June 3, 2002
Georgian Baptist leader appeals for prayer
___WASHINGTON, D.C.--Malkhaz Songulashvili, president of the Union of Evangelical Baptists of Georgia, is the focus of continuing attacks from a defrocked Orthodox priest and his followers.
___In a recent communication with the Baptist World Alliance, Songulashvili quoted the following from a fundamentalist newspaper: "We can speak widely about the wicked activity of Baptist Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili. This man with his white hands, gentle beard and false intelligence is representing the greatest danger for our faith. In his books he has ruthlessly destroyed the foundations of Orthodox dogma."
___Songulashvili is under fire partly because of a letter from some United States senators to the president of the Republic of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, in which they asked the government to do more to prevent 700 criminal complaints and documented attacks on groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostals and evangelical Christians. The letter pointed to the warehouse owned by the Baptist Union that was burned Feb. 3.
___Georgian Baptists assert all this is orchestrated by the defrocked Georgian Orthodox priest Basil Mkalavishvili.
___The U.S. senators noted while criminal proceedings against the mob that attacked Mkalavishvili have begun, the case has been repeatedly postponed because Mkalavishvili's mob "sometimes numbering in the hundreds, overrun the court."
___Another reason the Baptist Bishop has been singled out is a complaint by a human rights group in the Republic of Georgia. In a comprehensive statement, the Civil Society Representatives from Georgia expressed among other things "deepest concern regarding the recently launched wide-scale attack on democratic values and institutions which they say could lead the country to autocratic governance or bring it insurrection and violence."
___They are especially concerned that the government continues to attempt to block the draft law on freedom of speech which already was passed in the Parliament at the first hearing in 1999. They also document other instances where the government has attempted to suppress the media and other groups who speak out for freedom of speech and religious liberty.
___President Shevardnadze issued a statement in the state-owned newspaper supporting recommendations by the United Nations and United States Department of State to strengthen the defense of human rights in Georgia. He commissioned the minister of justice and interior affairs to "take sensible actions to safeguard freedom of thought, conscience, confession and faith; to investigate and press on the courts every single act of violence against religious minorities in order to prosecute all those who are guilty and to carry out training for their staff members in the areas of human rights and especially about the unacceptability of religious intolerance."
___Songulashvili appealed to Baptists around the world to pray for leaders in his country.
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