On December 9th 2018 in Chengdu, China, authorities began arresting members of the Early Rain Covenant Church, one of China’s largest underground Christian churches.

The church, which is considered ‘underground’ because it is not registered with the Chinese government, was ransacked and sealed by authorities. They also targeted properties of the church including a kindergarten, a bible college and a seminary.

In the days that followed, hundreds more people were arrested and taken from their homes, including pastor Wang Yi who had foreseen such an event happening in October and asked for a piece he had written, entitled ‘Faithful Disobedience’ to be published if he was taken for more than 48 hours.

In it the pastor says,‘’I am filled with anger and disgust at the persecution of the church by this Communist regime’’.

Wang Yi is a prominent member of Chinese Christian society and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government. He has been criminally detained on suspicion of ‘inciting subversion of state power’.

Human Rights Watch have called for the Chinese government to release the pastor and other members of this independent Protestant church immediately.

“The shutdown of a Protestant church in Chengdu epitomizes the Xi Jinping government’s relentless assault on religious freedom in China,” said Yaqiu Wang, China researcher. “It makes a mockery of the government’s claim that it respects religious beliefs.”

The police forced members of the church to sign a pledge saying that they would not attend the church again – the social media accounts of the church on WeChat were also removed. Some members who were released, claimed to have been beaten and left tied to chairs without access to food or water for over 24 hours.

Many church members believe it was a recent petition which had signatures from over 400 pastors that may have caused the arrests. This petition came in response to China’s newly amended regulations on Religious Affairs which banned any ‘’unauthorised’’ religious teaching or participation in overseas religious trainings.

However, the general repression of Christianity has been ongoing under President Xi for some time now – a policy that the government and authorities have called ‘to Sinicize’ the religion or ‘adopt Chinese characteristics’.

In April 2018, the government banned online sales of the bible and authorities under Xi have destroyed hundreds of churches/crosses on top of churches and confiscated bibles and other church materials from congregations.

In September 2018, the Roman Catholic Church and China reached a deal designed to end a decades-long standoff over authority to appoint bishops in China.

China’s estimated 12 million Roman Catholics are divided between an underground community that pledges allegiance to the pope and a government-run association with state-appointed bishops.

As of yet, the future of the Early Rain Covenant Church and pastor Wang Yi is still unclear, but Human Rights groups have urged those who support religious freedom to stand with Wang Yi and speak out against the repression of Christianity in China.

 

 

 

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Image courtesy of Akira Hojo via Unsplash

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