House Church Asked to Halt Activities

House Church Asked to Halt Activities: "Chinese authorities move to increase restrictions on unofficial churches."

Authorities in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan have requested a large family-based Christian church to halt its activities, the church’s pastor told RFA on Tuesday.

The move came as Chinese authorities intensified their harassment of Christians and cracked down on unofficial churches, called “house churches,” across several Chinese provinces.

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Chinese Authorities Again Deny Facility to Shouwang Church

Outdoor worship, arrests resume.

By Sarah Page

 

DUBLIN, January 3 (Compass Direct News) – Authorities in China again thwarted efforts by Shouwang Church to lease a worship facility at the year’s end, and the Beijing congregation again met outdoors on Sunday (Jan. 1) – resulting in the arrest of 48 members, sources said.

 

“The church tried three times to rent three different venues, but it was all to no avail because of the authorities’ intervention,” a source close to the church told Compass. “On Dec. 17, Shouwang signed a rental contract with a landlord for its new indoor worship venue. Two days later, the church’s books and some other belongings were moved into the new rented space.”

 

In the days that followed, however, the landlord terminated the contract due to pressure from “the local police station, the housing management office and leaders of various government agencies,” church leaders announced to members on Dec. 23.

 

Church leaders had initially arranged to have an indoor meeting on Sunday (Jan. 1) in a room they had leased from the Beijing Parkview Wuzhou Hotel on Dec. 17, according to a post on Shouwang’s Facebook page. But due to police interference and the cancellation of the lease, they moved to Plan B – a continuation of the outdoor worship services held every Sunday since April 10.

 

Shouwang began meeting outdoors last year after authorities blocked their attempts to rent worship venues or use a building they had purchased. Church leaders had hoped the situation would change early in the new year.

 

“The outdoor worship service has come to an end,” Shouwang had announced on its Facebook page. “We first want to offer our thanksgiving to God … We also pray that God will continue to open a way for us.”

 

The post also described how the church had recently signed three leases with landlords in Zhongguancun, the area where the church has worshiped since it was founded, but that all three were revoked.

 

New Year Arrests

Police detained at least 48 church members who gathered for outdoor worship on Sunday (Jan. 1), releasing 40 of them by midnight, Shouwang’s governing committee stated on its Facebook page.

 

Early on the morning of Dec. 25, church members had arrived at Zhongguancun square only to find it heavily guarded with industrial-strength rails blocking access, the committee reported. Police arrested 41 Christians who attempted to worship at the square, releasing all but one by midnight. The final detainee was released at 3 p.m. on Dec. 26.

 

During the 38 weeks of outdoor worship in 2011, police detained almost 1,000 church members and held many more under house arrest, according to the committee.

 

One church member who shared his testimony on the Facebook page on Dec. 26 said that the Christians detained indoors usually felt sorry for those waiting outside in the cold as they were able to “read books and have fellowship in a warm room.” But on Christmas Day an officer interrogated him, taunting him for being afraid to give his home address and threatening to “hold you for more than 10 days so that you will lose your job. I will find out where you live and force you to move.”

 

“As for my job, no one can fire me if God does not allow it,” the church member wrote. He also advised other church members, “How long they detain you has nothing to do with whether you cooperate with them or not, just as God’s love for you has nothing to do with what you do. So do not be afraid, and be brave in speaking out as the Holy Spirit guides you.”

 

His advice was timely as Shouwang church plans to continue meeting outdoors until a more permanent solution is found, and officials seem just as determined to stop them.

 

“By arbitrarily detaining peaceful religious believers in the capital city on the first day of 2012, Beijing authorities show that they are determined to continue their crackdown on independent religious groups in the coming year,” China Aid Association President Bob Fu stated on Sunday (Jan. 1).

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

END

 

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Copyright 2012 Compass Direct News

5 Months & 600 Arrests Later, Chinese Church Still Defying Beijing

Baptist Press reports that on August 28, five members of a house church in Fangshan, China, woke at 4 a.m. and traveled for two hours to a public square in Beijing in order to worship with members of the embattled Beijing Shouwang house church. On their arrival at 7 a.m., waiting police sent the five back to their local police station. Officials then urged them to sign documents repenting of their decision to support the Shouwang church. All five refused but were eventually released. The Fangshan five are part of a growing wave of house church Christians determined -- despite the consequences -- to support Shouwang Church in its five-month-long stand for greater religious freedom. Shouwang members have attempted to meet in the outdoor venue every Sunday since April 11, after government officials repeatedly denied them access to a permanent worship place. Church leaders prayerfully decided on this course of action as a means of forcing the government to resolve their dilemma. More than 600 arrests have been made over the last 22 weeks, including 15 on Aug. 28 and 12 arrests on Sept. 4. Police arrest the Christians before the service even starts and typically free them within 24 hours. More than 160 people were arrested at the first outdoor meeting of Shouwang Church.

Christians in China Suffer for Supporting Shouwang Church

Members of other house churches detained, threatened, or condemned to labor camp.

By Sarah Page

 

DUBLIN, September 1 (Compass Direct News) – Last Sunday (Aug. 28) five members of a house church in Fangshan, Hebei township woke at 4 a.m. and traveled for two hours to a public square in Beijing in order to worship with members of the embattled Beijing Shouwang house church.

 

On their arrival at 7 a.m., waiting police sent the five back to their local police station, according to a report posted Tuesday (Aug. 30) on Shouwang’s Facebook page. Officials then urged them to sign documents repenting of their decision to support the Shouwang church. All five refused but were eventually released.

 

The Fangshan five are part of a growing wave of house church Christians determined – despite the consequences – to support Shouwang church in its stand for greater religious freedom.

 

Shouwang members have attempted to meet in the outdoor venue every Sunday since April 11, after government officials repeatedly denied them access to a permanent worship place. Church leaders prayerfully decided on this course of action as a means of forcing the government to resolve their dilemma. (See www.compassdirect.org, “China Keeps Church Leaders from Public Worship Attempt,” April 11.)

 

Besides the Fanshan church members, police detained at least 15 Shouwang members who turned up for worship last Sunday (Aug. 28), holding them for up to 48 hours in interrogation rooms. The Domestic Security Protection Squad maintained constant surveillance outside the homes of senior church leaders, while less senior police camped outside the doors of other church members from Saturday night until noon Sunday, when service times were technically over, according to the China Aid Association (CAA).

 

“If we count the time from April until Christmas as the longest journey, we have gone through half of it,” Shouwang’s leaders said in a message of encouragement to church members last week. “If it is God’s will, he is [then] able to end this journey and make us shout in his victory. But if it is his will for us to continue this journey … let us pray that he will grant us perseverance and hope.”

 

Finding Courage

Two weeks earlier, on Aug. 14, police detained some 16 worshippers at the square. Among them was pastor Wang Shuanyan of Beijing’s Xinshu house church.

 

In a letter written after her release on Aug. 16 and smuggled out of China, Wang described how police detained her at 7 a.m. and took her to the Zhongguancun Boulevard police station. The previous Sunday, a police officer had threatened to lock her up for 48 hours if she persisted in coming to the worship site; this time Wang came prepared with a sleeping bag.

 

Throughout her detention, Shouwang church members, including the wife of senior pastor Jin Tianming, took turns waiting outside the police station for her release.

 

Wang described how she wrestled with her natural inclination to obey orders and her conviction that “the things [the officers] have done are violations of the law.”

 

“I believe deeply that all things considered … Shouwang’s outdoor worship, done [at] this time and this way, is right,” she wrote.

 

By the time fellow Xinshu church members convinced officers to allow Wang snacks and bottled water, Wang had decided to go on a hunger strike.

 

“Was I fasting or on a hunger strike?” she wrote. “To me it was both. To God I prayed earnestly. To the relevant authorities I was protesting against the repeatedly occurring violence.”

 

She had seen police forcefully leading away a female Shouwang member who was physically abused on a previous Sunday – with one officer grinning sadistically at the woman’s fear.

 

“Formerly I went onto the platform, talked with government authorities and petitioned the People’s Congress,” she wrote. “Now with conflicts lasting and violence rising, to a weak, insignificant and detained person like me, a hunger strike became the only means by which I could express my protest.”

 

Some China watchers believe the government has shown relative toleration and restraint towards Shouwang’s outdoor worship. But “this can only be true in comparison to extreme violence,” Wang countered in her letter. “We are now used to unrighteous and illegal behavior.”

 

Petition Ignored

Wang was one of 17 house church pastors who signed and submitted a groundbreaking petition to the National People’s Congress (NPC) on May 10, calling for a complete overhaul of China’s religious policy.

 

To date the NPC has failed to respond, although CAA claims the backlash against Shouwang and associated churches has since increased.

 

Since Wang signed the petition, police have stationed themselves outside Xinshu church every Sunday, sometimes entering the meeting room and checking identity cards. Xinshu church members have also received threats and pressure from their work units, according to CAA.

 

Police on May 31 detained another signatory, Shi Enhao, pastor of Suqian house church in Jiangsu Province and deputy chairman of the Chinese House Church Alliance (CHCA), in a church raid. In late July he was sentenced – without trial – to two years in a labor camp for “illegal meetings and illegal organizing of venues for religious meetings.” (Seewww.compassdirect.org, “House Church Alliance leader in China sentenced to Labor Camp,” July 29.)

 

Police have since ordered Shi’s church members to stop meeting and have confiscated musical instruments, choir robes and donations, according to CAA.

 

Responding to the Shouwang events and Shi’s sentencing, Zhang Mingxuan, president of the CHCA, wrote a letter addressed to Chinese President Hu Jintao; CAA translated and published it on Aug. 3. According to Zhang, when Shi’s family hired a lawyer on his behalf, officials refused to grant access to Shi on the grounds that state secrets were involved.

 

“Isn’t this a joke of the century that a peasant Christian knows classified state secrets?” Zhang wrote.

 

Shi’s lawyer appealed to higher authorities, including the NPC and the Department of Public Security, but received no response.

 

Zhang said he had taught church members to abide by the law and respect the government but in return had been deprived of many rights, including the right to a passport. Many others shared his fate, Zhang said, such as house church pastor Zhang Tieling of Fan County, Henan Province. Officials recently sealed Zhang Tieling’s house with bricks and knocked his wife to the floor, leaving her in the hospital with a brain injury.

 

“This is the so-called religious freedom and harmony of China,” Zhang Mingxuan declared.

 

In his letter to the president, he concluded, “In the past 26 years I have been arrested, beaten and placed under house arrest 42 times just because I speak the truth. Even if you misunderstand me or even kill me or imprison me, I still have to tell you the truth in this letter … As long as [it means] Christians can freely worship God, I don’t mind dying for this cause.”

 

It seems many other Chinese Christians are fast forming the same opinion.

 

While the Chinese government claims freedom of religion through approved bodies such as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), many Protestant and Catholic churches prefer to worship independently, rejecting government censorship and theological interference – and paying the price. House church pastor Zhang Rongliang – who has been detained five times and served a total of 12 years in prison – was released last night (Aug. 31) from a Kaifeng prison after being detained since 2004. He was convicted on ambiguous charges in 2007 and has languished in prison while suffering chronic diseases and a stroke in 2007.

 

Experts estimate there are anywhere between 60 and 130 million people attending unregistered Protestant churches in China, compared with just 23 million attending TSPM churches. During the past decade of relative openness, many of these unregistered churches have come “above ground” to meet in large numbers in public spaces – highlighting the inadequacy of current religious policies and creating a government backlash often targeting church leaders.

 

“Now the shepherds are separated from the flocks of sheep,” wrote Yuan Xin, a Christian who recently visited Shouwang senior pastor Jin Tianming – currently under house arrest – and described his visit on CAA’s Shouwang petition website. “The sheep are being beaten, but the shepherds cannot stand out to fend off the blows.”

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

END

 

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Copyright 2011 Compass Direct News

Biden's Top China Priority Should be Gao Zhisheng's Freedom

BEIJING, Aug. 18, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- The following is submitted by He Geng together with Bob Xiqiu Fu of China Aid:

When Chinese President Hu Jintao was in Washington in January, feted by President Obama with all the formal trappings of a coveted state visit, I was standing across the street from the White House pleading for the release of my husband Gao Zhisheng, once hailed by the Chinese government as one of the nation's top 10 lawyers but now considered an enemy of the country he once served.

Vice President Joseph Biden is now in Beijing to further U.S.-China relations. But should the United States, which has always stood for freedom and justice, be pursuing relations with China when Gao Zhisheng, a peaceful fighter for the vulnerable and champion of the rule of law, is tortured and disappeared in the netherworld of China's police apparatus?  It is impossible to imagine.  It is my fervent hope that Vice President Biden can bring my husband back to us.

The Vice President's China visit coincides with the fifth anniversary of my husband's disappearance.  He was first taken by police on August 15, 2006.  His "crime" was providing pro bono legal defense to persecuted Falun Gong practitioners, house church Christians, helpless government petitioners, peasants whose land was sold out from under them by local officials to real estate developers, and other victims of abuse of power by Chinese officials.

Over the past five years he has disappeared into police detention no less than six times, and each time he was tortured.  Each time that he has been kidnapped by the police, they have held him for a longer period.  And each time, the torture has been worse.  The first time, they inserted toothpicks into his genitals.  More recently, he nearly died when his bare body was pistol-whipped for two days and two nights.  But there have been even worse tortures that he refuses to talk about.

We now know that when another activist -- artist Ai Weiwei -- was also illegally detained by police and tortured, he was shown video of my husband being tortured and told the same thing would be done to him.  The torture was so horrific that Ai confessed.

The irony of it is, for most of these five years of repeated disappearances, my husband should have been behind bars.  That's because in 2006, he was convicted of inciting subversion and sentenced to three years in prison and five years probation.  If my husband had been allowed to serve his three-year sentence "safe and sound" in prison, we would at least have known where he was, and we should have been allowed regular visits and mail and phone communication.

When U.S. government representatives raised my husband's case during bilateral talks in April and May on human rights, the economy and strategy, the Chinese side assured them that Gao was fine and had been in contact with his family members.  This is a flat out lie.

It has been 16 months since anyone has heard from him.  We have implored everyone we can think of -- from President Obama to the Beijing police official in charge of Gao's case -- for information on his whereabouts and condition.  We don't even know if he is alive.

The Vice President of the United States should make it his top priority to get the truth about my husband from the Chinese government, and the United States should demand that the Chinese authorities follow their own law and regulations.  No government that shows such flagrant disregard for its own code of law and that would so brutally torture its foremost champions of justice should be considered an equal partner of the United States.

   

He Geng has been tirelessly campaigning for her husband's freedom since coming to the United States in early 2009.  She wrote an appeal that was published in the Washington Post on February 4, 2010 and has spoken at congressional press conferences to draw attention to China's human rights record.

Bob Xiqiu Fu is founder and president of China Aid Association, which monitors and reports on religious freedom violations in China.  Fu has testified before many government and international organizations, including various U.S. congressional committees, the European Parliament and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, and has been interviewed by media all over the world, including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the BBC, the Associated Press and Reuters.

Leader of Chinese House Movement calls on Chinese President Hu Jintao to make sweeping changes

By Michael Ireland
Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

CHINA (ANS) -- Pastor Zhang Mingxuan, president of Chinese Christian House Church Alliance, has written another Open Letter (his sixth) to Chinese President Hu Jintao encouraging him to root out corruption and preserve the rights of Chinese believers during his final year of office.

Pastor Zhang Mingxuan (Courtesy ChinaAid Association)

In a translation of the letter, provided by ChinaAid Association (www.chinaaid.org ), Pastor Zhang says that Hu Jintao, "As the highest-ranking leader of China.has brought progress to a backward Chinese nation." However, in his letter, Pastor Zhang pulls no punches and "names names" of Chinese officials who he claims have broken the law, rather than rightfully upholding it.

Zhang writes: "In the past 30 years, thanks to the reform and openness, we the Chinese have made great achievements in our economic, political life, science and religion. These are the fruits of the policy of reform and openness. These are the pride of our Chinese nation and part of the credit should go to you for your hard work."

Stating that he has written five open letters to Hu Jintao before this one, Zhang says, "but I have not received any replies from you so far.

"Maybe you have not seen them or your subordinates simply forced them out."

Zhang continues: "Now, the true features of a handful of government bandits, swindlers and corrupted officials working under you have been exposed to the world with no place to hide their shameful deeds. While deceiving their superiors, they suppress the ordinary and honest people. These corrupt officials seek their own interests with their power. They violate the laws and disciplines and defy the laws of land use. They also treat the very life of the ordinary people boldly even though the people's complaints are heard everywhere. The government officials and the bandits collude hand in hand and commit every possible evil crime. They expropriate lands at their will and forcibly demolish houses. They persecute human rights defenders and petitioners, who are attacked and are even sent to labor camps while religious believers are similarly attacked, suppressed, arrested and chased away."

Pastor Zhang cites the case, starting April 10 of this year, of the Beijing Shouwang Church which "began to suffer persecution so much that people of the world now understand there is no real religious freedom in China."

Another example cited by Zhang is the case of Chen Guangcheng, the blind man "who has been persecuted because he speaks out and tells people the truth."

Pastor Zhang goes on to state that Shi Enhao, "a loyal Christian pastor," is persecuted and intimidated by Su Dayong, leader of the DSPS (Domestic Security Protection Squad) of Suqian Municipal Public Security Bureau in Jiangsu province, "through bandit-style and thug-style methods."

Zhang says: "They were detained for over 50 days this innocent pastor from Chinese Christian House Church Alliance on the charges of illegal assembly and sabotaging the implementation of law by utilizing superstition. They robbed him of property from his house without going through the legal procedure. They also robbed the church of its donation in the amount of over 130,000 yuan and wrote a receipt of only a little over 50,000 yuan. The rest of the donation in the amount of over 70,000 yuan has not been returned. In the meantime, the musical instruments and choir garments have been confiscated for no known reasons."

Zhang continued: "The Suqian church pastored by Pastor Shi Enhao abides by the law and observes the disciplines. It also abides by the teachings of the Lord Jesus and has played a positive role in maintaining social harmony and stability. This church also teaches its members to love other people as themselves. They pray for Chinese leaders and donate to the disaster-stricken areas in Sichuan and take care of orphans and widows."

Zhang says that after their father was arrested, Shi's son and daughter found Lawyer Zhang Kai from Yijia Law Firm in Beijing and the lawyer went to Suqian Public Security Bureau.

"However, Su Dayong, the leader of the squad didn't even allow the attorney to see his client, claiming the case involves state secrets. Isn't this a joke of the century that a peasant Christian knows classified state secrets? When a true Christian pastor was convicted through planted evidence of sabotaging the implementation of the law by utilizing superstition and illegal assembly, isn't that also the lie of the century and a laughing stock? Su Dayong, Cong Yong, Hu Chunsheng, Sun Fei and other corrupt officials from the Public Security Bureau were like bandits when they robbed Pastor Shi of his property from his home without going through the legally required procedure. So far, we still don't know what has happened to the church's properties, musical instruments and donated funds that they robbed us of. In arresting, beating and robbing people, they have violated the law and undermined the dignity of the state law. Indeed, they are the scum in the Public Security system who violate the law while they are supposed to enforce i t. They accuse the Christian pastor of sabotaging the implementation of the law by utilizing superstition. Isn't that calling black white and white black? Isn't that a defiance of the state law?"

Zhang states the lawyer and the family of Pastor Shi appealed to Suqian Municipal Procuratorate, the National People's Congress, the government, the Discipline Inspection Office, Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress, Jiangsu Provincial Government, Jiangsu Provincial Procuratorate and the Department of Public Security.

"Yet, instead of getting any replies from these agencies, they saw Pastor Shi Enhao was sentenced to two years in labor camp. The authorities asked his son Shi Yongyang to sign on the document, but they did not give his family any documents on the labor camp. Suqian Public Security Bureau defies the legal procedure and the dignity of the law and handles religion in the administrative mode derived from the 1950s. They persecute law-abiding Christians and undermine the social harmony and stability as advocated by you."

While Pastor Zhang says President Hu "advocate(s) [the] rule of law in China, and try to make China develop in harmony and promote ongoing improvement of the rule of law and regulations of the Central Government. these corrupt officials and the law enforcement officers working under you use the power endowed by the Party and the country to persecute the ordinary citizens. They violate the law while they are supposed to enforce it. They harm the relationship between cadres and the people and bring great harm to the people throughout China. The result is that rule of law is only for punishing kind-hearted people."

Zhang also raises another case to discuss with President Hu Jintao, "the beating and detention of the innocent Pastor Zhang Tieling by the Fan County Public Security Bureau of Henan Province."

"In addition to this," says Zhang, "they also sealed his house for six months. The Public Security Bureau connived at the Party secretary of the brigade and let him seal the door of Zhang Tieling's house with bricks. Later, Pastor Zhang Tieling went to Beijing's Tiananmen Square where he cried grievances. Then, Beijing Public Security agency ordered Fan County Public Security to remove the bricks sealing the door to the house of Family Zhang. However, a little over a month later, they once again sealed the door with bricks and cement. Zhang's wife was struck onto the floor by the Party secretary and was hospitalized for half a month due to brain injury. Yet, the Public Security wouldn't deal with this case."

Zhang goes on to say that in June, when Pastor Zhang Tieling went back home to harvest the wheat, the Public Security Bureau took him away and detained him for five days for no reasons, wrongfully accusing Zhang of beating the Party secretary.

"When the Party secretary beat Zhang Tieling's wife, Pastor Zhang Tieling was not at the scene. Yet, they told people a lie that Pastor Zhang Tieling beat people and detained him for five days and seized over 800 yuan of cash from him and his cell phone. Now, they still haven't returned these items to Zhang Tieling. Pastor Zhang Tieling refused to sign on the statement of detention. Now, Pastor Zhang Tieling cannot go back to his house and have to wander around outside. This is the so-called harmony of today! That handful of government bandits and thugs at the grassroots level defy the dignity of the law and they are free to persecute the ordinary people in any way they like and call black white and white black. This is the so-called religious freedom and harmony of China. Your position is too high up there for you to know these details. In fact, they have turned you into a figurehead by overriding your power."

Zhang says that "as a Christian pastor, I have dedicated myself to the Lord for the past 26 years. With the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have been again and again rescued from the harm of corrupt officials. In the past 26 years, I have been arrested, beaten and placed under house arrest for 42 times just because I speak the truth and spread the Gospel as a good citizen who believes in Jesus should do. I'm grateful to God and also to the government. This state of ours badly needs justice and fairness. However, what I cannot make sense of is that as a Christian pastor, I have always followed the words of the Lord Jesus and support governments of China at all levels and teach my Christians to abide by the law and observe disciplines. Yet, what I have got in return for all these is my rights as a citizen of China are often deprived. I have applied for a passport on many occasions, and each time they refused to process the passport for me and restricted my freedom of entering and exiting China as a citizen. In my life, I have never violated the law or disrupted the discipline. They violate my citizen's rights to travel just because I am a pastor of a Christian church. Is this the harmony and justice you hope to see?"

Pastor Zhang says that while he knows he may be offending Hu Jintao's dignity, "(but) I am doing so without thinking of my personal safety.

"Even if you misunderstand me or even kill me or imprison me, I still have to tell you the truth in this letter of expostulation. As long as our country can stay stable on a long-term basis, and the corrupt officials and the thugs can be removed, the ordinary people can once again see the clear sky. And as long as Christians can freely worship God, I wouldn't mind dying for this cause. This is because the history of the past two thousand years has proven that Jesus Christ is a true and living God! So many Christians have been imprisoned, detained and fined for the sake of their belief in the Lord. The result of this? The authorities have not only failed to extinguish fire of the Gospel, but the churches have prospered in persecution. As far as China is concerned, in the past 60-some years, the more the authorities arrested, beat and persecuted the people, the more the churches have prospered. Nowadays, tens of thousands house church believers from 56 nationalities are praying for you and for China for the blessings on the Chines e people."

Concluding that President Hu's term of office will soon be over, Pastor Zhang says that, in the last year of Hu's administration, "you can still make contributions to the Chinese people so that the harmonious society, democracy and freedom, human rights and religious freedom as advocated by you can come true.

"In the 21st century, I hope China can become a Christian nation and a civilized powerful country. I implore the Lord Jesus to give His blessings to China."

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** Michael Ireland is Senior Correspondent for ANS. He is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB UK, a British Christian radio station. While in the UK, Michael traveled to Canada and the United States, Albania,Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany,and Czechoslovakia. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China,and Russia. Michael's volunteer involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' (MIMM) -- of A.C.T. International of P.O.Box 1649, Brentwood, TN 37024-1649, at: Artists in Christian Testimony (A.C.T.) International where you can donate online to support his stated mission of 'Truth Through Christian Journalism.' Michael is a member in good standing of the National Writers Union, Society of Professional Journalists, Religion Ne wswriters Association, Evangelical Press Association and International Press Association. If you have a news or feature story idea for Michael, please contact him at: ANS Senior Reporter

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

 

---

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.

Week 13: China arrests 19 more Christians

Posted on Jul 6, 2011 | by Whitney Jones

Police in Tiananmen Square

BEIJING (BP)--Despite restrictions due to the Chinese Communist Party's 90th anniversary, members of Shouwang Church in Beijing continued to meet outdoors July 3, leading to at least 19 arrests.

Church members defied the Chinese government for the 13th consecutive week with the outdoor service. The illegal church, which was evicted from its leased meeting space in April, reported in a translated statement on ChinaAid.org that police were waiting outside the church's designated worship site, an open-air plaza in northwest 

Beijing, and "only a few dozen people" were able to meet because, "many believers were under stricter detainment at home. Some individuals were taken to be detained in hotels nearby."

All but two of the 19 people arrested were released by midnight, and one was released the next day.

Some church members have lost their homes or jobs and others have been subjected to verbal abuse because of their faith. Shouwang's strength and endurance through persecution has inspired churches all over the world, and members of Shouwang say the government's restrictions have not stunted the spread of the Gospel.

"As we suffer together with the Lord and take the cross together with him, our life is deeply rooted and is growing, so does our church take root and grow in this city and this country," the church said in its latest statement. "God's work is achieved through the cross, and all the disciples who are bearing the cross with the Lord are blessed."

Not wanting any unrest during the Communist Party's anniversary on July 1, police action against the church members began even earlier than the previous weeks according to ChinaAid, a group that monitors religious freedom in China.

Shouwang, which is one of the largest house churches in Beijing with nearly 1,000 members, is not a legal church. Only churches who are registered with the government and are members of the Three-Self Patriotic Church are considered legal. However, with registration come regulations that forbid evangelism, Sunday School, and baptizing minors, said Bob Fu, president and founder of ChinaAid.

Although members are in their third month with no indoor facility and continue to face persecution and time in prison for expressing their beliefs, the Chinese Christians continue to see God's divine hand working through their trials.

"We have seen God's work of protection and guidance for Shouwang Church," the church said. "The long-lasting battle has not demolished God's church. On the contrary, it helps us to see that the fire of life lighted by God in this church continues to burn, and that no force in this world can extinguish it."

More than 160 people were arrested at the first outdoor meeting of Shouwang Church. The following shows the approximate arrests from the subsequent weeks: Week 2 (50 arrests), Week 3 (40), Week 4 (30), Week 5 (13), Week 6 (20), Week 7 (25), Week 8 (20), Week 9 (20), Week 10 (14), Week 11 (14) and Week 12 (15).

Whitney Jones is a student at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., and an intern with Baptist Press.