Russian Sectology News
Press Release
Sectology is the study of sects. It also includes the study of Scientology. The unofficial language of sectology is Russian. Alexander L. Dvorkin, Ph.D., is the modern father of sectology. Several years ago he successfully defended himself against a monster law suit file by an alliance of sects, including Scientology, in Russia.
ALEXANDER L. DVORKIN,
DIRECTOR OF ST. IRINAEUS OF LYON CENTER
May 1, 2001The so-called Slavic Legal Center (SLC) has published an information release which says that the fire on April 17 in the Baptist assembly hall in the town of Chekhov, Moscow Province (the hall was situated in an apartment building) was a "direct result of an 'educational' activity of anticultists, one of most well known of whom is the US citizen Alexander Dvorkin. For example, in one of his recent publications he even included Baptists as a destructive cult (newspaper Vidnovskiye Vesti, March, 31, 2001). This is a new page in a sectology - a 'science' which this gentleman propagates with an unceasing ardor. As this event shows, those publications are far from harmless and provoke tragic incidents in our country".
This message of SLC is a blatant lie and slander which has no relation whatsoever either to religion or to the law.
1. As it is clear from the text of the message (apparently written by two directors of SLC, Mr. A. Pchelintsev and Mr. V. Ryakhovsky), the fact of the arson is not proven. At the moment the police tend to consider it a common fire. The investigation is going on. But as things stand now, one cannot verify that it was a premeditated crime.
2. The statement that the crime is a 'direct result' of someone's activity also needs to be proven with very definite facts. Before making such irresponsible statements, Mr. Pcelintsev and Mr. Ryakhovsky would have had to find words by me calling for arson. Until they find those words, their own statements will remain a common lie and slander. They may as well also write that the burning of a mosque in India or a synagogue in Warsaw are also the "direct result" of my activity.
3. SLC must prove where and when I called Baptists a 'totalitarian sect' or a 'destructive cult'. In fact anyone following my work knows my position very well. It was expressed by me numerous times: in spite of all my theological disagreements with the Baptists, I consider it absolutely wrong to call them 'totalitarian' or 'destructive'. In fact, just a few days ago (April, 25, 2001) at an international Conference in Nizhny Novgorod, I stated this very fact in response to a local Baptist pastor.. The first time I had ever heard of the newspaper cited in the above was in the above source. Prior to then I have never heard of that paper, nor was I interviewed by or had I handed over any information to it.
So, we are faced with one more blatant falsification of our 'Slavic legal experts'.
4. However, since Mr. Pchelintsev and Mr. Ryakhovsky consider it right to make such statements, even at the risk of a lawsuit, I also would express my own version of the events.
We know that the raison d'etre of the SLC is the alleged 'religious intolerance' in Russia. So, both directors are very much interested in proving by all possible means to the world public opinion as well as to those groups which provide grants to SLC that this 'intolerance' flourishes in Russia. We may suppose that the financial well-being of the directors and employees of the SLC has a direct connection to the number of the cases of 'intolerance', discovered and publicized by them. And since there are very few of these cases in Russia (in any event much less than in the USA), Mr. Pchelintsev and Mr. Ryakhovsky cannot but wish the growth of number, intensity, and acuteness of these cases. So, we can make this conclusion: the fire in the town of Chekhov is a misfortune which happened as a direct result of an 'educational' lesson of the cult lobby, in particular the directors and the employees of the Slavic Legal Center.
Editorial from Joe Cisar
For those who are cultivating their appreciation of literature, the last sentence is an example of "irony." In this case, irony is slightly more palatable than pointing out the cynicism of the SLC, namely that the SLC has exploited the misfortune of the people who have suffered loss in a fire for the purpose of manufacturing blatantly false accusations against an imagined enemy.