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TechnoratiThese grisly images show, for example, a Chinese policeman standing over Sister Aizhen Miao, a house church believer who has been forced to kneel on a brick. The policeman is gripping the back of her head with one hand and applying an electric cattle prod to her cheek, as Sister Miao expresses great pain.
Another photo shows a man lying on the floor shirtless, while a policeman digs his boot heels into the prisoner's arms, forcing him to wince and, thus, open his mouth. The next photo reveals three policemen forcing water into the man's mouth in an attempt to swell his stomach. Again, the pain is evident.
Persecution of religious individuals has been common in China for more than half a century. However, America cannot continue to ignore these atrocities, especially in light of the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games. We have an American president who claims to be a Christian, yet he's been largely silent on the issue. In fact, he's planning to show up for the opening ceremonies, thereby tacitly endorsing China's totalitarian tactics. The major corporate sponsors have also been silent, but we know where their priorities lie because money remains their bottom line.
The worst of all, though, has been the deafening silence from the evangelical church in America. Content to peddle their trinkets--many of them made in Chinese sweatshops--and wallow in materialism, American evangelicals have turned their backs on Chinese Christians when they should have been calling for a boycott of the Olympic Games.
Shame on American Christians. They've been silent on the war. They've been silent on the question of torture. They've been silent about human rights abuses in China and elsewhere. In fact, they've remained silent on almost every major moral issue of our times.
It's time that Christians in America gain a moral backbone and fight for their fellow Christians. And they need to urge that guy in the White House, the one they helped elect to two terms who claims to be a Christian, to take a stand on the issue at the very least.
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Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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