If there was one thing that Jesus fought against more than anything else during his time on earth it was legalistic religion. Until now I have only experienced that on a small scale in my own life when making certain decisions but during my time in Romania and Moldova I witnessed it on a much greater scale. The predominant denomination in this area of the world is the Eastern Orthodox Church. Much like Baptist churches in the South, the Orthodox church building is the most recognizable building in every town and its leaders have a lot of power. Orthodoxy is a religion that is built largely on tradition, similar to the Roman Catholic Church. There is nothing inherently wrong with tradition, in fact the background that I come from has many traditions of its own, but when tradition overtakes Scripture in function and importance and begins to run the lives of those that ascribe to it then it becomes a problem. Traditions are meant to enhance Scripture and remind us of its teachings, not be the teachings themselves. When this happens people become trapped and, once they realize this, those in power will do anything to keep them that way. I say this because I can think of 2 instances where this happened during my time in Eastern Europe, both were in Romania. The first was during a kids' club in a town called Calenesti about 30 minutes east of Draganesti. We had been having good attendance but on this particular day nobody showed up. We found out later that the local priest had told the parents not to let their children come because we were teaching things that were from the devil. The other instance occurred in a village about 30 minutes west of Draganesti called Maruntei. We were walking through the village and talking with the residents, particularly the parents, about a kids' club that we were in the process of starting there. We had stopped to talk to one family and the conversation was going great until they realized that we were Evangelicals. Once they realized this they told us that they couldn't talk to us anymore. Upon hearing this I was slightly frustrated. Why were these people so closed to what we were trying to do? More than that, why couldn't they see that what they were begin told was a lie?
As I look back on my time in Eastern Europe it has become more and more evident how prevalent fear is in this part of the world. I think part of it comes from its history as part of the Soviet Union (Moldova) and Soviet Block (Romania) and even though there has been political freedom there is still a lot of work to do towards spiritual freedom. The same could be said of America. We are a nation built on freedom but so often we let fear creep in. For us it is a fear of outside opinions, fear of losing our position, fear of making that one wrong move or saying that one wrong thing. Whether we see it or not, fear is just as much a part of the American church and American society as it is in Eastern Europe but there are those who are fighting that fear and bringing freedom to those who want it. I encourage you to join that fight. True freedom, for yourself and others, is worth it.
