Didacus Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 China: Largest growing power in the world today, 1.3 billion in population. Slated by many experts as being the next superpower that will dominate the world economically and millitarily for the coming generation. The world is changing... and sometimes the future can be scary. What role will this play in Christianity and Catholicism? Maybe the Roman days of the being fed to lions are returning with a vengeance? This article can be a little disheartening, but we cannot hide from the truth: [url="http://www.uscirf.gov/mediaroom/op-eds/opeds_archive/12292000_china.html"]http://www.uscirf.gov/mediaroom/op-eds/ope...2000_china.html[/url] China's Religious Repression Imperils All Los Angeles Times Friday, December 29, 2000 By Elliott Abrams The latest move in China's ongoing anti-religion campaign is as subtle as a sledgehammer. Literally. In the eastern province of Zhejiang, officials boast that they have destroyed, confiscated or shut down 450 Roman Catholic and Protestant churches and Taoist and Buddhist temples. A Hong Kong-based human rights observer puts the number at nearer 3,000. Some have been blown up; others demolished with sledgehammers. The targets of this demolition derby are congregations that have operated openly for years but refuse to register with the authorities, lest they be forced to join the state's puppet religious organizations. To do so means, among other things, turning over membership lists to the authorities and accepting state-dictated theology and censorship of sermons. Catholics, for example, are forced to deny the authority of the pope, a step most refuse to take. "In order to maintain social stability, the local government demolished underground [unregistered] churches and temples and other illegal places," a spokesman for the Wenzhou city foreign affairs office helpfully explained to Agence France-Presse. The destruction of houses of worship is part of Beijing's comprehensive and intensifying crackdown on independent religious expression, which began in earnest in July 1999 with the banning of the Falun Gong spiritual movement and several mainstream Protestant Christian groups as "evil cults." Consider the following reports: In the brutal campaign against the Falun Gong and Zhong Gong spiritual movements, at least 59 Falun Gong practitioners have died, usually from police beatings and torture. The Hong Kong observer counts 20,000 Falun Gong practitioners temporarily detained, 10,000 thrown into labor camps without trial and 600 sent to mental hospitals. Several leaders have received prison terms of more than a decade. At least 24 Uighur Muslims from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region have been executed this year on charges of separatism. Muslim Uighur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer remains in jail, her appeal of an eight-year sentence--for sending her U.S.-based husband Chinese newspaper clippings--rejected. Harassment of Protestant and Catholic Christians who refuse to join the state organizations is in full swing. Many Protestants and Catholics have been arrested for participating in unregistered church services. While several bishops and priests loyal to Rome remain missing or under arrest, Bishop Fu Tieshen of the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Conference has twice this year ordained bishops and priests without Vatican approval. Police have ransacked homes in Tibet, destroying Buddhist objects and pictures of the Dalai Lama. In July, 30 monks were expelled from the Johkhang Temple, one of Tibetan Buddhism's holiest shrines. The U.S. government has a moral obligation to let the Chinese government know that such abuses are unacceptable. But more is needed. The Commission on International Religious Freedom recommends that the U.S. again initiate a resolution to censure China at the annual spring meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and urge other governments to join it. The U.S. also should use its diplomatic influence to ensure that China is not selected as a site for the Olympic Games until it makes significant improvement in human rights, including religious freedom. And to show progress in improving religious freedom, China should: Release all religious prisoners. Respond to inquiries about people who are imprisoned, detained or under house arrest or missing for reasons of belief. Permit international human rights organizations and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom unhindered access to religious leaders, including those imprisoned, detained or under house arrest. Open a high-level dialogue with the U.S. on religious-freedom issues. Ratify the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which it has signed. No one wants to isolate China. But the choice is not between engagement and isolation. It is between silence and vigorous protest. In fact, the continuing escalation of this brutal campaign to repress freedom of religion is in the long term a great peril to Sino-American relations and to China itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cathurian Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Prayers for the poor folks in China. Seriously, do you know any material thing a layperson could do to help those people over there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picchick Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 BOYCOTT CHINA DUDE!! My family has been doing it for the past maybe 5 years right Didacus? It is hard. It is costly but it is worth it. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone on phatmass would boycott products made in China? Meg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lounge Daddy Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Ahhhh Red China and its filthy communism Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Didacus Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 [quote name='picchick' date='Jun 20 2005, 03:53 PM']BOYCOTT CHINA DUDE!! My family has been doing it for the past maybe 5 years right Didacus? It is hard. It is costly but it is worth it. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone on phatmass would boycott products made in China? Meg [right][snapback]617126[/snapback][/right] [/quote] I am uncertain this will be effective in any way. You are talking about 1.3 billion people... If all the catholics in the world would boycott china.. then maybe... but for certain every little bit helps... But it might not have the effect you imagine... The interdependance of economies world wide are so closely knit that if china's economy was to falter, the wave of consequences could be disatrous world-wide. Also to note, China's views are typical of asian views. Japan are even stricter than China. Japanese living in Japan feel they are of a particular human race, aside from the rest of humanity. if a japanese person leaves japan, they may never be allowed to return since in their belief they are no longer Japanese! Several have that sort of problem in trying to return to their homeland. North Korea I could believe is the worst. People trying to 'escpae' into China or Japan are returned to North Korea without exception, where they will be knowingly executed for their 'escape attempt'. the mind set of the asian goverments in giving value the individuals (and in consequence, religion) are so different\e than ours, that I am not certain what if anything could possibly be done other than pray. One thing I can definately GUARANTEE all of you, is that things will get far worse before things get any better. The world is changing, and it's not necessarily changing for the better. My worries are what will happen when China becomes too small for their population and they start to 'overflow' over the world? they have keen nuclear capability, the willingness and affordability of loosing staggering number of human lives on their side of the border... not a pretty picture... not pretty at all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Didacus Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 Does the following rhetoric sound familiar to anyone else on this board? "revealed the extent of the ruling party's new campaign to "strengthen the [b]research, propaganda and education of Marxist atheism[/b]" while combating "cultic organisations", "ignorant superstitions" and "Western enemy forces that use religion to 'Westernise' and 'divide'" China." Noooo? How about this? "This resistance is quiet, out of the public spotlight and essentially evasive in nature. Yet, it is precisely these everyday forms of resistance that cause headaches for the government because the Communist regime [b]can never be certain that its repression will ever completely eradicate religion[/b]." (emphasis is mine) From the following article: Jan-2005 [url="http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2487.html"]http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2487.html[/url] Godless communism... JP the Great, pray for us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jezic Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 ohh yes and this is what they print. There are horrors that don't make books or the news. People are routinely tortured as well. The ransack of Tibet is one of the worst atroscities ever committed. The slaughter of countless thousands of monks and the destruction of one of the if not the oldest religious tradition in the world is horrible. Yet there is hope. The home churches are expected to number above 130 million which is 10% of the population. If it grows large enough the communists can be toppled. they will try to get rid of it though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Didacus Posted June 22, 2005 Author Share Posted June 22, 2005 I agree that there is far worse. 10% is not very much. Have you ever tried to take on 9 other people in a fist fight? I do not recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jezic Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 no 10% is a lot. That is a big group that is growing quickly. The other 9 aren't united either. Not everyone likes communism. so it is not 10% vs 90% it is more like 10 vs 40 vs 40 vs 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Didacus Posted June 22, 2005 Author Share Posted June 22, 2005 Good point... still doesn't seem like a fair fight to me. But then again, with God on their side, anything is possible... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jezic Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 the only bad part is a lot of them are prottys. Though it is rumored that up to 2000 people come to Christ every hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Didacus Posted June 22, 2005 Author Share Posted June 22, 2005 prottys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jezic Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 protestants = prottys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Didacus Posted June 22, 2005 Author Share Posted June 22, 2005 Considering the situation in china I fail to see how this is a 'bad thing'. They may be seperate from the Catholic church, which is not a good thing, but they remain our close brothers in christ. Better a 'protty' than an atheist - anyday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jezic Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 yes but that leaves us with a huge challenge to convert all of them to the fullness of truth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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