A house church in China dared to defy government officials who tried to intimidate the members of the church into submission. In the end though, the officials appeared to have been the ones who got cowed by the Christians' show of resolve and unity, prompting them to step back.
The incident in Zhecheng County in Henan province happened in July, according to China Aid, an organisation dedicated to bringing awareness to religious freedom violations and support persecuted Christians in China.
In a report, China Aid says the Zhecheng County Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau issued a notice to Proclaiming Christ Church ordering it to stop its religious activities and remove all religious signs by July 20. The bureau accused the church of holding service without government approval even as it cited provincial religious affairs regulations that the church must follow.
Officials of the bureau also called on the Christian congregation to join the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), China's state-run church, instead.
As part of China's religious affairs regulations, congregations that join the TSPM must accept government supervision and obtain approval from the religious departments before they can hold any activity. Moreover, the TSPM explicitly bans its members from raising their children in the Christian faith, labelling the practice "brainwashing."
The Proclaiming Christ Church rejected the officials' demands, with hundreds of its members signing an appeal stating their intention to continue meeting and maintain all their religious signage.
The officials appeared to have been stunned by the show of defiance.
Fang Guojian, a church member, told China Aid that in the petition they signed, the church warned that it would go to Beijing directly if the county authorities act against them.
"We wrote a petition. After [the officials] saw it, they were afraid. In the letter, we wrote that we would go to Beijing; go to Beijing and appeal. Now, they are afraid, and they do not dare to provoke us," Fang said.
Fang said the church would continue to defy the authorities' orders. If the county officials start harassing the congregants, he said the church will send representatives to Beijing to legally defend their rights.
In its recent report, China Aid states that some 20,000 Chinese Christians suffered religious persecution in 2015 amid the continuing campaign by China's communist government to curb the growth of Christianity in the country.
