{"id":18254,"date":"2023-07-11T14:14:46","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T18:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=18254"},"modified":"2023-07-11T14:14:46","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T18:14:46","slug":"chinese-government-fines-chinese-pastor-for-home-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/07\/chinese-government-fines-chinese-pastor-for-home-church","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Government Fines Chinese Pastor For Home Church"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adi Haririe \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Texas-based\u00a0<\/span>ChinaAid<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is warning of religious persecution in Xiamen, China, a port city on the southeast coast. Pastor Yang Xibo and his wife, Wang Xiaofei, were hit with a combined fine of 400,000 yuan- equivalent to $55,100. The couple runs Xunsiding Church, the largest house church in Xiamen. The couple had been charged an initial fine in\u00a0<\/span>2021<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by the government for \u201corganizing a gathering.\u201d \u201c[We] found out according to the law that your behavior of organizing and holding the Xunsiding Church religious activity in the Liuhong Hall of the Pan Pacific Hotel without the approval of the National Religious Affairs Bureau and providing for the illegal religious activity violates the provisions of Articles 40 and 41 of the Regulations on Religious Affairs,\u201d officials stated. The initial fine was 200,000 yuan, which was doubled on June 28th. This is not the church\u2019s first run-in with the Chinese government either. In 2019, Xunsiding Church was fined 25,000 yuan and was banned by the Chinese government. The church faced a series of raids during that time and frequently changed locations to avoid harassment. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is officially atheist but permits\u00a0<\/span>5 religious groups<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to operate within its borders under tight supervision: Buddhism, Catholicism, Daoism, Islam, and Protestantism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor Yang is a fourth-generation Christian, with his great-great-grandfather Yang Xibo guiding Christian missionaries in the mountains. Pastor Yang\u2019s great-grandfather, Yang Huaide, studied theology in Gulangyu and was the first priest of the Xiamen Hong Kong Chapel in 1888. Two of Yang Huaide\u2019s descendants, Yang Xinfei and Yang Yuanzhang, were later imprisoned for 15 and 5 years for refusing to join the Three-Self Church. Churches in the <\/span>Three-Self Church<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are accused of twisting Christianity to parrot the propaganda sent out by the CCP. Pastor Yang continues his family\u2019s spiritual tradition and sends a message through social media along with his wife. \u201cThank God for allowing us to have a part in His affliction, and especially thankful that on Earth we have no property for the court-enforced implementation, which is definitely a great grace of God,\u201d they wrote. It is unclear what Pastor Yang\u2019s next move is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the intense persecution that unregistered churches face, they are the <\/span>driving religious force<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in China. Pastor Wang Yi, a Chinese pastor who has been imprisoned since 2018, wrote a powerful call to Christians operating in China. \u201cGod\u2019s kingdom is already here in China; it cannot be denied by the power of the sword because his kingdom is brought forth by the only begotten Son of God, our Savior Lord Jesus Christ, who brought forth this kingdom on the cross through his own death under the power of the sword.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas-based\u00a0ChinaAid\u00a0is warning of religious persecution in Xiamen, China, a port city on the southeast coast. Pastor Yang Xibo and his wife, Wang Xiaofei, were hit with a combined fine of 400,000 yuan- equivalent to $55,100. The couple runs Xunsiding Church, the largest house church in Xiamen. The couple had been charged an initial fine in\u00a02021\u00a0by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":18260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChinese Government Fines Chinese Pastor For Home Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Chinese pastor got fined for having a home church.\" \/>\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\/news\/2023\/07\/chinese-government-fines-chinese-pastor-for-home-church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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