After Christians from a house church in Henan Province showed just how vicious the government is by posting a video of them tearing up a painting of the cross inside their church government officials proved it again, by mobilizing over 400 people to destroy the house of worship in retaliation.
On the morning of November 22, Zion Church—a government-approved Protestant Three-Self church in Luoyang city—was forcibly demolished by the local government. This demolition followed repeated threats against the church and its believers, and repeated physical assaults on the building.
Numerous Buddhist and Taoist temples throughout China have been sealed off or demolished, leaving the elderly monks and believers who lived there with nowhere to go.
This year alone, multiple Protestant Three-Self churches in Henan havebeen closed down or demolished entirely. Many of those that have managed tosurvive, have been turned into places for things other than worship.
All religious decorations and furnishings have been removed from an underground Catholic church in Henan’s Baizhuang village as a punishment for refusing to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.
Two Protestant Three-Self churches in Henan Province were recently demolished after a round of harassment and without providing to the congregations any credible explanation for their actions.
Some universities in Henan Province have included the assessment of anti-religion knowledge as part of the graduation requirements and are intensifying the promotion of atheism to the newly-enrolled students.
Since the launch of a nation-wide supervision program to inspect the implementation of Xi Jinping’s policies on religion in China’s provinces and municipalities, believers across the country are facing even more intense crackdown on their religious liberties.
A member of The Church of Almighty God was arrested and died in detention soon after. Because of injuries on her body, her family believes that mistreatment by the police caused her death.
Nanyang city authorities raided and closed down a meeting venue of the Great Praise house church after its leader refused to join the government-controlled Protestant Three-Self Church.