{"id":50981,"date":"2024-08-20T14:00:21","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T05:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/?p=50981"},"modified":"2024-09-12T16:02:51","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T07:02:51","slug":"vomk-report-314","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/2024\/08\/20\/vomk-report-314\/","title":{"rendered":"CHINA: PASTORS IN TRAINING TO \u201cLOVE THE COUNTRY AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”50980″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”Senior pastors from a hundred major state-sanctioned churches in China received training in \u201cloving the country and loving the party\u201d at an event in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province last month overseen by government officials. The training follows a June meeting in which top government leaders criticized the officials in charge of supervising state-sanctioned churches for not doing enough to bring those churches in line with the government\u2019s expectations for religious groups. ” 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][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]According to Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr<\/span>.<\/span> Hyun Sook Foley, the meetings are a sign that government <\/span>controls <\/span>on <\/span>all <\/span>Chinese churches should be expected to<\/span> increase<\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Think of <\/span>the <\/span>charges against pastors, the <\/span>imprisonments, <\/span>the <\/span>church closures, <\/span>the seizure of church assets, the <\/span>restrictions<\/span> on gatherings <\/span>of both state-sanctioned <\/span>and <\/span>unregistered<\/span> churches <\/span>that our organization and others have been reporting in the last few years<\/span>. T<\/span>he Chinese government\u2019s response to all these <\/span>punishments is<\/span>, \u2018Not enough!\u2019,\u201d says Representative Foley. She points to the Chinese government\u2019s \u201cMeasures on the Administration of Religious Activity Venues\u201d which went into effect on September 1, <\/span>2023,<\/span> as \u201c<\/span>the turning point in which the Chinese government began legally <\/span>requiring churches to be communist first and Christian second\u201d.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Since that time,<\/span> it<\/span> has <\/span>no longer <\/span>been <\/span>sufficient for Chinese churches to refrain from criticizing <\/span>c<\/span>ommunism; now they have to <\/span>receive training to <\/span>be<\/span>come<\/span> c<\/span>ommunism\u2019s biggest cheerleaders,\u201d says Representative Foley. \u201cArticle 27 <\/span>of those measures says<\/span> that church leaders must \u2018love the motherland and support the leadership of the Communist Party\u2019. Article 39 says, \u2018The content of preaching and sermons should be suitable for our country\u2019s national conditions and characteristics of the times, integrate excellent traditional Chinese culture, and reflect the core socialist values.\u2019 <\/span>The July training event shows how seriously the government is committed to enforcing this<\/span> in every church<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The July meeting <\/span>is the first large-scale <\/span>training of<\/span> pastors <\/span>of government-sanctioned Protestant churches <\/span>under what the government is calling <\/span>its <\/span>\u201cstrict governance of religion\u201d<\/span> initiative.<\/span> Officials from the Central United Front Work Department were present to oversee and <\/span>monitor<\/span> the training class. The event was organized by the National Conference of Chinese Protestant Churches, or \u201c<\/span>Lianghui<\/span>,\u201d which oversees the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and the China Christian Council (CCC), the two main governing bodies of state-sanctioned Protestant churches in China.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Reports <\/span>on <\/span>the event <\/span>obtained by Voice of the Martyrs Korea\u2019s partner, US-based China Aid, <\/span>indicate<\/span> that <\/span>the senior pastors <\/span>at the training event <\/span>committed to \u201c<\/span>take the lead in abiding by laws and regulations, and to respond actively<\/span>\u201d<\/span> in order to create \u201c<\/span>a cleaner and more upright social image for Christianity and for promoting the healthy inheritance of Christianity<\/span>\u201d<\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”50977″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”(File photo) On July 3, a hammer and sickle, the emblem of the Chinese Communist Party, was placed next to Shinian Christian Church in Zhejiang Province.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230f0f0f|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]Representative Foley says that while the <\/span>July training event and the <\/span>new \u201cstrict governance of religion\u201d initiative <\/span>focus on state-sanctioned <\/span>churches, the impact on unregistered churches will be <\/span>even more <\/span>significant.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>With the state-sanctioned churches receiving \u2018strict training<\/span>\u2019,<\/span> we should expect to see unregistered churches <\/span>get hit with <\/span>even stricter punishments<\/span> than they have already been receiving<\/span>,\u201d says <\/span>Representative Foley. <\/span>\u201c<\/span>If the government thinks the state-sanctioned churches <\/span>aren\u2019t<\/span> yet strong enough in \u2018loving the country and the party<\/span>\u2019,<\/span> we can only imagine how harshly they will judge the unregistered churches in this regard.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Still, Representative Foley says she believes the unregistered churches will remain true to their calling to glorify God alone. \u201cIn the last few years, we\u2019ve seen congregations like Early Rain Church in Chengdu and Zion Church in Beijing withstand every attack by the authorities, from house arrests to building confiscation to beatings to jail time,\u201d says Representative Foley. \u201cThey are still standing because the Lord Jesus <\/span>is able to<\/span> make them stand. He shows continual care to all those who stand on his name alone, and his church will continue to advance in China.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Individuals interested in learning about Voice of the Martyrs Korea\u2019s work in partnership with the house church Christians of China can visit <\/span><\/span>https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/<\/span>en\/<\/span>china\/<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”50980″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”Senior pastors from a hundred major state-sanctioned churches in China received training in \u201cloving the country and loving the party\u201d at an event in Guangzhou City, Guangdong …","protected":false},"author":659,"featured_media":50979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-column","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":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50981","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=50981"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50984,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50981\/revisions\/50984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}