Bitter Winter

In the case of Maria Bibi, the Federal Constitutional Court declared a child an adult, a minor a wife, and a conversion a passport out of the law.

A volume edited by Lukas Pokorny and Franz Winter classifies and analyzes references by Western esotericists to China.

An academic who left the church in 1992 denounces the misinterpretation of its theology in the verdict that dissolved the Family Federation.

The Chinese Communist Party spells out its program of total control: “Sinicize,” manage, guide, and punish.

Despite broad acquittals, the lone conviction for “psychological subjection” risks turning France’s justice system into an arbiter of acceptable spirituality.

Residents of Shuikou Town protest for days as authorities deploy riot police and tighten control. It is another chapter in a “war” about burial practices in rural China.

The court assures us that individual devotees will not be discriminated against. The reality is different.

Restricting freedom of religion or belief on the grounds of “social acceptability” and “public welfare” is prohibited by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Detention in mass camps, forced sterilization, coerced birth control, and sexual abuse are rarely mentioned. Perhaps economic ties with China make criticism inconvenient.

The Chinese Communist Party celebrates Japan’s court ruling as a welcome boost to its global campaign against an unwelcome church.