Christianity in China

USA Today is reporting that an owner of a Christian bookstore in Beijing is being held in secret detention since November 28 because of his faith.

According to the report, businessman Shi Weihan was arrested because of his faith and refusal to register their unapproved "house church" with authorities. His arrest comes as the Chinese government is struggling to convince critics that it has expanded religious freedom and tolerance.

China is trying to show the world that religious groups are free to worship, provided they register with the government. However, Chinese police regularly arrest thousands of Christians who are affiliated with unsanctioned religious groups. Recently, government officials denied reports that Bibles would be banned from the Olympic Village at the 2008 Summer Games in

Read the news report by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: China, Christianity, Persecution

Baptist Pastor On Hit List

The Baptist World Alliance released the following news report on December 3, 2007:

Washington, D.C. (BWA)--A Baptist pastor in Turkey has been placed on a death list.

Ertan Mesut Cevik, pastor of a Baptist church in Izmir, the modern name for biblical Smyrna, and Turkey’s third largest city by population, has received increased police protection after his name was found on a list carried by three suspected terrorists. The three, who are arrested, are suspected of planning wide scale attacks after a large cache of weapons was found in their possession.

Cevik has been under police protection since April 2007 after he hosted a funeral service for one of three Christians that was killed in Turkey on April 18. Two of the murder victims, Necati Aydin, 36, and Ugur Yuksel, 32, were Turks who converted from Islam to Christianity. The third man, Tillman Geske, 46, was a German citizen.

The Baptist pastor was also protected after he and the Baptist congregation were accused in a Turkish newspaper article, published after the three murders in April, of engaging in “coercive evangelism” by using money and drugs to attract young people. These charges were denied by the church.

Cevik was ordained by the Union of Evangelical Free Churches in Germany, a member body of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). The Izmir congregation was founded in 2001 and is an associate member of the European Baptist Federation (EBF), one of six continental federations that are part of the BWA.

EBF General Secretary Tony Peck and General Secretary of the German Baptist union, Regina Claas, are appealing for prayer for Christians in Turkey and for the Baptist congregation in Izmir in particular.

Pray for persecuted Christians around the world.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tag: Persecuted Christians, Persecution

Gaza Baptist Church Member Murdered

The Baptist World Alliance has released the following press release:

Washington, D.C. (BWA)--Rami Ayyad, a member of the Gaza Baptist Church in Palestine and the manager of the Bible Society bookstore in Gaza, was found murdered Sunday morning, October 7.

Ayyad went missing the previous day after closing the bookstore he managed. A source inside Gaza gave the following details:

“On Saturday afternoon Rami closed his shop as he always did at 4:30. He had told his brother that three days earlier he had sensed he was being followed home after work but had not made much of it. Two hours after closing up he called his wife and told her with much uncertainty that he hoped to be home in two hours and not to worry. He was not able to say where he was or why he was there. Rami never came home.

Friends and family searched for him until late into the night. At 5:30 on Sunday morning his body was found beaten, a bullet through his head, another through his chest. His wallet, ID and watch were gone.”

Hanna Massad, pastor of Gaza Baptist Church, called the father of two a martyr and claimed Ayyad “Was under severe pressure to leave his faith and convert to another faith; but he refused and he was willing to pay the ultimate price – his own life.”

In informing the Baptist World Alliance of the incident, Massad said that “Even though we are proud of Rami’s faithfulness, we are nevertheless going through a very difficult time.”

The Gaza Bible Society, which is run by Massad’s wife, Suhad, has been attacked several times in the recent past. On April 15, the building was damaged by a bomb blast. The bombers first kidnapped the security guard, took him to another area of the city and beat him before setting off the bomb at the Bible Society building. The Society was previously attacked in 2006 when two pipe bombs exploded, damaging the building.

Massad indicated that “The Bible Society team will need to leave Gaza for a while,” and that “Life is very dangerous in Gaza. We do not know who will be next.”

Problems in Gaza stem from the blockade and the occasional bombing imposed by Israel, as well as from fighting among Palestinians, most notably the often violent standoff between the two major parties, Hamas, which controls the parliament, and Fatah, which controls the presidency of the Palestinian National Authority. Small radical, hard-line Muslim groups have bombed offices and businesses that they believe aid debauchery and adultery, such as Internet cafes where it is believed pornography may be accessed.

Ayyad, buried on October 7, but for whom a memorial service was held at the Gaza Baptist Church on Sunday morning, October 14, leaves wife Pauline who is four months pregnant, and sons, two and a half year old George and ten-month old Wetham. Ayyad would have turned 30 on October 23.

This story shows how difficult it is for believers in Christ throughout the world to remain faithful in the midst of persecution. The church throughout the world must pray and ask God to give these faithful believers divine strength and grace to carry out the work of Jesus Christ in hostile land.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Martyrs, Persecution

Religion in China

The Associated Press has issued a new release reporting that Pastor Cai Zhuohua has been released from prison:

BEIJING (AP) — A leader of China's underground Protestant church has been released from prison after serving a three-year sentence for distributing Bibles and other religious literature without a business license, an overseas monitoring group said Sunday.

Pastor Cai Zhuohua returned to his Beijing home on Sept. 10 in good physical and mental condition, the China Aid Association said in a statement.

The association, based in Midland, Texas, said Cai had been told not to speak about his prison experience and to report to a local police station once a month.

China's sole legal government-controlled church maintains a monopoly on the printing and distribution of religious literature and other church materials.

Cai had been sentenced for "illegal business practices" after police searched a warehouse he managed and found more than 200,000 pieces of Christian literature, including Bibles. His lawyers said he gave away the religious materials for free and denied he was running a business.

Cai had been detained about 14 months before he was convicted in November 2005. His pretrial detention appeared to have been counted toward his sentence.

The association said Cai had been deprived of religious reading material in prison, where he had been forced to work for 10 to 12 hours each day.

China's officially atheistic Communist government denies persecuting religious believers, but says all religious groups must follow the law and place love of nation above all else.

The government only allows worship in churches run by state-monitored religious associations, although millions of Christians risk harassment or worse by gathering in independent church groups, often run out of private homes.

The Chinese government is preparing for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beinjing, which begin on August 8, 2008. The Chinese government is using the Olympics as one way to show the world a modern China, a China that desires to be a world leader in the twenty-first century.

In preparation for the invasion of foreigners, the Chinese government is upgrading Beijing’s appearance by investing billions of dollars to improve the city’s facilities and by cracking down on religious elements the government fears will present a view that is contrary to the central government’s rigid agenda.

According to a State Department report issued last week, the Chinese government has recently expelled more than one hundred foreign missionaries from China.

The same report said that police and public security forces are attending house church meetings and monitoring the activities of church leaders. The Chinese government has also placed restrictions on who can travel. These restrictions may indicate that the Chinese government does not want anyone, including Christians, disrupting the Olympics.

According to the State Department’s 2007 Report on International Religious Freedom, the Chinese government has restricted house church leaders from having contact with foreigners and asked them about plans to disrupt the Olympics.

Christians all over the world must continue praying for the persecuted believers in Chrina.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: China, Persecution

Modern Christians Martyrs

This is a follow-up to the story about the three Christians killed in Turkey.

The three Christians who were martyred in Turkey last week were horribly tortured for three hours prior to being killed, Christian Today has learned, as details continue to emerge.

According to the Washington-DC based human rights group International Christian Concern, the three were put through a horrific ordeal which included multiple stabbings before finally being killed.

An ICC statement tells: “As difficult and sorrowful as it is to learn more, we believe that we must expose the truly hellish nature of this attack for what it is.”

On Easter Sunday, five of the killers had been to a service that one of the victims, Pastor Necati, had arranged in the city of Malatya. The men were known to the believers as “seekers”.

These young men, one of whom is the son of a mayor in the Province of Malatya, are part of a tarikat, or a group of “faithful believers” in Islam, ICC has learned.

Read the complete story by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Christians, Muslims, Persecution

Young Muslims Murder 3 Christians in Turkey

The Baptist Press is reporting that Muslim extremists have killed three Christians in Turkey:

ISTANBUL (BP)--In a gruesome assault against Turkey's tiny Christian community, five young Muslim Turks entered a Christian publishing office in the southeastern province of Malatya April 18 and slit the throats of the three Protestant Christians present.

Read the Baptist Press news report by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Christians, Muslim, Persecution