to the SDRI, prominent religious leaders, and the media, nationwide implementation had been haphazard, hi some schools in the eastern part of the country, students study the "ethics of faith" but also continue to take an "ethics" course developed in Soviet times based on atheist doctrine, hi Kharkiv Oblast, fifth-year students may elect to study Christian ethics, but only with their parents' consent. While Jewish leaders support the teaching of ethics and civics in school, they have insisted on a nonsectarian approach to the training. Schools run by religious communities may, and do, include religious education as an extracurricular activity.
Restrictions on Religious Freedom
Mormon leaders in Kiev complained about the Government's unwillingness to allow a Mormon representative to join the All-Ukraine Council. They argued that the refusal denied their
organization the appearance of legitimacy and discouraged broadcast media outlets from allowing the Mormons to purchase airtime
Senior leaders of the UOC-MP complained that, in the wake of the 2004 Orange Revolution and the election of President Yushchenko, the UOC-MP had been discriminated against by the Rivne, Ternopil, and Lviv oblast governments. UOC-MP representatives asserted that local officials and UOC-KP supporters in Rivne Oblast threatened UOC-MP clergy and their family members.
The law restricts the activities of foreign-based religious organizations and narrowly defines the permissible activities of members of the clergy, preachers, teachers, and other noncitizen representatives of foreign-based religious organizations; however, in practice there were no reports that the Government used the law to limit the activity of such religious organizations. Religious worker visas require invitations from registered religious organizations in the country and the approval of the Government. Foreign religious workers may preach, administer religious ordinances, or practice other canonical activities "only in those religious organizations that invited them to Ukraine and with official approval of the governmental body that registered the statutes and the articles of the pertinent religious organization." In 2005, 8349 foreigners were issued visas for religious work; approximately 3,500 of those visas were issued to clergymen who intended to preach or do long-term missionary work. According to the Government, no visa applications by foreign religious workers were rejected during the period covered by this report
Section III. Societal Attitudes
On February 6,2006, the Association of Christian Journalists, Publishers, and Broadcasters criticized the STB television network for airing a program that attacked evangelical churches. According to the association, the program misrepresented the beliefs of traditional Protestant Churches (including Lutherans and Baptists) and referred to evangelical Protestants as "Satanists."
At an April 17,2006, press conference, the president of the major Protestant Christian media group, Serhiy Belbovets, criticized what he called "a series" of television and newspaper reports mat characterized evangelical Christians as "fanatics" and "members of sects." He called on all churches in the country to "stand together, shoulder to shoulder, to defend Christian values."
Senior Mormon leaders in Kiev asserted that believers faced discrimination from some government officials and from the UOC-MP and UOC-KP. They expressed concern about efforts by these churches to prevent the establishment of a Mormon community in Chernivtsi. In official correspondence with the city government, local UOC-MP and UOC-KP leaders accused the Mormons of encroaching on an "Orthodox city."
Muslim leaders in Crimea, as well as members of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, the major, but unofficial, organization representing Crimean Tatars, accused the UOC-MP of encouraging anti-Muslim and anti-Tatar violence in Crimea. UOC-MP priests in Crimea reportedly assured ethnic Russian vigilantes, who refer to themselves as Cossacks, that violence against Muslim Tatars was justified in order to "protect Orthodoxy" in Crimea.
Section IV. U.S. Government Policy
The U.S. government frequently discusses religious freedom issues with the Government and religious leaders as part of its overall policy to promote human rights. A majority of foreign religious workers were U.S. citizens, and the embassy continued to intervene as necessary to defend their rights to due process under the law.
Данные в годовом отчете организации «Международная Религиозная Свобода» за 2006 год, на 1-ой странице в абзацах с третьего по шестой говорят о наличии трех основных направлений Православной церкви на Украине и расколе между ними. Украинская Православная Церковь Московской Патриархии (УПЦ-МП), 35 епархий которой находятся в центральной, восточной и южной части страны, не признала Украинскую Православную Церковь Киевской Патриархии (УПЦ-КП), 31 епархии которой находятся в западной части страны.
Украинская Автокефальная Православная Церковь, ранее подчинявшаяся Митрополиту Мефодию Тернопольско-Подольскому, официально разорвала с ним отношения и попросила покровительства Игумена Патриарха Варфоломея в Стамбуле.
На 2-ой странице, в шестом абзаце: «Руководство УПЦ-МП пожаловалось, что с началом Оранжевой Революции во время выборов Президента Ющенко, УПЦ-МП подвергалась дискриминации областными руководствами Ровенской, Тернопольской и Львовской областей. Представители УПЦ-МП утверждали, что местное руководство и верующие УПЦ-КП в Ровенской области угрожали служителям УПЦ-МП и членам их семей».
(Отчёт представлен в полном оригинале книги)
На первый взгляд – это просто констатация фактов, отражающих реальное положение Украинской Православной Церкви в целом.
При более детальном анализе сразу бросается в глаза, что раскол между тремя видами Православной церкви отражает внутренние политические противоречия в стране, на которых, при необходимости, может сыграть иностранная спецслужба.
Представим себе, что решили объединиться в нерушимый союз три братских славянских страны: Россия, Беларусь и Украина. Америке такой союз – абсолютно не на руку. Как остановить или прервать этот процесс?
Можно воспользоваться религиозной ненавистью населения Западной Украины к остальному населению Украины и, тем более, к России.
Спецслужбам США достаточно подбросить немного пропаганды и материальной поддержки в этот огонь ненависти, и полная политическая дестабилизация на Украине, вплоть до гражданской войны, обеспечена. Налицо – не годовой отчет, а простейший план подготовки к политической – религиозной диверсии.
Точно также, если внимательно прочитать последний абзац на второй странице, то становится очевидным, что это не просто годовой отчет, а конкретное пособие, так сказать, инструкция по легальной инфильтрации агентов спецслужб на Украину через будущие миссии. А, с учетом пятого абзаца на той же странице - четкая инструкция: «Уважаемые коллеги, господа американские шпионы! Въезжать на территорию Украины под видом мормонов категорически не рекомендуется».
Мормонская Церковь (Church of Latter Days Saints), сокращенно CLDS – это типично американская, более того, проамериканская церковь, которая начала свое существование в 1620 году. Ее основателем стал Джон Смит, которого, по его словам посетил Иисус Христос. Центром мормонской церкви является Солт Лэйк Сити, штат Юта. Сеть мормонских церквей есть в Калифорнии и Неваде, реже – в других штатах. По своим религиозным убеждениям мормоны не пьют алкоголь, кофеин и натуральный чай, не курят.
Мормонская церковь – богатейшая в США. С незапамятных времен она владеет огромными участками земли в трех вышеупомянутых штатах. Также является владельцем самой крупной нефтяной компании в США, которая когда-то носила название “American Standard Oil Company”. Сегодня эта компания носит другие названия: “Chevron”, “Shell”. Самая загадочная церковь Америки. Она не рекламирует свои богатства или свою влиятельность на экономику и политику страны. Однако Правительство Америки во все времена считалось с мнением этой церкви, а церковь всегда поддерживала самые проамериканские решения правительства в делах внутренней и внешней политики. Не смотря на то, что церковь пытается играть роль интернациональной, она строго следит за чистотой своих рядов.
Во время нескольких своих визитов на Украину я неоднократно видел
аккуратно подстриженных молодых людей в белых рубашках с черными табличками, терпеливо, пешком идущих от адреса к адресу. Я не понимал и не понимаю, что они делают в странах Восточной Европы, какую религию они несут народам Украины, России, народам с глубокими и давними религиозными традициями. Я думаю, они несут в лучшем случае только раскол в существующую и постоянно развивающуюся Православную религию этих стран: «Не верьте в вашего Иисуса, верьте в нашего». Если кто-то думает, что, став мормоном, сможет уехать в Америку, тот глубоко заблуждается. Как раз мормоны меньше всего ждут пополнения своих рядов иммигрантами. Поэтому я задаю себе вопрос, что делают мормоны в славянских странах? Неужели ищут непьющих?
По сравнению с отчетом по Украине, которая приветствует всех и всяких, отчет той же Международной Религиозной Свободы по России выглядит просто откровенной жалобой «религиозных сотрудников» своему дяде Сэму.
(сканированная копия отчета по России)
Russia International Religious Freedom Report 2006 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Section II. Status of Religious Freedom Legal/Policy Framework
The 1997 Law ostensibly targets so-called totalitarian sects or dangerous religious cults, by making it difficult for members of less well-established religions to set up religious organizations. Many officials in law enforcement and the legislative branches spoke of protecting the "spiritual security" of the country by discouraging the growth of "sects" and "cults," usually understood to include Protestant and newer religious movements. The 1997 Law is very complex, with many ambiguous provisions, creating various categories of religious communities with different levels of legal status and privileges. Most significantly, the law distinguishes between religious "groups" and "organizations." A religious "group" is not registered and consequently does not have the legal status of a juridical person; it may not open a bank account, own property, issue invitations to foreign guests, publish literature, enjoy tax benefits, or conduct worship services in prisons and state?owned hospitals and among the armed forces. However, individual members of a group may buy property for the group's use, invite personal guests to engage in religious instruction, and import religious material. In this way, authorities theoretically permitted groups to rent public spaces and hold services; however, in practice members of unregistered groups sometimes encountered significant difficulty in doing so.
The 1997 Law provides that a group that has existed for fifteen years and has at least ten citizen members may register as a "local organization." It acquires the status of a juridical person and receives certain legal advantages. A group with three functioning local organizations in different regions may found a "centralized organization," which has the right to establish affiliated local organizations without meeting the fifteen-year-rule requirement.
The 1997 Law required all religious organizations registered under a more liberal 1990 law to reregister by December 31,2000. In practice, this process, which involved simultaneous registration at the federal and local levels, required considerable time, effort, and legal expense. International and well-funded domestic religious organizations began to reregister soon after publication of the 1997 regulations; however^ some Pentecostal congregations refused to register out of religious conviction, and some Muslim groups decided that they would not benefit from reregistering, according to spokespersons for the two most prominent muftis. Representative offices of foreign religious organizations are required to register with state authorities, and they are barred from conducting services and other religious activities unless they have acquired the status of a group or organization, hi practice, many foreign religious representative offices opened without registering or were accredited to a registered religious organization.
Under a 1999 amendment to the 1997 Law, groups that failed to reregister became subject to legal dissolution (often translated as "liquidation"), i.e., deprivation of juridical status. By the deadline for reregistration, the MOJ held an estimated 2,095 religious groups subject to dissolution and dissolved approximately 980 by May 2002, asserting they were defunct, but religious minorities and NGOs contended that a significant number were active. Complaints of involuntary dissolution have decreased in recent years in part because those who fought dissolution have already taken their cases to court; however, a few groups, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, Salvation Army, the Unification Church and Scientologists, were still fighting their cases through the court system.
The 1997 Law gives officials the authority to ban religious groups. Unlike dissolution, which involves only the loss of an organization's juridical status, a ban prohibits all of the activities of a religious community. Authorities have not used the law to ban many groups to date. However, in a notable exception, the decision of a Moscow court judge in June 2004 to uphold on appeal the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses garnered significant media coverage and prompted an upswing in restrictions on Jehovah's Witnesses. As of April 2006, authorities permitted registration of Jehovah's Witnesses groups in 400 local communities in 72 regions, but problems with registration continued in some areas, notably Moscow, where the Moscow Golovinskiy
Intermunicipal District Court and the Moscow City Court (of appeal) have banned them.
A lack of specific guidelines accompanying the 1997 Law contributed to inconsistent application at the local and regional levels. Local officials, reportedly often influenced either by close relations with local ROC authorities or the FSB, sometimes refused outright to register groups or created prohibitive obstacles to registration. There were indications that the Procurator General encouraged local prosecutors to challenge the registration of some minority religious groups. A 2002 "Law on Foreigners," which transferred much of the responsibility for visa affairs from the MFA to the MVD, appeared to disrupt the visa regime for religious and other foreign workers. Immediately after implementation of this law, nontraditional groups reported problems receiving long-term visas. Although the number of such problems appeared to decrease during the previous reporting period, such reports continued, most notably with the recent ousters of the principal legal advisor for the Unification Church in January 2006 and a fellow worker in the Urals in February 2006. The former had lived in Moscow since 1990. As in the latter case, the FSB inserts itself into matters dealing with visas and religion, particularly with groups it labels "dangerous cults and sects," distinctions that it reserves for some of these nontraditional groups. Working groups within the Government continued to focus on introducing possible amendments to the controversial 1997 Law but had not introduced any by the end of the reporting period. Duma Deputy Aleksandr Chuyev was one of several officials who proposed legislative changes to formally grant special status to "traditional" religious denominations. According to Federal Registration Service statistics, authorities investigated the activities of 3,526 religious organizations during the 2005 calendar year. The MOJ sent notifications of various violations to 2,996 religious organizations. The courts made decisions on liquidating fifty-nine local organizations for violations of constitutional norms and federal legislation during that period. The courts made no decisions on banning religious organizations. In July 2004 the MOJ had reported that authorities had returned more than 4,000 churches and other property and more than 15,000 religious items to the ROC. No update on the latter was available. In 2004 Smolensk and Kursk Oblast authorities adopted local laws restricting missionary activity. Under these laws, foreigners visiting the region are forbidden to engage in missionary activity or to preach unless specifically allowed to do so according to their visas. There were no reports of enforcement.
Some religious personnel experienced visa and customs difficulties while entering or leaving the country, although such problems appeared to be decreasing for some groups. Authorities either deported or denied entry to several religious workers with valid visas during the period covered by this report, such as the January 9,2006, deportation of the founder and legal/spiritual advisor of the Unification Church in Moscow, who may not reapply for a visa for five years, despite having lived in the country since 1990. During the previous reporting period, the Forum 18 news service reported that there were fifty-five cases of foreign religious workers of various religious groups who had been barred since 1998.
In March 2005 the Government denied entry to high-ranking British and Danish Salvation Army officials, Major Robert Garrard and Colonel Karl Lydholm, respectively, who sought to attend a church congress. In explaining its decision to deny entry, the Moscow city branch of the federal MVD cited the provision of law under which foreigners may be denied entry "in the interests of state security."
Embassy officers tracked developments in religious freedom court cases involving different faiths and denominations. For example, the embassy continued to monitor the longstanding Sambir and Volodymyr-Volynsky cemetery cases and also pressed the Prosecutor General's Office for an explanation of its attempt to seize the downtown Kiev headquarters of the Baptist Union.
During the period covered by this report, embassy officers continued to maintain close contact not only with clerics but also with lay leaders in religious communities and representatives of faith-based social service organizations, such as Caritas, the American-Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, which were active in the country. In addition, the embassy facilitated similar meetings with these groups for members of Congress and other visiting U.S. officials.
Embassy officers also met with Muslim leaders in Kiev and Crimea throughout the period covered by this report in an effort to understand the concerns of those communities. For example, the ambassador attended the April 10,2006, plenary session of the Congress of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Ukraine, meeting personally with the mufti of Ukraine, Sheikh Akhmed Tamim.
Released on September 15,2006
Второй абзац на второй странице: в течение 2005 года из 3526 религиозных миссионерских организаций 2996 оказались под следствием за нарушение конституционных норм и федерального законодательства. Хуже того, в Смоленской и Курской областях был принят закон, ограничивающий деятельность миссионеров. По этому закону, иностранцам, приезжающим в эти регионы, запрещено проводить миссионерскую (читайте: шпионскую, вербовочную и т.п.) деятельность, кроме тех отдельных лиц, в визах которых оговорено разрешение на работу с религиозной миссией. Но и на этом не заканчиваются неприятности для аккуратно подстриженных американских парней в «ризах». Предпоследний абзац: многие члены религиозного персонала испытывают трудности с визами и таможней при въезде и выезде из страны... Власти либо депортировали, либо отказали во въезде многим религиозным работникам, имеющим действующие визы за период, относящийся к этому отчету. Так, например, 9 января 2006 года был депортирован основатель и юридический/духовный советник Объединенной Церкви в Москве с запретом последующего въезда (в Россию) в течение пяти лет, не смотря на то, что он жил в стране с 1990 года. В течение предыдущего отчетного периода, по сообщению канала новостей «Форум 18», таких случаев было 55, начиная с 1998 года.
В результате прочитанного возникает вопрос: «Неужели Америка послала на Украину всех хороших, а в Россию всех плохих?..» Вот уж поистине правду говорят, что пути Господни неисповедимы.
Виктор Орел.
Лас-Вегас, Невада
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