Posted on 05/23/2016 4:17:43 AM PDT by marshmallow
SHUITOU, China — Along the valleys and mountains hugging the East China Sea, a Chinese government campaign to remove crosses from church spires has left the countryside looking as if a typhoon had raged down the coast, decapitating buildings at random.
In the town of Shuitou, workers used blowtorches to cut a 10-foot-high cross off the 120-foot steeple of the Salvation Church. It now lies in the churchyard, wrapped in a red shroud.
About 10 miles to the east, in Mabu township, riot police officers blocked parishioners from entering the grounds of the Dachang Church while workers erected scaffolding and sawed off the cross. In the nearby villages of Ximei, Aojiang, Shanmen and Tengqiao, crosses now lie toppled on rooftops or in yards, or buried like corpses.
On a four-day journey through this lush swath of China’s Zhejiang Province, I spoke with residents who described in new detail the breathtaking scale of an effort to remove Christianity’s most potent symbol from public view. Over the past two years, officials and residents said, the authorities have torn down crosses from 1,200 to 1,700 churches, sometimes after violent clashes with worshipers trying to stop them.
“It’s been very difficult to deal with,” said one church elder in Shuitou, who like others asked for anonymity in fear of retaliation by the authorities. “We can only get on our knees and pray.”
The campaign has been limited to Zhejiang Province, home to one of China’s largest and most vibrant Christian populations. But people familiar with the government’s deliberations say the removal of crosses here has set the stage for a new, nationwide effort to more strictly regulate spiritual life in China, reflecting the tighter control of society favored by President Xi Jinping.
In a major speech on religious policy last month, Mr. Xi urged..............
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
We have the problem of destruction of Christianity here at home in a so called FREE country. Let’s concentrate on the destruction of the West.
Look what the Chicoms have done to Tibet and Asia’s biggest religion Buddhism.
They have demolished entire ancient structures of villages in the Muslim Turkmen area. However, repress Christianity in prison and stuff like islam strives.
Do they think cutting down crosses cuts down Christianity?
A decorative cross is just that. This will not stop the kingdom of God from growing invisibly as it has the last 2000 years.
The real story here is just how many Christian churches there are in China. The reason the Chinese government is knocking crosses off of them is because they are scared to death at the growth of Christianity in China. This is a success story. And Christianity will keep growing in China. A cross is not required for a church.
Coming soon to the USA.
Hate to even THINK of it, but SOMEDAY there WILL be a Chinese Pope.
Holy katz, Sandy!!
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