Belarus: Tolerant of Life

There is nothing that is more dangerous to your own salvation, more unworthy of God and more harmful to your own happiness, than that you should be content to remain as you are. -Francois Fenelon

Today in class we heard an interesting story that is said to perfectly illustrate how different the Belarusian mindset is from an American’s. Here is how it goes:

Three men, a Russian, an American, and a Belarusian, were each taken to a room with a desk and chair to do some work. The Russian came in, sat down and then jumped up on the desk shouting and dancing around. He looked down and saw a tack on the chair. In his anger he picked up the chair and tossed it across the room, smashing it into pieces, and then left the room. The American came in, sat down and said “Ouch!” He jumped up, saw the tack in the chair and proceeded to pick it up and put the tack on the desk and continued with the job he was to do. The Belarusian came in, sat down and thought “This feels painful” so he got up and saw the tack in the chair and said to himself “well it must be there for a reason” and sat back down to do the job he was to do.

This story goes to show just how different a person’s expectations out of life can be, and how after a while we don’t question anything anymore and just take it for what it is. This is something that could very easily happen to us in our faith if we are not constantly praying and studying and striving to follow God’s will in our lives. Mr. and Mrs. Schnose came and talked to our class this morning about what life is like in Belarus. Here are some of the things we learned:

The government does not encourage critical thinking in schools, but rather memorization

Baptists, Pentecostals, Adventists, and Jehovah Witnesses are all considered to be ’sects’ encouraging fanaticism; Krishna devotees are seen as needing psychiatric help, and Orthodox worship results in a hypnotic state

Many churches are accused of ‘brainwashing’

Persecution takes many forms, and it’s not always physical; mostly it is mental and social

Only about 2-3% of the population could be considered Christians as we think of it here in America

Anybody who goes to a Church weekly is considered to be part of a cult

The economy is very poor outside of the capital, and the community farms are rundown

There is a problem of alcoholism due to the fact that it is very cheap and easily accessible

College is free and to even work at Mc Donald’s or be a janitor, a person needs to have a college degree; even then jobs are difficult to obtain unless you are well connected and know someone who can help you get hired

Internet café owners are required to monitor the sites its customers visit and report their findings to the government

American missionaries sponsored English camps as an outreach tool; these language learning camps provided kids an opportunity to learn English, and the missionaries a chance to tell them about God


And this is not half of what we talked about. It was a wonderful time to ask questions and really get a feel for what life is like over there. We talked briefly about what is taught in schools to the children about religion. An example from this 2002 official school textbook asks schoolchildren to chose the "correct" definitions of "religion" from various options, including "a particular form of social consciousness in which dominant external forces are reflected in a fantastical way in a person's consciousness, and earthly forces take the form of the non-earthly" (correct), "a system of scientific knowledge concerning the salvation of mankind" (incorrect) and "teachings of the 'church fathers' which aim to substantiate the existence of God" (incorrect). Just in this short question, we can see how the government is shaping the thinking of its citizens to distrust and be suspicious of religion. An official religious studies textbook, intended for first-year college students, maintains that "religion does not teach a believer to strive to lead a dignified life, to fight for his freedom or against evil and oppression. This is all supposed to be performed for him by supernatural forces, above all, god. All that is left for the believer to do is to be his pathetic petitioner, to behave as a pauper or slave... Religion's promises to give a person everything that he seeks in it are but illusion and deception."

Really though, we know that it is the other way around. Everything in this life is meaningless outside of Christ and his grace and mercy towards us. We will never be quite satisfied or fulfilled with what we find this side of heaven. I pray this month as we remember Belarus in our prayers, that we will not be content where we are in our Christian walk and that we will strive to make the most of every opportunity that God brings our way (Ephesians 5:15-17).


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Belarus

Basic Info: Belarus is a landlocked nation in Eastern Europe that is covered by large areas of marshy lands. About 40% of the nation is covered by forests and it has 11,000 lakes. The population is around 9,689,800.

Government: With the disbanding of the Soviet Union in 1991, Belarus became an independent state. However, it still maintains close relations with Russia, as can be seen in the 1999 agreement between the two countries that supports greater political and economic integration. Also, many of the Soviet’s economic policies have continued and they have stalled development and foreign investment. Belarus is now a presidential republic, governed by a president and the National Assembly. In accordance with the constitution, the president is elected once every five years; however, since 1994, Alexander Lukashenko has been the president of Belarus. Lukashenko has described himself as having an "authoritarian ruling style," and has gone so far as to change the country's constitution to allow him to remain in office for an unlimited amount of time after each election. Western countries have described Belarus under Lukashenko as a dictatorship; the Belarus government has accused the same Western powers of trying to oust Lukashenko. In testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice labeled Belarus among the six nations of the "outposts of tyranny." In response, the Belarusian government called the assessment "quite far from reality."

Religion: Belarus has a history of supporting different religions, mostly Russian Orthodox (in eastern regions), Catholicism (in western regions), and different denominations of Protestantism (especially during the time of union with Protestant Sweden). A significant minority practices Judaism and other religions. Many Belarusians converted to the Russian Orthodox Church after Belarus was annexed by Russia. As a result, the Russian Orthodox Church now has more members than other denominations. Belarus's Roman Catholic minority, which makes up perhaps 10% of the country's population, and is concentrated in the western part of the country, is made up of a mixture of Belarusians and the country's Polish and Lithuanian minorities. About 1% belong to the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church. Belarus was a major center of the European Jewish population, with 10% being Jewish, but the population of Jews has been reduced by war, starvation, and the Holocaust to a tiny minority of about 1% or less. Emigration from Belarus is a cause for the shrinking number of Jewish residents. The Lipka Tatars, who number over 15,000, are Muslims. According to Article 16 of the Constitution, Belarus has no official religion. While the freedom of worship is granted in the same article, religious organizations that are deemed harmful to the government or social order of the country can be prohibited. There are also lingering Soviet policies toward religious freedom. In November 2002, a new religion law, often called "the most repressive law in Europe," came into effect. Despite constitutional guarantees that "all religions and faiths shall be equal before the law," this law stipulates that all unregistered religious activity, communities with fewer than 20 members, and any religious activity in private homes (apart from occasional, small-scale meetings) are considered illegal. Religious communities that do not have a registered umbrella body are not able to invite foreign citizens for religious work, and all religious literature is subject to censorship. Registration is often a difficult process and many organizations, including some with thousands of members, have been unable to register. Officials frequently use the media to insult religious minorities by belittling their beliefs and attempting to incite hostility against them. In 2006, a pastor was fined for performing baptisms at a local lake because he did not have permission while another pastor faced imprisonment for holding religious services in his home without registration. A number of foreign clergy have been expelled from the country for various trumped up excuses. In recent years, 31 foreign citizens have been deported and banned from Belarus for their religious activity.

Government Control: Elections in Belarus are purported to be fraught with corruption. The country has been barred since 1997 from the Council of Europe for “undemocratic voting and election irregularities in the November 1996 constitutional referendum and parliament by-elections.” The government has also been criticized for its human rights violations and its actions against non-governmental organizations, independent journalists, national minorities, and opposition politicians. The largest media group in Belarus is state owned National State Teleradiocompany. It runs several television and radio stations that broadcast locally and internationally. One of the major independent television stations is the Television Broadcasting Network, but they mostly show regional programming. Several newspapers, printed either in Belarusian or Russian, provide general information or special interest content, such as business, politics or sports. In 1998, there were fewer than 100 radio stations in Belarus: 28 AM, 37 FM and 11 shortwave stations. All media companies are regulated by the Law On Press and Other Mass Media, passed on January 13, 1995. This grants the freedom of press; however, Article 5 states that slander cannot be made against the president of Belarus or other officials outlined in the national constitution. The government has been criticized for reprisals against media sources. Newspapers such as Nasa Niva and the Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta have been targeted for closure by the authorities after they published reports critical of President Lukashenko or other government officials. The OSCE and Freedom House have commented regarding the loss of press freedom in Belarus. In 2005, Freedom House gave Belarus a score of 6.75 (not free) when it came to dealing with press freedom. Another issue for the Belarusian press is the unresolved disappearance of several journalists.
Prayer Requests
Ask God to give wisdom and guidance to Christians in Belarus as they minister under repressive conditions.
Pray that the Belarusian government yields to international pressure and drops its repressive religion law.


This article is licensed under the <"http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html">GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus" Wikipedia article "Belarus". Material also taken from Voice of the Martyrs www.persecution.net.


The anthem of Belarus. (The clip shows: The flag of Belarus, President of Blearus A. Lukashenko, Minsk, Statues of Lenin and Dzerzhinsky, Monument of WWII, Brest and another Belarussian cities, Belarussian sportspersons, P. Sukhoi and the Su fighters, 9 may parade, typical clothes and Belarussian coat of arms. From Victory Radio)



Minsk, Belarus (The music is the Belarus entry to the 2004 Eurovision song contest.)


Minsk, Belarus


Listening Post - Belarus Media Special - 18 July 08 - Part 1


Listening Post - Belarus Media Special - 18 July 08 - Part 2


Belarusan Church 50 years anniversary


Case 1694 vs. MTZ 82 (Since we mentioned in class how important the tractor industry is to the country.)