Christians are being persecuted throughout the world. Totalitarian Marxist/Communist and Islamic countries are the worst offenders.

China, led by President Xi Jinping and ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is jailing Christians and harvesting human organs. Not only are Christians being persecuted, but also are Muslims and Falun Gong practitioners. 

Communist doctrine believes in atheism, a belief or ideology that God does not exist. In a sense, atheism is a religion, but a religion of disbelief. Totalitarian ideology does not allow for competition; belief in any religion other than communism is forbidden. And heaven forbid, if one’s belief in communism deviates in any way from the thoughts of Chairman Mao or President Xi or whoever is the ruling despot. In the twentieth century, tens of millions of people were murdered in the name of Marxism.

Ezra Jin, a Christian pastor of Zion in Beijing, was recently arrested and is now confined to a dark, dank, and dirty cell in a detention center in Beihai, China. Jin’s sin in the CCP’s eyes is that he operated outside the tightly controlled official churches. After Xi took power, the CCP interrogated parishioners and pressured landlords who rented the church’s spaces. When Jin’s church was shut down in 2018, he took to preaching online. He is now being held for “illegal use of information networks.” His defense lawyers have had their law licenses revoked or suspended.

Jin became a Christian after questioning the meaning of life following the 1989 slaughter of thousands of Chinese students in Tiananmen Square. Seeing that Christians were different and that God loved them, he enrolled in a Christian seminary. After graduation, he began preaching in state-approved churches that followed CCP ideology and submitted to surveillance cameras. Jin grew frustrated by state controls and left China in 2002 to pursue a doctorate at Fuller Theological Seminary in California. In 2007, he returned to China and founded the Zion church.

As the Zion church grew from 20 to over 1,500, the CCP increased pressure and surveillance. In 2018, Jin and his family flew to Wheaton, Illinois, for safety. Soon Jin felt compelled to return to China, knowing of the dangers, and left his family in Illinois. Thereafter, his church was shut down and activities banned. Jin and his other Zion pastors began preaching through audio files and Zoom meetings. Soon, dozens of Chinese cities were holding Zoom services in homes, and the little church in Beijing became a national church. This led to other unsanctioned churches to begin growing through technology. Jin moved from Beijing to Beihai for safety and was banned from leaving China. His personal assets were frozen by the CCP and he is now in jail.

President Trump, on his recent trip to China, raised Jin’s case with President Xi, who promised to give it serious consideration. China considers the US’s raising religious issues a pretext to interfere in China’s internal affairs.

Jimmy Lai is the most famous Chinese citizen in jail for political/religious reasons. Lai is a Catholic convert and a multi-millionaire newspaper owner in Hong Kong who believes in freedom of the press. President Xi and the CCP believe the state determines what is to be published and punishes those who disagree.

The Roman Catholic Church kowtowed to the CCP in agreeing to government approval in the selection of cardinals and bishops. The CCP severely restricts church activities, including activities outside the officially sanctioned churches.

The CCP requires:

• Mandatory registration with state religious bodies.
• Pressure to promote “Sinicization” — aligning religion with CCP ideology and Chinese nationalism under Xi Jinping.
• Restrictions on minors participating in religious education or church activities in many areas, including bans on Sunday schools, youth ministries, and religious camps.
• Surveillance of churches, including reports of cameras and facial-recognition systems in some churches.
• Limits on online preaching and foreign religious connections.
• Crackdowns on unregistered “house churches,” including raids, fines, detention of pastors, and church demolitions.
• Removal of crosses and closure of churches, especially during campaigns targeting unauthorized religious activity.

Independent “house churches” exist because many Christians do not want government oversight of doctrine or church leadership. The house churches exist only because local authorities allow them. These groups can range from small home Bible studies to large unofficial congregations with thousands of members. They exist only because of local forbearance. When the CCP asserts its authority, the house churches disappear. 

Summary  

President Xi’s promise to President Trump to give Jin’s persecution serious consideration is on the same level of truthfulness as Xi’s promise to Obama not to militarize shoals in the South China sea. In other words, Xi’s words have no credibility.

For all the bright lights of Shanghai and Hong Kong, China is a dark place

under the totalitarian rule of the Communist Party.

The CCP suffocates freedom of:

1. Religion
2. Speech
3. Press
4. Movement

As the United States approaches the celebration of its 250th birthday, it is worth remembering the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among them are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

China, under the CCP, has none of the above freedoms.

Action  

1. Support Christian churches in their efforts to operate openly in China. 
2. Recognize that the CCP’s totalitarian control of its own citizens is a reflection of the CCP’s soul or core beliefs.
3. Develop “Gray Zone” (non-kinetic) actions exposing CCP inhumanity.
4. Expand capabilities to penetrate China’s internet firewall.

Light one candle. 

Peace Through Strength!