Foreign Missionaries Defy Ban during Olympics, Evangelize

Matthew281819 »

Sun Aug 24, 2008 10:50 am Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

Maybe a little history is in order to focus your thinking. After The Communist takeover of mainland China in 1949 establishing Mao Zedong as the leader of The Peoples Republic of China all missionaries were thrown out of China and the persecution of Christian and other religions began. In 1966, the Central Committee of the CCP passed its "Decision Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" One of the main focuses of the Cultural Revolution was the abolishment of the Four Olds: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. Those who had anything other than a Communist background were challenged and often charged for corruption and sent to prison. During the Destruction of the Four Olds campaign, religious affairs of all types were persecuted and discouraged by the Red Guards. Many religious buildings such as temples, churches, mosques, monasteries and cemeteries were closed down and sometimes looted and destroyed. The most gruesome aspects of the campaign were the torture and killing of innocent people and the suicides that were the final options of many who suffered beatings and humiliation. In August and September, there were 1,772 people murdered in Beijing alone. In Shanghai in September there were 704 suicides and 534 deaths related to the Cultural Revolution. In Wuhan during this time there were 62 suicides and 32 murders. Mao himself had no scruples about the taking of human life, and went so far as to suggest that the sign of a true revolutionary was his desire to kill. The closed door policy of China and the persecution of Christians has been going on for 50 years. Will what Christians tried to do during the Olympics help or hurt Christians in China? Only God can say. But I can tell you that Christians from all over have been getting into China by fair means or foul long before the Olympics thought of being in China and they will do it long afterwards.