Morality is Preached Here

David Torosyan, the head of Yerevan Evangelical Baptist Christians' church called “Betel” spent several days in prison in 1995. He told how the volunteer combatants “accidentally attacked religious organizations” in those days.

  After a 6-day imprisonment, David learnt that he had been imprisoned by mistake. After that everything changed. No encroachments and oppressions on this organization were performed any more. The head of the church does not consider the attitude of the director of village Kuchak of Aparan towards the children of their followers in 2000 as a serious oppression. The director drove the students out of the school by teasing them and prohibited them to participate in lessons. The problem was solved after the head of the church had visited the school, talked to the director and solved the incident. This religious organization does not have problems with any structure. They are in good relations with authorities, as well as Armenian Apostolic Church . David Torosyan considers this still unsolved problem because there are problems from legal viewpoint connected with limitation of freedom of religion or conscience.
They do not interfere in politics but when a community head is elected, they go and congratulate him. The representative of the church tells that there are cases when different structures propose names of candidates for elections but the members of the church are free in their decision.
The cooperation with the Armenian Apostolic Church starts and ends in the advising committee of Jinishyan foundation.
“We hardly manage to finish our service” – David Torosyan brings one of the reasons for lack of cooperation. The service of this church includes charity and preaching of the words of God. “We have people whose life changed. They were thieves, but now they are not, they are not liars or enemies any more”-expresses his pride the head of “Betel” church of Yerevan Baptist Christians , which has about 2000 members. The majority of the believers of the church are elderly people, there are even foreigners. There are also doctors, teachers, and employees from self-governance, who have no problems in their workplaces in connection with their faiths. If a member of the church works in the law enforcement structure it does not mean that he should take a bribe. David Torsyan thinks that their member has a belief which he must pass to others no matter what ideas the others profess. In spite of the fact that the law regulating the field of religious organizations does not allow underage people to be considered members, anyhow it is not a problem for the church to work with children, to organize trainings for them. The church has its children's choir, football team, whose parents are not even the members of this church.
A special attention is paid to the Christian education of young couples; they visit sick people and help them. For three years, the church has provided needy people with food in the charitable canteen. They worked with the condominium to take the list of those people.
“It is written on our foreheads to do everything with love”-says the head of the church. “Betel” church of Yerevan is free for people and no matter whether they are the members of the church or not. You can attend during the time when they pray and ask questions. If your visits are regular you can be involved in the church and spread the words of God.
“We used to see the churchmen dressed in black, didn't we? Church psalms and liturgies should be understandable for people. But except Sundays when and where you can listen to liturgies”-the representative of this church thinks that the word of God should be understandable and available. This church is included in the Union of Baptist Churches of Armenia , but it has started as an independent church since 1992. For this religious organization the integration in the society, being recognized as a full member of society and being initiative is also a problem.