CHURCH WORSHIP IN RUSSIA

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26887, 13 November 1952, Page 7

CHURCH WORSHIP IN RUSSIA

“LIMITED FREEDOM ALLOWED”

CONTROL OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 12.

Soviet leaders carry out no direct religious persecution behind the Iron Curtain, but they show “a satanic cleverness” in controlling religious thought within certain approved limits, said Mr Arnold Ohrn, of Washington, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance. Mr Ohrn will leave Auckland tomorrow after two weeks in New Zealand for Sydney, on a world tour aimed at binding the ties between Baptists all over the world.

He said the Soviet allowed a limited freedom of worship, but it was not freedom as we understood it. One of the main aims was to keep religious instruction away from children with the apparent object of keeping the coming generation in ignorance of all ideologies but that of communism. The training of ministers was allowed to a degree, but only by approved teachers. The -Communist doctrine filled a big part of the curriculum. Greek Orthodox and Baptist churches were the only ones with semi-official recognition, but their activities were strictly limited.

He said the Kremlin was careful not to make any religious martyrs. A man might disappear overnight without a trace or be tried by a Court on some I trumped-up charges having nothing to [do with religion.