House Church Alliance Leader in China Sentenced to Labor Camp

DUBLIN, July 29 (Compass Direct News) — Authorities this week sentenced Shi Enhao, deputy leader of the Chinese House Church Alliance (CHCA), to two years of “re-education through labor” – a sentence that requires no trial or conviction, according to the China Aid Association (CAA).

Shi was officially charged with holding “illegal meetings and illegal organizing of venues for religious meetings,” due to his leadership of a house church movement of several thousand people meeting in several venues around Beijing, CAA reported.

Zhang Mingxuan, president of the CHCA, has also faced multiple arrests and detentions since founding the alliance in 2005.

Police have since ordered Shi’s church members to stop meeting for worship and confiscated musical instruments, choir robes and some 140,000 RMB (US$21,740) in church donations. They also raided Shi’s house on June 1 and have threatened and intimidated Shi’s wife, Zhu Guangyun, and their four adult children, according to the CAA.

Police initially detained Shi and other church leaders following a raid on May 31 in Suqian city, Jiangsu Province. Most other leaders were released within 24 hours but police sentenced Shi and fellow leader Chang Meiling to 12 days of administrative detention before formally placing Shi in criminal detention on June 21, according to CAA.

Shi’s sentencing to labor camp comes as China’s government is embroiled in conflict with Beijing Shouwang church, which has attempted to meet outdoors since April 10 after the government blocked the congregation’s ability to secure a permanent worship venue. (See www.compassdirect.org, “Beleaguered Chinese Church to Provide Legal Aid to Members,” June 30.)

Last Sunday (July 24) police arrested a further 35 Christians who attempted to meet at Shouwang’s outdoor worship venue; 21 were released by midnight. Police held the rest for at least 24 hours, pressuring some of them to sign statements agreeing not to travel to the worship venue again, according to a statement issued Wednesday (July 27) on Shouwang’s Facebook page.

Police released the final two detainees at around 4 p.m. on Tuesday (July 26), the statement said, but several key Shouwang leaders remain under constant house arrest.

Critics of the controversial stand taken by Shouwang church say that large house churches should split into smaller groups to avoid clashes with authorities, but as CAA has pointed out, Shi was charged and sentenced despite dividing his church in this way.

Joint House Church Petition

On May 8, Autumn Rain church in Chengdu, Sichuan Province informed its members that “In response to the Beijing Shouwang church incident … Elder Wang Yi will join with the pastors and preachers of dozens of house churches in signing a citizens’ petition to the National People’s Congress seeking a resolution of the church-state conflict and a guarantee of religious freedom,” Christian Newswire reported.

Some 17 house church pastors eventually signed the petition, the first of its kind in 60 years of Communist rule, indicating the increasing determination of China’s “third church” – congregations that function openly but decline to register with the government – to secure greater freedom of worship. Protestant churches are required to register through government-appointed bodies such as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), but Chinese Christians accuse the TSPM of censoring sermon material, strictly controlling the appointment of ministers and dictating questionable theology.

While officials did not respond publicly to the petition, their response to Shouwang’s protest seemed to intensify.

“Before the petition, the suppression of Shouwang church members focused on preventing them from gathering for outdoor worship … Now it seems the authorities want to demonize Shouwang church,” Fu said in an interview with Radio Free Asia shortly after the petition was submitted.

“The security agencies have reportedly held a special meeting that included ministers from the Beijing Joint Ministerial Prayer Fellowship,” Fu added. “The idea conveyed was that this matter with Shouwang had already reached a point of no return, and the church was sure to be disbanded and destroyed.”

‘Explosive Growth’ Threatens

Threatened as officials are by the breakdown of Communist ideology and nationwide protests against corruption and human rights abuses, the government’s conflict with China’s “third church” is critical in the fight to maintain social control.

An article analyzing the “Reasons for the Rapid Growth of the Protestant Church in Today’s China,” written by government advisor Ma Hucheng and published by the China Social Sciences Press in June 2010, gives some clues to the government’s mindset. According to translator Tony Lambert of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, the article shows that “the experts advising the Chinese government at the highest level recognize the enormous growth of Protestant Christianity as a fact and predict that this growth will be so explosive in the coming decades that it may well change the face of China.”

The government article points specifically to the “system of missionary expansion” within Christianity and its claim to absolute truth.

“On a global scale the Western world promotes ‘universal values’ and a political system with Christian culture at its heart,” Ma states. “Western powers, with America at their head, deliberately export Christianity to China and carry out all kinds of illegal evangelistic activities. Their basic aim is to use Christianity to change the character of the regime in power in China and to overturn it.”

Ma also claimed that Christianity would endanger national security by destroying the “present balance between religions” in China, largely because house churches have “avoided government control” and persisted in “illegal Christian evangelism.”

Ma predicted an increase in the Christian population to around 150 million within 50 years; current estimates range from 60 to 130 million. He also quoted scholar Lu Daji, who estimates that the number of Christians could increase to 200 million within 20 years.

“Faced with this abnormal growth, we must undertake State interference, and take legal and administrative means so that religion does not have a free market and expand out of control,” Ma concludes.

Dead Sea Scrolls Pages Put Up For Adoption

By Emma Koonse | Christian Post Contributor

The Friends of Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday that it is giving people the chance to adopt pages of the Dead Sea Scrolls for about $2,000.

The announcement promotes the Friends of Israel Antiquities Authority’s efforts to raise funds for the conservation of the ancient texts, and for the project to digitalize them.

Adoptees will receive a dedication plaque with their name on it displayed wherever the texts are exhibited.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 on the West Bank in Qumran when a Bedouin tribesman fell into a cave where they had been hidden for 2,000 years. They are between 800-1,000 years older than previously-known manuscripts. The texts have resulted in hundreds of books and theories about early Christianity as well as the life of Jesus.

There are more than 15,000 Dead Sea Scrolls, written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek between 150BC and 70AD. The parchment and papyrus writings are among the most famous in the world. The sacred texts include the oldest written record of the Old Testament ever found.

Jacob Fische, of the Friends of Israel Antiquities Authority in New York, said the system would raise money specifically to clean and photograph the scrolls.

“We want to conserve all the scrolls and eventually put them online, and digitization is part of a multi-stage project. Most people who sign up want a medium fragment,” Fische said. “It’s like people adopting animals from a zoo- they are more likely to want a lion than an ant.”

“We will work with people’s budgets to find them something- there are 15,000 to pick from. People love the idea of adopting a chapter from Leviticus or Deuteronomy,” Fische said, according to the Daily Mail.

Professor Yossi Matias, director of Google-Israel Research and Development Center, expects the material to be available online “relatively fast” and as soon as they get the content.

The first stages of the project will be available online within a few months, and completed within the next five years.

ADF Defends Man Arrested for Distributing Tracts at Post Office

By Stephanie Samuel | Christian Post Reporter

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) on behalf of an Oakland, Tenn., man for unconstitutionally prohibiting him from distributing Christian literature in front of the Oakland post office.

Michael Choate was arrested for passing out religious pamphlets, often called "tracts," and asserts in the complaint that he has the right to express his beliefs on public property and was wrongly arrested. Choate contends he did not disturb or interfere with postal service, customers or operations of the facility.

"Christians shouldn't be arrested and silenced for peacefully sharing their beliefs on public property," said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Nate Kellum in a statement released on Monday.

For a period of about two weeks in July 2010, Choate passed out the tracts in front of the post office without incident. The following month, Choate continued distributing the material before being approached by Postmaster Terrena Moore, who ordered him to immediately leave the property or face possible arrest.

After discussing the matter with Moore, Choate remained on the property and waited for police to arrive. Officers then ordered him to leave or be arrested for trespassing. The charges were later dropped.

ADF first sought to counsel the USPS on citizens' religious rights in public spaces in a November 2010 letter. However, the postal service responded with a letter defending Oakland Postmaster Moore's decision to have Choate arrested.

Moore first cited post office regulation 39 C.F.R. § 232.1(o) entitled "Depositing Literature" to demand that Choate refrain from passing out literature on postal property, according to the ADF letter.

But Choate was standing near a flagpole some 40 feet away from the entrance, ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Jonathan Scruggs pointed out in a separate letter.

A USPS attorney responded, declaring that Choate had violated 39 C.F.R. § 232.1(e) – a disturbances provision – because some customers reported being "annoyed" with Choate’s actions.

According to Scruggs, however, Choate was peacefully offering passers-by a tract. If they rejected or refused the tract, he allegedly let them go without following or harassing them.

ADF asserts that the post office is misinterpreting their policies in a way that obstructs a citizen's constitutional rights. Attorneys also contend in the lawsuit that the provision unconstitutionally gives postal employees “unbridled discretion to prohibit peaceful literature distribution anytime they or a customer finds Choate’s message or viewpoint objectionable.”

"The post office isn't above the law and cannot take away citizens' constitutionally-protected rights just because it or its customers might not agree with the content of someone's speech or literature," stated Kellum.

Hobby Lobby donates California ranch to Rick Warren's church

News OK

Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby is donating a 170-acre ranch to a California megachurch led by one of the nation's most prominent ministers.

Tuesday, the national arts and crafts retailer disclosed its donation of the Rancho Capistrano property to Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., where the Rev. Rick Warren is senior pastor.

Warren is renowned for having authored the best-seller “The Purpose-Driven Life,” his international humanitarian initiatives and, in recent years, his mingling with U.S. presidents and other prominent leaders.

Hobby Lobby leaders said that Hobby Lobby has been leasing the ranch property to the church. Saddleback has been using the property as an overnight retreat center for personal renewal, group fellowship and life planning, as well as a pastoral training center and regional church.

The property was a gift in 1981 to Crystal Cathedral Ministries from Donna Crean and her late husband, John, founders of Fleetwood Enterprises. Under Crystal Cathedral Ministries, the ranch provided spiritual outreach through retreats and religious gatherings.

The Crystal Cathedral Ministries board voted to sell the property to Hobby Lobby, which agreed to lease the property to Saddleback.

The ranch is located 12 miles from the main Saddleback Church in Lake Forest.

“Rick Warren, his staff and the church's congregation have contributed to the Lord's work on this property, and we couldn't be more excited to donate this property to them,” David Green, Hobby Lobby founder and CEO, said Tuesday in a prepared statement.

“Pastor Warren's contributions to the world are long and inspirational, and we hope this transaction adds to his church's legacy of producing good in the world and providing hope to many.”

In a news release, Warren said many lives have been changed at the Rancho Capistrano property.

“We thank Hobby Lobby for this wonderful gift and look forward to seeing more lives changed through our ministry here.”

Saddleback Church, founded by Warren and his wife Kay in 1980, has eight campuses across Southern California, in addition to the main church in Lake Forest. Other church sites are in Corona, Irvine, Laguna Woods, Orange, Huntington Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Anaheim and San Clemente.