Pictured: The demolition of a Christian Church in China in 2006.
December 27, 2008
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'Tis the season in China to crack down on Christians in house churches, according to a new report from China Aid Association, which says nine Christians were arrested during the Christmas season while re-enacting a nativity play.
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The organization, which directs its work to helping Christians in the fast-growing faith community inside the communist nation, said in a Christmas Day report that attacks in just the past few days have included those arrests, the threats of house church building demolition and bans on house church meetings.
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The arrests and threats come just a week after authorities demolished a building used by a Christian church group, leaving nearly a dozen church participants who tried to defend their facility beaten.
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The government's Christmas attacks were confirmed in two different provinces and another region, the organization said.
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In Henan province, an eyewitness told China Aid officers from the Public Security Bureau raided a house church Christmas party in the middle of the day on Christmas Eve and detained nine Christian woman.
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They had been re-enacting the nativity, and police charged the women with "organizing illegal religious activities," the China Aid source reported. The women were being held at the Yucheng County Detention Center, and authorities were demanding fines from family members before they could be released,
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Authorities in Anhui province were a lot more thorough in their attacks, the organization reported.
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It started on Dec. 22 when authorities conducted a raid on a Shepherd Fellowship Bible training class linked to a house church in Dongzhi County. The attack force included officers from the Domestic Defense Protection Squad Branch of Chizhou Municipal Public Security Bureau of Anhui Province, the Domestic Defense Protection Squad of Dongzhi County Public Security Bureau, the Yanghu Township Police Station and the Dongzhi County Bureau of Religion.
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"The Bible training class of 19 students was jointly founded by pastors from house churches in several local counties to train young Christians. More than 10 uniformed police raided the training class and searched its facilities for two hours. Officials showed only their police identification certificates and did not present a search warrant when they searched the rooms," China Aid's report said.
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That evening, the students and two house church leaders, Zhu Jianguo and Cheng Donglai, were taken to the Public Security Bureau for investigation where they were photographed and videotaped, the report said.
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"During the interrogation, the Public Security cadres pounded on the desk to scare the Christians and lectured the students with political propaganda in an effort to force the students to say that the church lured them to participate in the study. At about 10 p.m., the students were released, but the two church leaders were not released until about 12 a.m.," China Aid said.
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The next day police called the church leaders and warned hem to send the students home before government officials arrived at the site of the training, and authorities sealed the house church building, stating that it was an illegal school and the building would be demolished or sold.
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And in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China Aid reported, a house church pastor said the church members were forbidden from gathering and he was threatened with arrest and detention in a situation that continued to develop.
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The ministry organization said expressions of concern over the attacks on Christians at Christmas should be directed to:
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Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.
2201 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
Washington D.C. 20007
