Postcommunist

Believersin a

Postmodern World

Christianity and Human Rights Conference

Samford University, 2004

Timeline

AD 864 Christianization of Bulgaria

AD 933 Golden Century

AD 1396 Ottoman Occupation

AD 1878 Liberation of Bulgaria

AD 1944 Communist Revolution

AD 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall

Religious Content

Jewish 1%

Orthodox 85%

Roman Catholic

1%Muslim 13%

Protestant 1%

Confessions Act of 2002

1. Status of Religious Confessions

2. Registration with the Government

3. Relationship between Church and State

4. Religious Activities

5. Religious Freedom

Status of Religious Confessions

1. No definitive statement of traditional and non-traditional religious confessions.

2. Designates the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as a traditional religious confession.

3. The special privileges create lack of equality between the religious confessions.

4. The Act ignores needs of minority religious and ethnic groups.

Registration with the Government

1. All denominations, except the Orthodox Church, must register.

2. There is no provision of the registration requirements.

3. Type of limitations are unclear. 4. No procedures for denial.5. No procedure for public

opinion.6. The role of the Directorate of

Religious Affairs is unclear.7. The lack of experts remains

unaddressed.8. Only organizations with

centralized structure can register.

Relationship between Church and State

1. The Directorate of Religious Affairs is presumed as supreme expert.

2. Financial support is provided for the Eastern Orthodox Church.

3. There is no concern with enforced regional regulations.

4. Enforces the “symphony” between the state and the Eastern Orthodox Church as a rule on Protestants.

5. Presumes that the Orthodox Church is unable to solve its own problems.

6. Allows unfettered government interference.

7. Enforces registration in order to exercise maximum control.

Religious Activities

1. Public worship is prohibited without registration.

2. No category concerning foreign missionaries.

3. No provision for chaplaincy or pastoral care in the army, prisons, hospitals and care institutions.

4. Formation of political parties along religious lines is prohibited.

5. Denominational hospitals, social centers and educational institutions are encouraged without concrete mechanisms for their realization.

Religious Freedom

1.Lack of atmosphere for preventing of discrimination and harassments based on religious convictions.

2. Does not contain definite procedures or substantive criteria.

3. Failure to recognize freedom of conscience, as well as the right not to believe.

4. No regulation on the right and practice not to believe.

5. “Freedom of religions shall not be directed against national security, public order, people’s health and the morals or the rights and freedoms of persons under the jurisdiction of the republic of Bulgaria or other states.”

Churchin the Hands ofan Angry State