My latest in PJ Media:
As the Left in America grows more authoritarian and intolerant of dissent by the day, it’s useful to keep in mind what life is like in the kind of totalitarian state the United States would be if Leftists got everything on their Christmas wish list. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) offered an illustration of that this week, as they warned Chinese Christians that Christmas celebrations were strictly forbidden. It’s not hard to imagine rabid Leftists calling Christmas “white supremacist” and doing the same thing here before too long.
According to Radio Free Asia, police contacted a pastor in Guangdong province Wednesday to make sure his church didn’t have anything planned for Christmas. “In our town, we’re not allowed Christmas gatherings, not even parties,” the pastor explained. “This is also happening in Henan [province] and other places, using the pandemic as a pretext. We can only meet online now.”
In another Chinese province, Shandong, it was the same story. A Shandong pastor said that “they warned us in the run-up to Christmas that there are to be no activities [related to Christmas]. It’s the same for some of the churches outside [town]. We can only have underground activities.”
At the same time, “government censors appeared to have scrubbed references to the festival from social media platforms, as local officials in the southwestern region of Guangxi warned primary and secondary schools, students and parents not to stage any Christmas activities.” The ChiComs are justifying all this under the slogan “We want cultural self-confidence! Ban foreign goods and foreign festivals!”
Bob Fu of ChinaAid, a Christian rights group based in the United States, explained: “Once again, they are using legalistic methods to restrict and undermine the religious freedoms of Chinese citizens. The police and state security police will now intervene in the case of online religious activities, in the next step in the CCP’s suppression of religious freedom.”
There is little doubt about that. Bitter Winter, which tracks infringements of religious liberty and human rights in China and elsewhere, reported Tuesday that “on December 3 and 4, Xi Jinping personally presided on the first National Conference on Work Related to Religious Affairs the CCP held since 2016. Xi spoke at the Conference, and asked for a more in-depth study of Karl Marx’s texts on religion by all those involved in the management of religious activities in China. He also reiterated that “Sinicization” of religion means its alignment with the CCP’s principles, goals, and directions, and lamented that the process he started with the 2016 conference is not advancing quickly enough.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
WPM says
The communist Pope in Roman is very quiet about it .He is quick to give his opinion on issues of “climate change” ,condemn capitalism ,or worry about refugees getting free housing health care, when they are flooding western Europe and North America. He is very silent about the Chinese policy stopping the spreading of the good news of the faith of Christianity , the practicing of any faith with no fear of arrest, the murdering of millions of native Moslems and other in China. Christians are under attack in Moslem majority lands and under Communist countries of China and North Korea ,and the Pope want Catholics to put on hair shirts and hang their heads in shame on” Climate change “.
somehistory says
This is no surprise after news of the outright persecution of Christians has come out of that awful place.
They don’t want “goods” from other places. No imports….and yet, they export practically everything to every other nation and hardly anyone blinks an eye. This china virus variant guy, xi, is evil to his rotten core.
He will reap as he is sowing. What a great day that will be and it is coming.
Fitna says
Like Iran, China needs regime change, democracy and freedom. Christmas is a special time for both Christians and non-Christians. Arguable it is the world’s holiday like New Year’s given that it’s so ubiquitous.
Except ofc in countries where freedom is crushed like Communist and Islamic nations. Be grateful that we continue to have it in the West, don’t take it for granted and fight those who wish to take our holidays away from us.
Mkd1776 says
Even Japan, which isn’t a Christian nation to begin with, tolerates and celebrates Christmas, but not in a religious way and instead is celebrated like Valentine’s Day. It is not a public holiday either since obviously, Japan isn’t a Christian nation.
Communist China and Aloha Snackbar countries, in contrast, don’t know about Christmas and would instead act like Grinches.
gravenimage says
Actually, Mkd1776, your implication that religious celebrations of Christmas are banned in Japan is mistaken. It is not a state holiday because there are few Christians in Japan, but Churches are free to hold masses, and Christians can also hold religious celebrations in their homes, in addition to the secular and commercial celebration of Christmas there.
gravenimage says
A Cautionary Tale for the U.S.: Chinese Commie Grinches Warn Christians Not to Celebrate Christmas
……………..
Commuism and Islam are both totalitarian creeds.
Boycott Turkey says
Strange how this isn’t mentioned in the media joe Biden recently put sanctions on China over the human right abuses of uighars but he doesn’t mention persecution of Christians in China
gravenimage says
No surprise there…
somehistory says
The only way the churches stay open is by conforming their *message* to fit what the evil government says about itself. And that is not Christianity’s teaching, for sure.
OLD GUY says
The Chinese Communist Party, Leadership made up of sociopaths who only care about their power and wealth.