A team inspected local Christian communities, telling them they should strictly comply with the restrictive “Administrative Measures for Religious Activity Venues.”
by Wang Zhipeng
The attempt to strictly and immediately enforce throughout China the new “Administrative Measures for Religious Activity Venues,” which came into force on September 1, continues.
From August 15 to 23, Pastor Gao Feng, chair of the Board of Supervisors of the National Two Christian Associations, i.e., the Three-Self Church and China Christian Council (which supervises education and organization of Three-Self-affiliated Protestant churches), led a team to inspect Christian communities in Anhui, Shaanxi, and Guangxi.
The stated aim of the inspection tour was to make sure that the “Administrative Measures for Religious Activity Venues” are understood and put into practice without delays or exceptions, to curb “extravagances,” which in Three-Self jargon means attempts by the very different Protestant communities (Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Adventist, and so on) forcibly united into a single national church to keep something of their history and distinctiveness, and to remind churches that it is illegal for minors to attend religious activities.
Readers of “Bitter Winter,” which published last month the first full English translation of the new “Administrative Measures for Religious Activity Venues,” would remember their strict provisions for including propaganda content in sermons and establishing study groups of Communist Party documents in all places of worship. According to the “Measures” religious activity venues should actively broadcast CCP propaganda, or face liquidation.
The Three-Self Church is cooperating as usual in the enforcement of what are in fact anti-church measures introduced by the regime. Short-notice inspection tours will probably target other provinces soon.
