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Proposed Religion Law in Kazakhstan Draws Concerns

Evangelical mission leaders are expressing concern over Kazakhstan's new Freedom of Religion Act although the legislation has yet gone into effect and the date remains uncertain when it will.

Evangelical mission leaders are expressing concern over Kazakhstan's new Freedom of Religion Act although the legislation has yet gone into effect and it remains uncertain when it will.

"There are some local officials within Kazakhstan who are already acting on that law as if it has been approved and are enforcing it," Send International's General Director Warren Janzen told Mission Network News (MNN) in a recent interview. "We have reports of one pastor of an unregistered church being arrested and one registered church in Almaty which was forced to close because of potential violations of this act."

While the bill has yet to receive final approval from the Upper Parliament, mission agencies such as Send International report that many local officials are already taking action. And while that is an obvious concern, there is also concern if the bill passes.

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"That could limit our ability to do church planting and work in Kazakhstan," Janzen said. "We could possibly see some persecution. We could see some restriction for new visas and missionaries going into Kazakhstan. And the people we have in place already may be either dramatically restricted what we can do or even forced out of the country."

According to MNN, it is uncertain how the proposed law will affect plans to send Ukrainian missionaries into the region to share the Gospel, but Janzen says, "It may be a situation where we will have to turn things over much more quickly than we had initially prepared for."

Mission agencies such as Send International are asking people to pray that local authorities will stop enforcing the law before it goes into effect and that God would prevent the bill from passing.

Currently, MNN reports that there is no word on when the Upper Parliament will vote on it.

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