Borbieva, Noor O'Neill (2023) New churches and the religious freedom agenda in Kyrgyzstan. In: The Central Asian World. Routledge, London, 17 pages. ISBN 9781003021803
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
This chapter describes the activity of new churches in Kyrgyzstan in the early 2000s. In the first part of the chapter, I draw on ethnography I conducted among Kyrgyzstani youths and expatriate religious workers to describe the varied ways people respond to new churches and the different meanings of conversion that inform these responses. I explore the reasons some Kyrgyzstanis view the churches as threatening, while others view them as a source of hope and support. In the second part of the chapter, I describe responses to the new churches from the Kyrgyzstani state and the international religious freedom agenda. While the state has tried to restrict the activity and impact of new churches, the international community has promoted religious freedom in the hopes of making Kyrgyzstanis more tolerant. Drawing on ethnography I conducted among members of the international community, I argue that by not taking seriously the disruptions new churches bring to communities, and by promoting a narrow model of religious freedom, the international community, through its religious freedom activism, may actually have inflamed existing hostilities and worked against a genuine diversification of religious ideas and opportunities in the region.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Kyrgyz youths, expatriate religious workers, religious freedom, international agenda vs local realities |
| Subjects: | B Mission theology/theory > Public Theology C Types of Christian Ministry > Church Planting |
| Divisions: | Central Asia > Kyrgyzstan |
| Depositing User: | Katharina Penner |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Oct 2024 07:46 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Oct 2024 07:46 |
| URI: | https://ceeamsprints.osims.org/id/eprint/3086 |
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