A Moscow City court has banned a holy text produced by a Chinese Christian, Witness Lee. Witness Lee founded the Local Church in Moscow and was himself a disciple of the famous Watchman Nee, who was imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party.
The text in query is a translation of the New Testament by Lee called “New Testament: The Restoration Translation”. Sources indicate that the Moscow court had no issue with the New Testament itself, which as a Biblical text can’t be considered extremist under Russian law.
The court apparently did take exception to commentary by Witness Lee. The court told the Russian Agency of Legal and Judicial Information (RAPSI) that a few of Witness Lee’s comments had “special linguistic signs of propaganda and humiliation” against other religions. The court went to this point as to say that some comments appeared to justify violence against people of other religions.
As well as being declared uncanonical, the text was ruled to be overly exclusive of Biblical translations, especially those of the Russian Orthodox Church.
A representative of International Christian Concern commented on the case, “This is prone to create more pressure and a chilling effect on the members of the Local Church Congregation in Moscow and around Russia.
“It is fascinating that a Bible translation born out of a lot persecution of Chinese Christians is now on the core of accelerating pressure on evangelical believers in Russia. Please proceed to wish for the local church members, for the evangelical Christians in China and Russia, and likewise for ongoing Bible translation efforts across the globe.”
Russia has banned quite a lot of other religious texts for inciting extremism, including a translation of the Koran and the Jehovah’s Witness translation of the Bible. Some theological texts, novels and articles covering religious themes have also been banned as have some atheist materials.
