Religious minorities are facing more and more problems in Georgia - that's the country of Georgia, not the American state of Georgia. Both increased nationalism and increased identification with the Eastern Orthodox Church is making it difficult for religious and ethnic groups to feel comfortable.

Radio Free Europe quote Gogi Gvakharia:

"The church here plays a big role in all this. It's as if words like love, compassion, and compromise have fallen from the church's vocabulary. Now the accent is on words like the law of God, hell, and Satan. Religion and ignorance have become close associates. People are afraid that if they say they don't believe or if they don't visit their local priest something bad will happen to their children. The clergy are scaring them to think in this way. And because these people have no real faith or spiritual values, they believe it when they hear of plots against the church or that Jehovah's Witnesses want to destroy the church."

After the break-up of the Soviet Union, Georgia became one of the more open republics - but it's getting very bad:

When Sandro Bregadze, a member of parliament from the Aghordzineba (Renaissance) Party, says on television that Hitler got it right when he drowned homosexuals, there is little or no protest. When Vakhtang Rcheulishvili, the leader of the Socialist Party, stigmatizes the leader of another party by calling him gay and Armenian, nobody bats an eye.

The future doesn't look very positive...

Read More:

• International Religious Freedom Report: Georgia