Georgian Cleric Draws Criticism - News about religious cults and sects

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - A fiery Georgian cleric on a mission to rid his country of evangelical groups has damaged its reputation for religious tolerance and drawn criticism from abroad.

Vasily Mkalavishvili - defrocked as a priest six years ago by the majority Georgian Orthodox Church - opposes the activities of Baptists, Pentecostalists and other evangelical Christian groups that have blossomed in the former Soviet republic in the last decade.

In the past month alone, Mkalavishvili and his followers have seized and burned piles of brochures printed by Jehovah's Witnesses, trashed an apartment the Witnesses used as a prayer house, and beaten a group of American missionaries from the Assemblies of God who were visiting the site of a future Bible school.

The U.S. and British Embassies have formally protested the violence and the chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, spoke out against the attacks last month.

Defrocked for not supporting Orthodox-sponsored ecumenical activities, Mkalavishvili was evicted from his parish church in suburban Tbilisi. The burly priest - who has a bushy salt-and-pepper beard and penetrating blue eyes - began holding services outdoors and accumulated hundreds of followers. He held mass baptisms in a Tbilisi reservoir and launched a street campaign to counter evangelical Christians.
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The parliament passed a constitutional amendment last month giving the Georgian Orthodox Church special status - a declaration that provoked criticism from advocates of minority religious rights and overshadowed a resolution passed the same day calling on police to prevent religious violence.

"It's obvious that some Orthodox priests consider the authorities' inaction a signal that attacks on religious minorities are acceptable. Both the government and the Georgian Orthodox Church say that they condemn such violence, but they aren't taking measures to stop it," said Inga Geliashvili, a lawyer for the Jehovah's Witnesses.

An economic decline has also fueled Mkalavishvili's movement. After the 1991 Soviet collapse and two civil wars, the Caucasus Mountains nation of 5.3 million has a 20 percent unemployment rate and an average salary of about $50 a month.

The expensive, glossy paper of the Jehovah's Witnesses pamphlets incensed Mkalavishvili and his followers, because Georgian school children must read dim photocopies of hand-me-down textbooks.

"Americans and others are bringing new, sectarian faiths here. They buy people with money," said one of Mkalavishvili's supporters, Marina Darsavelidze. "But you can't buy true faith."
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