China Persecuting Christians
ICC Note:
A news source in Canada released a report on the persecution of the underground church in China, bringing light to the fact that the government has taken great pains to present the image of a free Protestant church in China despite the reality of persecution that is only worsening as the Olympics draw closer.
__________________
6/11/08 China (VancouverSun) “Behind the buzz of the Olympic-ready nation lie unacceptable incidents of persecution, torture and death. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has worked tirelessly to subdue any perceived form of criticism that may damage the image they have worked hard to develop,” the report by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada states.
“The CPC has a history of using unjust means to prevent international embarrassment and to cover up their records of abuse.”
…
“An indicator of things getting worse is the fact that we’ve seen policy strategies within the Communist party change in order to continue persecuting Christians but by different ways,” said Jocelyn Durston, an author of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada report.
“Shortly after 2004, there was a large crackdown on large churches and that got a lot of media attention so they stopped arresting Christians in that manner. Now they’ve targeted church leaders and leaders in training” as a way to scare ordinary Christians.
…
“Most of the coverage of religious persecution has focussed on other faith communities,” said Don Hutchinson, another author of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada report.
“The Chinese government has done a very good job of propagandizing the concept that there is a free Protestant church in China. And so they’ve created this false impression that Protestants are doing OK and the reality is they are just as heavily persecuted as any other group.”
