China vs God 3

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Ezra Jin was at Tiananmen Square in 1989 protesting against the government, but he escaped disaster because he was not there on the day that ~10,000 students were killed. Later he visited a church for a funeral, and unexpectedly it touched his sad heart. 

He saw the contrast between his life and that of the Christians. They felt at home with their God, who offered acceptance and love, contrary to his sense of being lost and homeless. He kept going back and then made his decision.

As a pastor years later, he was able to run his church openly. But in 2018 a wave of new regulations cracked down on religious freedom: it became illegal to sell Bibles on the internet, churches had to fly propaganda banners, and hymns must follow the national anthem. 

Eventually they demanded that Jin put facial-recognition cameras into the church. When he refused, they shut the church down. Last September, a new law made it illegal to disseminate unapproved religious teaching online. Jin was arrested for breaking that law in October.

from "China vs. God"

Religious freedom 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

China is persecuting Muslims in more ways than forcing some into "re-education camp" prisons. Domes and minarets have been torn down. Mosques have been padlocked or destroyed. Arabic signage has been banned. Imams are threatened.

China is also persecuting Christians. Children are banned from going to church. Thousands of crosses have been torn down. Government cameras keep watch in sanctuaries. And, churches have been destroyed.



Just this past weekend, a 3000-seat Christian church was destroyed in Funan (though it was government-approved) . . during a worship service.

The Communist Party of China and its "president-for-life," Xi Jinping, attack religious thought and practice to force unchallenged loyalty to the communist government. 

This is the opposite of "religious freedom."

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# Chinese Christians

By 2030, Purdue  sociologist Fenggang Yang says there could be 247 million Christians in China.  That would be more than the U.S., Mexico, or Brazil - in fact, the biggest number in one country in the world.

photo imb.org

Officials in Beijing are not happy with that prediction and are trying to refute it.  Under Mao Zedong, religion was banned but Christian house churches flourished.   For an atheist state, there's a whole lot of believers there.

But CNN reported just yesterday that a church was bulldozed by government order in the city of Sanjiang: 

 "Christian rights group China Aid says the faithful are worried that the church demolition could be a sign that the government is tightening its grip over the spread of Christianity in China."

Bravest pastor

China's ruler Xi Jinping is still ramping up his persecution of churches. 

Last week it was the Early Rain Covenant Church of Chengdu. Its Pastor Wang Yi and 100 congregants were arrested, and the freshmen of its college were sent to "re-education camp."


Xi is exercising his enormous power to silence dissent. Wang was in his cross-hairs not only because the church is not registered with the government, but because he openly opposes Xi's totalitarian controls. He published a call for Christians to resist regulations that contradict Christianity.

"Communist authorities have used the regulations as tools to carry out Jinping’s vision of sinicizing religion in China — which is to force all religions in the country to submit to the authority and teachings of the Chinese Communist party."

"He’s the bravest pastor in China today,” Rev. Hong Yujie, a friend of Wang in Vancouver, told WSJ.

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China control

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

China's one-party dictatorship has been strengthening its grip on national life for years. 

You read about the bombing of the 50,000-member church recently. "Xi Jinping is determined to crush any and all resistance to his rule." Christians are suspected of having "divided loyalties."

"China’s “Planned Birth” program continues today. Couples get told by the state how many children they can have . . Women who become pregnant before marriage, and women who become pregnant with a third child . . are still routinely aborted."

And the control over life is growing.

Internet censors now ban the use of the letter "N." They think it is code for "how many terms is Xi Jinping going to serve??" (Good question.) They also have banned using Winnie the Pooh meme. It is thought to look a little like Xi Jinping, and it mocks him.

No criticism of the new Red Emperor, however subtle, is allowed.

photo: https://www.eteknix.com/china-ban-winnie-the-pooh-social-media/

(cont'd tomorrow)

No church kids

In China, the government takes steps to make sure that everybody is politically correct. Freedom of conscience? It's not important. Being "correct" - that's important.

"So they have begun banning children from church and other religious events. At least four regional governments in China have issued notices barring children from “joining Christian groups and attending religious activities,” reported UCAnews.com. 

"Chinese officials stated that they will investigate both state-run churches and underground churches to ensure compliance."

Gov't over all

Consolidating more power over its people is an on-going project for China. The government that bombed an evangelical church of 50,000 people is now claiming authority over the Catholic church and religion in general.

Xi Jinping, president of China perhaps for life, has said that "religions could operate only if they were "Chinese in orientation" and that Beijing "must provide active guidance to religions so that they can adapt themselves to socialist society."

That's spin for . . "we'll decide what you people can say and teach in your religion." But don't Christians look to the Bible for information about God?

Well, "The Chinese government removed Bibles from online stores after announcing it is working on re-interpreting and translating the Bible so it conforms to “Chinese-style Christianity.”

How are Christians going to handle this? We'll see. Pray for them.

photo: The Economist

China vs God

Does the title of this post sound like a paranoid Christian exaggeration? It's the title of an article in a secular journal, and there's evidence for it. The Chinese government wants ultimate control of its people, right down to their relationship with God.

Officially, it's Mao Zedong who is exalted to the people. His communist revolution transformed China in the 1960's and 70's. Never mind that his movements produced poverty and famine and chaos, citizens today line up to pay homage to his embalmed body in a clear coffin. They revere his writings and erect statues of him (photo).

The nation and its Communist Party (CCP) must be the object of faith, not God. 

"Our education told us that religion was an opiate, was not real. That God is something you made up in your mind," says Anna, the wife of a pastor. He and three dozen other pastors and church members were arrested last October in the dead of night.

from China vs. God

(to be continued on Monday)

Open Doors 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

For reasons related to their faith, 4,998 Christians across the world were actually murdered. An amazing 83% of those were located in Nigeria, "the deadliest place to follow Jesus." (Deadly danger is nothing new in Nigeria, as I've written about for years.)

Attacks on churches and Christian-run schools, hospitals, cemeteries "exploded" to 14,766 in 2023, six times the number in the previous year. That number includes the closing of churches in China (church bombed in 2019) and mob violence in India. The global number of believers forced to flee their homes because of war or extremism doubled last year to 295,120. 

Though not in the first ten of the World Watch List, the African country Congo (DRC) was the site just days ago of terrible violence on July 24. More than 57 Christian villagers were beheaded by Islamic State Central Africa Province.

Open Doors was founded to pay attention to these things around the world; to help them, and to inform the West where we know next to nothing of the price some Christians pay to follow Jesus.

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Crackdown

CNN reports that human rights advocates are watching a progressive "crackdown" on religion in China.

"Sam Brownback, the US ambassador at large for international religious freedom, cited the actions against the Early Rain Church and the reports from Xinjiang when announcing that China was one of ten countries designated a "country of concern" when it comes to religious freedom Tuesday.

"Under President Xi, the government has further tightened control over Christianity in its broad efforts to 'Sinicize' religion or 'adopt Chinese characteristics' -- in other words, to ensure that religious groups support the government and the Communist Party," Human Rights Watch said."

Chinese government wants to control not only Christians, but other religious minorities:

"China has been accused of carrying out a systematic campaign of human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of Muslim Uyghurs in the far western region of Xinjiang."

image

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China vs God 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Many others besides Eza Jin are in prison because, wanting to be authentic Christ-followers, they are tripped up by these laws designed to catch them. 

Jin has something on his side which they don't all have: the determined, effective help of adult daughter Grace (photo) in the US. She too was affected by the suppression. As a small child in school, she was made to stand aside from her class every morning because, said her teacher, her faith was incompatible with the CCP. "If you just say you're no longer a Christian, then you can join in." A law forbad her parents taking her to church.

"She has testified before congress twice, penned op-eds in the WSJ and The Free Press, and traveled the world . . . to advocate for her father's freedom."

Says Grace, "I always feel like I'm not doing enough."

from "China vs. God"

Xi oppression

Remember China's surveillance plan and the 600 million cameras for watching people?  The government judges behavior and they literally keep score. 

photo: stuff.co.nz

Now Pres. Xi is putting a facial-recognition camera on the pulpit of every "approved" church. 

So . . everyone who dares to go to church will be looking at the camera looking at them.

Oppressive much?

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Sheng nu

Gender imbalance in China, long expected due to 30+ years of one-child policy, is making itself felt. With millions more men than women, single women are under increasing pressure to marry.

Parents or grandparents bring pictures  to "marriage markets" and look for high quality husband material if their daughter isn't getting the job done.

world.wng.org

Huang, 34 years old and still single, became a Christian in her 20's when a job associate shared the gospel with her. She doesn't want the same things in a husband that she did before. 

"It’s a universal issue among single first-generation Christians. The singles group at Huang’s church, Chengdu Early Rain Reformed, even set up a formal debate last spring on the question of whether Christians should attend these non-Christian setups." 

She has reluctantly told her parents she will not date non-Christian men. Btw, "sheng nu" means "left-over women."

Religious freedom 5

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Some churches have stood against the demands of the government, but the people of those churches will pay a price. "Some congregations have been threatened to be blacklisted by the government, meaning that their travels will be restricted and schooling and future employment of their offspring will be impeded . . "

How brave are those believers, when defying the government (refusing to replace the Ten Commandments with communist quotes) could mean their children will suffer. Remember, social surveillance cameras are watching every worship service.

“China is a one-party dictatorship. People are only allowed to obey the Communist Party and be controlled by it. We have no freedom at all,” [one anonymous] believer said helplessly.

Where churches have been destroyed or social pressure oppresses, Christians continue to meet for prayer and worship in unlikely places: cemeteries, on buses, in pigsties - or on the rubble of their church.

Liberty so far

"Free debate" will not continue to be the American way if Christianity loses much more of its influence and moral authority in American society. 

There's a movement in the U.S. to replace the traditional American way with more coercive government. Voluntary virtue and faith are widely derided today. As they lose public support, something else will have to suppress bad behavior for society's sake - and that something else will be the government. 

China's government sets itself in that role of moral authority. As the enemy of religion, it destroys churches, captures believers, forcibly changes minds - until the religion submits itself to the rule of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). 

At the very beginning of America, John Adams said: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people." This founding father of America knew that it would work only for a people whose Christian faith was their primary influence.

Watch a video about the historic "Old North Church" in Boston, built in 1723.


(cont'd tomorrow)

Religious freedom 4

China's President Xi Jinping opposes religious freedom. But he doesn't close every Christian church. Instead, the government is forcing elimination of Christian core beliefs. 

photo

Churches must now remove the Ten Commandments. Other words must replace the word of God . . Xi Jinping quotations. 

The new directive reportedly comes after Three-Self churches were initially told to remove the First Commandment, “You shall have no gods before me,” as Jinping disagreed with it. 

Why does he "disagree" with the first commandment? He demands the pre-eminent position for himself: all loyalty, all power.

from Catholic News Agency

(cont'd tomorrow)