Former House Church Pastor Highly Critical of Religious Suppression in China

ICC Note: In the following article, former house church pastor Joshua Dao lambastes the Communist government of China for its ongoing efforts to suppress Christianity. Starting with the history of Christian persecution in China, Pastor Joshua goes on to describe specific incidents, including the recent arrest of two teachers at a Christian kindergarten. While China claims to allow complete religious freedom, in reality Christians are forced to attend government controlled churches or risk arrest. Churches that stray too far from government endorsed doctrine or activities, or churches that come into direct conflict with the government, face aggressive intimidation tactics and the arrest of their leaders. 
2/27/2014 China (ChinaAid) – A former Chinese house church leader published an essay on Monday, detailing the events that occurred on Feb. 18, when two Christian school teachers were detained, and the days following; the pastor begins by telling the history of persecution faced by the families and their churches.
The key points that Wang “Joshua” Dao, the former pastor of Liangren Church in Guangzhou, in China’s southern Guangdong, hits on in his essay, in addition to the church’s account of event surrounding Cheng Jie and Mo Xiliu’s detention, are bolded in his introduction.
Essay
Since the Communist Party took power in mainland China in 1949, Christians in China have suffered unprecedented brutal persecution. A large number of churches were shut down or confiscated, Bibles were burned, pastors and missionaries were executed, sent to labor camps, denounced publicly and mistreated, etc. Christianity had to go underground and has thus become a social group with one of the largest populations in China—house churches have nearly a hundred million believers.
In most cities across China, the number of people in churches usually increases several times a year, and its social energy sees the corresponding increase in the same period. This is especially true since the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake [Editor’s note: Sichuan is a province located in southwestern China, a few provinces away from the southern Guangdong province.
Many house churches sent Christian volunteers to settle down in the disaster-stricken areas to provide relief to their compatriots. At the same time, they revealed their true force.
The Chinese Communist rulers, who don’t have a sense of security, still maintain the mentality they adopted during the Cold War. They worry very much that these volunteers would win the hearts and minds of the people, and thus would endanger their rule. Therefore, they regard house churches as their greatest threat and would like to eradicate the churches completely, starting at the roots.
Fast-growing house churches in urban areas, which have expanded due to increased Gospel ministry aimed college students, have become the important target of the local Public Security Bureau’s stability maintenance and suppression. Liangren House Church of Guangzhou is one of many urban churches, consisting mainly of college students, that has emerged in the past ten years.
…
[Full Story]