Free Republic

China’s recent crackdown on Christianity has led to intensified enforcement of a law already on the books: children and youth cannot convert to the faith until they’re 18. Churches across China are canceling Sunday School classes for children in light of the new clampdown, according to Mission Network News. “One of the rules that have always been in their law is that you cannot proselytize or you cannot convert somebody under the age of 18,” Erik Burklin of China Partner told Mission Network News. Previously, he said, parents “were having their children come to church and many churches started what...

The totalitarian efforts to suppress and control Christian faith in China have taken a disturbing turn that reflects Beijing’s greater Orwellian aspirations of social control. In the communist nation, in which it is already quite dangerous to be a Christian, some churchgoers must now submit to facial and fingerprint scanning when they come to church. According to Bitter Winter, an online magazine exposing China’s human rights abuses and religious oppression, government thugs set up two biometric scanning stations at the entrance of the Muyang Church in Hubei. Now, before being allowed in to worship, Christians must line up to be...

I grew up among refugees. My parents had fled from Communist Hungary after the 1956 Revolution was crushed by the Soviet Union. We had many Hungarian friends, but also knew people from Albania, East Germany, and Poland. All had their stories, the one more dreadful than the other. I remember one story among many, when we visited a couple, let’s call them “Joe” and “Cathy”. When we were leaving, thinking they were out of earshot, I blurted out: “Why does Uncle Joe have funny hands?” My mother hushed me quickly and the whole thing was forgotten. But some years later,...

Muslims in Xinjiang region can no longer use names such as Mecca, Imam and Saddam. Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have banned dozens of baby names with religious meanings that are widely used by Muslims elsewhere in the world. Sources in Hotan, in the southern part of the region, had previously detailed a list of banned names in 2015, but the ban now appears to have been rolled out region-wide, Radio Free Asia reported. Islam, Quran, Mecca, Jihad, Imam, Saddam, Hajj, and Medina are among dozens of baby names banned under ruling Chinese Communist Party's "Naming Rules...

Chinese President Xi Jinping says that China must be on guard against nefarious religious influences from abroad. His comments over the weekend follow a tightening of religious space that has seen bans on the wearing of veils and beards in the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang and the removal of church crosses in eastern China. “We must resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means and prevent ideological infringement by extremists,” Xi said at a Beijing conference on religions attended by top leaders, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. …

President Xi Jinping has warned that religions in China must be independent from foreign influence as Beijing asks domestic religious groups to adapt to Chinese society and pledge loyalty to the state.China is ruled by the atheist Communist Party and Beijing tries to control a variety of religions and their spread. …

A move by Quebec’s ruling Parti Québécois to ban public workers in the province from wearing ostentatious symbols has drawn fire from other Canadian leaders, and even created an internal division within the group. The so-called “Charter of Quebec Values” forbids state employees from wearing large Christian crosses, Jewish skullcaps or Muslim headscarves to work. …

Secretary of State John Kerry announced Wednesday the formation of the Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, which will be headed by Shaun Casey, a former religion advisor to President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and a liberal professor who last year touted the end of “civil religion” in the United States. “I, frankly, am glad American civil religion is dying,” Casey said at a discussion last year at the Center for American Progress focused on “God and Politics” in the last presidential election. Kerry introduced Casey as a person who cares about faith in American society. …