China Burns Bibles, Destroys Crosses in Christian Crackdown
Peter D'Abrosca
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The Chinese government has recently been taking radical steps towards eradicating Christianity in Beijing and other provinces throughout the communist dictatorship.
“China’s government is ratcheting up a crackdown on Christian congregations in Beijing and several provinces, destroying crosses, burning bibles, shutting churches and ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith, according to pastors and a group that monitors religion in China,” according to AP.
According to the report, the Communist Party sees Christianity as a threat to its power. The party wants total worship, and worshipping a higher power is no longer deemed acceptable.
“Under President Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, religious believers are seeing their freedoms shrink dramatically even as the country undergoes a religious revival,” according to the report.
Xi is waging what is described as the “most severe systematic suppression of Christianity in the country since religious freedom was written into the Chinese constitution in 1982.”
“Chinese law requires religious believers to worship only in congregations registered with the authorities, but many millions belong to so-called underground or house churches that defy government restrictions,” the report said.
During a September 5 raid, a Christian pastor who declined to be identified for fear of repercussions said that his crosses, bibles and furniture were all burned and destroyed.
Beijing’s Zion Church, the largest of the underground churches with six branches, was shut down for breaking laws that forbid “mass gatherings,” and is now legally banned from existing.
“I fear that there is no way for us to resolve this issue with the authorities,” Zion’s Pastor Jin Mingri said.
Still, the Christianity appears to growing in the face of such dangers.
China’s population of 38 million Protestants is expected to continue to increase, and the country will soon have the largest Protestant congregation of any nation.
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