Throughout the brouhaha over the book Saidumlo Siroba or Holy Crap, the Georgian Orthodox Church has kept silent. But now the Church has spoken. In a written statement on May 15, the Patriarchy called for adopting a law that would help shut fiction writers' blasphemous mouths. The Patriarchy charged that Holy Crap, which has set off everything from heated debates to televised fistfights, is part of an ongoing war against the Church and traditional Georgian values. The Church distanced itself from the violence, but said that the new law should censor any written exercise in “indecency, licentiousness and Satanism.”
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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