{"id":497,"date":"2019-01-15T11:55:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T16:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=497"},"modified":"2019-01-15T11:55:28","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T16:55:28","slug":"china-bans-one-10-commandments-part-crackdown-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2019\/01\/china-bans-one-10-commandments-part-crackdown-christianity.html","title":{"rendered":"China Bans One of the 10 Commandments as Part of Crackdown on Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_428\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-428\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-428\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2018\/12\/Chinese_flag_Beijing_-_IMG_1104.jpg\" alt=\"Wikimedia Commons\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-428\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It is sad when a country\u2019s record of religious persecution is so poor that its actions do not even cause surprise anymore. Despite billing itself as a developed and free country, China is nothing of the sort. The basic rights that the Constitution guarantees Americans in the First Amendment do not exist under China\u2019s communist government. As such, it comes as, unfortunately, no surprise to hear about China\u2019s continuing persecution of Christians.<\/p>\n<p>China has made headlines around the world recently for its mass arrests of Christians, \u201creeducation\u201d camps for Muslims, ominous disappearances of Catholic priests and announcement that it intended to rewrite the Bible to fall more in line with the communist party\u2019s agenda. Given the numerous reports of torture smuggled out of China, some elements of Christian persecution become little more than background noise. That does not mean, however, that they are any less part of China\u2019s ruthless crackdown on religion.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, approximately 30 government officials inspected a government approved church and insisted that the first of the Ten Commandments had to be removed from the church. Apparently, President Xi Jinping opposes the famous statement \u201cYou shall have no other gods before Me.\u201d When church members protested, the officials asked them, \u201cWho dares not to cooperate? If anyone doesn\u2019t agree, they are fighting against the country. This is a national policy. You should have a clear understanding of the situation. Don\u2019t go against the government.\u201d\u00a0 Going against the government in China, of course, could easily lead to the death of a person and even their family.<\/p>\n<p>Christian churches have been facing ever increasing restrictions in China. Crosses have been removed, churches are being ordered to register all members of their congregations and arrests have steadily climbed. One Christian stated that Chinese officials are \u201ctrying to corrupt our faith and make us betray God.\u201d The reason, of course, is that in China, \u201creligious citizens must first worship the Communist Party,\u201d said Jiang Tao. \u201cOnly then can they worship their God.\u201d Indeed, Chinese Christians have been ordered to remove posters of Jesus and replace them with President Xi, a man who has been referred to as \u201clingxiu,\u201d a title last used by Hua Guofeng and Mao Zedong. The resurrection of a title largely associated with the man who had nearly 100 million of his own people murdered is concerning especially with Xi\u2019s crackdown on religion. Mao himself was known to have actively worked to destroy any form of religion in China during his Cultural Revolution. One can only hope that matters improve for Christians in China before Xi follows in Mao\u2019s footsteps and turns China red with blood rather than communism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is sad when a country\u2019s record of religious persecution is so poor that its actions do not even cause surprise anymore. Despite billing itself as a developed and free country, China is nothing of the sort. The basic rights that the Constitution guarantees Americans in the First Amendment do not exist under China\u2019s communist&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[302,137],"tags":[167,138,272],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia","category-christian-persecution","tag-china","tag-christian-persecution","tag-christians-in-china"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>China Bans One of the 10 Commandments as Part of Crackdown on Christianity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"China\u2019s President Xi ordered the First Commandment removed from churches as he objects to the famous statement \u201cYou shall have no Gods before me.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2019\/01\/china-bans-one-10-commandments-part-crackdown-christianity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China Bans One of the 10 Commandments as Part of Crackdown on Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"China\u2019s President Xi ordered the First Commandment removed from churches as he objects to the famous statement \u201cYou shall have no Gods before me.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2019\/01\/china-bans-one-10-commandments-part-crackdown-christianity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta 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