Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 031 | Wed 18 Nov 2009
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CHINA ASCENDANT -- PERSECUTION INTENSIFYING
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By Elizabeth Kendal
As US President Obama visited China this week, Chinese church leaders hoped he would raise the issue of religious persecution with their government, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, the US is desperate for Chinese co-operation on climate change, global economics, trade and nuclear proliferation. Therefore the US was not going to risk offending China by criticising its human rights, especially when the UN's Human Rights Council has already affirmed China's human rights as 'on track'. Furthermore, when it comes to quid pro quo politics, human rights are the usual currency and totalitarian regimes know well how to extract maximum price. Emboldened by its sense of ascendancy, the Chinese government will no doubt increasingly oppose anything it deems threatening. Repression and persecution are likely to intensify.
At around 3 am on 13 September, a 400-strong mob in police uniforms invaded the 'Good News Cloth Shoes Factory', meeting place of the Linfen Christian Church in Linfen City, Fushan, in the north China Shanxi Province. Bulldozers were used to demolish structures on the site as the pack -- armed with bricks, bats, bars, pikes and shovels -- beat church members sleeping there. The devastation was total. Everything of any value was 'confiscated' (looted). Around 100 believers were injured. Several who were bleeding heavily were treated in the hospital emergency department and those who were unconscious were admitted. By noon, thousands of church members had gathered at the site. Shocked and filled with indignation and grief, they prayed to God for justice (see http://shanxifushan.ning.com/ ). According to Compass Direct about 5,000 of the 50,000-member Linfen House Church network had worshipped there weekly. China Aid Association (CAA) reports that some '30 daughter churches in nearby townships' are also prohibited from gathering for worship. According to CAA, the destruction of the Linfen church was authorised not by local authorities but by the central government in Beijing.
Then on Friday 25 September, nine Fushan Church leaders, including Pastor Yang Rongli, were kidnapped by Shanxi authorities while en route to Beijing where they had hoped to petition the central government for justice. Pastor Yang has been charged with illegal activities because for years the church she leads has 'sent missionaries, appointed pastors, set up fellowship sites, and organised large conferences [...] and besieged government officials with requests'. According to the authorities these 'illegal' activities 'disturbed the social order and are very harmful to social stability'. The church also 'illegally shared the gospel with the young . . . which violated the Constitution, Education Law and Regulations on Religious Affairs'.
What unsettles the government is the growth in unregistered fellowships (i.e. those not under CCP control). No longer are they just small groups shut away in apartments. Increasingly they are very large, public and active fellowships. In preparation for President Obama's visit, large unregistered fellowships in Shanghai and Beijing were targeted. On Sunday 2 November, Shanghai's 2000-member Wanbang Missionary Church was ordered to close down. When the believers continued to meet, the persecution grew more intensive. The church's communications were cut and every member was interrogated, fingerprinted and forced to promise not to gather on Sunday 15 November, the day President Obama arrived in Shanghai. Seven Shanghai pastors have been declared criminals. In Beijing, government intervention led to the Shouwang congregation losing its place of worship in Huajie Plaza. Undeterred, about 800 members gathered on 1 November and worshipped together in a park in the snow for 2 hours! This unsettled the authorities so much the government provided the Shouwang congregation with a university auditorium for worship on 15 November -- but placed its preachers under house arrest.
The Exodus was a divine work of God in fulfilment of a promise, which occurred at God's appointed time and was enabled through his divine provision. May the Chinese Church, in her longing for freedom, never lose the vision of her deliverance coming in God's way and time.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT:
* God will bless the efforts of all those who are faithfully promoting religious freedom in China, especially courageous Chinese nationals -- pastors, lawyers, writers and others -- who risk being beaten, imprisoned and 'disappeared' for their efforts. 'The king's heart is a stream in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.' (Proverbs 21:1 ESV)
* the Church will resist all temptation to secure God's blessings through 'the flesh' (Galatians 4:23) and will stay prayerful, obedient and faithful amidst trial, for the glory of God.
* all Christian pastors and religious liberty advocates suffering 'reform through labour' in over 900 state-run slave labour camps (laogai) will know the sustaining grace of Christ (2 Corinthians 12:9); may God provide them and their families with spiritual comfort and strength, and all their earthly needs.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
UK: religious liberty fading fast
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 027 | Wed 21 Oct 2009
UNITED KINGDOM: RELIGIOUS LIBERTY FADING FAST
In London, England, in the 1370s, John Wycliffe suffered intensive persecution for daring to protest for biblical truth. In 1415 John Hus was burnt at the stake in Prague, Bohemia, for doing the same. On 31 October 1517 a German monk named Martin Luther risked martyrdom and worse -- the Inquisition -- when he launched his protest for biblical truth: salvation by grace through faith, not merited by works. He sought reform but got division, and the Protestant Church was born. Religious liberty and the revival of biblical theology brought many positive consequences to the societies that embraced it. As a result, 31 October has traditionally been remembered as Reformation Day. But as Protestant prosperity grew, so too did the rot of pride and arrogance. Before long, Protestant societies were not only forgetting God and the truths that gave liberty to their positive energies and made them great, but 'in pride and arrogance of heart' (Isaiah 9:9b) were rejecting God and his word as irrelevant.
British MP William Wilberforce (1759-1833), though remembered primarily as an abolitionist, was passionate about Britain's need for spiritual reformation as it was in a state of advanced decay. Not only had the nation largely forgotten God but its church had mostly returned to a works-based theology, believing that people merited salvation because they were 'good' -- not that people were good because they were saved by grace through faith. (See William Wilberforce, A Practical View of Christianity, chapter 3.)
The awakening and spiritual reform that Wilberforce launched turned the tide in the UK. But today nearly 500 years on from Luther and some 250 years on from Wilberforce, the UK is in trouble again and is desperately in need of a fresh awakening. Moreover religious liberty is fading fast.
All Nations Church in Kennington, South London, was recently ordered not to use its sound system for its sermons or music so as to avoid offending its (Muslim) neighbours. A Christian office worker from South London, Denise Haye (25), was recently sacked for expressing her disapproval of homosexuality. A Christian nurse from Exeter, Shirley Chaplin (54), was recently threatened with disciplinary action after she refused to remove the cross from her necklace that she had worn without a complaint throughout 30 years of nursing. A Deputy Registrar with Islington Borough Council, Theresa Davies (59), was demoted because she refused to preside over same-sex civil partnership ceremonies. A Christian nurse with 40 years' experience, Anand Rao (71), was sacked after he suggested to a training seminar that distressed palliative care patients could try going to church. A Christian community nurse and professional foster mother (with 80 children's-worth of experience) was recently struck off the register for failing to prevent a 16-year-old Muslim girl converting to Christianity. A Christian homelessness prevention officer with 18 years' experience, Duke Amachree (53), was sacked by Wandsworth Council for sharing his faith with a client who had lost hope. Revd Noble Samuel of Heston United Reformed Church, West London, who debates Muslims on his TV Gospel program, was hijacked in his car by three Urdu-speaking assailants who grabbed him by the hair, ripped off his cross and threatened to break his legs if he continued broadcasting. These cases (all in 2009) are just the tip of the iceberg. If the Equality Bill that is now making its way through parliament passes (as expected), then persecution will increase dramatically.
(For the above cases see http://www.christianlegalcentre.com http://www.ccfon.org
http://www.christian.org.uk )
While Christians are being silenced, Islamisation is advancing, with Islamic fundamentalists appeased at every turn by short-sighted politicians who lack political courage and hanker after political gain. While Christians are fined, sacked and sued for expressing their faith, Anjem Choudary's Islam4UK is free to run its Islamic Roadshows all across the country . Independent think-tank Civitas recently reported that Britain already has some 85 Sharia Courts operating openly, advising illegal actions and transgressing human rights with impunity. Not content with this, some 5000 supporters of Islam4UK are expected to join a 'March for Sharia' from the House of Commons to Trafalgar Square on 31 October, which coincidentally is Reformation Day.
(An example of Islam4UK's Islamic Roadshow in action {Birmingham, June 2009} )
As long as the various anti-Christian lobby groups can silence Christians and shut down debate through anti-defamation, anti-vilification and anti-discrimination laws along with threats of violence, they will be on a winning trajectory with little resistance -- that is, until violent conflict erupts. Violent 'race' clashes are already on the increase, mostly in response to protests against Islamisation. The UK is in trouble.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT:
* God will greatly bless those Christians who are courageously defending gospel truths and values in the UK's courts and streets, that they will have abundant grace, wisdom and boldness from the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 10:16-20,38,39)
* as Muslims 'March for Sharia' on 31 October -- Reformation Day -- British Christians will remember the courage of Martin Luther and be motivated by the heritage they have in Wycliffe, Ridley, Wilberforce, Carey and others.
* revival will come to the UK Church so that the nation's Christians will step out boldly with gospel truths and values, being prepared to suffer and, in Wilberforce's words, 'be wholly indebted' to the God of grace for everything.
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. (v29 of Isaiah 40:28-31 ESV)
UNITED KINGDOM: RELIGIOUS LIBERTY FADING FAST
In London, England, in the 1370s, John Wycliffe suffered intensive persecution for daring to protest for biblical truth. In 1415 John Hus was burnt at the stake in Prague, Bohemia, for doing the same. On 31 October 1517 a German monk named Martin Luther risked martyrdom and worse -- the Inquisition -- when he launched his protest for biblical truth: salvation by grace through faith, not merited by works. He sought reform but got division, and the Protestant Church was born. Religious liberty and the revival of biblical theology brought many positive consequences to the societies that embraced it. As a result, 31 October has traditionally been remembered as Reformation Day. But as Protestant prosperity grew, so too did the rot of pride and arrogance. Before long, Protestant societies were not only forgetting God and the truths that gave liberty to their positive energies and made them great, but 'in pride and arrogance of heart' (Isaiah 9:9b) were rejecting God and his word as irrelevant.
British MP William Wilberforce (1759-1833), though remembered primarily as an abolitionist, was passionate about Britain's need for spiritual reformation as it was in a state of advanced decay. Not only had the nation largely forgotten God but its church had mostly returned to a works-based theology, believing that people merited salvation because they were 'good' -- not that people were good because they were saved by grace through faith. (See William Wilberforce, A Practical View of Christianity, chapter 3.)
The awakening and spiritual reform that Wilberforce launched turned the tide in the UK. But today nearly 500 years on from Luther and some 250 years on from Wilberforce, the UK is in trouble again and is desperately in need of a fresh awakening. Moreover religious liberty is fading fast.
All Nations Church in Kennington, South London, was recently ordered not to use its sound system for its sermons or music so as to avoid offending its (Muslim) neighbours. A Christian office worker from South London, Denise Haye (25), was recently sacked for expressing her disapproval of homosexuality. A Christian nurse from Exeter, Shirley Chaplin (54), was recently threatened with disciplinary action after she refused to remove the cross from her necklace that she had worn without a complaint throughout 30 years of nursing. A Deputy Registrar with Islington Borough Council, Theresa Davies (59), was demoted because she refused to preside over same-sex civil partnership ceremonies. A Christian nurse with 40 years' experience, Anand Rao (71), was sacked after he suggested to a training seminar that distressed palliative care patients could try going to church. A Christian community nurse and professional foster mother (with 80 children's-worth of experience) was recently struck off the register for failing to prevent a 16-year-old Muslim girl converting to Christianity. A Christian homelessness prevention officer with 18 years' experience, Duke Amachree (53), was sacked by Wandsworth Council for sharing his faith with a client who had lost hope. Revd Noble Samuel of Heston United Reformed Church, West London, who debates Muslims on his TV Gospel program, was hijacked in his car by three Urdu-speaking assailants who grabbed him by the hair, ripped off his cross and threatened to break his legs if he continued broadcasting. These cases (all in 2009) are just the tip of the iceberg. If the Equality Bill that is now making its way through parliament passes (as expected), then persecution will increase dramatically.
(For the above cases see http://www.christianlegalcentre.com http://www.ccfon.org
http://www.christian.org.uk )
While Christians are being silenced, Islamisation is advancing, with Islamic fundamentalists appeased at every turn by short-sighted politicians who lack political courage and hanker after political gain. While Christians are fined, sacked and sued for expressing their faith, Anjem Choudary's Islam4UK is free to run its Islamic Roadshows all across the country . Independent think-tank Civitas recently reported that Britain already has some 85 Sharia Courts operating openly, advising illegal actions and transgressing human rights with impunity. Not content with this, some 5000 supporters of Islam4UK are expected to join a 'March for Sharia' from the House of Commons to Trafalgar Square on 31 October, which coincidentally is Reformation Day.
(An example of Islam4UK's Islamic Roadshow in action {Birmingham, June 2009} )
As long as the various anti-Christian lobby groups can silence Christians and shut down debate through anti-defamation, anti-vilification and anti-discrimination laws along with threats of violence, they will be on a winning trajectory with little resistance -- that is, until violent conflict erupts. Violent 'race' clashes are already on the increase, mostly in response to protests against Islamisation. The UK is in trouble.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT:
* God will greatly bless those Christians who are courageously defending gospel truths and values in the UK's courts and streets, that they will have abundant grace, wisdom and boldness from the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 10:16-20,38,39)
* as Muslims 'March for Sharia' on 31 October -- Reformation Day -- British Christians will remember the courage of Martin Luther and be motivated by the heritage they have in Wycliffe, Ridley, Wilberforce, Carey and others.
* revival will come to the UK Church so that the nation's Christians will step out boldly with gospel truths and values, being prepared to suffer and, in Wilberforce's words, 'be wholly indebted' to the God of grace for everything.
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. (v29 of Isaiah 40:28-31 ESV)
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
IRAN: HOW BEST TO PRAY
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 010 | Wed 24 Jun 2009
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IRAN: HOW BEST TO PRAY
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In 1989 the father of the Iranian Revolution, Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, died without a successor. His rightful and designated successor, Grand Ayatollah Hussain Ali Montazeri, had been sidelined in 1988 for protesting corruption and human rights abuses. At that time Khamenei was President, Mousavi was Prime Minister and Rafsanjani was Speaker of the Parliament. They were secure because they had not protested the purges and massacres!
Possibly because Rafsanjani thought Khamenei could be easily controlled, Rafsanjani convinced the Assembly of Experts to appoint Khamenei as Supreme Leader even though he was not qualified for the role. However, after Rafsanjani became president the two men started to clash.
Rafsanjani's power base was the business class, so he supported business, the elite and economic growth. Khamenei's power base was 'the masses', so he supported the clerics, the poor and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Khamenei and the IRGC brought Ahmadinejad to power in 2005 specifically because he would serve their interests. With Ahmadinejad in power, the IRGC have been able to extend their control over much of the Iranian economy and pursue their own and Khamenei's regional ambitions.
So, at the heart of the present troubles is a power struggle between the Khamenei IRGC-Ahmadinejad camp versus the Rafsanjani-Mousavi camp. Both camps are in the conservative block and all those involved are Islamists -- none of them are counter-revolutionaries.
The Ahmadinejad camp is ideologically driven and committed to exporting Revolution, spending billions of petro-dollars through the IRGC on foreign adventures in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon and beyond to establish regional hegemony. The Mousavi camp on the other hand, though equally Islamist, wants less belligerence and good international relations so it can focus on domestic issues and the economy. The largely young, urban intellectuals who have been protesting in the streets of Tehran are simply embarrassed by and frustrated with the present regime and are desperate for change. One analyst described Mousavi as merely a 'balloon' that had been 'inflated' by those determined to express their anger against Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Independent analysts both inside and outside Iran believe that election fraud has taken place. However, this does not mean that Ahmadinejad would not have won the election anyway as he is enormously popular and is virtually worshipped by masses of rural poor who greatly appreciate his generous handouts. It is widely believed Khamenei and the IRGC wanted not only to guarantee Ahmadinejad's election but to provide him with a powerful mandate. The ruling regime had every intention of retaining power. As opposition started to mount even before the election, a senior official from the IRGC, Yadollah Javani, warned that the Revolutionary Guards would crush any attempt at a 'Velvet Revolution'.
Khamenei and Ahmadinejad control the guns and have the support of a clear majority of the 86-member Assembly of Experts (AoE). When Rafsanjani (who heads the AoE) recently approached the AoE -- possibly in an attempt to de-legitimise Khamenei -- his daughter and four other relatives were arrested. The Khamenei-Ahmadinejad-IRGC camp will retain power for the time being. Meanwhile, discontent, desperation and disillusionment are mounting.
PLEASE PRAY FOR IRAN THAT:
* the hunger of Iranians for openness and answers will grow as many of them start to question what has gone wrong there and as they search for a better way; may many find answers in Jesus Christ. (Generally the protesters still hope for a pure Islamic State. They believe that Islam is the solution and that the present regime has merely diverged.)
* God will wonderfully protect and preserve his besieged Church as persecution will doubtless escalate when the regime moves with rage and force to repress or even purge those who oppose it or are perceived to be a threat.
* the Holy Spirit will breathe supernatural courage into the Iranian Church, so believers will witness with courage, conviction and authority; may every word of witness be blessed with every believer a prophetic voice and a light shining in the darkness.
'For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.' (John 3:17 ESV)
--------------
NOTE: After the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing on 4 June 1989,
large numbers of Chinese elite (including Communist officials) rejected
Communism and in a few short years the Chinese Church became truly
representative of Chinese society. Christianity is now just as much a
faith of the urban elite -- doctors, lawyers, artists, scholars and the
like -- as it is a faith of the rural poor. Even amongst non-
Christians, Communism is largely discredited and rejected and openness
and liberty are sought.
----------------------
IRAN: HOW BEST TO PRAY
----------------------
In 1989 the father of the Iranian Revolution, Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, died without a successor. His rightful and designated successor, Grand Ayatollah Hussain Ali Montazeri, had been sidelined in 1988 for protesting corruption and human rights abuses. At that time Khamenei was President, Mousavi was Prime Minister and Rafsanjani was Speaker of the Parliament. They were secure because they had not protested the purges and massacres!
Possibly because Rafsanjani thought Khamenei could be easily controlled, Rafsanjani convinced the Assembly of Experts to appoint Khamenei as Supreme Leader even though he was not qualified for the role. However, after Rafsanjani became president the two men started to clash.
Rafsanjani's power base was the business class, so he supported business, the elite and economic growth. Khamenei's power base was 'the masses', so he supported the clerics, the poor and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Khamenei and the IRGC brought Ahmadinejad to power in 2005 specifically because he would serve their interests. With Ahmadinejad in power, the IRGC have been able to extend their control over much of the Iranian economy and pursue their own and Khamenei's regional ambitions.
So, at the heart of the present troubles is a power struggle between the Khamenei IRGC-Ahmadinejad camp versus the Rafsanjani-Mousavi camp. Both camps are in the conservative block and all those involved are Islamists -- none of them are counter-revolutionaries.
The Ahmadinejad camp is ideologically driven and committed to exporting Revolution, spending billions of petro-dollars through the IRGC on foreign adventures in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon and beyond to establish regional hegemony. The Mousavi camp on the other hand, though equally Islamist, wants less belligerence and good international relations so it can focus on domestic issues and the economy. The largely young, urban intellectuals who have been protesting in the streets of Tehran are simply embarrassed by and frustrated with the present regime and are desperate for change. One analyst described Mousavi as merely a 'balloon' that had been 'inflated' by those determined to express their anger against Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Independent analysts both inside and outside Iran believe that election fraud has taken place. However, this does not mean that Ahmadinejad would not have won the election anyway as he is enormously popular and is virtually worshipped by masses of rural poor who greatly appreciate his generous handouts. It is widely believed Khamenei and the IRGC wanted not only to guarantee Ahmadinejad's election but to provide him with a powerful mandate. The ruling regime had every intention of retaining power. As opposition started to mount even before the election, a senior official from the IRGC, Yadollah Javani, warned that the Revolutionary Guards would crush any attempt at a 'Velvet Revolution'.
Khamenei and Ahmadinejad control the guns and have the support of a clear majority of the 86-member Assembly of Experts (AoE). When Rafsanjani (who heads the AoE) recently approached the AoE -- possibly in an attempt to de-legitimise Khamenei -- his daughter and four other relatives were arrested. The Khamenei-Ahmadinejad-IRGC camp will retain power for the time being. Meanwhile, discontent, desperation and disillusionment are mounting.
PLEASE PRAY FOR IRAN THAT:
* the hunger of Iranians for openness and answers will grow as many of them start to question what has gone wrong there and as they search for a better way; may many find answers in Jesus Christ. (Generally the protesters still hope for a pure Islamic State. They believe that Islam is the solution and that the present regime has merely diverged.)
* God will wonderfully protect and preserve his besieged Church as persecution will doubtless escalate when the regime moves with rage and force to repress or even purge those who oppose it or are perceived to be a threat.
* the Holy Spirit will breathe supernatural courage into the Iranian Church, so believers will witness with courage, conviction and authority; may every word of witness be blessed with every believer a prophetic voice and a light shining in the darkness.
'For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.' (John 3:17 ESV)
--------------
NOTE: After the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing on 4 June 1989,
large numbers of Chinese elite (including Communist officials) rejected
Communism and in a few short years the Chinese Church became truly
representative of Chinese society. Christianity is now just as much a
faith of the urban elite -- doctors, lawyers, artists, scholars and the
like -- as it is a faith of the rural poor. Even amongst non-
Christians, Communism is largely discredited and rejected and openness
and liberty are sought.