Posted on 07/30/2015 4:53:16 AM PDT by marshmallow
More than 1200 crosses have been torn down by authorities in the past two years sparking anger and street protests
Christian leaders – including an 89-year-old bishop – have taken to the streets of eastern China to protest against an “evil” campaign to remove crosses that many see as a coordinated Communist party attack on their faith.
Activists say more than 1,200 crosses have been stripped from churches in Zhejiang province since the government initiative began in late 2013. There has been a spike in such actions in recent weeks.
On Friday, around 20 Catholic clergy staged a rare public demonstration in Wenzhou – a coastal city known as the “Jerusalem of the East” – including Vincent Zhu Weifang, its elderly bishop.
A banner unfurled outside government offices by the group read: “Maintaining religious dignity and opposing the forced removal of crosses”.
Chinese police monitored the two-hour protest but did not break it up, according to UCA News, the Catholic agency.
Zhejiang is home to one of China’s largest Christian congregations with an estimated 300,000 Catholics and one million Protestants split between government-sanctioned and underground “house” churches.
Towering red church crosses – visible for miles around – once dotted the city’s skyline but many of the most prominent been forcibly removed since the campaign began. In some cases, entire churches have been reduced to rubble.
Authorities insist they are attacking illegal building practices not religion. The cross removals appeared to have petered out towards the start of this year.
However, recent months have seen an escalation in removal operations in cities including Wenzhou, Hangzhou and Lishui.
One church leader, whose name is being withheld to protect him from retaliation, said authorities were attempting to transform Christianity “into a tool that serves the party”.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
The Christian community here in America better get on the stick.
The persecution is right around the corner, and staying silent only feeds the beast.
As the Good Book says: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
The communists trying to tear down our crosses are known as the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the ACLU.
... and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Talked to a young Chinese college student the other day who told me she was a Christian. I asked how she came to know Christ, and she told me her freshmen year in college an upperclassmen invited her to a Christian gathering of college students and that’s how it all started.
She also told me that the Christian community is spreading on many college campuses and may young students who had no exposure to the gospel before become believers after attending college and hearing the gospel the first time.
I thought about the irony of young believer in the US going to colleges and fall from the faith contrasting with the kids in China going to college and learn about Christ and become believers. It does make me wonder if China is heading in a better direction than the US.
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