The Molokans (also called Doukhobors by non-Molokans) are a "Biblically-centered" religious movement, which came out of the movement of Spiritual Christians among the Russian peasants, who refused to join the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1600s. Spiritual Christians denied the divine right to rule of the tsar and rejected the icons, orthodox fasts, military service and other practices, including baptism. They also rejected the traditional beliefs (held by Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christians) in the Trinity, the physical resurrection of Jesus, and the literal existence of heaven and hell.

The first time the name "Molokan" was used was in the 1670s about the people who ignored the 200 fasting days, drinking milk (moloko = "milk" in Russian). Molokans themselves did not completely reject the name—even adding words like "drinking of the spiritual milk of God" (according to I Peter 2:2, "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation")

Heretics were inhumanely punished in Tsarist Russia. In the 1800s, the government's policy was to send the heretics away from the center of the country into the Ukraine, central Asia, and the far east. At the end of the 19th century there were about 500,000 Molokans in Russia. Three percent of them emigrated to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Presently there are about 20,000 people who "ethnically identify themselves as Molokans." There are also approximately 200 Molokan churches, 150 of them in Russia. Approximately 5,000 Molokans regularly attend services in the United States, most living in Los Angeles and the surrounding area.

External links

• Molokan Home Page (http://gecko.gc.maricopa.edu/clubs/russian/molokan)