Chinese house church Christians have a paradoxical view of their country, says the head of Open Doors USA who recently returned from a fact-finding trip to China during the Olympic Games.
Although leaders of the unregistered Christian community are critical of the Chinese Government's restrictions on religious freedom, they remain highly patriotic, Dr Carl Moeller told The Christian Post on Thursday.
"The overwhelming emotion from the house church leader was a great deal of pride that the Olympics had shown China as a generally positive place," said the ministry head, whose group assists persecuted churches around the world.
"In some ways it seemed paradoxical to me that they seemed pleased with the way the Olympics had come off," he said, "but they were also quite open about the fact that they had suffered restrictions and in some cases even been called into questioning during this time."
The Olympic Games has in some ways been a mixed blessing to house church Christians in China.
With the international spotlight on them, Olympic host China was under greater scrutiny and pressure to improve its record on human rights, including religious freedom.
But in practice, crackdowns intensified as China attempted to contain dissenters who would show the world a less-than-perfect image of the country.
In 2007, there were a total of 60 counted cases of house church persecutions by the government in 18 provinces, up from 46 cases in 2006, according to the annual report by China Aid Association. The number of people arrested and detained increased 6.6 per cent last year compared to two years ago, from 650 to 693.
In the weeks ahead of the Games, officials had asked house church pastors to sign a document promising to cease their activities until the Games ended. If they broke the agreement, they would face "disciplinary action".
