Christianity Supressed In China Blog Post 1

Brian George

January 30th

Every night before retiring to bed, eating breakfast, lunch or dinner…millions of men, women and children pray. The most recognized gesture of praying comes from a person clasping together one’s hands and kneeling down next to one’s bed and bowing your head.

While recognized as a simple act of a Christian recognizing one’s God, in China it is cause enough for police officials to come into a person’s hope and stop the person or a group of people.

Due to laws passed in the past, China’s government heavily regulates certain religious practices, Christianity for example is one of the many religions that it seeks to keep under its thumb. They allow the registered Christians to practice their faith, but they must submit to the government’s Religious Affairs Bureau, which is basically a group supported by the Chinese government that keeps religions under ‘control’. For example’ “Its officials make sure churches follow written and unwritten rules — no members under 18, no overt evangelical work, no emphasizing the Second Coming and, above all, no questioning of Communist Party rule.”. In short…no free thinking.

Unlike the United States and other countries where there is a decent level of tolerance for the religious practices of others, China has suppressed its people’s ability to openly discuss and praise their chosen path. The fact that people have died and will likely continue to die simply because they chose to become Christian is quite sickening, especially given the time that we are living in and the experiences that we have learned from in the past.

From wars that were fought over the right to choose a religion, to laws and ways of life that were established hundreds of years ago to ensure a person’s descendants would have the ability to choose for themselves.

While many Christian Chinese are aware of the dangers they face, they still practice their faith. They travel to ‘underground’ or secret churches and gather to pray and preach to one another. And they also alter their homes so they can be comfortable when they pray and study their bibles.

Instead of choosing a ‘Live and let live.’ approach and allowing it’s denizens to be free to choose what would make his or her spirit happy…a country would rather behave as a ignorant bully and keep it’s people unhappy.

In 2011 it is emotionally devastating to know that people are not free to engage in something that makes them happy. But it also lets me know that every individual in the world is not as lucky as the other, to have certain freedoms. Whether it be physically, emotionally or spiritually.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1132243,00.html