Chinese house church
The Chinese house churches are house churches that make up part of Christianity in China . You have many millions of visitors. The number of its members is increasing. Many of the house churches belong to Protestantism in China . There is an overlap between the Chinese House Churches group and the Born Again group , Independent Churches in China , the Little Flock, and the Roman Catholic Church .
background
The original traditionally European Christianity in China suffered from a lack of Chinese clerics. With around 15,000 priests in the 1980s, there were hardly more priests on duty in the state-recognized churches than in 1949. This was by no means noticeable as a deficiency in the house churches, which rely on the participation of lay people and especially women; they also grew during the persecution of the Christian churches until 1979. Against their intention, the Cultural Revolution encouraged the expansion of the local churches, as many urban families were forced to temporarily send a child to the rural regions. When open religious activity was no longer prohibited in 1979, a large number of communities were also present in the regions. As early as 1989, official bodies spoke of Christianity fever , because contrary to the expectations of many, Christianity was by no means eradicated, but Protestantism in particular recorded considerable growth rates.
The situation of house churches in mainland China is not entirely free, but it has improved. China is ranked 37th in the Open Doors 2013 World Persecution Index . Therefore, the house churches emerged as underground churches.
However, the house churches are usually supported by the Chinese Christian Council with Bibles , hymn books and other scriptures, and the social and charitable work of many of their church members is recognized. The government not only wants to support the churches but also to control them; the unregistered communities complain about the lack of legal certainty in disputes with local officials. This is a general problem in China that is currently being dealt with by the highest party bodies. Amnesty International estimates several thousand arrests a year. Other estimates are close to 1,000 arrests. With over 25 million members of the house churches, these are individual cases, but disputes can very well lead to arrests. There are always arguments between the Vatican and the Chinese government, and the Pope has so far been unwilling to travel to China. Nevertheless, 85% to 90% of the bishops of the official "Catholic Patriotic Church of China" are now recognized by the Vatican, and the Pope has tried in recent years to mediate between the registered Catholics and the unregistered Catholics.
persecution
China analyst Ethan Gutmann points out in his book The Slaughter: Mass Murders, Organ Harvesting and China's Secret Solution to its Dissident Problem, published in August 2014 , that it is not only Falun Gong practitioners , Uyghurs and Tibetans that have been the target of the organ harvesting taking place in China. but also members of Christian house churches. This is confirmed again in the joint investigation report by former Canadian State Secretary and Crown Attorney David Kilgour , Canadian immigration attorney David Matas and China analyst Ethan Gutmann from June 2016.
Web links
- Amnesty international on the situation of Christianity in China ( memento of September 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), December 21, 2004
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.cip.nl/nieuwsbericht_detail.asp?id=13205
- ↑ http://www.cip.nl/nieuwsbericht_detail.asp?id=15323
- ↑ holyhome.nl ( Memento from June 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Dutch / Chinese)
- ^ A b c d e Alan Hunter, Kim-Kwong Chan: Protestantism in Contemporary China. Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 83ff.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.opendoors.de/weltverfolungsindex
- ↑ Hermann Gröhe: EKD delegation trip to China in 2004 ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ The Protestant Church in China, Gotthard Oblau; December 28, 2007 ( Memento of the original from January 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 22 kB)
- ↑ Amnesty International, Annual Report 2008 ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ German Evangelical Alliance, Most extensive persecution in 25 years, March 4, 2008
- ↑ Simon Elegant: The War For China's Soul ( Memento from September 13, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Time Magazine , August 20, 2006
- ↑ China's Christians before the Olympics, Deutschlandradio Kultur, Norbert Sommer August 2, 2008
- ↑ Barbara Turnbull: Q&A: Author and analyst Ethan Gutmann discusses China's illegal organ trade. Thestar.com, October 21, 2014, accessed May 23, 2017
- ↑ Thomas Nelson: The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvestings, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem by Ethan Gutmann. A Review by Thomas Nelson. International Affairs Review, 2014, web.archive.org, accessed May 23, 2017
- ↑ Will Pavia, Calum MacLeod: China is 'transplanting organs of executed prisoners' . The Times, June 23, 2016, accessed May 23, 2017
