• BC Christian News • JULY ISSUE 2000 • VOL. 20 #7 • Formerly "Christian Info News" •

To Russia with love -- Bibles in public schools
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By Barbara Sutherland

SITTING in a coffee shop in the Okanagan, Olga Lutsenko talks about it as if it's no big deal. She has just returned from Russia, where she helped organize Russia's official celebration of 2,000 years of Christianity. She was responsible for the main event of the celebration: an international conference on Christianity in Education.

Lutsenko easily remembers growing up in the Soviet Union, when owning a Bible could cost you your job or your freedom. Her grandmother took that chance, and introduced six year old Olga to Christian scripture. "Because it was Communist time, she did it secretly," she smiles. "She invited me to come to the storage when she kept her Bible under the wood, and she read me Bible stories."

Forty years later, Olga is a key architect of a system that promises to make Christianity the underpinning of Russian society. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, and the Communist system suddenly began to crumble, Lutsenko was working in the Soviet Union Education department exploring concepts for family education. A couple of years later, the Minister of Education for the new Russian Federation asked Lutsenko to come up with a system that would establish a moral code in the minds of young people. "The Minister of Education invite me to find the right morality for the education," she says in her Russian accent, "So of course it was huge responsibility, but you know, what could you do?" she laughs. "I decided to choose Christian morality, because it was very close for me."

It's not that Communism or Russia are without morality, Olga's husband Fred points out. "The Communist moral code is very similar to Christian moral code," he says, "Except for it is without God. Furthermore, it was more humanistic rather than Christian." He adds, "Russia decided to go for Christian morality, not because of deterioration of their moral fabric, but rather out of need of recognizing that you can't have a society without a moral foundation."

In 1992, Olga and a group of Russian educators organized 'Kindness Foundation.' It took on the task of developing an entire curriculum devoted to Christian morality. And it established the Bible as its core required text. Today the organization trains teachers, develops teaching materials, supplies Bibles, provides counselling and organizes seminars and youth camps.

How do they do this in a country where, a few years ago, mere possession of Christian material was considered subversive? They follow the letter of the law. "Olga has registered the organization as a non-religious Christian education society," Fred explains. "So we are not evangelizing. We are teaching. We're not engaged in any religious rituals."

Anything found in the Bible can now be taught in Russian classrooms, from kindergarten to university. For example, they do not pray with the students, because prayer is a religious ritual. "But," Olga adds, "We are teaching what prayer is about and how to pray, and encourage children to pray at home themselves and with their parents." Olga's blue eyes sparkle as she continues: "They're doing that; and they show afterwards how prayer helped them in their lives. They're not praying in the governmental institutions, in the buildings which belong to the government, but we encourage them to pray at home."

Of course there are those who resist the introduction of the Bible into the school system. "We know that there are a lot of unhappy people," says Fred, "especially humanists and Communists are not really happy about it. And us being totally non-religious and not proselytizing, it is really hard to resist. There isn't a mechanism you could use to come out and openly oppose."

In the past five years, Kindness Foundation has worked with the Russian Department of Education to train 25,000 teachers in Christian morals and ethics. Fred estimates that in the past year, 5,000,000 people have had direct and indirect contact with the scriptures and the gospel through the work of the organization. He and Olga don't talk about numbers of Christian conversions. However, as Olga says, "You can't read the Bible every day and remain outside the influence of it."

So far, the organization has placed 20,000 Bibles in school libraries throughout Russia. They want to supply another 80,000, but they don't have the money to do it. The Lutsenkos have tried to work with other Christian organizations to get Bibles for schools, but they haven't been able to arrange it. "It's only possible to do through Kindness Foundation, because we have official agreement with Russian Department of Education -- because we are non-religious society."

"There is an approved version of the Bible, and the Gideons' Bible is one of them," adds Fred. "But every big mission has policies and regulations. It is the Gideon that is supposed to hand the book in, but that breaks the Russian Constitution and laws. The principal of the school is breaking the law by allowing them."

So the Kindness Foundation purchases Bibles in Russian through the Bible Society. Fred says it costs about $3.50 for each Bible, including distribution.

The Lutsenkos currently live in Lumby (near Vernon), "because it's the cheapest place to be!" laughs Fred, who moved to Canada from western China in 1969. He and Olga met while he was working with Russian orphans several years ago. She moved to Canada when her political superior was assassinated and her life own threatened, in 1995. That same year they established the Canadian Kindness Society, with the sole mission of assisting Kindness Foundation of Russia to work with the education system.

Their Board of trustees is based in Vernon and can be contacted through the society's secretary, Virginia Fairbrother (250) 542-9525.