Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
An international Christian organization whose aim is promoting open worship in China says the prospects for believers in the communist dictatorship have grown rougher over the last year.
In its Annual Persecution Report, the China Aid Association revealed the persecution of Christians by the Chinese ruling party has been expanded to include all forms of social, civic, and criminal penalty in virtually every conceivable way a person can worship in public or private.
“The CCP implemented various strategies against Christians in 2022,” China Aid President Bob Fu said in a statement. “By using the new measures against religious content online and the infamous zero-COVID policy, authorities limited or eliminated Christian gatherings. By using charges of ‘fraud,’ the Chinese government financially suffocated the house church movement.”
Persecution of Christians has become so widespread that it is hard to quantify, but China Aid’s report features numerous stories of Christians being attacked or jailed and churches being vandalized or destroyed.
Some Christians, those who are particularly outspoken in their beliefs, have been “disappeared,” according to China Aid. Others have had their baptismal ceremonies disrupted.
Those believers who escape physical harm still face intense pressure to keep their faith a secret, and numerous churches have been forced to close. Not even cyber church meetings are tolerated.
And, the most alarming news, there is a real chance that the CCP is more likely to repress Christianity to an even greater degree in the coming year.
“The CCP’s top leaders continued to tout platitudes about religious Sinicization, such as ‘forge and unite positive energy to help realize the Chinese Dream, adhere to the path of religious Sinicization, submerge all religious beliefs in Chinese culture, adhere to the right political direction, resolutely support the CCP’s leadership, voluntarily resist the infiltration of overseas forces,’” etc.
Sinicization is a word that refers to the Chinese effort to make everyone and everything Chinese in character and form.
As discouraging as the Chna Aid report is, and as desperately as we all need to pray for our brothers and sisters in China, it’s important to remember that not even the Chinese Communist Party has the ability to overpower God.
The Lord will win, and He is already providing ways forward for His children. According to China Aid, a growing number of Christians are finding ways to worship.
“Many Christians in China reported that they had started to gird themselves up for the upcoming impact of the Administrative Measures,” the report reads. “They changed WeChat group names and online nicknames to circumvent penalties prescribed by the Administrative Measures, such as permanent account deletion or even criminal charges.”