Protest march in Tbilisi, Georgia, March 8, 2024.

Photograph by DerFuchs via Wikipedia

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10b).

“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31b-32).

One of the facets of my Baptist faith that I most appreciate is the openness to various expressions of our common Christian faith. When people take their time and thoughtfully and prayerfully design and lead worship or other pious activities it is a wonderful thing – whether it is a loud and joyous service in an African American church, a more quiet and reflective Euro-American worship setting, or anything else. I am also grateful for my training in more high church Christianity, particularly in Anglican liturgical worship and Eastern Orthodox spirituality.

So, I was absolutely delighted to discover the Evangelical Christian Baptist Church of the Republic of Georgia – a Baptist Church with elements from Eastern Orthodox worship and piety.

I ended up buying and reading the book “Evangelical Christian Baptists of Georgia: The History and Transformation of a Free Church Tradition” (which, while academic, is very good) and then I emailed its author, Metropolitan Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili of the Peace Cathedral in Tbilisi, Georgia, to talk about their Church. To my utter surprise he invited me to come out and spend the Eastern Christian Holy Week with them and to experience their Church firsthand. I accepted his offer and had a very blessed experience with our Georgian Baptist cousins and their other guests from around the world. I was even asked to assist in worship at Peace Cathedral and to preach the first Good Friday sermon at the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of St. George (even though Bishop Malkhaz only gave me about five minutes of prep time before I had to start preaching).

Unfortunately, not everything was well in Georgia. The ruling Georgian Dream party was pushing a bill, which has since become law, that would require media outlets and non-governmental organizations making twenty percent or more of their budgets from foreign sources to register as foreign agents. Failure to comply would result in crippling fines. While I was there, and for weeks thereafter, Georgians would protest in numbers of tens of thousands (for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Republic of Georgia, it is a country inhabited by 3.7 million people, so those numbers are very impressive). The reason for the outrage (beyond the immediate damage the law would do to religious, educational, media, and philanthropic organizations) was that the law was based on Russian legislation that has been used to crack down on voices dissenting from the ruling party’s program. That sort of legislation would be detrimental not just to the people of Georgia, but to their hopes of joining the European Union; Georgia’s entry into the EU has been halted while the powers-that-be in Europe decide how to handle the situation.

It gets worse. Reuters reported on Thursday, June 27 that the Georgian Parliament had its first of three readings of a package of bills designed to oppress the LGBTQIA+ community. “The package, which was proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, and which could outlaw Pride events and public displays of the LGBT rainbow flag, was approved by a majority of deputies… The legislation would also ban non-heterosexual people from adopting children and prevent people from changing their gender on ID documents. Public gatherings promoting same-sex relationships would not be allowed either.” As someone who is nonbinary and androsexual, this struck me very personally in addition to the trouble it presented to my newly discovered Georgian family in Christ. These laws will functionally destroy for the Georgian people both the abundance of life and freedom in Christ promised in the gospel to those of whatever denominational, religious, or philosophical persuasion.

When I returned stateside, I got to work drafting a letter with the bishops of the Evangelical Christian Baptist Church of Georgia (Malkhaz Songulashvili, Rusudan Gotsiridze, and Ilia Osepashvili) asking for help and support for the Georgian people. I submitted this letter to the Board of Managers of the ABC Wisconsin (where I minister as the Office Administrator), and they responded with a letter of support, calling on all people of goodwill to pray for and support the people of Georgia by writing their representatives to support sanctions against the proponents of these anti-humanitarian laws. This letter (available on the ABC-WI website) has been shared with both our ABC-USA siblings in Christ, but also with our ecumenical partners, specifically through the Wisconsin Council of Churches. As of my writing this article, our sister region, ABC Metro Chicago, is considering supporting the Georgian people with a letter of their own.

All of this is wonderful, but it only works on one level – the institutional. Therefore, I am writing this article to all of you – my brothers, sisters, and siblings in Christ in the American Baptist Churches USA – to appeal for your help on the personal level. It is a central part and often a virtue of our Baptist faith that we may disagree on many things (for example, we may disagree on the proper gospel response to LGBTQIA+ issues) – but we can agree that oppression of the gospel message and of Christian charity, of love of God and love of neighbor are never acceptable to Baptists. Our forefathers, foremothers, and ancestors in the faith called for full soul liberty for all people, both in thought and in deed. These Georgian laws are our day’s version of the puritanical laws that forced people like Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson (both acquaintances of my ancestor Thomas Cornell) out into the New England wilderness. Such laws were wrong then, and they are wrong now.

The apostle Paul said, “And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.” (2 Corinthians 11:28). Will we join him in his concern for all the Churches – including the Evangelical Christian Baptist Church of Georgia and their neighbors – or will we be like the settlers who just stayed quiet and let honest Christian people be sent to the wolves? After my ancestor, Thomas Cornell, sold his Boston inn and moved to Rhode Island with Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, he helped those in need in his day. I can do no less in mine, and I invite you to do the same and join me, ABC-WI, and other people of goodwill in prayer and advocacy for our Georgian siblings in Christ and in the human race.