Kazakhstan's capital city (photo by Peretz Partensky)
Kazakhstan (MNN) ― Kazakhstan's new Religion Law is before Parliament now and has the backing of the President.
Forum 18 reports the revision went before the legislative body on September 5 and is now being considered. Joel Griffith with Slavic Gospel Association details some of the recent changes. "This would impose a pretty complicated registration system. It would ban unregistered religious activity, it would impose compulsory religious censorship of some kind, and it would also apparently require both central and local government approval to either build or even open a place of worship."
As it is written, the law also represents a shift in the thinking from the administration. "There seems to be a change in the attitude of the president himself, so we're going to be watching very closely to see what the domino effects of this are." Griffith adds that "we tend to keep an eye on trends that go from country to country and possibly span cross-regions."
SGA has been tracking tighter restrictions in neighboring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Griffith says, "We were hopeful because Kazakhstan typically tends to follow the Soviet Union. They had typically allowed more freedom to evangelical churches than maybe some of the other Central Asian Republics. But, now it appears that even Kazakhstan is changing in that regard."
The president's backing of the new law is out in the open. "Kazakhstan's President Nazarbaev reportedly told a joint session of Parliament that they were actually adopting these harsh new restrictions to religion. Quoting the president, he said it was necessary "to bring order to our house."
A second proposed Law widens the range of "violations of the Religion Law" it punishes. They've been approved by the Prime Minister, but Forum 18 sources say the text has not been published yet.
The impact would be felt differently between the two tiers of the Church that exist in Kazakhstan. Griffith explains, "You have an unregistered Baptist church, or evangelical bodies, that don't believe in the whole concept of registration with the government so, they encounter quite a bit of pressure. Then you have the registered bodies that receive a whole lot of bureaucratic difficulties and raids."
Complications of the law would depend on how strictly it would be enforced, if it passes through Parliament. There's an obvious hindrance to evangelistic work. Griffith says, "You could see an impact on missionary pastors that they would have it very hard to try to register a new congregation or to build a new house of prayer."
Under the law, the difficulties in registering are likely to bring a whole new world of troubles to SGA's partners, both politically and culturally. "If you don't have your own church building or worship building, they look on you with suspicion as if you're some kind of a sect. You can see that that would have a negative impact."
It's not a done deal yet. "This has to yet go through the Parliament, and then the President would need to give his signature to propagate this kind of legislation. It's our hope and prayer that enough international pressure would be brought to bear that maybe these laws would not be signed." No date has been slated for a vote. Pray for God's intervention and for boldness and wisdom for believers in Kazakhstan.
