Posted on 07/04/2020 3:55:20 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The communists in communist China long have worked to destroy the Christian church there.
They've required that churches be "registered" with the government, and "approved."
They've attacked, repeatedly, anyone who tries to hold a church service without that government stamp.
And now they've decided to simply go and install themselves on the boards that make decisions for churches.
The report is from the Barnabas Fund, a worldwide Christian ministry to the persecuted church.
It reports on the latest strategy.
It documents how the votes of congregations for their various church committee members simply have been "ignored" by Communist Party officials.
Then they install their own members on those committees and boards.
"Where is democracy?" one Christian in China asked, in the Barnabas Fund report, after two party-approved candidates were foisted on their church committee.
One dispute developed in a church in Linfen, Shanxi province. There two candidates were up for a church board on their sponsorship by the local United Front Work Department.
The four other board members voted against them. The congregation voted against them.
Yet they were installed on the board.
It apparently is the new Template for a Charter of Legal Persons in Religious Activity Venues that took effect last year that "demands that all religious venues establish a 'democratic management committee' consisting of 'clergy members, representatives of religious citizens, and other relevant members,'" the report explained.
It is under the classification for "other relevant members" that party officials become church leaders.
Clergy members confirmed that if they don't follow the state's template, they will be shut down.
Past months have seen hundreds of churches closed, including those that reportedly had approval from the government to operate, the report said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Sure! A church or synagogue that promotes or accepts Or teaches immoral behavior is a perversion much worse than the conduct itself. Because it’s causing or enabling or facilitating many people to abandon morality
that is exactly how the homosexual community took over American churches.
“..parishioners who stay on ..”
In American protestant churches the lay people have built their churches where they have worshiped, often for generations; where they have married, baptized their young, buried they families. Clergy come and go, but the lay people are always there. Many have cemeteries where the family memorials stand. When these outside influences take over parishioners sit in their pews discounting any lies they may hear and take consolation with other like-minded with themselves. They are not inclined to leave their history to intruders. It is a strange phenomenon.
That’s how the Nazis took over the German churches...
It was less than a year ago that I read how fast Christianity was making inroads in Chinese society but I remained skeptical. Communism is the greatest enemy of Christianity and will always remain so.
United Methodist Church and PCUSA have been communist for years...among others.
Bkmrk
It would be a good idea to check the corporation laws in your state and see whether there is any provision for the state to send a representative, or a court to assign an outside representative to corporate business meetings. Corporations are creatures of the state.
About when was that, if I may ask? I started seeing signs of this around the mid-1980s.
If anyone wants to spread the Word in China, here is a great charity that gives huge bang for the buck. Probably one soul won for every dollar provided.
I’d guess the seventies but can’t recall exactly when I noticed it. There’s a difference between a liberal church or synagogue that still respects our creator and his moral teachings for us, and a church or synagogue that basically rejects both ( whatever it’s pretenses and whatever the sign may say on the door). I think we all can tell the difference between sincere faith and praxis versus a commitment to immorality and pretense that it’s all part of some sort of “social justice” or similar communistic propaganda. I certainly don’t have to agree with every doctrine in a church or synagogue to still respect it if they’re sincerely striving to pray to our one true Creator and if they’re supporting and teaching his basic Biblical moral values. The other kind of church is, well, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. A fake church and I started noticing them in the sixties or seventies but of course ( again, notwithstanding any doctrinal distinctive) they’ve always been some
Thanks. I went to an Evangelical church in the late ‘70s-’80s and the pastor was constantly preaching (with frustration) on “moral bankruptcy” in the church. It’s not a topic that exactly tickles the ears of congregants. He was a good pastor who sort of reminded me of a holy football coach. He had an uphill battle to climb with ministering to a complacent, prosperous congregation. There was some effort at church discipline (I think one woman was temporarily kicked out for some sort of sexual misbehavior, but she came back) and I think after a while he gave up and retired. He tried to challenge his congregants and I think a lot of them were under the impression they were there to be entertained.
Same thing has been happening here.
Fortunately, there is some long-established, well organized, and well funded resistance:
“The Institute on Religion and Democracy is an American Christian conservative think tank that promotes its views among mainline Protestant churches, as well as advocating for its values in the public square”
many folks don’t give very much serious thought to religion, faith (or for that matter, morality) until they realize that they need some help along these lines (life, family, health crises can get their attention)
4 later
When do they move on Hong Kong? I haven’t heard any news but I expect they will.
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