CCP turns churches and temples into mourning halls for CCP leaders

Reporter : Li Yun / Editor : Li Quan / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2020/11/23/a102993430.html / Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

Image : In a church in Putian, Fujian, there are portraits and speeches of 168 deceased figures such as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai and Xi Jinping. 

The CCP’s "Sealing Gods" movement has intensified. Recently, Putian, Fujian’s religious department spent RMB 500,000 to hang portraits of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and other CCP’s dead leaders in Chinese churches, making the churches look like mourning halls, and statues of Jesus Christ have statue disappeared from churches. Buddhist temples are even forced to hang portraits of Xi Jinping in front of their altars.

According to a report on November 19 by Bitter Winter magazine, which has long been concerned about the issue of religious beliefs in China, officials from the Religious Affairs Bureau, United Front Work Department, and Public Security Bureau of Nanhu District, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province visited Yu Xin Church on August 26. The church practices Jinping’s speeches.

Government officials asked churches to hoist the CCP’s blood flag and praise the Communist Party’s poetry. Copies of Xi Jinping’s speech during his Zhejiang Province’s inspection were also distributed to the church leaders and preachers who attended the meetings for them to learn.

Buddhist places are hardly immune. A Buddhist hall in Linzi District, Zibo City, Shandong Province, built in the third year of Yong'an in the Northern Wei Dynasty (530 AD), was forced to make a propaganda sign with Xi Jinping's portrait and Xi's thoughts as required by the government.

A Buddhist in the district said that although believing in Buddhism is not the same as believing in the Communist Party, the temple must be controlled by the Communist Party. If there is a disagreement with the Communist Party, it will cancel your belief.

The report also mentioned that in Fujian, the Putian Religious Department spent RMB 500,000 in October to install 168 Communist Party figures such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Lei Feng, as well as portraits and remarks of Xi Jinping, in Touzhen One Three-Self Church, Xiuyu District, Putian.

The religious department also transformed the church into a so-called New Era Civilization Practice Station, prohibiting the hanging of the crucifix statues (statues showing Jesus dying on the cross).

The so-called civilized practice station is a national party ideological indoctrination work that the CCP comprehensively promoted at the end of 2018. After many religious sites were occupied, they were transformed into so-called civilized practice stations.

A believer in the church said helplessly, "We dare not refuse the exhibitions in the church. We dare not  offend the government. We are afraid of and can't resist the hard-line government."

The report said that on November 6, more than 100 government officials participated in the opening of the Civilization Practice Station at Touzhen One Three-Self Church. The priest was forced to combine Mao Zedong's so-called deeds, which made believers feel both sad and helpless.

Some local governments also require churches to display a portrait of Xi Jinping, and no gatherings are allowed without it.

A village official in Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province took a portrait of Xi Jinping to a local Three-Self church in August and asked the preacher to stick it inside the church, but was refused.

More than two months later, the higher-level officials ordered "If no statue of Xi in church, no church gatherings!" and posted the portraits of Xi on the church Sunday slips. The church was forced to hang blood flags and red slogans inside and outside the church.

The preacher was very angry but did not dare to tear it off. He said that in order for believers to have a meeting place, there is no way to let government officials post images.

The insiders of Zhejiang First Theological Seminary revealed that their students are now learning to teach the way of harmony with socialism and follow the path of religious communism in accordance with the requirements of the government. The seminary also indoctrinated students to slander foreign missionaries and convicted missionary activities as imperialist aggression.

Catholics were also forced to take part in the CCP’s red education base tour to pay homage to the martyrs and write about their love for the party.

On October 1, the 71st anniversary of the Communist Party of China, all priests and nuns in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province were forced to participate in a commemorative event at the Taierzhuang Revolutionary Education Base in Shandong Province.

A priest from the Catholic Church in Shandong Province said that in June he and other faculty members were organized to visit the so-called martyrs’ cemetery, and in July they were organized to study Xi Jinping’s speech.

Another Catholic clerk in Shandong province who was forced to participate in patriotic education and study said, “The Communist Party started with propaganda.” Every time the government asks priests and nuns to participate in patriotic activities, they have to go.

A priest in Henan Province said that if you don't go, you are going against the party. The government is looking for you! In order to prevent the church from being further suppressed, they have to obey the CCP law.

In September, on the second anniversary of the signing of the China-Vatican Agreement, the Catholic Church on Minggong Road, Erqi District, Zhengzhou City was forced to hold a blood flag raising ceremony.

A local believer said sadly that the front of the church office building was originally a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but it was demolished by the government and a national flag stand was built. The church has been completely unrecognized by the government for more than a year.

He believes that the government controls the church step by step, making it more and more like a party and government agency. If anyone does not listen to CCP, the Communist official always comes to look for things, and the church cannot even do mass. Some churches are demolished as a result.

Buddhist temples are hardly immune. A Buddhist hall in Linzi District, Zibo City, Shandong Province, built in the third year of Yong'an in the Northern Wei Dynasty (530 AD), was forced to make a propaganda sign with Xi Jinping's portrait and Xi's thoughts as required by the government.

A Buddhist in the district said that although believing in Buddhism is not the same as believing in the Communist Party, the temples must be controlled by the Communist Party. If there is a disagreement with the Communist Party, the CCP will cancel the temples' belief.