Orthodox Church Upholds Discriminative Religious Law 11:19, 15/10/2002
The Belarusian Orthodox Church has positively evaluated the new law “On the freedom of faith and religious organizations”, passed by the “house of representatives” of the Belarusian “parliament” on June 27 and the “council of the republic” on October 2 (46 senators voted in favor of the law and 2 – against).
The Orthodox archbishop of Belarus Filaret gave an “absolutely positive evaluation of the new law” when the draft law was still on the stage of preparation.
The preamble of the law defines the dominating role of the Orthodox Church in the historical development of spiritual, cultural and state traditions of the Belarusian nation. According to Filaret, there’s nothing undemocratic in that law and it does not contradict the fundamental freedoms of the European commonwealth.
Filaret explained that the negative Protestants’ stance towards the new law is caused by their fear that Belarus will merge with Russia, setting an attractive example for the former Soviet republics.
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