ICC's September 2014 E-Newsletter, Persecution, 2/4

PERSECUTION International Christian Concern | September 2014

A Very Dangerous Place Strategies Against The Local Church

A Spectrum of Persecution pg3

Catch 22 pg5

A Dangerous Place pg7

Your Bridge to the Persecuted Church

A DANGEROUS

PLACE

By Sooyoung Kim

Governments Are Threatened by the Church So They Control and Strangle the Church “My heart is bleeding as I see hundreds of church crosses fall one by one in Zhejiang Province,” Ye Wanjing, a Chinese believer wrote in a public letter as he stated that he is ready to die for his faith.

ICC has discovered in an ongoing investigation that the Chinese government has declared war on the Church in China in the biggest church crackdown since the days of Mao. They have either removed crosses or outright destroyed 360 plus churches.

China is not the only place where the government is trying to silence the Church because it is seen as a threat to China’s control. In Vietnam and Indonesia, churches face persecution actively carried out by a state determined to crack down on any perceived ideological threat.”

China’s Response to Christianity. “My father and I were house church pastors in China and in 2000, our church was raided by the police. Both of us were choked, handcuffed, and put in jail for a week because we preached the Gospel,” Pastor Titus, a former house church pastor, now a seminary student, told ICC during an interview. “The police beat me with a stick on my head and warned me to never ‘illegally’ teach the Bible. Even until now, the scar remains on the right side of my head.” As of 2012, Pastor Titus had been imprisoned three times by the government and his family had to move from one apartment to another two to four times a year due to the constant harassment from the police.

Sanjiang Church before and during the recent Chinese government-ordered demolition

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Sadly, Pastor Titus’s case is not isolated in China, a country that perceives religion as among four primary threats to national security (National Security Research Report, 2014). China sees religion as ideological infiltration from “foreign forces.” House church pastors and co-workers run the risk of imprisonment or detention due to “illegal gathering” if the congregation of a house church goes over 35.

Crackdown. In Zhejiang Province, the coastal province in eastern China, Christian churches had enjoyed a friendly relationship with local governments for at least a decade.

But in early 2014, an anti-church campaign aimed at curbing the visibility of churches began. As of July, over 360 churches have been affected by the campaign under the guise of “removing or modifying illegal constructions.”

The government of Zhejiang Province says it is removing or modifying illegal buildings for urban development.

However, ICC has discovered, and the New York Times corroborated, that the real target is religious buildings at the exclusion of all others. The largest church demolished was the 80,000 square foot Sanjiang church (see left).

Vietnam’s Approach.

Vietnam’s Communist party (VCP) sees the retention of their monopoly political power as their highest priority. Vietnam has a genuine paranoia about outside threats to its power led by foreign governments and Christians are viewed as part of that outside threat to their power.

Churches and Christian organizations are seen as having the potential to organize and mobilize the public to challenge the power of the VCP and are therefore targeted and victimized. The Montagnards (mountain people) of the Central Highlands are home to most of Vietnam’s Christian-majority and have been a special target of the Communists.

A church in Indonesia is shut down gious Christian persecution. Under pressure from Islamic hardliners, an average of 40 churches per year are forcibly closed.

The government uses the Catch-22 strategy where churches are closed for not having building permits but it is nearly impossible to get a buildpermit for anything but a “The police beat me with ing mosque. It’s not just governa stick on my head and ment restrictions that are closdown churches, but threats warned me to never ing and attacks by Islamists as well.

The Communion of Churches in ‘illegally’ teach the Bible.

Indonesia reported that since Even until now, the scar 2004, there have been attacks on more than 430 churches.

remains on the right side of my head.”

Islamists harass and close churches with impunity. One Islamic political party, FPI, “sees church closures as fundCHINESE HOUSE PASTOR raising events,” said a long-time missionary in Indonesia, “they extort money from churches by “The VCP allows state-sanctioned churchthreatening them.” Islamists within and without the goves to grow but clamps down on independent underground ernment are determined to strangle the church. churches” says Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, the president of an America-Vietnamese community organization (BPSOS). Something More than the Cross. Governments can put restrictions on buildings and tear down crosses, but these They appoint government officials as “pastors” of the state- are externals and only signs of what it truly means to be a sanctioned churches. This way the VCP can appear to the Christian. outside world as having religious freedom.

As Ye Wanjing, the Chinese believer said as he stood ready However, the true Christian churches are seriously perse- to defend his church in China, “I am not going to die for the cuted. Their churches are confiscated, their members ha- physical cross on my church. However, faced with injustice, rassed, and their pastors are threatened, beaten, impris- my Christian conscious pressured me to do my responsibiloned and even killed. ity. I hope to learn more about Jesus Christ’s calling to ‘die Indonesia’s Rising Intolerance and Impunity toward to myself.’”

Violence. Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim- The government can do nothing to control those who have majority nation, had a long tradition of inter-religious chosen to follow Jesus like this. harmony, but since 1998, has experienced increasing reliYou can help today! 800-ICC-5441

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A DANGEROUS

PEOPLE

Groups and Mobs Attack the Local Church A church is more than bricks, mortar and a cross. It’s a public witness to the presence of Jesus, followers. It is the people of God, His body, and even the physical presence of God’s encroaching presence into enemy territory. The visible representation of that incursion – the church building – has incredible meaning.

the church chanting insults and rocks, to the mobs that tear down the doors and destroy the church, or to an Islamist terror group that opens fire on hundreds of Christians gathered to worship on a Sunday morning; they are all sent by Satan as a strategy to erase any presence of Christ from the land. When you see Satan’s efforts to destroy the local church, you can see clearly For those who are hostile towards the Gospel, the local and incongruously, that the local church is a very dangerous place! church is often the target of their attacks. While far too often these violent attacks succeed in destroying church buildings, the real church will never be destroyed.

While there are dozens of countries we could focus on, two countries in particular, Egypt and Nigeria, stand out as having endured intense attacks on churches.

Across the world, local churches are relentlessly under attack. From the angry mob gathered outside Human Rights Watch investigates the burning of AlAnba Mousa Church in Minya

Egypt Mohammed Morsi and his radical Muslim Brotherhood ruled Egypt from June 2012 to July 2013. When he was deposed it set off a harshest level of persecution Egyptian Christians had seen in centuries. In just a few weeks, hundreds of Christians’ homes and shops were destroyed as well 40+ churches. Egyptian Christianity has suffered under Islam for 1400 years but the past twelve months were among the worst.

The Virgin Mary Church in Delga was built in the fourth century. On August 14, 2013, Brotherhood supporters gathered in an adjacent mosque and attacked the church after hearing the following from the mosque’s speakers: “Your Muslim brothers were killed in Rabaa and Nahda, Jihad.”

They poured out of the mosque chanting, “Jihad, Jihad!” as they made their way to the Virgin Mary Church and properties of the Anba Abraam Monestary, Father Abraam Taneissa told ICC. “They looted pews, fans, curtains, chandeliers, windows, doors, and more. After they had taken all they could, they set the monastery on fire. They also looted the contents of the Mar Girgis church and the archaeological church of Virgin Mary and burned both until they were demolished,” Fr. Taneissa said. They announced they would be

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converting the monastery into a mosque.” Fr. Abram recalled. Delga was under siege for over a month and thousands of Christians eventually fled the city; those who stayed behind were forced to pay jizya (protection money as ordered by their holy books).

On September 18, the Egyptian military retook the city of Delga and the following Sunday, thousands of Christians gathered in the burned remains of the church to worship.

Nigeria In Nigeria, the Islamic terror group Boko Haram has been waging a bloody war across Northern Nigeria for over a decade. If you read the news, you might be confused as to what they are doing. If you listen to their leader, Abubakar Shekau, it becomes very clear. Here is: “(the press) try to brainwash people that we are fighting an ethnic war, NO, we are fighting a religious war, we are fighting (Nigeria’s Christian President), we are fighting Christians.” (December, 2013) Their stated goal is to establish an Islamic state based on Sharia law and one of their foundational tactics is to wipe out any presence of a Christian community; the local church sits squarely in their crosshairs.

Unending Waves of Attacks Making good on Abubakar Shekau declaration, 2014 opened with attacks being carried out on churches every Sunday in villages across the country: three at a New Year’s service, eight at another, and then 22 more the following week. We were hard pressed to keep up with the killings and at a loss of how to get the secular press to pay attention to what was happening.

Not only the worship services themselves that are targets, but in nearly every raid, the attackers make certain to torch the churches of the city. In an attack in late May that left 48 dead, including 11 police men and 14 soldiers, Boko Haram set six churches ablaze. In June, an attack on church services just miles from Chibok, where the schoolgirl abductions took place, left more than 30 dead as 4 more churches were destroyed.

“There is a deliberate attempt to annihilate Christians at all cost,” Rev. Musa Asake of the Christian Association of Nigeria said in an interview following a June attack.

A Dangerous Place The heartbreaking reality confronting the Church in Nigeria, in Egypt, and elsewhere remind us that the local church, against all appearances, is a very dangerous place.

From the first century apostles, to the pastors today, Satan and his followers have attacked the Church and yet God remains faithful to his promise that he will build his Church!

Another Sunday, another church attacked in Nigeria

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