{"id":35007,"date":"2021-02-02T13:21:18","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T04:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/?p=35007"},"modified":"2021-02-02T15:53:57","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T06:53:57","slug":"vomk-report-141","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/2021\/02\/02\/vomk-report-141\/","title":{"rendered":"HARASSMENT OF CHINA DECLARATION PASTORS CONTINUES WITH WINTERTIME HOME EVICTION"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”34998″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”The leader of a church in Linfen City in southwest Shanxi province, China, was evicted from his home this month on two days\u2019 notice. As Voice of the Martyrs Korea representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley explains, the eviction is part of a campaign of continuing pressure by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against 439 Chinese pastors for signing a joint declaration of their faith in 2018.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:1.2em|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” el_class=”headline”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span><\/span>On January 12, after repeated pressure from local police and\u202fthreats by community members to shut off water and electricity, the landlord of Minister Li\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Jie<\/span><\/span>\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Li<\/span><\/span>n<\/span><\/span>fen<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Covenant Church reluctantly gave him a two-day eviction notice<\/span><\/span>,\u201d says Representative Foley<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>As the landlord had not experienced problems with Minister Li in the past, she repeatedly asked authorities to rescind orders for her to evict him.<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u202f<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Representative Foley says that w<\/span><\/span>hen officials refused to concede, the landlord reluctantly broke the lease with Minister Li.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>Although she struggled with doing so with temperatures at times freezing, the landlord shut off the water, heat, and power to M<\/span><\/span>inister<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Li’s home<\/span><\/span>. This is\u00a0<\/span><\/span>an approach the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often uses to oppress Christians<\/span><\/span>,\u201d says Representative Foley<\/span><\/span>.\u202f<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”35001″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Map of Linfen City, Shanxi Province” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230a0a0a|line_height:1.45em” google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

In 2018, Minister Li signed\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u201cA<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Joint Statement by Pastors: A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith\u201d<\/span><\/span>. This so-called \u201cChina Declaration\u201d,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>launched by\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Pastor Wang Yi\u00a0<\/span><\/span>from the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>call<\/span><\/span>ed<\/span><\/span>\u00a0on\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Chinese\u00a0<\/span><\/span>authorities\u00a0<\/span><\/span>to\u00a0<\/span><\/span>stop repressing and persecuting house churches<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and to\u00a0<\/span><\/span>respect\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the personal\u00a0<\/span><\/span>faith and freedom of conscience<\/span><\/span>\u00a0of all Chinese citizens<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Representative Foley notes that since the publication of the statement, CCP\u00a0<\/span><\/span>officials\u00a0<\/span><\/span>have\u00a0<\/span><\/span>targeted the pastors, ministers, and elders who signed.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>Police regularly warn and threaten the<\/span><\/span>se leaders to \u2018<\/span><\/span>maintain the stability of society<\/span><\/span>\u2019.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0They also frequently harass those attending the petitioners’ churches<\/span><\/span>,\u201d says Representative Foley.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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A<\/span><\/span>s reported by Voice of the Martyrs Korea<\/span><\/span>, Minister Li\u00a0<\/span><\/span>responded to his eviction by expressing his love and care for the landlord and asking for prayers for the landlord\u2019s family. \u201c<\/span><\/span>The landlord informed me the day before yesterday that we should move out by January 15. Moving out of our home within two days in the chilliest month of the year is hard. Yesterday, however, even while hearing the news, I felt unexpectedly peaceful and joyful.”<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Minister Li added that both Christians and non-Christians in\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Linfen<\/span><\/span>\u00a0City have come to his family\u2019s aid since the eviction. \u201c<\/span><\/span>One elderly woman came by our place and told us details of each potential rental she found. She even invited us to stay at her family’s place. Several brothers and sisters constantly send text messages to comfort us. Even a non-Christian friend who attends the church has helped us search for rentals at night<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0video chatting and showing us possible places to move.”<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”35005″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Young people studying at Linfen Covenant Church. Linfen\u2019s Minister Li Jie was one of 439 Christian leaders who signed the China Declaration in 2018 and was recently evicted from his home.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230a0a0a|line_height:1.45em” google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”34999″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Translations in Korean, English, and Russian of The China Declaration can be found at www.chinadeclaration.com” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230a0a0a|line_height:1.45em” google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Representative Foley says that the eviction of Minister Li is only the latest in a series of harassments against Minister Li and\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Linfen<\/span><\/span>\u00a0church. \u201c<\/span><\/span>Since implementing the New Religious Affairs Regulations<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in January 2018<\/span><\/span>, the CCP has added\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Linfen<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Covenant Church to the list of churches to persecute because believers there hold fast to their faith and principles. They have not surrendered to man’s dictates but\u00a0<\/span><\/span>have\u00a0<\/span><\/span>continue<\/span><\/span>d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0to serve God<\/span><\/span>. They remained faithful e<\/span><\/span>ven when officials of the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>government\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Ethic<\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and Religious Affairs Bureau sent more than 20 strong men to the church to threaten them and raid the church school.<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Voice of the Martyrs Korea published translations in Korean, English, and Russian, of the China Declaration at\u00a0<\/span><\/span>https:\/\/chinadeclaration.com<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>. \u201cThis is the document that had been originally signed by Minister Li and 438 other Chinese church leaders,\u201d explains Representative Foley. \u201cLast year we invited church leaders around the world to sign their names to the document as a show of support for the Chinese church. We ultimately presented 28 pages of signatures from 4,400 Christian leaders to the Chinese Embassy in Seoul. Although we are no longer gathering signatures, we encourage Christians to go to\u00a0<\/span><\/span>https:\/\/chinadeclaration.com<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and read the declaration and pray for the original 439 signers, including Minister Lee.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”34998″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”The leader of a church in Linfen City in southwest Shanxi province, China, was evicted from his home this month on two days\u2019 notice. As Voice of …","protected":false},"author":659,"featured_media":34996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[857,235,869,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russian-special","category-special-column","category-china-special","category-vomk-report"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ko","en","zh","ru"],"languages":{"ko":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"zh":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}