The oppression of Christians in China takes many forms. Now poor Christian villagers are urged to âreplace religious artefacts in their homes with posters of the Communist Party Leader if they want to benefit from poverty-relief effortsâ. Thus Nectar Gan reported in South China Morning Post, an English language Hong Kong based paper.
She wrote that âthousands of Christians in an impoverished country in rural southeast China have swapped their posters of Jesus for portraits of President Xi Jinping as part of a local government poverty relief programme that seeks to âtransform believers in religion into believers in the partyââ. The county in question is Yugan in Jiangxi province known both for its poverty as well as the large number of Christians. According to official data âmore than 11 percent of its 1 million residents live below the countryâs official poverty line, while nearly 10 percent of its population is Christianâ.
As efforts are made to alleviate poverty, âmany believers have been told to take down the images of Jesus, the crosses and the gospel couplets that form the centrepieces of their homes and hang portraits of Xi instead â a practice that hearkens back to the era of the personality cult around late chairman Mao Zedong, whose portraits were once ubiquitous in Chinese homesâ. The pressure exerted on these poor Christians seems to be paying off for the government at least in some cases. One report indicated that âmore than 600 villagers âvoluntarilyâ got rid of the religious texts and paintings they had in their homes and replaced them with 453 portraits of Xiâ. In another area, more than 1,000 portraits of Xi had been distributed and all had been hung in homes. Elsewhere believers with gospel couplets or paintings of the cross on their front doors have had them forcibly torn down. The believers âdidnât want to take them down. But there is no way out. If they donât agree to do so, they wonât be given their quota from the poverty relief fundâ. Officials insist that Christians âstill have the freedom to believe in religion, but in their minds they should [also] trust our partyâ. To that end, crosses are also being removed from churches in this area of China, following the pattern of cross removals elsewhere.
The attempt to replace trust in the gospel with trust in the Communist Party was blatantly expressed by one officialâs comments as reported by Gan. âMany rural people are ignorant. They think God is their saviourâŚ. After our cadresâ work, theyâll realise their mistakes and think: we should no longer rely on Jesus, but on the party for help.â Another report stated: âthe officials successfully âmelted the hard ice in their [Christian] heartsâ and âtransformed them from believing in religion to believing in the partyââ.
In some respects, Christians in China are in a position similar to that of Christians almost two millennia ago. The Roman Empire got nervous when Christians affirmed âJesus is Lord!â. He is the highest authority and is to be worshipped and not the emperor. Today, the Chinese Communist Party challenges that confession by insisting that the authority to be obeyed is Xi Jinping, the President of China.
China fears the growing number of Christians. But there is relatively little they can do. According to a Reformatorisch Dagblad article, Fenggang Yang, an expert on the situation of Chinese Christians, does not think there will be a return to the open persecution of the days of Mao Zedong. It did not help and the number of Christians has continued to grow. He predicted that by 2030 China will have more Christians than America.
The Son of God continues to gather his people in China, He cannot be stopped. He is Lord!
By Cornelis Van Dam (Professor emeritus of Old Testament at the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary. This article was also published in Clarion, March 23 2018).
Sources used: Nectar Gan, âWant to Escape Poverty? Replace Pictures of Jesus with Xi Jinpingâ (Nov 14, 2017) on the website of South China Morning Post;Â Mark Wallet, âChristendom China niet meer to stuitenâ Reformatorisch Dagblad November 15, 2017