Journal of European Baptist Studies, 2007

63, just a few months after the earthquake, the V Baptist Union leadership held a meeting in Sid. Over ninety delegates were present, and Strahil felt that perhaps some of them would support his criticism of the current leadership. He confronted Lehotsky, Klem and Orcic about their financial dealings, and directly opposed their continued leadership. The conference ended up in disagreement, but the leadership did not change. Later, Strahil complained to John A. Moore about the pressure that Lehotsky, Klem and Orcic were putting on him, but it seems there was little Moore could do. 69 By April, 1965, the three decided that 63 Ibid., (21.5.1966). 64 Ibid., (6.3.1964; 8.5.1965). 65 Ibid., (15.12.1964). 66 European Baptist Press Service (EBPS), 29 August 1963, 63:269. 67 Grozdanov, Kratok Istorijat, 1988, p. 22. Report (16.10.1963), SG, UDBA. 68 Ibid., p. 22. 69 Report , (15.12.1964), SG, UDBA. The life and legacy of Strahil Grozdanov 33 Strahil should be removed from the payroll of the Baptist Union, and 70 cancelled his salary sometime in mid 1965. The decision to remove Strahil from the payroll was also based on the decrease in funds coming in from the SBC, which had financed most pastors in Yugoslavia until 1965. 71 While this was clearly a problem, Strahil was convinced that this was a reprisal for his criticism of the three leaders. While the funding was decreased, it was up to the Baptist Union leadership to strategically decide who would stay on the payroll. Even if it was not a reprisal, leaving the entire southern Serbia/Kosovo/Macedonia region without any paid personnel was an unreasonable strategy. Left without an income, Strahil sought work again in the agricultural industry. In June 1965 he found work at St. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, working as a student relations clerk. 72 This employment, in a government institution, was to be quickly condemned by the UDBA, but childhood friends in authoritative posts in the university stood up for him, and he remained in the job until his retirement in 1979. During these years Strahil’s political thinking never came to the forefront of his life. At times he was critical of the communist government, and there is some evidence that he called the Yugoslav President, Josip Broz Tito, a ‘missionary of evil’, after Skopje’s earthquake in 1963. 73 Earlier, however, he had some hope that the repressive elements were in the lower echelons of the communist authorities, and he had written a letter of complaint to Tito in 1959. 74 The religious code of the land strictly prohibited the use of religious propaganda for ‘anti-constitutional purposes’, a phrase which could have easily been twisted around. 75 As the UDBA abused this Article 313 to harass him, he became more and more convinced that this was an evil regime from the top to the bottom. He was again arrested, interrogated and threatened in April 1965. The inspectors were,