Source: Direct Reports from China
Date: May 31, 2018
Bitter Winter has learned that an elder from the Central Three-Self Church in Tangyin County, Anyang, Henan, was suspended from her post by the director of the local Bureau of Religious Affairs on the spot, for taking her 2-year-old grandson to the church.
A source revealed that, on the morning of April 21, 2018, elder Wang Yunying attended a church meeting with her two-year-old grandson. The director of the local Bureau of Religious Affairs caught her. He then said, “It is clearly written in the newly revised Regulations on Religious Affairs that minors are not allowed to enter churches. The Government repeatedly stresses that children are banned from the church. Elder Wang violated the regulations and set a bad example for other believers. I now declare that elder Wang Yunying is suspended from her post in the church.”
A believer from the Church expressed her concern, “It is common that young couples work far away from home, leaving their children with grandparents. If they go to church without bringing the children with them, the kids will be left home unattended.” The director stressed that minors are not allowed to enter churches no matter what. “This is the State’s policy. The province government organized a team of undercover investigators made of specially trained young people. They will visit all churches across the province in secret and check whether there are children in there,” said the director.
Commenting on her suspension, elder Wang said with a sense of helplessness, “Even a toddler is banned from churches, what could such a young kid know about religion? If things go on like this, I’m afraid that fewer and fewer people would go to church in the future.”
