c. 1998 Religion News Service

Uzbekistan clamps down on religious expression

(RNS) A new law in Uzbekistan makes it illegal for anyone except a government-certified member of the clergy to talk about religion one on one in the mostly Muslim central Asian republic.

The new law, which took effect Aug. 15, also bans private religious instruction and churches with less than 100 members. Church leaders who fail to comply with the law face criminal charges that could lead to heavy fines and detention in labor camps or prison, according to the Brussels-based Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF).

The government also ruled illegal any existing religious organization that failed to register with the government by Aug. 15, the human rights group said.

The law _ which is also aimed at curbing the spread of fundamentalist Islam _ makes Uzbekistan the latest of the former Soviet republics to clamp down on religious expression. Much of the impetus for the curbs has been a backlash against foreign religious groups that have flooded the republics with missionaries since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing liberalization of entry requirements.

Many of the foreign missionaries have connections to American and European Protestant denominations and other sects. However, in Uzbekistan, fundamentalist Muslim missionaries from the Middle East have also concerned the secular government.

The new law was passed by Uzbekistan’s parliament May 1, but religious groups were not informed about the decree’s unwieldy registration process until six weeks before the deadline. To register, churches needed to complete mounds of documents and have them signed by government officials, most of whom were vacationing during the registration period.

As of Aug. 1, none of the nation’s Protestant churches were able to register, HRWF said.

However, any church that managed to meet the Aug. 15 deadline would still be prohibited from proselytizing and is required to submit detailed quarterly and annual accounts of its activities, with the state reserving the right to cancel its registration and close it down at any time.

According to HRWF, the nation’s deputy minister of justice told a group of Baptist leaders earlier this summer,”After August 15, you are zero.” The nation’s 15,000 Protestants are preparing a campaign to protest the inevitable closure of most _ if not all _ of their churches.”The government is giving us directions on how to handle all our religious activities,”one pastor said.”But our constitution … says that government and religion are separate. So this new law is stopping us from the religious freedom guaranteed by our constitution.”

Louisiana school board sued after denying Christian Coalition access

(RNS) The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed suit in New Orleans Wednesday (Sept. 2) against a Louisiana public school board that refused the Christian Coalition access to facilities made available to other organizations, including some Christian groups.

The St. Tammany Parish School Board and its superintendent are named in the suit, which claims the board’s”facilities-use policy”is discriminatory.”This school district repeatedly discriminates against people of faith,”said Stuart J. Roth, ACLJ southeast regional director.”The law is very clear on this issue: If school officials permit other community organizations to use its facilities, they cannot reject a request from an organization with a religious message,”Roth said.”That kind of discrimination is blatant, wrong and unconstitutional.” In the past, the board permitted, among others, the Girl Scouts, the Knights of Columbus, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and a Baptist church access to its schools, the ACLJ said.

But this summer, school officials repeatedly rejected requests by the local Christian Coalition chapter to hold a one-time meeting involving”praise and worship music, prayer, and discussion of relevant topical issues”from a biblical viewpoint, the ACLJ said. The board contends that it has the discretion to decide what groups are allowed to use school facilities and that only those that directly benefit students _ including, for example, church-sponsored athletic events _ will be allowed.

This is the ACLJ’s second suit against the St. Tammany Parish School Board. In April, suit was filed on behalf of Northpoint Community Church in Mandeville, La., after it was told it could not use school facilities during non-school hours. However, the lawsuit was withdrawn after the church decided it no longer wanted to push the issue.

Both the Virginia Beach, Va.-based ACLJ and the Chesapeake, Va.-based Christian Coalition were founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.

Vietnamese dissident to lecture at Catholic University

(RNS) Vietnamese dissident writer and ex-political prisoner Doan Viet Hoat, who was freed by Vietnam this week, will be a scholar-in-residence at the law school of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.”He will be coming here sometime this semester, probably in October,”university spokeswoman Annamarie DeCarlo said Friday (Sept. 4). Hoat’s emphasis at the university’s Columbus School of Law probably will be on human rights, DeCarlo said.

Hoat, 55, spent more than 15 of the past 20 years in Vietnamese prisons for his pro-democracy activities. He spent the last five years in solitary confinement.

On Tuesday (Sept. 1), Hoat was among more than 5,000 prisoners freed by the Vietnamese government.

Hoat, a Buddhist, has a wife living in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Va., and three grown sons in Minnesota.

Church groups focus on flood relief efforts around world

(RNS) While most of the world focuses on the growing global financial crisis and the increased threat of terrorism, some church relief groups are focused on aiding victims of the late summer floods in Bangladesh, China and Texas.

Bangladesh is experiencing its worst floods on record, with some 60 percent of the south Asian nation under water. More than 400 people have been killed by the floods, which affect some 20 million people.

Baptist World Aid, the relief arm of the Baptist World Alliance, has already sent $35,000 to two Baptist groups in Bangladesh working on disaster relief efforts, the Associated Baptist Press.”Our Baptist brothers and sisters in Bangladesh need our help in sharing Christian love, in a very practical way, with the mainly Muslim population,”said BWA director Paul Montacute.

Montacute said BWA has renewed efforts to appeal for more funds to provide emergency food, clothing and medicine in Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, BWA also is contributing to relief efforts in China, where weeks of flooding has affected some 240 million people, leaving about 3,000 dead and an estimated 13.8 million homeless.

BWA has contributed $5,000 toward the $250,000 raised by The Amity Foundation, a relief group associated with China’s official China Christian Council, which is coordinating relief efforts there.

The Baptists also sent to China water purification equipment and 200,000 two-gallon plastic bags to hold the purified water, according to Associated Baptist Press.

In the United States, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), the relief and development agency of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, is working on flood relief efforts in Del Rio, Texas.

Last month, some 14 people were killed in flooding affecting residential areas near the Rio Grande River in southern Texas. Some 40 people are still missing.

CRWRC has donated $10,000 to relief efforts in Del Rio and hopes to raise another $50,000 for long-term cleanup and repair efforts for those residents not eligible for federal disaster aid, the church said.

Thai Buddhist monk candidates may undergo HIV, drug testing

(RNS) Thai men who want to become Buddhist monks may have to clear some rather worldly hurdles before being ordained if the nation’s education ministry gets its way.

Under a new proposal, monk candidates would have to submit to mandatory testing for HIV and illegal drugs, a ministry spokesman announced Friday (Sept. 4). Thai police have received more than 60 complaints in the past two years involving drug abuse at Buddhist temples, the spokesman said.

Thailand is Southeast Asia’s ground zero for the AIDS epidemic and amphetamine abuse there is staggering, the Associated Press reported.

The Ministry of Education has asked the Religious Affairs Department to study the proposal

Many Thai Buddhist men traditionally serve as monks at some point in their lives.

Quote of the Day: Publishers Weekly’s Phyllis Tickle

(RNS)”For the first time in American history, whatever is happening in religion is being driven by the media instead of ecclesiastical institutions.” _ Phyllis Tickle, religion editor of the trade magazine Publishers Weekly, commenting on the explosive growth in sales of books about religion and spirituality. She was quoted in the Los Angeles Times Friday (Sept. 4).

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