Report: House Church Persecution Increases 418 Percent in Beijing
ICC Note:
A new report by China Aid indicates that the persecution of house church Christians in Beijing increased by 418% in 2008 - accredited largely to the August Olympic Games.
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2/7/09 China (ChristianPost) Persecution of house church Christians in Beijing increased 418 percent in 2008 – the year of the Summer Olympic Games, according to a report released this week by a U.S.-based religious freedom group.
The total number of reported people persecuted in Beijing was 539 from January to December 2008, up 418 percent from 104 people in 2007, China Aid Association reported. Overall in China, there were a total of 2,027 people persecuted because of their Christian faith, up 157 percent from 788 people in 2007.
“The significantly worse persecution of Christians in 2008 had a direct relationship with the Olympic Games,” the report states. “This is not hard to understand, because whenever the government holds important social event, serious suppression is implemented to maintain the appearance of stability through spreading fear among people.”
Persecution, as defined by the report, includes threats, inordinate fines, property confiscation, interrogation, arrest, and abuses.
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House church Christians argue that the government should not be the head of the church, and restricting where they can worship is infringing on their religious freedom.
But recently, the government-recognized church organizations, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and China Christian Council (CCC), expressed that they are willing to support the country’s house churches by providing them with Bibles.
In China, only registered churches are allowed to sell Bibles. The retail and distribution of Scripture is strictly controlled in China so that they are not imported or sold in general bookstores. As a result, it is difficult for many house church Christians to obtain a copy of the Bible.
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However, in the China Aid report, China is shown to have serious religious freedom problems that may perhaps have been better masked by the government. Reports ahead of the Beijing Olympics had stated that the government was using more subtle methods to persecute Christians, such as the arrest of only important house church leaders instead of mass arrests of worshippers as it did in previous years.
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