w****1
发帖数: 2887 | | L*********d
发帖数: 7037 | 2 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/world/asia/25church.html
China Detains Church Members at Easter Services
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: April 24, 2011
BEIJING — The authorities stepped up a three-week campaign against an
underground Christian church on Sunday, detaining hundreds of congregants in
their homes and taking at least 36 others into custody after they tried to
hold Easter services in a public square, church members and officials said.
The church, Shouwang, or Lighthouse, an evangelical Protestant congregation
that was evicted from its rented quarters earlier this month, has been at
loggerheads with the government since announcing plans to gather outdoors
rather than disband or return to worshiping in private homes. The
authorities have repeatedly stymied Shouwang’s efforts to lease or buy
space for its 1,000-member congregation, one of the largest and most
prominent so-called house churches in the capital.
The Chinese Communist Party tightly manages religious activity, requiring
the faithful to join state-run churches, mosques or Buddhist temples. Until
the most recent crackdown on Shouwang and a handful of other unregistered
big-city churches, such congregations had enjoyed relatively wide latitude
from religious authorities.
Founded 18-years ago in a private home, Shouwang insists that it has no
political agenda and only seeks government forbearance that would allow it
to occupy the $4 million space it bought in 2009. Church leaders say the
owner of the space, under pressure from the authorities, has refused to hand
over the keys. Last week, a foreign ministry spokesman defended the
government’s stance, saying Shouwang had “no legal basis” to operate.
Most of those seized on Sunday morning were taken away in buses after they
showed up at the plaza, which is not far from several of the country’s top
universities. A CNN crew said they were briefly detained and had their
credentials confiscated before being turned away by the police.
Several church members, all of whom requested anonymity for fear of further
provoking the authorities, say they were confined to their homes by security
agents, some as early as Thursday, in an effort to keep them from joining
Easter services. ChinaAid, a Christian advocacy group based in the United
States, put the number of those under temporary house arrest at 500,
although that figure could not be immediately verified.
On Sunday night, Shouwang’s Web site was blocked and its chief pastor, Jin
Tianming, could not be reached by phone. In an e-mail circulated last week,
church leaders asked parishioners to make their way to the elevated walkway
where services were supposed to take place even though they would probably
be intercepted by the police.
The letter took note of the upcoming Easter holiday and likened the
congregation’s struggle to the tribulations endured by Jesus Christ before
his crucifixion.
“We pray especially for those brothers and sisters who in the past week or
two have already been forced to move or leave their jobs,” it said. “We
ask God to remember the price they have paid for holding on to their faith
and ask him to take care of their families and their daily life needs.”
【在 w****1 的大作中提到】
: 什么地下教会的。
|
|
