American evangelist Franklin Graham came under fire this week for saying he opposed evangelism during the Beijing Olympic Games.
Graham had made the comment to Chinese reporters during his recent trip to mainland China, where he visited government officials, church leaders, and preached to 12,000 people at a Chinese megachurch.
The eldest son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham said he opposed missionary work during the Games because it is prohibited under Chinese law, and he does not encourage anything illegal.
In response, a respected religious freedom activist defended Chinese house church Christians as “law-abiding, patriotic citizens” who are not doing anything wrong except following their faith which teaches them to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
“[Christians] cannot and will not [concede] to a ‘faith moratorium’ in order to please an atheistic government during the Olympic Games, even if that means enduring imprisonment and torture,” said Bob Fu, president of China Aid Association, in a statement on Wednesday.
Fu, who was recently honored by President Bush for his religious freedom advocacy in China, denounced the Chinese law as unjust because it asked Christians to go against the teachings of Jesus Christ.
He called Graham’s comment about submitting to the ban on Olympic evangelism “a deep offense” to the hundreds of house church prisoners and their family members.
In China, the Christian population is divided into two groups – those worshipping in the state-sanctioned churches under the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and those attending unregistered house churches.
TSPM leaders have publicly stated that foreign evangelistic efforts during the Beijing Olympics are not welcome or tolerated, Fu said. But house churches feel differently.
“To the house church leaders, it’s an issue of the lordship of Christ to the church,” Fu explained to OneNewsNow. “And if the church ceases to do evangelism, is it the true church? It’s a big question.”
Religious freedom has improved in communist China in recent years, but the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) this year still recommended the State Department to keep China on its religious freedom blacklist because of its treatment of house churches and religious minorities not recognized by the Chinese government.
Recent persecution of unregistered churches include the arrest of 270 Protestant house church pastors in December, and the expulsion of more than 100 foreign missionaries last summer – the largest event of its kind since 1954 after the communist government took power in 1949.
Comments
Jesus at the Olympics then the government would have not allowed him to hold his crusade and would have kick him out of the country.......
tom
http://www.christian-drug-rehab.org
Jesus at the Olympics then the government would have not allowed him to hold his crusade and would have kick him out of the country.......
tom
<a href="http://www.christian-drug-rehab.org">Christian Drug Rehab</a>
grahams are lost. They are not willing to give there lives for the lost. They are not my brethren.
star2, this is what was so devastating about his remark God was raising an army to take His Word to the Olympics, one ministry was and perhaps still will use a multi-colored soccer ball as a witnessing tool to share the Gospel and if they do because of the high regard many believers have for the Grahams rather than being seen as Amabassadors for Christ they may be seen as nothing more than troublemakers and if they were to get arrested these very same people would say they deserved it. Hindsight being better than foresight why didn't he just say he had no opinion or that has to be a decision between them and the Lord rather than saying what he did now what he has inadvertently done is caused unnecessary disension in the Body.
When the apostles were ordered not to preach in that Name, they refused to do so and took the consequences like their Lord. It is always better to cast your lot with the Lord than with compromisers. Pray that Franklin will repent.
Blessings
Pray that God will raise believers up to take Jesus to the people at the Olympics.
Instead of criticizing Graham for what he told the Christians, why don't you start praying for the Christians that they will be bold and they will obey God when He tells them to witness Jesus to the people who attend the Olympics?
Yes Star, there appears to be trouble across many of the forums with entire collections of comments disappearing. I've reported it and I imagine they are looking into it.
REPOSTING MY COMMENT FROM MONDAY - NOON
Amen Believer,
Acts 4:19 is the precise thing that came to my mind when I read this story.
It's all well and good to claim that Mr. Graham only said what he did to please the government "minders" who were no doubt listening intently for any "unauthorized" speech -
but the question remains...
If he believes the exact opposite of what he said - why did he not just avoid the subject altogether and let people deduce for themselves what should be their proper course of action?
By saying what he did - he has placed a loaded weapon into the hands of those government thugs who will no doubt be on the look out for illegal evangelism, while discouraging those less zealous who were perhaps "thinking" about sharing Christ.
Sorry - but it sounds completely antithetical to the message of the bible to tell someone: "Sshhh, don't tell anyone about Jesus, because you might get in trouble with the government."
Act 5:29b "... We ought to obey God rather than men."
I wonder what kind of Gospel Mr Graham did preach to 12000 people that day.? In light of what is taking place with many Church groups today, preaching a watered down gospel, which in many cases is not a Gospel at all, I would like to know exactly what Mr Graham did say.
Wisdom is justified by her children. If Franklin Graham had bucked the system and told all the Christians to witness Jesus at the Olympics then the government would have not allowed him to hold his crusade and would have kick him out of the country. If that would have happened, then 12,000 people would have not heard the gospel and 1,250 people that got saved would still be lost in their sins.
Also, Franklin Graham is not a spiritual guru and the Protestant Pope. He does not demand absolute obedience to his decrees at the threat of losing your salvation. And God is not bound by anything he says.
Most likely God will move on Christians to witness Jesus to people at the Olympics. Hopefully, when He does, the believer will obey God.
Doesn't the Bible tell us to go out and spread the Gospel. Did Paul stop because Rome didn't want to hear it? The Bible tells us to obey the laws of the land, unless they they are in conflict with God's laws, in that case we are to obey God. Franklin's decision is not Biblical.
What happened to the many pages of posts that have been made over the past several days?
Well we know that the Grahams can reach thousands in stadium after Stadium and have access to these people because they do what corrupt governments want them to do. Evangelism is a call of God not just to the gifted but to those who are suppose to be called by his name. Of course if you deny him he will deny you so be careful how you address the question of faith in the public square better to be arrested than fail his test