Christians from "house churches" in China claim they are being unfairly targeted by police as part of a crackdown on "evil cults"
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| Five cult members Zhang Fan, Zhang Lidong, Lyu Yingchun, Zhang Hang and Zhang Qiaolian stand trial on murder charges in Yantai Intermediate People's Court in Yantai City, east China's Shandong Province Photo: Xinhua/ Corbis |
Chinese Christians have accused police of using a crackdown on “evil cults” as
a cover to intensify their persecution of the country’s underground church.
High-profile “anti-cult” campaigns have been rolled out across China since
June when five cult members beat a woman to death in a McDonald’s restaurant
after she rejected their attempts to recruit her.
Two of the perpetrators, who were members of the notorious Eastern Lightning
cult, were sentenced to death earlier this month.
More than 1,000 members of the group – which is also known as the Church of
Almighty God – were “captured” between June and September, state media
reported this week.
However, members of China’s “house church” movement – an officially illegal
but generally tolerated community made up of tens of millions of Christians
– claim their members have also been caught up in the police action.
Authorities were “using the crackdown on cults as an opportunity to crack down
on house churches,” said one Christian leader from Guizhou province, who
asked not to be named. Other Christian leaders said they believed poorly
trained police were targeting orthodox congregations they had confused with
potentially dangerous cults.
Since the anti-cult crackdown began, there has been a spike in reports of
raids on house churches spanning at least nine provinces or regions.
The Guizhou pastor said his church had recently been surrounded by up to 200
police officers who detained 12 church members on charges of “illegal
assembly” and spreading “cult propaganda”.
A Christian leader from Shandong, who also asked not to be named, said members
of his church had been holding choir practice when a dozen police arrived at
their place of worship, “some carrying guns”.
“They forced us into a corner and made us squat while they were searching the
room,” the pastor said. “They didn’t show us any kind of warrant and accused
us of illegal assembly and cult activity.”
Twenty-two Christians were detained during the police operation and two remain
in custody accused of involvement in “evil” religious activity.
A preacher from Yunnan said police harassment had “intensified considerably”
since May and a Beijing-based preacher said Christians in northern China
faced similar scrutiny. A Christian leader from Guangdong said police there
were labelling some churches as cults “without investigation”.
“They can’t simply wage a blind crackdown on any religious activity they deem
to be wrong,” said the Shandong pastor, who claimed his congregation would
support a genuine crackdown on dangerous cults. “Police make no distinction
between right and wrong. They are unprofessional and reckless in dealing
with religious affairs.”
Carsten Vala, an academic at Loyola University, Maryland, who is writing a
book on the house church movement, said similar reports of the churches
“being caught up in police dragnets” had followed a Communist Party
clampdown on the Falun Gong spiritual group after it was outlawed in 1999.
Leaders from government-sanctioned churches sometimes shielded underground
congregations from harassment by asking the police to protect “trustworthy”
churches.
However, “jealous” leaders from the official Church might also encourage
police to raid house churches they saw as rivals or “sheep stealers” by
telling authorities they were cults.
China’s latest anti-cult drive began in June following the murder of
37-year-old Wu Shuoyan, who was beaten to death after refusing to give her
telephone number to Eastern Lightning members when they approached her in a
McDonald’s
restaurant in the city of Zhaoyuan.
Following that murder, China’s Anti-Cult Association published a list of 20
“active cult organisations” that needed fighting, including Eastern
Lightning.
Beijing unveiled plans for more severe punishments for those involved in
proscribed cults this week. Under new draft laws, a person will face three
to seven years in prison for organising “a religious institution or cult
organisation” that spreads “superstition to undermine national laws or
regulations”. In more severe cases “such as acts resulting in a mass
incident or causing the death or serious injury of others” sentences will
range from seven years to the death penalty, the China Daily reported.
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