Posted on 08/10/2018 11:00:14 PM PDT by KingofZion
Chinas communists are deeply afraid of any institution that may win the hearts and minds of Chinese citizens. That is why they are pressing heretic Francis to sell-out the Catholic faithful in China. Communism is evil at its core and always will be.
Even though they are are geopolitical enemy and we will have to defeat them you have to admit the ChiComs have a way of handling certain “issues”.
Comparing Chinese Muslims to European Jews during WWII in 3,2,1.....
OK...let’s see how this turns out.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that....
If any people ever were in need of re-education, it is they.
btt
Japan is an island.
Let me know when they detaining INNOCENT people.
“Japan keeps them out. Better approach.”
They’ve been in what is now Western China much longer...they never really let them in.
and
Well they were forced to sing propaganda songs.
What happens when bad guys meet bad guys.
With any luck they will kill each other off. Again, not our problem.
You can buy a Bible in almost any bookstore in China. I used to watch “The Hour of Power” on TV in Wuhan as a Hong Kong station (the now defunct ATV) was included in the cable TV.
The big catch in Chinese law is that printed matter has to be PRINTED in the PRC. It is illegal to take ANY printed matter from outside the PRC into China. A newspaper, a magazine, a comic book will get you a fine or land you in jail. This is why the silly people that smuggle Bibles and tracks into China are arrested. It isn’t that it is just religious material - it is that it was printed outside China and that they are NOT Chinese citizens. If they were Chinese citizens they could go to a bookstore and buy those materials and pass them out on the street without much, if any official problem.
Also, all printed matter, if it is in Chinese, must be in the “Simplified” characters, not the traditional characters used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. This may seem a bit picky but the people in the mainland, unless they are pretty old, can’t read the traditional characters well anyway. It is sort of like giving someone from Portugal a book that is printed in French and then wondering why they can’t read it.
It is also not generally permitted to conduct any type of religious proselytization, Buddhist, Islamic, Protestant, Catholic if you are not a Chinese citizen. None native missionaries are illegal unless you jump through several hoops. I know people that that have done it, it can be done but you have to start by having the local church ASK for you to come for a specific purpose. It can be done if you present it right. Unlike 40 or 50 years ago the government does not really interfere that much, if at all with the Three-Self Protestant Churches. The Chinese Catholics are a little different issue. But even there, Jaing Zamin’s wife used to attend the Chinese Catholic Mass at the Beijing Cathedral almost every week though he only came for the midnight Christmas Mass.
Here is my personal story about the way that persecution works in the PRC. Others may have different experiences.
One of the legal Three-Self Protestant churches in Wuhan where I studied for the Ph.D. needed to expand their building. To do this they needed a permit. But, to get to the front of the line to register for the permit they had to pay a bribe. Since they didn’t pay the bribe they never got to the front of the line to obtain the permit, thus, no new building. They were being passively persecuted for being honest and obeying the law.
What did they do? They found out where the official asking for the bribe lived and rented a flat next door to his home. They evangelized him. The man then stopped collecting bribes and they got the permit. It took them 5 years to get a building permit.
Another story, also true. My wife and I have a very good friend from Beijing. Her husband, a PLA AIr Force officer left her when she had a baby girl rather than a boy. (The one-child policy in action) She was, understandably very depressed and as a graduate student at Beijing Normal University walked into the university library and checked out a Bible, read it and became a Christian. She evangelized her parents and her daughter. Her father left his job in the Civil Service and started a Three-Self (Legal) church in their neighborhood. The man forfeited his pension and healthcare to do this. Here is the kicker - The Bible was part of a set of books provided to the university by (Choke gasp)Bill & PIAPS Clinton as a tax deduction to allow them to pocket leftover campaign funds as he was leaving office. We don’t normally think of Bill Clinton as a Christian evangelist but he is the only president I know off who, by his actions has aided in the evangelization of China and whose donated materials have resulted in the establishment of a local church there.
There are probably more Christians as a percentage of the population in China than there are in the US. This is especially true since more people attend church than are members. The Tree-Self Church I attended in Wuhan had 5 services every Sunday with over 400 people in each service. Yet, the church had only 250 members.
Many Christians in China don’t advertise their faith prominently because they do face low-level discrimination and hostility, especially within their families. The churches, because they are supposed to be self-funded, self-governed and self-propagating face severe issues with pastor training, fundraising and leadership and discipleship training. At times they are placed in difficult legal positions. But, it appears to me that whatever the official number of Christians in China is listed at that number is short by at least 1/3 to 1/2.
I lived in China and Hong Kong for 17-years. My wife is from Shanghai.
Once again others may have had different experiences than me. I think China is probably less free than it was 15 years ago when I was there. But, having lived there, it isn’t really worse than New Jersey.
Thank you for sharing your experience and insight into the church in China. I’m more hopeful for Christians there now. I’m glad Christians there have access to God’s word and the church is growing.
I watched a video a while back on youtube which showed an underground church there. I’m not sure which denomination it was but they seemed very fervent in prayer and hungry to hear the word preached. Thanks again for telling me what’s going on there.
Just doing the work that Americans won’t do.
You sure did.. Great post. None of them want to stay and make their countries better so they come here to make America worse. All the while calling us the Great Satan. This is truly an existential crisis we are having and only President Trump stopped the bleeding. The globalists hate it.
In 1948, Communist China invaded and conquered the independent nation of East Turkestan. Since then, the Turkic peoples have been subjected to slaughter, cultural genocide, ethnic cleansing and ethnic cleansing. The communists are using the terrorism they created as an excuse for concentration camps. 11-18% of the population, essentually all young men, are in such camps. This is what genocide looks like.
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