Posted on 09/16/2024 8:04:17 AM PDT by CFW
China's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday typically sees families reunite and give thanks, much like Thanksgiving in America. This year, Chinese-American pastor David Lin will have much to be thankful for when the holiday is marked on Tuesday. In a surprise move, Beijing freed the 68-year-old Sunday after he spent nearly 20 years in prison in a case the U.S. government and his family have always dismissed as baseless.
Lin entered China in 2006 and attempted to establish a Christian training center in Beijing. China's Communist Party disapproves of such activities and routinely roots out underground Christian churches, seeing them as a threat to its power. Only officially-sanctioned, closely monitored churches are permitted under the Communist Party's rule.
Lin was detained the same year he arrived, then in 2009 he was handed a life sentence after being convicted of fraud. The charge is often applied to home church leaders who try to raise money for expansion, according to the Dui Hua Foundation human rights group.
The U.S. State Department, which always maintained that Lin was wrongfully detained by China, confirmed his release on Sunday. The Chinese government did not make any public comment on Lin's release during the long holiday weekend.
[snip]
While Lin was in detention, he missed his daughter Alice's wedding and the birth of his grandson. In April, she wrote a letter, published by the Wall Street Journal, saying she dreamed of her father "meeting my husband and my 8-year-old son for the first time."
"No words can express the joy we have," Alice was quoted as saying by Politico on Sunday. "We have a lot of time to make up for."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Same here!
We made a big deal about it in 2009, about the Obama administration not wanting to interfere (?) in the arrest and trial of Lin.
The stories he can tell.
Is he exiting the country or staying to see if it happens again? Or does he have the option?
China LIKES the access obiden and harris have allowed and doesn’t want President Trump to return, to which we say . . . . . . . TOUGH !
Might be approaching death.
Done here too.
Friend’s son was 8 months from completing sentence.
Early release. Dead 2 days later.
Beijing freed the 68-year-old Sunday after he spent nearly 20 years in prison
The latest episode of Presbycast ("Presbyterians and the Church in China") they talk with a Chinese guy in China, about the current state of the church there.
Covers topics like, what is meant by a "house church". How urban differs from rural. And how persecution really plays out.
It sounds to me very much like the early church existing in the Roman Empire.
Very recommended listening. 1 hr 21 min.
Ping to a couple other saints.
This guy doesn’t sound too bright.
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