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Religious intolerance – the grim
reality in Lithuania Democratic development of a country and the freedom of expression enjoyed by its citizens are based on the security of the freedom of thought, religion and conscience. These freedoms are laid down in Article 26 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania. It seems natural that the Law on Religious Communities and Associations, which is one of the foundation stones of our state, should protect them as well. However, adopting the Constitution in 1992 (Article 43 establishes religious inequality by dividing Lithuania’s religious communities into traditional and nontraditional), and the Law on Religious Communities and Associations in 1995, Lithuania made a step in the direction of religious intolerance and even dictatorship. This has been causing violations of the rights of nontraditional religious communities, such as The Word Of Faith Church and others, and all kinds of religious intolerance shown by members of The Catholic Church, Lithuania’s dominant religious group, officials of the state institutions and the mass media, which during the past decade has been forming a negative attitude towards the nontraditional religious communities. All these years, believers have been firmly standing for their statutory rights, the rights of upright citizens of their own country. The following are the facts evidencing religious discrimination of nontraditional religious communities (in the fields of free expression, education and finances) and steps initiated and taken by the Vilnius Church Word Of Faith seeking to establish in Lithuania justice and the principle of equality of all citizens under the law. Nontraditional religion In November, 1990, the Law on Religious Communities and Associations of the Republic of Lithuania was drafted. The draft established a tolerant attitude towards all religions and set forth the right to freedom of religion. But 29 June 1992 saw the coming of another draft of that law incorporating provisions that directly violated the human rights and the equality of all religious communities under the law. This draft established discrimination of some of the believers by dividing religious communities into traditional and nontraditional (Article 5). On these grounds, the state granted a number of privileges to the traditional religious communities, such as the right to use the public mass media (par. 5 of Article 6) and give classes of religious education only to believers of the traditional religions at public schools and other educational institutions (par. 2 of Article 8). In addition, different requirements were set forth for the religious communities seeking rights of a legal person: the draft law defined the traditional communities as legal persons, while other communities could become legal persons if they had at least 300 members and their statutes were registered in the manner prescribed in the law (Article 9). Moreover, only the traditional religious communities could receive public funding. On 20 August 1992, The Bible Center Word Of Faith applied to the Parliamentary Committee on the Rights of Citizens and Issues of Nationalities of the Republic of Lithuania and a working group under it with a request to review the draft Law on Religious Communities and Associations of 29 June 1992. In this request The Bible Center asked to exclude the grouping of religious communities into recognized and not recognized by the state, which was a violation of the human rights and fostered religious discrimination by privileging one group of citizens to the disadvantage of the rest. The Bible Center also drew up amendments to this draft law on the basis of the draft law of November 1990 and forwarded them to the Parliamentary Committee and the working group together with a declaration of the participants of the Second International Full Gospel Conference hosted in Vilnius on 10-16 August 1992 signed by over 2 thousand believers. At the same time, a new draft of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania was drawn up. However, this draft was announced to the general public only ten days before the referendum to find out the public opinion. Lithuanian people had no possibility to give the draft a careful consideration and thus express an informed opinion. The issue received only scant coverage in the media, and not without impediments when the draft Constitution was criticized. One of the national dailies, Lietuvos Rytas, published only an abridged variant of the article by Gabrielius Lukošius, the second pastor of The Word Of Faith Church, criticizing the draft. The daily’s chief editor refused to publish a letter of the Bible center addressing the fellow countrymen and asking not to approve the proposed draft, which allowed restriction of the fundamental human rights. This violated the provisions of the Law on the Referendum to Adopt the Constitution setting forth the right to “make unimpeded agitation for or against the adoption of this draft Constitution enjoying a possibility to use the means of mass media”. A year later, a working group lead by Rev. Aliulis put forth a new draft of the Religious Communities Law, which was approved on 6 June 1993 by the Parliamentary Committee on the Rights of Citizens and Issues of Nationalities. This draft was not democratic either. The Third Full Gospel Conference held on 16-22 August 1993 initiated another letter to the Parliament expressing protest against the undemocratic character of the draft Law on Religious Communities and Associations and indicating its flaws. The letter was signed by 2895 believers and its copies, together with an alternative Religious Communities Law drawn up by the Bible center Word of Faith, were sent to Lithuania’s President Brazauskas and Speaker of the Parliament Jursenas. In autumn 1993, leaders of 47 nontraditional religious communities and associations addressed the Parliament in order to express their concern about a number of provisions in the Law on Religious Communities and Associations contradicting the national Constitution and called upon the MPs to guarantee the right of Lithuanian citizens to the freedom of religion and equal treatment irrespective of faith and religious views. The Parliament postponed consideration of the draft law for an undefined period of time. In April 1994, The Bible Center Word Of Faith sent out letters to 15 foreign organizations protecting human rights and the freedom of religion informing them of the situation in Lithuania. Among these organizations was the USA-based International Rutherford Institute for the Protection of Religious Freedom, which took concrete steps to protect the interests of Lithuania’s believers. Institute’s international coordinator Pedro C. Moreno wrote letters to the European Court of Human Rights, to Mr. Eidintas, Lithuania’s ambassador in the United States, and to Algirdas Brazauskas, the President of Lithuania. He pointed out that the proposed draft of the Law on Religious Communities and Associations contradicted the European Convention on Human Rights in two aspects. Firstly, the law guarantees privileges to some of the religious communities, which in the future might lead to one of them becoming a state religion; secondly, privileging of some of religions to the disadvantage of the rest creates conditions for religious discrimination and even persecution. The provisions of the European Convention allow a person choose a religion without any state interference. The Parliament took this letter into account and decided that the draft law needed reconsideration. Participants of the Fourth Full Gospel Conference held on 17-21 August 1994 wrote another letter to the President and the Parliament of Lithuania requesting to guarantee in the Law on Religious Communities and Associations the freedom of all citizens to choose religion, which is in line with the principle of equality under the law, and not to allow grouping of the religions into privileged state-recognized and not recognized. In autumn 1994, lawyer Alberta Baltusyte, a member of the church Word of Faith, was invited to join the working group drawing up the Law on Religious Communities and Associations. She was the only person in the group representing the rights of the nontraditional religious communities. In April 1995, a revised draft of the Law was drawn up. As her comments were turned down, Ms Baltusyte forwarded to the Parliamentary Committee on the Rights of Citizens and Issues of Nationalities her own opinion concerning the Law based on the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and the Law on Education of the Republic of Lithuania. However, the Parliamentary Committee did not take her opinion into account and on 24 April 1995 approved the draft law proposed by the majority of the working group. The draft law was presented to the Parliament. It must be noted though that a few minor corrections were made: Article 14 provides for financial and other kinds of assistance from the state and municipality budgets for schools founded not only by the traditional but also nontraditional religious communities. Participants of the International Full Gospel Conference of 7-13 August 1995 repeatedly addressed the President and the Parliament of Lithuania asking to guarantee the freedom to religion, tolerance and respect of the state for all its citizens, regardless of their faith, which are fundamental properties of any democratic country. On 4 October 1995, the Parliament passed the undemocratic Law on Religious Communities and Associations. On October 6 1995, The Bible Center Word Of Faith addressed Lithuania’s President Brazauskas with a request not to sign this law but return it to the Parliament for reconsideration in order to eliminate inconsistent in the provisions and exclude provisions violating human rights. Nonetheless, the President signed the Law thus enforcing it. During the period of 1991-1996 The Vilnius Word Of Faith Church received each year permissions of Vilnius municipality to organize Easter marches in the city, but in 1997 the municipality prohibited this annual event. On 15 August 1995, officials of the Public Order Department of Vilnius municipality detained Arunas Adomaitis, one of the leaders of The Word Of Faith Church, and a group of believers who organized in one of the city squares a campaign promoting the Full Gospel Conference being held at that time in Vilnius. Such an act of the officials demonstrated intolerance to people of other religions and abused human dignity. Mr. Adomaitis was accused of organizing illegally a meeting. A protocol of administrative violation was drawn up and referred to an administrative court, though Articles 26 and 43 of the Constitution of Lithuania provide for a right to confess publicly and practice one’s faith, and Article 3 of the Law on Religious Communities and Associations prohibits any restriction of the rights and freedoms of believers. Mr. Adomaitis was imposed a fine. School Upon passing in 1995 the Law on Religious Communities and Associations, funds from the state budget were allocated for private schools providing the same level of education as public schools. However, despite the fact that under this Law funding was guaranteed not only to schools established by traditional religious communities but also to those founded by other communities and possessing legal person’s rights, The Word Of Faith Christian School founded by The Vilnius Church Word Of Faith and holding a license of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania did not receive any funding. The school referred the issue to the Vilnius municipality. By decision of 7 November 1996, the Vilnius municipality allocated to the school LTL 62,000, but upon the change of the Vice Mayor of Vilnius, the City Board decided to give this money to another Vilnius secondary school. In 1998, the administration of The Word Of Faith Christian School filed an application for funding, as provided for in the relevant laws, with the Vilnius municipality, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science and Culture, the Mayor of Vilnius city, and the Vice Minister of Education and Science but did not receive any definite answer why funding had been withheld. In the end, the school received from the Education Department of the Vilnius municipality LTL 5000, a small part of the promised funds. In 1999, the school moved to a new building in one of the districts of Vilnius. The school administration filed the registration documents with the municipality of the Vilnius district, but the registration of the school was repeatedly postponed. On 22 September 1999, the Municipal Council of the district held a meeting to discuss whether the district needed The Word OF Faith Christian School and passed a decision not to register it. Without registration the school could not have its license prolonged. Therefore it appealed the decision of the Municipal Council to an administrative court. The court decided that the municipality failed to perform its work properly and annulled the decision of the Municipal Council not to register The Word Of Faith Christian School. The municipality of the district appealed the decision of this administrative court to a higher instance administrative court, which on 27 April 2000 rejected the appeal and ruled to register The Word Of Faith Christian School in the district’s register of educational institutions. The municipality failed to do that, so the school was registered and its license was prolonged by the Ministry of Education and Science. Taxes It is another field where discrimination of nontraditional religious communities is felt. Until October 1997, all the churches in Lithuania were exempt from the value added tax (VAT). This was established in par. 10 of Article 4 of the Law on Value Added Tax stating that “VAT shall not be imposed on works and services payment for which is covered from donated money”. But in October of the same year, the Parliament passed an amendment to this law stating that “VAT shall not be imposed on works and services done to the traditional religious communities of Lithuania and paid up from donated funds”. By exempting them from VAT, this law adds new privileges to the traditional religious communities, apart from the privilege to receiving financial assistance from the national budget. It was overlooked that both the traditional and nontraditional religious communities are supported from donated funds. In the outcome, voluntary donations of a part of believers are taxed while those of others remain tax free. Nontraditional churches thus have become subject to financial pressure imposed by the state, in addition to intolerance and even segregational attitudes. Though, according to Article 16 of the Law on Religious Communities and Associations, “the income, namely, contributions, income resulting from the sale of property acquired through charitable means, of all religious communities, associations and centres (higher governing institutions), shall not be taxable, provided they are intended for construction, repair or restoration of a house of prayer, charity, culture and education”. On 31 January 2001 The Word Of Faith Christian Fellowship, The Union Of The Evangelical Denominations of Lithuania, and The Šiauliai Church Word Of Truth sent a letter to the Speaker of the Parliament, and its copies to the Finance Minister and the Minister of Justice asking to dispense justice by amending the VAT law of 1997 so as to restore the previous provision stating that “VAT shall not be imposed on works and services payment for which is covered from donated money” and to apply it to all religious communities without exceptions. However painful it may be, undemocratic laws, intolerance of people having different views and practicing different religions, negative attitude towards such otherness formed by the means of mass media is the reality in Lithuania. Still another example is an article published on 5 February 2001 in the newspaper Respublika claiming that The Word of Faith Christian School had received over LTL 100 thousand of state funding, while the actual sum was merely LTL 5 thousand. Such statements of high officials strengthen religious prejudice, polarize the society and form a negative opinion about such religious communities as The Church Word Of Faith. Lithuania is free de jure. It will become free de facto only when all restrictions of the freedom of conscience are removed and all the citizens, irrespective of their faith, views, and social position, become equal under the law. |
Test for democracy and the dominating religious community (1st part) Test for democracy and the dominating religious community (2nd part) |
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Test for democracy and the dominating religious community (1st part) Test for democracy and the dominating religious community (2nd part) |
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Freedom
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Religious intolerance