The Rules of Decency

Evangelical Protestantism appears to be flourishing in, of all places, Communist Rumania. Though most Rumanian Christians are Eastern Orthodox, the Baptists, with about 180,000 members, claim to have baptized 10,000 converts last year. The 100,000 Pentecostalists claim 15,000 baptisms. The government has responded to all this activity with a series of harassments, and six Evangelical leaders boldly responded last month by issuing a public protest. "If you do not intend to give [civil] rights to Evangelical Christians, then declare it openly," they said.

Titled "Appeal for Respect of Human Rights for Evangelical Believers in Rumania," the 20-page petition accuses the regime of violating the Helsinki declaration of 1975, in which 35 nations promised to respect religious and other liberties. The repression of Rumanian Evangelicals may be less harsh than that of other religious and political dissidents in Eastern Europe, but the petition raises important questions that the government may have to answer at next month's Belgrade conference to review the Helsinki accord. The petition charges three basic types of persecution:

BANS ON "ILLEGAL" MEETINGS. The regime has levied heavy fines against small groups of believers who meet to talk or pray without official approval. Some people have been penalized merely for eating dinner together after church. Earlier this year one group was fined for singing Baptist hymns at home, another for being in a room with Bible verses on the wall that were deemed "contrary to the rules of decency."

JOB DISCRIMINATION. The petition lists by name 50 people who have been demoted or fired from their jobs because of strong Christian convictions. A secret memo recently went to factory foremen ordering a purge of Evangelicals from key jobs, the petition says.

BIAS IN EDUCATION. The document charges blatant discrimination in the schools, despite guarantees of equal education in the national constitution. Children of outspoken believers are systematically excluded from some types of higher education by a rule requiring applicants to provide recommendations from the Communist Youth League, the petition says.

The major author of the petition is Oxford-educated firebrand Josif Ton, 42, a Baptist pastor in Ploiesti. Within a few hours after the petition was broadcast over the U.S.-run Radio Free Europe, Rumanian police picked up Ton and his cosigners. During a series of interrogation sessions that began at 7:30 a.m., three of the six leaders were punched and kicked. After four weeks of grilling, the Evangelicals were released--with a warning that they remain in danger of being prosecuted for conspiracy or treason.

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