Chinese Christians Suffering

[kantuckyII]

Getting ready to go out the door to attend our Sunday morning servives and it strikes me how amazing and hypocritical of us all to continue to buy goods from China and our Govt. maintaining relations with this nation. So many Christians are suffering all over the world but this just really is crazy.

Why do the nations rage, and the kings of the earth set themselves together against the Lord and against his anointed?" - Psalm 2:1

China Detains Church Members Over Public Praying
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: April 10, 2011
BEIJING — The police detained dozens of members of an underground Protestant church on Sunday morning, after the congregation tried to pray in a public plaza in the north of the capital

The police corralled scores of parishioners into buses and blocked church leaders from leaving their homes. Among those detained was a photographer from The New York Times, who was later released.

Last week the church, Shouwang, was evicted from the space it had been renting after the government pressured the landlord not to renew the lease. The congregation, one of the largest so-called house churches in China, has been seeking legal recognition from the authorities since 2006 without success.

After years of tolerance by the country’s religious authorities, unregistered churches have been facing increased pressure to either disband or join the system of state-controlled congregations. There are as many as 60 million Protestants in China, with a growing number choosing house churches.

The government’s campaign against Shouwang, which means watchtower, has been escalating since 2008, when the authorities began forcing the 1,000-member congregation out of its rented quarters. In 2009, after an earlier eviction, the church paid 27 million renminbi, or $4.1 million, for a full floor of an office building but the owner of the space, under pressure from the authorities, has refused to hand over the keys.

The move against Shouwang comes at a time of escalating repression against dissent, a campaign that has led the jailing of scores of rights lawyers, writers and activists. Among those seized last week was Ai Weiwei, one of the country’s best known artists and an outspoken government critic, who was detained as he tried to board a plane for Hong Kong. The government has denied targeting Mr. Ai for his activism, saying he is suspected of unspecified “economic crimes.”

A man who answered the phone at the Haidian police station, which is several blocks from the site of the planned prayer service, refused to answer questions about the detentions on Sunday. Most of those detained were brought to a nearby elementary school, where they were briefly questioned and photographed.

The church made no secret of its attempt to gather outdoors, announcing its plans on the Internet, and publicly explaining that it had no choice but to pray in public. During his final sermon last week at the restaurant the church had been renting, the pastor, the Rev. Jin Tianming, warned parishioners that they would likely meet resistance. “At this time, the challenges we face are massive,” he said. “For everything that we have faced, we offer our thanks to God. Compared with what you faced on the cross, what we face now is truly insignificant.”

According to church members, Reverend Jin and other church leaders were blocked from leaving their homes by the police on Sunday. Others were seized as they emerged from the subway station at Zhongguancun plaza, a popular shopping area where the services were scheduled to be held.

By 8 a.m., hundreds of police officers, both uniformed and in plain clothes, swarmed the area. A wall of blue metal construction barriers, erected the night before, blocked off an adjacent public plaza.

The police questioned passers-by and forced parishioners on to buses, dragging and shoving those who refused to go. At one point, a group of plainclothes police officers could be seen kicking and beating a group of four young people. As one of the buses pulled away, the congregants pulled out a photocopied prayer sheet and began to sing.


Mia Li contributed research.

[eccedomusscientiae]

Everybody in China knows the rules of public displays of Chrustianity. As for maintaining relations with China? That would be like discontinuing your relationship with your bank when they own your mortgage. You better make your payments on time or you may Lise your house.
I'm all for buying American made products!

[kantuckyII]

I don't think China is going to become a Christian country. We pretty much know from the Bible they'll be moving on Israel one day and of course they will be defeated soundly. However, it's great to know that 130 million people there have come to know Christ as their Savior!

A friend of mine and his wife served a couple years as missionaries in China. They do NOT allow missionaries in the country..however, they get by with it because they were employed as 'Conversational English Teachers' They were not allowed to tell people that Christ died for their sins to save them...unless someone ask they or inquired about their faith, then, they were allowed to share. My friends were not allowed or supposed to initiate the conversation

While religion in China may not be a big topic for discussion during President Hu Jintao's meeting with President Obama this week, many experts say that an explosive growth in Christianity may be transforming the officially atheist regime.

According to China Aid, a Texas-based human rights group, the number of Christians in China has increased 100-fold since 1949. Current estimates range from 80 million to 130 million active members. And one startling estimate from a Chinese Christian businessman has that number doubling or even tripling in the next generation.

Christianity could become one of the macro forces shaping Chinese culture, say experts like Dr. David Aikman, author of "Jesus in Beijing."‬‪

"If the Chinese become Christianized ... which doesn't mean you have a majority of people who are Christians, but it means about 25 to 30 percent of people in positions of influence, in politics, in culture, in the media. If you have that component of a major power that accepts Christianity enthusiastically as a guide to life, that is going to change the world view of the leaders of China."‬‪

Others argue that even if the more generous estimate of 130 million Christians is true, it's still a drop in the bucket in a population of more than a billion people.

But Dr. Luis Palau, who has preached in China, says Christians are among the country's most cohesive groups.

"They all preach the same gospel. There are no liberals or conservative branches ... they all believe the same."

Supporters say even estimating 80 million Christians in China, a conservative figure, still has them outnumbering the membership of the Communist Party, which at last check, in June 2010, was 78 million, according to the ChinaDaily.com.

What's the origin of this faith explosion?

China Aid's Bob Fu says Christianity experienced a growth spurt after the Tiananmen Square conflict. Six of the 30 student leaders who were arrested converted to Christianity.‬‪

"Ironically," says Fu, "church history shows that the more the political persecution, the more believers there will be. This is the case in the Roman Empire, and also with China."‬‪

But Chan-Kei Thong, a businessman who lived and worked in China for 30 years, said Chairman Mao Zedong, Communist China's founder, may have unwittingly paved the way.‬

"What Chairman Mao did that the emperors did not do, he brought in a form of pseudo monotheism, a pseudo person to worship ... himself ... as a personal god.‬‪ "The Christian God fits into that."‬‪

The Chinese government is not exactly overjoyed at the prospect of Christianity's growth. Officially, the government says there are 28.6 million Christians. That's because it only counts churches that are registered with the government.

Despite China’s recent easing of hostilities toward Christians, Beijing has had a harsh and violent history with the growing religious community. Beijing’s often brutal crackdown -- including roundups, blacklisting and jailing -- drove thousands of followers underground, spurring on the house church network.

While some of those followers have since registered with the government, Beijing continues to crack down on unregistered house churches. ‬‪

But as many as 60 percent of Chinese Christians attend unregistered house churches, Palau says.
Palau, who says he is on good terms with the government, added that some party members acknowledge in the neighborhood of 120 million active Christians.

Others see a government fear of Christianity's traditionally anti-Communist power as a factor -- and along with it a growing concern over China's human rights record.

What Fu sees in Hu's visit is a rare juncture in this changing philosophical climate, to press China harder on those issues.‬‪

"I think this is an historical opportunity for President Obama to really represent the free world's universal values. ... "It will be a huge mistake for Mr. Obama to put human rights at the bottom of the agenda."‬‪