While the United States was dealing with the coronavirus pandemic that initiated in Wuhan, China, Chinese officials were busy destroying symbols of Christianity and forcing people of faith to denounce their religion or lose their ability to receive government assistance.
Bitter Winter – In April, the government of a town administered by Linfen, a prefecture-level city in the northern province of Shanxi, called officials from all villages under its jurisdiction for a meeting. The participants were ordered to remove crosses, religious symbols and images from the homes of people of faith who receive social welfare payments and replace them with portraits of Chairman Mao and President Xi Jinping. The officials were instructed to annul the subsidies to those who protest the order.
Daily Mail – Chinese officials are reportedly ordering some Christians to destroy crosses on their churches. There are also several reports of Christians who’ve been forced to replace images of Jesus Christ with Mao Zedong in their homes.
Authorities have recently destroyed religious symbols by force in churches in multiple provinces, including Anhui, Jiangsu, Hebei, and Zhejiang, according to US-based news site Radio Free Asia.
The reports come as China is facing unprecedented criticism against its tight control over its religious population, especially the Muslim ethnic minorities.
Officials in charge of religious affairs in Huainan in the eastern province of Anhui allegedly barged into the local Shiwan Christ Church to dismantle its cross on Saturday and Sunday.
Similar scenes were said to occur in Yongjia in Zhejiang Province on July 7.
Similar scenes could also be found here, in the United States, as leftists use violent Black Lives Matter protests as an excuse to destroy Christian symbols in America.
Following three churches being lit ablaze across the United State last weekend, a statue of the Virgin Mary honoring fallen WWII soldiers is the latest target of godless radicals. Massachusetts authorities have opened an investigation into the statue that was burned outside a Boston Catholic Church Saturday.
The statue at St. Peter Parish in Dorchester was found charred around 10 p.m. Saturday.
Fr. John Currie leans over to touch the Virgin Mary statue at St. Peter's Parish which was burned by vandals today on July 12, 2020 in Boston, MA. This is so sad 😔🙏 “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” – Jesus Christ @forthemartyrs pic.twitter.com/xYxxCTWcsF
— The Catholic Connect Foundation (@catholiccaring) July 13, 2020
The target on Christian statues is the second attack on an image of the Virgin Mary in the past week. On Friday, the Diocese of Brooklyn announced that a 100-year-old statue of the Virgin Mary had been vandalized at Cathedral Prep School and Seminary in Queens, New York, and that New York City Police were investigating the matter, according to the Catholic News Agency. Security footage of the attack shows an individual writing the word “IDOL” on the statue around 3 a.m. Friday morning.
And the godless radicals did not stop at statues. Over the weekend, three churches were burned across the nation, according to Gateway Pundit. On Friday, a fire destroyed Faith Tabernacle Pentecostal Church in Elkmont, Alabama. On Saturday, a man drove into a church in Ocala, Florida, before lighting it on fire. A fire also destroyed the roof of 249-Year-Old San Gabriel Mission Church in California.
It’s chilling how the anti-Trump, leftist movement that’s attempting to destroy history, including any trace of Christianity, mirrors the activities taking place in Communist China.
The local government sent a crane and nearly 100 workers to demolish the crosses on Ao’di Christ Church and Yinchang Christ Church, according to US-based pressure group China Aid.
Late last year, the Chinese central government ordered its censors to review and edit all translated versions of classic religious books to make sure that their messages reflect the principles of Socialism.
The new editions must not contain any content that goes against the beliefs of the Communist Party, according to the country’s top officials on religious matters.
The officials said that paragraphs deemed wrong by the censors would be amended or re-translated.
According to Bitter Winter -Local believers told the group that government workers forced their way into the churches, smashed the churches’ properties, and beat up the Christians, including a woman in her 80s, who tried to stop them.
Local believers told the group that government workers forced their way into the churches, smashed the churches’ properties, and beat up the Christians, including a woman in her 80s, who tried to stop them.
In mid-May, an official from a village administered by Heze city in the eastern province of Shandong stormed into the home of a local Christian and posted portraits of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping. “These are the greatest Gods. If you want to worship somebody, they are the ones,” the believer recalled the official saying as he was attaching the portraits to the wall.
A Christian from Weihui city in the central province of Henan has been taking care of her two sons by herself after her husband died unexpectedly more than ten years ago. She started receiving a minimum living allowance from the state in 2016. In early April, a village official ordered the woman to sign a statement renouncing her faith and destroy all Christian symbols in her house. Since she refused, her allowance was canceled.
A woman from Henan’s Shangqiu city, in her 70s, had her minimum living allowance canceled on April 14 because government officials found a cross image posted on her house door. “They tore it down immediately,” the elderly Christian remembered. “Afterward, both my minimum living allowance and poverty alleviation subsidy were canceled. I am being driven to a dead end. I have diabetes and need injections regularly.”
“This little money she received from the government was her bread and butter,” a neighbor commented. “But it has been canceled because of a cross image, causing great harm to this woman.”
100 Percent Fed Up – Unfortunately, the human rights abuses of the Chinese Communist Party did not die with Mao. Recently, Joe Biden was caught quoting the communist dictator. Last week, during an online fundraiser, Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden cited a quote made famous by Chinese communist dictator Mao Zedong during a digital fundraising speech with former Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.
According to the Washington Examiner, Biden then cited the Chinese proverb, “Women hold up half the sky.” The well-known comes from a proclamation by Mao in the mid-20th century that helped grant certain rights to women in China. The phrase became commonplace in China at the time, often appearing on pieces of propaganda in factories or other industrial areas.
The Trump administration has sanctioned China over its mass enslavement and other abuses of Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region.