Now, it is hot here and we have not renovated it yet.
This will be a church.
It has a roof, air conditioner. We are going to do some things.
For documents, for a conversation, various things.
This and also, in theory, the courtyard.
We took this space so that it would be comfortable.
Already from August, from the end of August,
whoever will come here, they will come with different rule,
so that we would be honest with them in our relationship.
Now, these people come here, we get to know them.
It takes just five minutes.
Who are you? Where did you come from? Why did you come?
We fill in the documents, we shake their hands, and say 'OK, you are clergy.'
And they leave for the commissariat [local military department].
Except just shaking their hands, now we want these people to tell us more about themselves.
We would tell them about ourselves.
So, that they would knew why they came here
and so that they actually understood for real and have some kind of respect
and for the place where they are coming.
Here is one person.
- Hello
- Is this Girchi's office?
- Yes, it is.
[Inaudible]
- He is also [inaudible] in two months.
He can't go into the army.
We have to help him somehow.
- Yes, sure. That's why we have this project.
- Here are the documents.
- For how long is this [valid] . . . ?
- The choice is up to you now. Whenever you want to go into the army, you will go.
In a real [professional] army, you can join anytime you like.
That's how it is.
If you don't want to, they can't take you by force.
This is the document [you can use] until you are 27 years old.
- Thanks a lot.
- Good luck.
- Good-bye.
In the beginning, we tried . . .
There is an international church called the Universal Life Church.
They don't require anything.
You just go online, you put your name and you become a member.
This is like an umbrella religion. They don't require anything from you.
They say that if you believe in love and kindness you can become our member.
We came with the documents to the Ministry of Justice [to register as a religion],
but they told us that either you have to be a traditional religion or a religion recognized by the Council of Europe.
After that, we decided to use a traditional Georgian religion and register it.
We chose a religion from before Christianity,
the cult of Armazi [a pagan god], that was spread in Georgia.
We wanted to register the cult of Armazi,
but they told us that the religion does not exist anymore.
We told them that we were the followers of that religion,
but they did not believe us.
In the end, we realized that it should have been a traditional religion,
or recognized by the Council of Europe and
it should have been a familiar one and that's why the name [of the religious organization] . . .
the short version is Biblical Freedom,
but the longer version is Evangelical Baptist Protestant . . .
we put many words [together],
so that one of them could be considered traditional or recognized by the Council of Europe
and the Ministry of Justice registered us.
In reality, that is an honest relationship.
The current relationship with people who come here is not honest.
They come, we shake hands, we talk and they leave.
They leave the place, so the majority of them don't know what Girchi is.
They don't understand what document they took with them.
They just feel ashamed to ask questions.
They come shyly and ask if we could help them,
and that they heard about us, and, yes, we say that we can help them.
[in Russian] I am Lena Gracheva.
I am a director and photographer.
I am traveling in Georgia.
I have heard about this party and about this initiative from my local acquaintance, Archil, who is also here.
I think it is a very cool idea to fight with invincible absurdities in 2018,
with stories which the government is forcing on people, with the same absurd methods.
The [Girchi] party's principles and positions related to many things are very close to me,
so, I thought it would be my own cool gesture.
One and two. This is it.
I am 25 years old. I don't want to go into the army because I am working.
I have my job. If they take me into the army, I would not be able to continue [working].
I don't want to go there also because I don't know what I should do there.
We have machinery and before the construction of a building begins we conduct tests. We do research.
We do geological research.
Actually, Fabrika is the most active place in Tbilisi
where people who have their work and have their own interests gather.
For work, as well as for having fun.
Usually, as a rule,
we come here with friends to have fun and our members of the church are also here.
We can say that this is a big family of an alternative society.
This party here.
Let's meet the people and I will continue telling you some stories.
This guy's sincere interest is whatever he is doing here.
He is selling skateboards.
He is doing his work.
He does whatever interests him sincerely.
Here, Zviad is cutting hair. He is one of the priests as well.
I found our priest.
Hi.
Everyone is asking you, 'If you are a priest, show me your cross, show me your symbol.'
No one is asking you why did you decide to become a priest.
Why do you think that you are better helping others to live more righteously?
Advise them, help them and so on.
Instead, they are coming and asking you where is your priest's robe.
So, that's why we decided to have a robe.
This is our friend's shop.
This is it. It was made for us with the Biblical Freedom logo.
See, it has a very interesting concept.
Actually, this work already existed.
We just ordered the same type of clothes with the logo.
They made it for us and it is really cool.
- [Inaudible]
- Bless me, Father.
- First of all, thank you for coming and supporting me . . .
- This kind and honest person who is making so many people happy right now...
instead of this, he might have been in a army.
[inaudible].
I've been a programmer since I was 17 years old.
I work as a programmer.
The issue is not that it is necessary for Georgia to give military training to young people.
This is a completely different topic.
Now, the issue is that those people who don't have money to pay a certain amount --
whatever it is, 2,000 laris ($803.21) [to avoid compulsory military service] . . .
or people who don't have parents who will help them to avoid it.
The country should take these people and put them somewhere as guards,
as a workforce for free and,
yes, I have a straightforward answer for that.
It should not be happening like this.
Well, this is a real absurdity, whatever is happening.
What are they doing?
They see what Girchi is doing and they still don't change anything, right?
- I support that a soldier should be a soldier.
He should be prepared to defend the country.
- I don't support Girchi's thing. This is absurd.
- It's called being a deserter.
A man who refuses to join his own armed forces is a deserter.
- I don't know the name of Girchi's religion, but . . .
- Why does it even matter?
- It cannot even be called a religion.
- Yes, it cannot be called [a religion].
- What do they want with it?
What is the purpose behind it?
What happens? Only one thing happens -- that people don't go into the army. This is it
- So, that they could smoke weed.
- No, smoking weed is their business. If you want, you can do it.
- No, but religion itself preaches it.
- But this is not a religion. It does not fit anywhere. I haven't understood either what kind of religion it is. I have never heard of that religion.
If we talk in terms of numbers, how many people are there [in Girchi's church]?
Fourteen thousand or something. It does not mean anything.
- The military is such a thing that everyone should fulfill his or her duty.
In the Communists' time, when the Soviet Union existed,
when my duty came, I happily went there.
- You didn't go happily, but you had to go.
- I did. I went happily.
- No, you would not go happily. Stop it. Now, stop about the communists.
Yes, it happens in modern life.
Some organizations are granted a religious status,
but to look at it, there is nothing religious in it.
It happens easily. A person goes there and they write him down as a religious figure.
Sometimes even as a bishop.
What kind of truth is there?
There is no choice
and many fall into it.
With this, they manage . . .
Here, every religion has an equal status.
Right now, Orthodox Christianity is not an official religion.
This is the political status.
Some even sign [the certificate],
they accept the proposal and they don't go into the army and
these are humans who are interested neither in truth, nor in non-truth.
They are resolving their own issues.
It is for people who don't have a backbone,
so that they could help them in their material life and
so they would become members of their religion.
However, we still can't call it a religion.
We can't call it a sect.
In general, we can't even find a name for this deviation.
They will be punished by God
for lying to so many inexperienced people.
This is a big evil, first of all.
This won't bring any results,
neither for the people, nor for the nation and,
in the end, every human who has any connection with this issue
will answer in front of the mighty God.
- It turns out that we are the second church.
No, in terms of people who serve in the church,
we are the largest church in Georgia.
The Orthodox Christian church has approximately up to 2,000-3,000 priests all across Georgia,
as I know. There are no exact numbers, but approximately this is the number.
- Tell me your name, surname, id card, address and telephone.
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