www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Mormons eager to conquer Ukraine

They are striving for the construction of a temple in Kiev


An unusual religious scandal is gathering steam in Ukraine. It all started when eight Kiev Mormons travelled from Kiev to the city of Cherkassy on two minibuses. The Mormons seized the premises of the local religious community of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. American missionaries of the Church in the city of Cherkassy helped them.

The leader of the Cherkassy community, Alexander Tarasyuk, said that the conflict was caused by his "excessive curiosity." "I have been watching the Mormon Church from within as a phenomenon for five years. I have learned a lot about it; I discovered its goals and got a sense of the organization. This church de facto exists in Ukraine under the disguise of Ukrainian religious communities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Yet, the Mormon Church is not officially registered in Ukraine. It has communities in Kiev and Donetsk, which are also unregistered. Their Kiev building doesn't even have a sign; it's absolutely closed. As far as the registered communities are concerned, the people who join them realize that they are associated with the Mormons. These American missionaries hypnotize people. The Bible goes into the background very quickly, and the Book of Mormons becomes the first thing to think about. A person who shows the desire to join the church will be issued a card containing personal information and a long number. However, nobody knows where the taxes payed to this church go. This money is also not registered.

There was a moment when I finally asked for official explanations regarding several issues, including the legal status of the church and so on. I told them that their church was a fake. In return, I was defrocked. I remained the administrator of the community, so I suggested to leave the structure of the Mormon Church. Foreign missionaries came to us on two minibuses and tried to to seize our building. They changed the locks on the door of our premises during our service. These people were the messengers of an illegal mission. They belonged, neither to our community, nor to our so-called religious administration."

After the "occupants" left, Alexander Tarasyuk sent a letter to Ukraine's National Security Council and other governmental organizations. In the letter Tarasyuk explained the threat to the country. In his opinion, the threat arises from the "masons-mormons," who were going to build their temple in Ukraine's capital, Kiev.

"The Cherkassy community of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints discovered that the administration of the Mormon Church was trying to obtain permission from the Ukrainian government to construct a temple in Kiev. Studying the doctrine and practice of the Church, we came to the conclusion that this religious movement is extremely dangerous for the Ukrainian society and even for the state."

Alexander Tarasyuk believes that the Mormon Church following a plan to grasp power in the world with the help of the suppressed conscience of the people. In his opinion, their temples were the centers of the sect, where program their members. Tarasyuk stated his surprise to the fact that Ukraine's law-enforcement bodies ignored this danger for ten years. In addition to that, Tarasyuk said that "it would be good for Ukrainian society to know that the members of this sect make up the majority of personnel from the American special services.

In this connection, Tarasyuk did not understand the meeting between Ukrainian president's wife Lyudmila Kuchma and Gordon Hinckley, the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During the conversation, Hinckely gave her the check in the sum of $700 thousand for purchasing wheel-chairs. He also asked her to convince Ukrainian officials to approve of the construction of the temple. Kiev Mayor Alexander Omelchenko is the only official to grant such permission. He is to meet Garold Hinckley on September 9th. It seems that the Mormons will have a lot of problems in Ukraine if the government pays attention to this warning.

Andrey Lubensky

Ukraine

I do not like to see non-Christian groups such as the Mormons gain a foothold in places like Ukraine. Freedom of conscience demands, however, that they be given the opportunity to speak of their faith freely. Ultimately the Truth of Jesus Christ will triumph.

That's why I think Ukie Orthodox and the UGCC have to get together and really look at the true problems of Ukraine.
Lauro.

Slava Isusu Christu!

LOL the Osmonds come to the Ukraine.

Culturally it is not working. Protestant denominations and Ukranians do not mix. Why?Because their is a very real sense of poverty, years of persecution, and the need for education in Ukranian heritage that Protestant groups cannot begin to address.

Maybe if we do have enough Protestant groups over there we can really unite Orthodox and Catholics. We can unite in evicting them.

I am with the Administrator. And, if Steven is right, we have no need to use illiberal means to oppose Mormanism.

Axios

Administrator


I'm afraid I must respectfully disagree with this. We find in both the Old Testament (e.g., Elijah) and the Christian Church (e.g., Saint Emperor Theodosius) examples of seeming intolerance. It was thought at these times that protecting the truth and not allowing the "simple" (which is used in a technical sense regarding the extent of learning, and not in a derogatory sense) to fall into error was more important than "religious freedom".

The Roman Empire and it's view of "tolerance" that existed during the early period of the Christian Church, in many ways, mirrors our own time and context. The Roman Empire took a "You can have it your own way, if it's done just how we say" approach, allowing "diversity" so long as you agreed to certain basic principles (such as offering sacrifices for the emperor). Today we find a similar situation, with America insisting that it allows diversity in practice--except for one position that it refuses to tolerate: the position that a country might choose one religion (e.g., Orthodoxy) over the concept of religious pluralism as defined and experienced in America.

I do not know that religious pluralism is better or worse; certainly it was a good turn of events for me that I had freedom of choice and wasn't forced into the system of this nation's founders (Deist, Protestant, or whatever else you want to say it was, it certainly wasn't Orthodox). On the other hand, what right do we have to force our concept of religious pluralism on other countries? We have no moral high ground to stand on, IMO, for some of the greatest saints in our Church's history were extremely intolerant on exactly this issue.

I guess what I'm saying is that while I'm not in a position to say what's ultimately right and wrong in this discussion, I do think I can say that we need to be careful about forcing our own views onto other countries because we think our own beliefs morally superior or we think that "Christ will win out". (How many nations have gone secular after having a Christian foundation?) I hope my words have not offended; if they have, please forgive me.

[ 09-14-2002: Message edited by: Seeker of God ]

[ 09-14-2002: Message edited by: Seeker of God ]

The Scriptures use symbolisms which speak volumes if we study to understand them.

One of the symbols for believers is sheep. Likewise, those in leadership over the Church are called shepherds

What do we know of these two beings, sheep and shepherds?

Sheep are NOTORIOUSLY STUPID. They will EAT ANYTHING, even if it is poison. They are quite prone to WANDER FROM THE FLOCK. They are HELPLESS, especially against WOLVES. In short, they require constant attention!!

Shepherds (ideally speaking) love their sheep. Therefore, they take upon themselves all the pains and aggravations of caring for these DUMB BEASTS! A good shepherd will go into a field and find all the noxious weeds and other dangerous items and remove them from the field before letting the sheep graze. He will go to great lengths to get the sheep back when the sheep wanders off. And he will fight with wolves to protect his sheep. Given opportunity, he will make himself a nice wolfe fur coat for cold weather.

How does this apply to the Church? Well, sad to say, but I would bet good money that well over 75% of the laypeople in the Church anywhere in the world are more cultural and familial Catholic and Orthodox than they are committed by study and a deep conversion process. In other words, they show up because that's the thing to do.

These people are RIPE FOR THE PLUCKING by these insidious door-knocking cults who prey upon such!! Their souls are in the balance.

I think it therefore the job of the shepherds of the Church (Catholic and Orthodox) to go into the field of the world and root up all the noxious weeds of cultism, Protestantism, and New Ageism. I think they do this by TEACHING, TEACHING, TEACHING. I also think that they must constantly warn WITH PLAIN LANGUAGE, and not some of the flowery CRAPOLA I have heard in some homilies, that there is a REAL AND DANGEROUS battle on for the souls of the faithful.

It is a sin, in my estimation, to call these cultists and other such anything else but SOUL KILLERS heretics, dangerous infidels, and Christ deniers. I get rather tired of the way in which certain factions of the Church seem to want to kiss up to everyone and make no one mad!

SOULS are at stake here!! These wolves devour the flock. Do we not remember the stern and strict warnings of the great St. Paul, who with tears warned his beloved sheep that wolves would come into the flock.

Each bishop and priest will give an account for all the souls under his shepherdship. I would not want for a second to face the Lord having let some of His sheep slip away and be devoured by these cultists. Much better to offend the heretics, much better to hound them out of town in whatever LEGAL way possible, than to admit to Christ that I was negligent and allowed His sheep to fall away.

In Hershey PA, there is a "Bible Church" which has 2,000 members and our priest says that he believes that around 80% of these people are X Catholics. THAT is a shame.

And finally, are we all praying to Our Lady, Protectress of the Church, that She would thwart their evil plans and send them packing back to their caves?

God forgive me, I have not been, but I plan on starting.

Cordially in Christ,

Brother Ed

Here is an interesting website by a mormon on the "similarities" between the mormons and the Orthodox. I wonder what you all think of it.

http://homepage.mac.com/brownsteve/timmins/reli/015.html

After the "occupants" left, Alexander Tarasyuk sent a letter to Ukraine's National Security Council and other governmental organizations. In the letter Tarasyuk explained the threat to the country. In his opinion, the threat arises from the "masons-mormons," who were going to build their temple in Ukraine's capital, Kiev.

What I find in his message to be the issue of concern is "masons-mormons". The freemasons in my opinion is the enemy. There is information about the higher degrees of freemasonry that has been published that states there intentions are to destroy the Catholic Church. 3 Encyclicals have written condeming freemasonry. Peace

Theosis

I think it is bullcr-p. Notice the way they subtlely distort Orthodox teachings. And there is no mention of the fact that TRADITIONAL Mormons are ARIAN HERETICS who consider Christ to be a created being.

And they conveniently neglect to mention the BLASPHEMOUS idea that the devil was once Christ's brother!!

GARBAGE and DECEIT, pure and simple!!

Brother Ed

Dear Friends,

The religious situation in Ukraine is truly sad.

There is much more infighting between the Russian Orthodox and the Ukrainian Orthodox on canonical vs noncanonical grounds that cover up political/national issues of who controls what.

It will take time for things to sort themselves out.

Many Protestant groups come with American dollars in their hands and the people are only too happy to avail themselves of them.

The majority of those who join such groups tend to leave by the backdoor soon after they' received what they've come for - and it ain't no spiritual enlightenment!

Alex

Why does freedom of conscience "demand" that people like the Mormons have a right to entice people into error?

Why should they be given the opertunity to spread around what they believe to be true to folks who already have the truth?

Mormons, from what I have both heard and witnessed, are incredibly intolerant people who, if one has ever been in Utah can attest, do not like "Ultlanders" in the country of the saints. Why then should the Ukrainian people be so open and tolerant towards them?

The truly Christian state has not only a right but a moral obligation to protect her citizens from such things as evangelization by a false religion. They should therefore use this obligatory right to restrict the activities of such groups on their soil.

How is Ukrainian and Eastern Europe suppost to spiritualy rebuild anyway with all these people going around decieving others while the state just looks on?

Robert K.

I hope you aren't advocating that certain Christian countries become as intolerant as some Islamic countries.

Dear God! What a debacle that would create on a global scale.

Abdur

Glory to Jesus Christ!
Same thing happens in Mexico too Alex. God Bless.

And in India. And not just with many Protestants either, although that is there.

One of the problems the Orthodox Church in India has with the Roman Catholic Church is that many RC religious orders/individual priests/dioceses would offer people better employment opportunities and education by training them overseas in places like Germany, England, and the States for various medical professions like nursing, get them the proper status to allow them to live overseas and work and make money, etc. The catch was that one of the "prerequisites" was that they had to be Roman Catholic.

And so many Orthodox, looking for a way out, had this way provided for them free for the asking, as long as they became Roman Catholic...I don't think even they were given the choice to be Malankara Catholics. So they went through with it. The Orthodox complain, saying that religion shouldn't be the basis upon which you help out people, and cited cases of Orthodox groups helping Roman and Eastern Catholics as is, without asking/requiring conversion or things like that. Still happens, though.