been the main topic of most Bulgarian related news in the last couple
of weeks, not to mention months. The process that began already in the
beginning of this year reached its culmination last week when a
comission of the European Union dealing with corruption, reported that
Bulgaria has done nothing to stop corruption. The president of the
Balkan nation, formerly a Communist satelite, has been linked to mafia
bosses who sponsored his election campaign.
Prime minister Stanishev, who is the grandson of one of the high
ranking functioners of the former Communist party, has been completely
passive in curbing corruption as well.
As a result of its fact finding mission and the corruption related
scandals surrounding the Bulgarian government, the EU has suspended
hundreds of millions of euros Bugaria was supposed to receive in the
process of upgrading its infrastructure.
Public discontent has been growing.
So what does the Bulgarian governent do? They deny all charges, they
blame everyone but themselves and finally, they are presenting to the
Bulgarian people an alternative scapegoat for their discontent. The
scapegoat are once again the "sects".
This is not a new tactic. Back in 1994, when the former (also
socialist/communist) government became mired in scandals of
corruption, the "anti-sect" campaign was used to distract the general
public from the real problems of society.
All of a sudden, as if at the comand of some invisible, all-present
director, the government, the media and all sorts of "experts" have
begun to sound the alarm of the imminent danger of "the sects". The
"sects" are basically everything and anything the authors of the paid
publications decide to throw in the mix. The sects are Muslim
fundamentalists, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, weird cults,
protestant churches, Scientology and every imaginable strange
religious grouping.
That's right, protestant churches are right in the mix. What you read
above is exactly how one of these "articles" in the Bulgarian
newspapers might have listed Evangical churches. These articles and
interviews with "experts" then end up in the hands of members of
Parliament, who later end up voting based on the emotional stir the
materials produce in the readers.
The stories are the same through the years: the sects kidnap kids,
brain wash them, may be sacrifice them, manipulate their members in
order to take their money, etc. In other words, think nazism,
obedience to the leader, total destruction of personalities, etc, etc.
The new "anti-sect" campaign of the Bulgarian government and
mainstream media is officially on! Starting this week, the government
has cracked down on non-profit organizations who supposedly operate in
the country as a front for illegal, radical Muslim groups. Such groups
may even exist, we don't know. No real information and facts have been
released, only official government authored statements, which reassure
society of the progress the authorities are making in the fight
against the dangerous sects.
At the same time, the national newspaper Telegraph is releasing
tomorrow (August 1st), an interview with Desyslava Panayotova, one of
the "experts" the mainstream media has been promoting in the last
year. In her interview, among other things, the "expert" Orthodox
theologian takes direct shots at Breakthrough (Prelom) Christian
Center and pastor George Bakalov (myself). It's obvious that the
purpose of this interview is to trigger the old stereotypes from the
90's in which the mainstream, government dominated media was able to
typecast myself and our church as some sort of sociopaths. The purpose
of the propagandists of the nationalist dominated media and ultra-
Orthodox, anti-West lobbies, is once again to discredit me, our church
and with that as many other Protestants as they can. They have watched
us become active in society, addressing some of the hottest issues of
the day such as the moral decline of the family, the failure of the
governemnt in areas such as education, the fight against the
legalization of prostitution, our work with refugees and ethnic
minorities, religious freedom and many more.
The pundits of the state sponsored anti-sect campaign know that if
they fail to discredit us through their lies and propaganda, it won't
be long before we gain a permanent place and may be even a leading
role in the social discourse.
The good news is that we are not the naive youths we were 15 years
ago. We will not sit around and watch the lapdogs of nationalism bark
under the wrong tree, diverting the attention of society from the real
thieves of the day.
We will respond in every way possible - through the media, by lawsuits
and extensive work against the propagandists.
The warfare has begun, it's payday!
