House Church Alliance's No. 2 Sentenced to Labor Camp

By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

SUQIAN CITY, JIANGSU (ANS) -- In a further sign of the intensifying crackdown on China's unregistered house churches, the deputy chairman of the Chinese House Church Alliance has been given a two-year labor camp sentence.

Pastor Shi Enhao

According to a news release from ChinaAid, Pastor Shi Enhao has been sentenced to two years of "re-education through labor," an extra-judicial punishment handed out by police and requiring no trial or conviction of a crime. It is often used for those who have committed minor criminal offenses or for dissidents and adherents of religious groups, such as house church Christians and Falun Gong practitioners.

ChinaAid said the charge on the sentencing papers is "illegal meetings and illegal organizing of venues for religious meetings." This charge stems from the fact that Enhao's large house church of several thousand members meets in various sites around the city.

According to ChinaAid, the greater significance of Enhao's sentencing on this charge has to do with the events surrounding the Shouwang Church in Beijing, and its controversial decision in April to meet outdoors after being evicted once again from its leased meeting site.

ChinaAid said critics of Shouwang's decision pointed out that when other house churches have grown too large to meet in one place without making local officials nervous, most have avoided clashes with the authorities by breaking into smaller groups meeting in different locations. Enhao's charge and sentence demonstrate that this strategy does not guarantee authorities will be satisfied.

Enhao's son, Shi Yongyang, ChinaAid said, has signed the sentencing paperwork under police pressure. However, police refused to give him a copy of the signed documents.

Meanwhile, ChinaAid said, the country's Domestic Security Protection Department has ordered Enhao's church to stop meeting, and confiscated the congregation's car, musical instruments and choir robes, as well as $21,712.50 in donations.

All three of Enhao's daughters and their husbands have been threatened by the police.

ChinaAid said Enhao was detained on May 31 by police in Suqian city, coastal Jiangsu province, and held for 12 days. On June 21, he was criminally detained by the Suqian Public Security Bureau. Criminal detention is the first step in a legal process that almost inevitably leads to a prison sentence.

Enhao and his wife, Zhu Guangyun, are both 55 years old. His 86-year-old mother, Liu Guanglan, requires round-the-clock care, which Enhao's wife provides. Enhao's son, Shi Yongyang, and his wife are both in full-time ministry. Four generations of Enhao's family have been serving the church.

ChinaAid said organizational Founder and President Bob Fu expressed shock at the news and strongly condemned the authorities in Jiangsu's Suqian city for sentencing Enhao. He also called on the church and the international community to express their concern for and come to the aid of Enhao.

More details of Enhao's case are available in ChinaAid's earlier report www.chinaaid.org/2011/07/chinese-house-church-alliance-deputy.html

 

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Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter,http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "Homeless in the City." Additional details on "Homeless in the City" are available at http://www.homelessinthecity.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds atjeremyreynalds@comcast.net.