GEORGIAN ORTHODOX PRELATE ENDORSES RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE

TBILISI, Georgia, (KESTON/CWNews.com) -- The second-ranking Orthodox bishop in Georgia has caused a sensation by apparently endorsing violence against Protestant groups.

The Keston news service has reported that during a February 10 television program, Metropolitan Atanase Chkhvashvili of Rustavi demanded the "abolition" of all religions other than the Orthodox in Georgia, and said that "sectarians"-- a term that he used to include Baptists, Pentecostalists, and Anglicans as well as Jehovah's Witnesses--"have to be shot dead."

The Orthodox prelate professed his support for Father Basil Mkalavishvili, who is facing legal charges for leading a series of violent assaults on Protestant groups. In his television appearance-- on a show dedicated to the issue of religious violence--Metropolitan Atanase said that the Orthodox Church is engaged in a struggle with "sects," and "we do not want to conduct it peacefully."

A spokesman for the patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church told Keston that he was "astonished" by the views expressed by Metropolitan Atanase. "The patriarchate does not share these views at all," he said.

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