An Urgent Message to the Churches of America from . . . the Persecuted Church in Russia "For thirty years we have suffered intense persecution, and now freedom is bringing another great harm to our churches. This damage is coming from the Christians in America who are sending rock music and evangelists accompanied by rock bands. "Our young people do not attend these meetings because we have all committed not to participate in secular entertainment. "This is a great burden on our hearts. Many come with Bible in hand and rock music. We are embarrassed by this image of Christianity. We do not know what words to use in urging that this be stopped. We abhor all Christian rock music coming to our country. "Rock music has nothing in common with ministry or service to God. We are very, very against Christian Americans bringing to our country this false image of 'ministry' to God. We need spiritual bread, please give us true bread, not false cakes. It is true that rock music attracts people to the church, but not to Godly living. "We were in prison for fifteen years and eleven years for Christ's sake. We were not allowed to have Christian music, but rock music was used as a weapon against us day and night to destroy our souls. We could only resist with much prayer and fasting. "Now, we have a time of more openness, and we are no longer taken to prison. However, now it is Christians from America who damage our souls. We do not allow this music in our church, but they rent big stadiums and infect teenagers and adults with their rock music. We, the leadership and congregations of the Unregistered Union of Churches, the former Persecuted Church, have made an agreement to not allow rock music in our Church. We urge you to join with us and we advise you to remove rock music from America, and certainly do not bring it to our country. "Do not desecrate our teenagers with it. Even the unbelievers recognize it is unholy music and they cannot understand how American Christians can be so much like the world. We can give you the conclusion that after Russian unbelievers have attended these rock concerts where Christ's Word was preached, the people were very disappointed and disillusioned with Christianity. "We call this music from hell. We urge all Americans to stop giving money for the organization of such concerts in Russia. We want only traditional Christian music in our churches. This is the unanimous decision of all our leaders." Peter Peters Head of the Unregistered Union of Churches Moscow, Russia Vasilij Ryzhuk Elder, Unregistered Union of Churches Moscow, Russia -- THE MISSING LINK, INC. Linking Troubled Youth and Adults with Life-Changing Programs Crisis Counseling Correspondence with Inmates For More Information, Contact: aa3141@freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu ---------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/announce: russian.rock.txt