Thursday, January 17, 2008

Keeping the faith in China


At an underground church service in China, you pray as quickly as
you can -and hope the police do not come running in.

At the end of an alleyway in the north of Beijing, 40 Chinese

Christians gather in a small classroom. At the beginning of

the service , they bow their heads and pray.

Their priest, Zhang Minxuan, stands in frontof them. Twenty years ago he was a

barber with no interest in religion. Then he got into trouble with the Communist

Party and was jailed. After that he became a Christian. So that makes what we find

in the southern city of Nanjing quite a surprise.

China has its own thriving bible makers - the Amity Printing Company.

Every day the firm prints offaround 9,000 bibles. But the factory is only allowed to

supply bibles to the official state-approved church - not to the underground church.

Click Here for the full Article


China actually has a state-approved Catholic Church where the bishops are selected by the

Communist Party and masses are monitored by state-officials. It appears that Christians in

China have the opportunity to worship but under the conditions of the state. It's that or risk being jailed for worshiping on your own terms

1 comment:

Mayfield said...

Spacing issues need to be fixed. Labels.