China Conducts Overnight Raid Against Christians, Detains More Than 100 People, Including A...

Great American Politics ^ | December 10, 2018 | Michael Stanley

[E. Pluribus Unum]

FULL TITLE: China Conducts Overnight Raid Against Christians, Detains More Than 100 People, Including A Prominent Pastor

Tweet We in the West tend to take our freedom of religion for granted, forgetting that not everyone in the world can enjoy worshiping God freely, out in the open.

In fact, in Communist countries like China, being a Christian is a violation of the law and can get you tossed in prison, a reality 100 believers experienced after overnight raids in the nation on Sunday.

The raids are said to be part of a crackdown on “unregistered religious organizations.”

According to members of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, police rounded up dozens of worshippers from their homes the evening after pastor Wang Yi posted a manifesto on social media criticizing the government’s targeting of religious organizations. Wang’s house was ransacked in the raids, and he and his wife, Jiang Rong, were among those taken into custody by the authorities.

Religious organizations in China must be state-sanctioned in order to be legal, so many religious groups — particularly churches — operate underground to avoid government control of their worship. But Wang has made a name for himself through his public protests urging a separation of church and state.

Wang is a well-known legal scholar, former film critic, and blogger who converted to Christianity in 2005. He formed Early Rain Covenant Church in 2008, and one of his many antagonizations against the Chinese government is his annual sermon condemning the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

[jimbug]

Communists WILL burn in Hell. Count on it.

[Skywise]

Coming soon here under the guise of racism and hate speech.

[bgill]

Remind me again why we need their products.

[Openurmind]

We are almost there here now in this country. Just let the communists here get a little more control and we will be...

[ifinnegan]

Thanks. Wang Yi has a Wikipedia entry.

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Wang Yi (Chinese: 王怡; born June 1973), pen name Wang Shuya (Chinese: 王书亚; pinyin: Wáng Shūyà), is the pastor of a Chinese house church, Early Rain Reformed Church (Chinese: 秋雨之福归正教会; pinyin: Qiuyu Zhifu Guizheng Jiaohui) in Chengdu. He is also a productive writer, editor, and social activist, and was a legal scholar at Chengdu University before he resigned to take up the pastorate.[1]

Biography Edit

In 2004, he was included in the list of "50 Most Influential Public Intellectuals of China" by Southern People Weekly [zh] (Chinese: 南方人物周刊; pinyin: Nanfang Renwu Zhoukan). In 2005, he was converted, baptized, and started to serve in the house church. He was among the few pioneering Christian human-rights attorneys in China.[2]

Wang Yi met with President George W. Bush at the White House in 2006, with other Chinese human rights attorneys, to discuss religious freedom in China.[3][4] He returned to Washington, D.C. in 2008, to attend the Conference for Global Christians in Law and was awarded "Prize for the Contribution to Promoting Religious Freedom."[5]

In 2008, he founded and started to serve the Chengdu Early Rain Reformed Church. In October 2011, he was ordained and became the senior pastor of the church.[5] The church now has a membership of about 700.[6]

Theology Edit

Wang Yi argues that the idea of the separation of church and state originated from the Calvinist tradition. He criticizes the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in China as emphasizing nationalism, which he claims results in a worship of secular authorities at the cost of valuing the local community.[7] Instead, he argues that the separation of church and state in the United States is deeply rooted in the Calvinist tradition. This holds to a view in which a constitutional polity is legitimized by a transcendent power – namely, a sovereign God.[2][8] Furthermore, he claims that the nation cannot interfere with church affairs, on the one hand, and should be obliged to protect the religious freedom out of the divine duty, on the other.[9]

Wang wants to promote the transparency and publicity of the Chinese house church. Wang argues that churches ought to not only listen for God's voice, but also engage in public affairs. For him, the Reformed church in China should have a pastoral mission for the Chinese church and a prophetic mission for Chinese society.[10][8] According to Fredrik Fällman, Wang Yi sees this as the mechanism by which "New Genevas" are established throughout China, akin to John Calvin's Christian reforms in Geneva.[11]

Chinese 95 theses Edit

In August 2015, Wang Yi posted a document titled "Reaffirming our Stance on the House Churches: 95 theses" in an attempt to reaffirm the Chinese house church's position in the relationship between government and society. Echoing Martin Luther's 95 theses, these Chinese 95 theses demonstrate his opinion of the church-state relationship from the perspective of the house church.[12]

This document is divided into 6 sections:[13]

Theses 1–17: God's Sovereignty and Biblical Authority.
Theses 18–31: God's Law and Christ's Redemption.
Theses 32–39: Against the "Sinicization of Christianity."
Theses 40–44: Church as the Body of Christ and His Kingdom.
Theses 45–72: The Relationship between Two Kingdoms and the Separation of Church and State.
Theses 73–95: Against the "Three-Self Movement" and Affirmation of the Great Commission.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Yi_(pastor)

[Regulator]

Yessirree, Fwee Twade with Chiner has made them all social liberals and lifted all boats.

Thanks GHWB! And you too, Carla! Y’all are real forward thinkers.

[shanover]

Those who say we “won” the Cold War are technically right but we really never defeated Communism and Socialism let alone China. America is now flush with the communist/socialist rot.

[John Leland 1789]

In the USA, too, churches will soon need to be sanctioned. The 501(c)3 designation will be used, and it will be supported (at first) by thousands of pastors.

As it stands, 501(c)3 determination is not required by law. But it seems that many pastors who have it are almost vicious toward pastors and churches who say, "No, thank you."