{"id":60256,"date":"2026-08-18T09:20:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/?p=60256"},"modified":"2026-08-18T10:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T01:22:15","slug":"vomk-report-412","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/2026\/08\/18\/vomk-report-412\/","title":{"rendered":"RUSSIA: PASTOR FINED BECAUSE CHURCH HAD MISSION EURASIA BIBLES"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60259″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Voice of the Martyrs Korea has learned that a Moscow court fined a Russian pastor in June because scripture portions published by Mission Eurasia were found at his church ten days after Mission Eurasia was declared to be an \u201cundesirable organization\u201d. The court ordered the scriptures\u2014178 copies of the New Testament and 74 copies of the Gospel of John\u2014to be destroyed.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:1.2em|text_align:left|color:%23111111″ google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” css=”” el_class=”headline”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]\u201cThese were just low-cost scripture portions containing the standard Protestant translations used by churches across Russia,\u201d says Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Hyun Sook Foley. \u201cThere was no promotion of Mission Eurasia in the<\/span>\u00a0materials<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0The pastor and the church [name withheld for security reasons]\u00a0<\/span>aren\u2019t<\/span>\u00a0even particularly active with Mission Eurasia. It just happens that Mission Eurasia has been a big producer of low-cost copies of scripture for use by Russian Protestants. As a result, many churches have their Bibles and scripture portions.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Representative Foley says her organization\u00a0<\/span>believes the prosecution of the pastor was designed to \u201csend a message<\/span>\u201d.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60257″ img_size=”600*800″ alignment=”center” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Russian language Mission Eurasia Bible” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230a0101|line_height:1.45em” css=””][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]\u201cThe message is: \u2018Even if you are a small church and you are not actively partnering with an \u2018undesirable organization<\/span>\u2019,<\/span>\u00a0you will\u00a0<\/span>be swiftly prosecuted,\u201d she says. \u201cAuthorities\u00a0<\/span>designated<\/span>\u00a0Mission Eurasia \u2018undesirable\u2019 in May, and within\u00a0<\/span>ten days\u00a0<\/span>a pastor was fined between 90,000 and 200,000 KRW just for\u00a0<\/span>possessing<\/span>\u00a0ordinary Bibles printed by the \u2018undesirable\u2019 organization.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Representative Foley says that the defense attorney<\/span>\u00a0for the pastor<\/span>\u00a0argued that the scripture portions were the standard Synodal Translation used by\u00a0<\/span>almost all<\/span>\u00a0Protestant churches in Russia and were not being used to promote Mission Eurasia. \u201cThe judge disregarded the argument<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and the pastor was forced to pay the fine,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]The prosecution of the pastor follows similar cases in St. Petersburg in May, when authorities\u00a0<\/span>seized books published\u00a0<\/span>by\u00a0<\/span>Mission Eurasia\u00a0<\/span>from\u00a0<\/span>the St. Petersburg Christian University<\/span>, the \u201c<\/span>Slovo<\/span>\u201d Christian Bookstore, and three other\u00a0<\/span>evangelical educational institutions<\/span>\u00a0in the city.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\u201cBasically, when an organization is designated undesirable by Russia, it means that<\/span>\u00a0even if you are storing or\u00a0<\/span>distributing materials\u00a0<\/span>published by\u00a0<\/span>th<\/span>at<\/span>\u00a0organization\u2014even\u00a0<\/span>a single copy of\u00a0<\/span>one material, like at a library\u2014<\/span>you can face\u00a0<\/span>criminal charges<\/span>,\u201d says Representative Foley.\u00a0<\/span>She says Russia\u2019s recent designation of both Mission Eurasia and Child Evangelism Fellowship as undesirable puts many churches in the Russian Federation at legal risk.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]\u201cIn the case of the bookstore, one day after Mission Eurasia was declared an \u2018undesirable organization\u2019<\/span>, authorities<\/span>\u00a0seized about a hundred Mission Eurasia Bibles from the bookstore,\u201d says Representative Foley. She says the bookstore was told that someone had filed a complaint against them for carrying the Mission Eurasia Bibles<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\u201cBoth Mission Eurasia and Child Evangelism Fellowship have published and distributed many popular Christian materials to churches across the Russian Federation for many years. There are\u00a0<\/span>literally hundreds<\/span>\u00a0of pastors just like the pastor who was prosecuted\u00a0<\/span>simply\u00a0<\/span>for having Bibles\u00a0<\/span>printed by Mission Eurasia\u00a0<\/span>at his church<\/span>,\u201d says Representative Foley. \u201cThe fact that authorities\u00a0<\/span>moved against this pastor and the others\u00a0<\/span>in St. Petersburg\u00a0<\/span>within days of Mission Eurasia being designated undesirable shows us what a hostile situation ordinary Protestant pastors and churches are now experiencing in the Russian Federation.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60259″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Voice of the Martyrs Korea has learned that a Moscow court fined a Russian pastor in June because scripture portions published by Mission Eurasia were …","protected":false},"author":1959,"featured_media":60260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[857,235,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russian-special","category-special-column","category-vomk-report"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.5","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ko","en","zh","ru"],"languages":{"ko":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"zh":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60256"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60275,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60256\/revisions\/60275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}