The believers have published a petition in which they propose to abolish the criminal prosecution for insulting their feelings. According to them, the state, through excessive tutelage, turns a merciful religion into an aggressive cult. The feelings of believers are love and forgiveness, not a desire for revenge.
A petition from Christians of different denominations has appeared on the Change.org website, which calls on the authorities to abandon the practice of criminal prosecutions under Art. 148 ("On insulting the feelings of believers"). According to the authors of the initiative, this article discredits Christianity in Russia.
Believers note that there is not even an approximate definition of the “feelings of believers,” therefore it is simply impossible to judge for their insult. "Moreover, Christian feelings are love and mercy, and not a thirst for retribution," the authors of the petition add.
Christians also remembered that Russia is a secular state, therefore, the excessive guardianship of the Church is contrary to the laws of the country.
Sentencing a person to a real term for words that do not contain threats and calls for violence is not Christian - "not only unfair, but also inhuman," the authors write.
In addition, criminal prosecution under Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation discredits Christianity and presents it as an aggressive cult.
“We believe that allegations of insult to the senses should not be dealt with in criminal justice at all. We also demand a review and termination of criminal cases initiated on the basis of denunciations of “insulting the feelings of believers” or related to anti-religious publications. We, Christians, do not need state protection from people expressing anti-religious views,”- this passage ends the petition.
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At the moment, almost 35 thousand people have signed the petition. Will their authority hear?
The infamous article appeared in June 2013. More precisely, it existed before, but the amendments toughening the punishment, which provides for imprisonment for up to three years, were adopted precisely in 2013. In less than seven years, there have been a lot of scandals related to Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Apart from Pussy Riot and another stupid blogger who somehow climbed into the temple to catch Pokemon, there were some really wild stories.
For example, in 2016, Viktor Krasnov, a metalworker from Stavropol, was charged with offending the feelings of believers by simply pulling his comments from Vkontakte. Is it possible to plant a person who wrote at different times "no boch" and called the Bible "a collection of Jewish tales"?
Victor Krasnov
At first, the "atheist" was forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital, and then recognized as sane.
At the trial, there were people who were offended by Krasnov's comments and allowed themselves to speak on behalf of all Christians. Fortunately, Krasnov had a trump card - the statute of limitations for the crime had expired. And in February 2017, the court stopped the criminal prosecution of Viktor Krasnov. By the way, he was threatened with a year in prison under Part 1 of Art. 148. And there are a lot of such stories. Fortunately, Russian society is far from hopeless. Krasnov received support from all over the country. The same applies to other "atheists". People understand that one cannot plant for words.
This is probably why the law did not "go" to the people. In recent years, there has been a tendency to mitigate sentences under the article "insulting the feelings of believers." The number of sentences is also decreasing: in 2017 there were 10, in 2018 - 8.
I would like to believe that the published petition will become a “test shot”.
Author: Dionysus