generalspeaking

Christianity in China

"When the authorities find out that someone is coming to service, they go to their neighborhood committee, summon them, and then threaten them. We had a female church member who ran a store. The police showed up one day and threatened her, trying to make her sign a declaration that she would no longer attend the Living Stone church. If she still went, they’d make it very difficult for her to do business."
"The government has sent agents into believers’ homes, sought out their parents, relatives, friends, siblings, telling them to stop their relative from going to the church. Some workplaces threatened employees with being fired; some parents were told that if they did quit the church, their children would not be denied schooling. They used whatever method they came up with. There was a 70-year-old retiree became very afraid after been threatened. So we went and told the police: You can’t bully old people any more."
Pastor Yang Hua, Living Stone Church

"The overall environment in the past few years has been harsh. There's a tightened control over civil society in general, including churches."
Fenggang Yang, director, Center on Religion and Chinese Society, Purdue University

"The Chinese Communist Party is violently allergic to non-party organizing vehicles, whether they're non-profit, libraries or churches."
Sophie Richardson, China director, Human Rights Watch

"Religious personnel embrace the rule of the Communist Party of China [while] a very small number of people ... engaged in criminal activities under the banner of religio9us freedom have been punished according to law."
People's Daily, China

Foreign scholars, studying the situation of Christianity as it is practised in China, estimate there are 67 million to 100 million Chinese Christians. In comparison, there are 87 million Communist Party cadres. Fenggang Yang of Purdue University, estimates himself that by 2030 there will be 250 million Christians in his homeland. Mostly evangelical Protestants, with Catholics bringing up the rear.

The government itself places the number of Protestants at 23 million, and Catholics at 5.7 million. The constitution of China does protect the right to religion, but the state insists it must have control over religion. In China, therefore, it is entirely lawful to be Christian or a Tibetan Buddhist, or a Muslim, but under the imprimatur of the state.

Approval is assured as long as Christians limit themselves to "normal religious activity", and worship at state-backed churches. To proselytize is strictly forbidden. As for what signifies "normal", that is an issue that only local officials may dictate, and whatever they declare to be "normal" represents what is recognized as legal.

State-backed religious groups in China find it useful to act in concert with the state. It is far less troublesome and those are the religious groups that simply do not find themselves under government suspicion; they are tractable and obedient to the dictates of the state. Foreign missionaries historically had their most notable success in rural Guizhou province, since the 1800s.

During the Cultural Revolution, pogroms led to the destruction of many churches and the persecution of many Christians. Faith simply went underground. Since then, and with the advent of China's expansion into capitalistic enterprise and a rising economy villagers steadily moved to where the opportunities presented themselves, in towns and cities.


The Living Stone Church which made its first appearance in Guiyang is not a state-approved church. And it has been repressed, its members oppressed by the state, its priests detained on charges relating to "possessing state secrets", and charged with the crime of destabilizing society. Communist Party cadres on the local scene insist that to "maintain social stability", the church must be shuttered.

On December 9, the church was raided in the quiet provincial capital where it was established. Religious repression in China has increased in lock-step with the increase in the spread of religious devotion. Christianity is thriving in the officially atheist country that has continued to repress religion, but permits it, under the state's thumb.

Founded in 2009, Living Stone initially had a modest 30 members. At the present time, services draw hundreds of the faithful. The unregistered "house churches" are illegal, and at the same time, thriving. And usually the state tries to ignore their presence. Until the Living Stone Church members raised funds to rent the 24th floor of an office building in 2014.

Authorities turned a blind eye for awhile, urging the church to ensure their gatherings remained modest and focused on social, not religious events. A year of warnings resulted followed by arrests, threats, and finally an ultimatum to join a state-backed church or prepare to be shut down. State officials and security personnel entered the property on December 9, taking away Bibles, and the pastor was detained.

The building elevators no longer stop on the 24th floor of the Guiyant International Centre. "This is the site of an illegal cult and has been banned", a police officer shouted at the entrance to the church. "We are here to stop people from joining."

"A huge number of believers received numerous visits at their houses for ‘chats.’ They were directly told that their Living Stone church is an illegal organization, that all of its activities are illegal, that it’s banned by the government, and that they absolutely could not continue attending. Then they had their photographs taken and were asked to sign statements promising to sever their connections with the church. Our church has several hundred people, and 99 percent had received telephone calls, or been called in for face-to-face meetings, or had their homes visited."
Pastor Su Tianfu 

Labels: China, Religion, Social-Cultural Deviations

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, December 24, 2015