Reports: China Banning Children From Church

 

 

Bob Unruh

Posted with permission from WND

China's Communist Party-controlled government long has tried to stamp out faith.
It has banned churches unless they are affiliated with the government, imprisoned pastors and lay leaders, and discriminated against church goers.
Lately, government officials have removed crosses from church buildings.
Now, according to UCA News, at least four regional governments in China are banning children from church.
The governments have issued notices that "restrict children from joining Christian groups and attending religious activities," the report said.
Children are being turned away from church, even if they show up with parents.
Paul Marshall, Lela Gilbert and Nina Shea have collaborated to create "Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians," which confirms that groups like Pew Research, Newsweek and The Economist also identify Christians as "the world's most widely persecuted religious group."
"Additionally, the ban includes promises that officials will launch investigations into both government approved churches and underground congregations who operate outside the tightly controlled official Beijing-run Catholic and Protestant churches," the report said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has "instituted formal plans to ‘sinicize' religion with the intention of bringing more religious followers under the control of the ruling Communist Party, which itself is official atheist and forbids members from practicing," the report continued.
A note from a school district in eastern Zhejiang, the report said, read, "An emergency notice from the higher authorities strictly forbids all secondary and primary school teachers, students and toddlers to join Catholic or Protestant churches."
In another incident, a summer camp run by churches was disbanded and all the students told to go home, the report said.
"According to Chinese media reports Changsha, the capital of central Hunan province, held an emergency video conference in June discussing how to stabilize work in the education system. As part of that, Liang Guochao, head of the Education Bureau, stressed making a ‘decisive effort to prevent religions infiltrating into schools and to guide students to consciously resist religious cults so as to make the campus a piece of pure land,'" the report said.
According to the Stream, a Christian newssite, the Communist Party and President Xi "fear that if children go to church, they will not have strict Marxist atheists to join their ranks."
Paul Marshall, Lela Gilbert and Nina Shea have collaborated to create "Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians," which confirms that groups like Pew Research, Newsweek and The Economist also identify Christians as "the world's most widely persecuted religious group."