In late July Vienna hosted a special OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) conference on religious tolerance. This topic has again become a burning issue in Europe now that the West and the East are no longer divided by the Iron Curtain: the situation in “young democracies” is not always and not everywhere consistent with Western standards of religious freedom. The conference gave three strong recommendations to the legislative and executive branches in OSCE member states, especially the postcommunist ones.
First, the Vienna meeting recommends that states not introduce special new legislation, which might limit the freedom of conscience, using as an excuse national security concerns (threats of terrorism, coups d’Оtat, etc.), concerns about racist propaganda, incitement of religious hatred, etc. This should not be done for the simple reason that the existing national legislation normally already contains the necessary restrictions of human rights and freedoms. And if a religious person or community in one way or another breaks the laws of their state, they are subject to prosecution under existing criminal or other codes. The introduction of specific restrictions for religious organizations, however, only leads to further violations of human rights. Second, OSCE lawmakers also recommend states not misuse the notion of state security or other ideological reasons to restrict the activities of certain religious groups because, under international legal acts, ideological arguments should not be treated as grounds for restricting religious freedom. And, third, the OSCE cautions states against introducing any legally sanctioned hierarchy of churches, that is, against granting a different legal status to various religious communities by furnishing special rights to so-called traditional, national, historic, dominant, or other churches. The Vienna conference urged certain states (including the Russian Federation) to lift hierarchic definitions of this kind, already enshrined in their laws.
Obviously, the OSCE recommendations are aimed at extending the freedom of worship to all denominations and churches, irrespective of their age, origin, number, or dogmas, irrespective of whether or not we like these churches. Paraphrasing a well-known quotation from Voltaire, let us say that we do not belong to a certain denomination, nor do we accept its dogmas and rites; we are shocked with the emotional abandon of its prayers, we cannot understand why the Ukrainians have chosen a spiritual leader in Africa. Yet we must do our best for the adherents of this religious group, our compatriots, to be able to practice their faith in peace.
Immediately after these OSCE decisions, Kyiv hosted last week a press conference held by activists of Ukraine’s Judaic community and Orthodox “defenders of faith and society from totalitarian sects” (a solid third of the religions and denominations registered in this country fell under the definition of sect). The press conference organizers invited journalists not for the sake of some important news but to set the Ukrainian media against the “objectionable Protestant sect” of Judeo- Christians. This “sect” has chosen, as it were, a “sinister criminal way” of missionary activities: it holds Jewish art festivals in Ukraine’s cities in order to attract audiences to the Hear, Israel! religious movement.
Hear, Israel! tries to blend Judaism and Christianity, i.e., to persuade Jews to accept the Gospels and, accordingly, Jesus Christ as the messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, known to our Jewish friends as the Torah. Such attempts have been made — without apparent success — since the first centuries after Christ, only to be treated as heresies (except, naturally, for Christians). This is one of humanity’s most beautiful utopias which neither of the two sides, Jews and Christians, are prepared to put into practice. Despite this, more and more varieties of Judeo-Christianity keep coming up, such as Messianists, Jews for Jesus, Evangelist Jews, et al. The present-day Hear, Israel! movement is also one of them.
This is not a question of Judeo-Christians. Let us return to the mentioned press conference, which united Orthodox Jews and Orthodox Christian fighters against so-called totalitarian sects. Their speeches were a damning indictment of Judeo-Christian missionaries, asking: Who authorized them to preach their religion here? Why do the city authorities allow this kind of insult? How dare these missionaries hold music festivals?, Who allowed them to distribute humanitarian aid in Ukraine? We will sue them, etc. Although the well-known expression of canonical territory was not used, the point was precisely in this: the Ukrainian territory of our Orthodox Jews, and Orthodox Christian “anti-sectarians” sang with them in unison.
What a strange creature is man! We may have got used to our supposedly friendly Orthodox Christian sect-busters. But the Jews! At first glance, a people and a religion that have been cruelly and unjustifiably harassed for centuries, driven away from many European countries, suffered from humiliation and infringements on civil rights and freedom of worship, are supposed to be a showpiece of tolerance and condescension toward religious minorities or even to help the latter like today’s German Catholics and Protestants, say, help the sparse Orthodox parishes of Germany. But in reality we see only bitterness and irreconcilability.
Clearly, all religions do not like rivals, but there are other means to keep your flock — first of all, to work with it rather than threaten court actions and demand that the local authorities ban festivals and religious services and deprive their rivals of premises they have rented. On the other hand, the respected members of Ukraine’s Judaism should not forget about our state’s international prestige. For what does it mean to groundlessly ban a religious function? Is this consistent with our Constitution?
Another thing is that the press conference was attended by well-known and well-respected Judaic figures. Some of them were of US origin, which means that they were born and raised in an atmosphere of religious freedom, American style, which is supposed to be true freedom of conscience. This leads me to wonder if these people would dare to demand that a certain US governor ban the religious meeting of a certain “sect” simply on the grounds that they do not like it or see it as a rival. Why is this still possible in Ukraine (and, unfortunately, not only on the part of the Judaic community)? Meanwhile, the US Congress will put Ukraine on its annual blacklist of countries that brutally violate religious freedom.
