China steps up campaign to remove church crosses

[Vikrant]

What is wrong with the crosses?

---

SHANGHAI: Authorities in Wenzhou, known as China's Jerusalem, have given Christian churches a deadline to remove prominent crosses within weeks, worshippers and an activist group said on Thursday, stepping up a long-running campaign.

The eastern province of Zhejiang, where Wenzhou is located, earlier this year proposed rules requiring crosses for Catholic and Protestant churches to be attached to the front of the building, rather than on the roof. They must also be no more than a tenth of the building's height.

The move came after Wenzhou authorities last year demolished the large Sanjiang Church, following government claims it was an illegal structure.

...

China steps up campaign to remove church crosses - The Times of India

 

[aris2chat]

They don't support, encourage to believe in any religion. The party and the state are the only things that should be dictating rules or morals to the people.
Some have held onto old spirit beliefs, a kind of shamanism. China attacks all organized religions

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

What is wrong with the crosses?

---

SHANGHAI: Authorities in Wenzhou, known as China's Jerusalem, have given Christian churches a deadline to remove prominent crosses within weeks, worshippers and an activist group said on Thursday, stepping up a long-running campaign.

The eastern province of Zhejiang, where Wenzhou is located, earlier this year proposed rules requiring crosses for Catholic and Protestant churches to be attached to the front of the building, rather than on the roof. They must also be no more than a tenth of the building's height.

The move came after Wenzhou authorities last year demolished the large Sanjiang Church, following government claims it was an illegal structure.

...

China steps up campaign to remove church crosses - The Times of India

The Communists are losing their war against Christianity in China and they know it. They are targeting Christianity because they know it has the power of God to transform lives and free those living under communist oppression - to live for Jesus Christ, Vikrant.
In this news article it states that the Chinese are targeting two religions - Christianity and Islam - while promoting all the other religions. (hoping to increase the persecution of Christians and Muslims most likely)

News article from the other day:

Chinese Communists Losing the War Against Christianity - The American Interest

An official from Zhejiang’s ethnic and religious affairs bureau told the state-run Global Times newspaper the government had “merely relocated the crosses out of safety concerns”.

“Generally speaking, the church staff and people are very supportive [of the removals],” the official added.


… So that’s all right, then.

In fact, Chinese Christians are not happy about the removals—theGuardian reported on street protests against them only last Friday. And when you look at the growth of Christianity in the country, you can see why officials are so uneasy about it. The article estimates that there are now more Christians in China than there are members of the Communist Party. Chinese officials are trying increasingly desperate measures in their crackdown:


The “anti-church” campaign took an unusual turn this week after claims that officials had deployed groups of incense-burning Buddhist monks to “provoke” Christians who were trying to defend their cross.

“We are Protestant Christians, so by sending monks to chant sutras they were trying to get us riled up,” a member of one Zhejiang church told Radio Free Asia, a US-funded news website.


The Christian added: “They were trying to make us angry so that we would retaliate against them. They think that anyone who opposes the government is a traitor, or someone trying to overturn the Communist party.”


Communists in China increasingly realize that the war against religion as such is a losing proposition, and are now looking to support “indigenous” Chinese religions and traditions—Confucianism, Buddhism, Chinese folk religions—against both Christianity and Islam, seen as dangerous imports with potentially destabilizing effects, and “new religions” like the cult of Falun Gong.

This turmoil over religion is one more sign that the cultural changes sweeping through post-Mao China are as dramatic and far reaching as the economic changes. Nobody, not even the Chinese government, knows where this great nation is headed or what lies before it.

Chinese Communists Losing the War Against Christianity - The American Interest

_____________________
As you can see from the news report above it is now believed that there are more Christians in China than Communist Party members which is what has made the Chinese Govt desperate. According to the numbers from the underground church pastors in China, Vikrant, the number I heard a few years ago was there were over 100 million Chinese believers in the Underground Church in China. Truly that is exciting news!

 

[Wyatt earp]

Sounds like something liberals want to do here, wouldn't doubt if those ass holes get their wish one day

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

How China is using Buddhist monks to persecute Christians in China:

Chanting Monks Deployed in Standoff Over Cross Demolition in China s Zhejiang

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

HOME | NEWS | CHINA

'Chanting Monks' Deployed in Standoff Over Cross Demolition in China’ Zheijiang Province

Cross still in place on the Jinjia'er church in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, July 27, 2015.
Photo courtesy of a church member.

Officials in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang sent in monks to burn incense and chant Buddhist scriptures as a “provocation” as Christian believers faced off with a government-backed demolition gang intent on removing a large cross from the roof of their church, church members told RFA onMonday.

The monks came in and chanted prayers, burning incense at the door of the Jinjia’er church in Zhejiang’s Huzhou city, where believers had been staging a sit-in in the hope of blocking access by the demolition gang for several days, a church follower who asked not to be named told RFA.

“We are Protestant Christians, so by sending monks to chant sutras they were trying to get us riled up,” the Jinjia’er congregant said. “They blocked the main door, and they were detaining anyone who got physical with them on public order charges.”

“They were trying to make us angry so that we would retaliate against them. They think that anyone who opposes the government is a traitor, or someone trying to overturn the Communist Party,” he said.

“Anyone who opposes them risks being stuck with this label.”

The authorities had also moved quickly to delete any social media posts about the standoff on China’s Twitter-like platforms, and from social messaging app WeChat, he said, adding that the cross was eventually demolished by the government onSunday.

The demolition came as the authorities target churches in Zhejiang, and Wenzhou city, which has been dubbed “China’s Jerusalem” owing to its large proportion of Protestant believers.

Tearful congregation sings

The provincial government has kept up the "Three Rectifications and One Demolition" campaign, which claims to target all illegal structures, for several months now, rights groups say.

Local officials are required to take action to "demolish illegal structures that violate laws and regulations, occupy farmland, affect public safety and major construction, seriously affect urban and rural planning, and those that are located on both sides of main lines of transportation," according to guidelines published last year on the provincial government’s website.

In Wenzhou, a member of the Yuyangtaitou church in Wenzhou’s Pingyang county said their church’s cross had also been demolished by the authorities onMonday.

Video footage shot by congregants and seen by RFA showed government officials lowering the cross gradually to the ground using ropes, watched by a tearful congregation singing hymns.

“The cross is gone; they took it downthis morning,” the Yuyangtaitou church member said onMonday. “Why did they demolish the cross for no reason? This was pointless. It’s not like it was getting in the way of anything.”

“This church has been in our village for several decades; I knew it while I was growing up.”

Local media reports said the Pingyang county government had announced that all visible crosses in the county would be removed by Aug. 5.

Zhejiang authorities are also taking draconian steps to manage online references to the cross demolition campaign.

Chanting Monks Deployed in Standoff Over Cross Demolition in China s Zhejiang

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

They don't support, encourage to believe in any religion. The party and the state are the only things that should be dictating rules or morals to the people.
Some have held onto old spirit beliefs, a kind of shamanism. China attacks all organized religions

Wrong. China is using the other religions to persecute Christians. It is a full on attack against Christianity in China. Islam is the other religion they are targeting. The rest of the religions in China are exempt from any persecution and are being used to attack the Christians in China. See the news article here posted about Buddhist monks the Chinese used to chant in front of Christian churches - it's an organized effort to attack Christianity. Why are they doing it? The Chinese Christians fear they are losing their war against Christianity. I've posted an article about that on this thread also - make sure to read it. Both links provided below:

Chanting Monks Deployed in Standoff Over Cross Demolition in China s Zhejiang

Chinese Communists Losing the War Against Christianity - The American Interest

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Chinese Persecution of Christians Reaches Highest Level in a Decade Washington Free Beacon

The CCP considers the rising popularity of Christianity as a threat to its dominance, China Aid said, and has used aggressive measures to intimidate members.

“The Chinese government’s persecution campaign included forced demolition of churches and crosses, the detention and imprisonment of pastors and church members on criminal charges, forcing churches into bankruptcy by confiscating church property and imposing fines, and manipulating state-run media to label house churches as ‘cult’ organizations,” the report said.

A local police force—including 600 SWAT officers and government agents—demolished the cross last year at Salvation Church, a Christian house church in the eastern coastal city of Wenzhou. The officers attacked 14 church members on July 21 and seriously injured five, according to the report.

Zhang Shaojie, former pastor at the Nanle County Christian Church in central China, was sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined after being convicted of “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order” and “fraud.” Zhang mobilized his congregation to petition the government in Beijing after local authorities seized property that the church had set aside for a new building. Local officials responded by detaining some church members and barring their travel to Beijing. The Nanle church of more than 1,000 members shut down.

The CCP has also tried to subvert the Christian movement from within through a process of “sinicization” or the promotion of “Christianity with Chinese characteristics.”
_____________________
It's far worse than what is being reported in the mainstream media - here are some photos of Christian persecution in China today:

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Arrested and put in prison for being a Christian in China photos -

Christians put in cages not fit for animals photograph below -

Who will speak up for persecuted Christians?

Chinese Christians being rounded up at gun point-

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

More photos of persecuted Christians -

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Church in China demolished by the Chinese govt.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Annual report of Chinese govt. persecution of Christians - See Chart below -
Pink line denoted number of Chinese persons persecuted x's 10.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Christian Pastors and Bible Scholars rounded up in Beijing - photo below -

Chinese police / authorities beating Christian in the street -

 

[frigidweirdo]

What is wrong with the crosses?

---

SHANGHAI: Authorities in Wenzhou, known as China's Jerusalem, have given Christian churches a deadline to remove prominent crosses within weeks, worshippers and an activist group said on Thursday, stepping up a long-running campaign.

The eastern province of Zhejiang, where Wenzhou is located, earlier this year proposed rules requiring crosses for Catholic and Protestant churches to be attached to the front of the building, rather than on the roof. They must also be no more than a tenth of the building's height.

The move came after Wenzhou authorities last year demolished the large Sanjiang Church, following government claims it was an illegal structure.

...

China steps up campaign to remove church crosses - The Times of India

So what?

You think they worship Christianity properly anyway?

Firstly, any religion in China is under the thumb of the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party. They have to do what they're told.

Secondly, in Wenzhou, which isn't known as the Jerusalem of China, but the people ARE known as the Jews of China, mainly because of their obsession with money, they'll do anything to save money and make money. If you're "religious" then you can have more than one child. Which means you have more kids making money and you earn more money.

Thirdly the CCP has actually funded churches, and spent a LOT of money on constructing some of them too. This is probably more to do with power consolidation than anything to do with religion.

Understanding the country you're talking about does help when having views on what is going on there.

 

[frigidweirdo]

Annual report of Chinese govt. persecution of Christians - See Chart below -
Pink line denoted number of Chinese persons persecuted x's 10.

What does that chart mean exactly?

Just the number of Christians who just happen to end up in front of judges, or people who are up in front of judges because they happen to Christians?

 

[frigidweirdo]

Church in China demolished by the Chinese govt.

In the US if you build a church FOUR TIMES the size you had planning permission to build, what would happen to that building?

Might look just like that one.

Would that be religious persecution?

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

China - Dongguan City - Fully Armed Police ready to find Christians -

 

[frigidweirdo]

China - Dongguan City - Fully Armed Police ready to find Christians -

Or maybe just a picture of the police in training......

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Sarah's story:


This is a short but powerful video from Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) about a girl named Xianzhi "Sarah" Liu who was tortured for six years in China for being a Christian.

 

[frigidweirdo]

Sarah's story:


This is a short but powerful video from Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) about a girl named Xianzhi "Sarah" Liu who was tortured for six years in China for being a Christian.

I doubt she was tortured just for being a Christian. ie, I know Chinese Christians, I know Chinese Christians from Wenzhou too, and they weren't tortured for being Christians.