Evangelicals are Traitors?

This recent article in Christianity today caught my attention about Kazakhstan, one of the republics of the former Soviet Union. Although the amount of opposition to evangelicalism varies from area to area, through the CIS countries, one often hears the argument that belonging to an evangelical church is denying part of the native culture. For example, to be Russian (or you fill in the nationality) is to be Russian Orthodox (or fill in the predominant religion). Often the fear of losing "cultural identity" has been an excuse to harass many evangelical Churches, including many Pentecostal/charismatic congregation throughout the former Soviet Union.

Below is a small excerpt of the Christianity Today article. For the full article, click here.

Following a 15-hour church raid in late August, Kazakhstan's secret police (the KNB) placed two pastors and two members of Grace Presbyterian Church in Karaganda under investigation for high treason. Senior pastor Igor Kim, his sister, and the church administrator—all Kazakhstani citizens—as well as Aleksei Kim, the pastor of a sister church, face sentences of up to 10 to 15 years, according to Forum 18, a news service that tracks religious-rights violations.

Government leaders in Kazakhstan, the ninth-largest country in the world, increasingly view adherents of minority religions as unpatriotic. Religion in the oil-rich republic is traditionally tied to race: Kazakhs are expected to be nominal Muslims; Russians are expected to be Orthodox....

Political pressures have also converged to create a worsening situation for religious rights. The Beslan school siege and the 2004 and 2005 color revolutions, which toppled nearby regimes, reinforced government suspicions that earnest belief is dangerous....

Despite the government's unfair treatment of evangelicals, Rukhbayeva said she believes Kazakhstanis are more receptive than ever to Christianity's message. "People are more open to religion [than in early post-Soviet days]," she said.