China Cracks Down on Would-be Easter Congregants

[cory777]

Source: VOA News

Chinese police detained up to 40 Christians who tried to converge at the site of a banned Easter service Sunday and placed 500 more under house arrest.

Police deployed in large numbers early Sunday in northwest Beijing, where the independent Shouwang Church planned to hold an outdoor service to mark the holiest day of the Christian calendar.

Church members say up to 40 congregants were rounded up to prevent them from reaching a park close to their former church building, which has been shut down by the authorities.

A VOA correspondent on the scene saw worshippers driven away in buses in the mass police operation. Police prevented foreign journalists from getting close.

Read more: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/China-Cracks-Down-on-Would-be-Easter-Congregants-120566439.html

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[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[xxqqqzme]

2. Fundraising fodder for

televangelists.

[Maat]

3. That's very sad - everyone should be allowed to worship ...

or not worship as they please, as long as they are not seriously harming someone.

What a pity you don't choose to stick up for human rights.

[1620rock]

4. +1000

[theHandpuppet]

13. I agree

And I'm an atheist.

[MellowDem]

5. Wow...

that's perhaps the douchiest post of Easter. Congrats.

And the bigotry keeps on rollin....

[DaDeacon]

6. This Scarletwoman, is why I can't get behind your post!

Ya see this and I know that while many post are just throwing a jab to those who proclaim an illogical allegiance to dogma over logic or compassion, this kinda of thing is why I can't get behind someone who is "OK" with mocking belief as just "a thing to do." The American freedom to worship (or not) is a powerful thing. The reason it is so can be demonstration by a story like this one. While this story may have Christians as the oppressed it serves the same lesson to any one who cares for the rights of people to be free of intolerance and oppression. I do not care about what straw men you wish to burn down on the subject of religious intolerance committed by this person of one faith vs. group x because in the end oppression and mistreatment is awful no mater who does it and to make it less so because it's a person of faith is weak sauce.

[Proletariatprincess]

7. History will tell what was the most successful policy.

The USA is a very young country and is facing it's demise in short order. China has lasted thousands of years.
In principal, freedom of worship is certainly the most enlightened track, but it hasn't saved us from religious extremeism and, in my opinion, an unhealthy connection to our politics. The history of the Western world has been full of strife brought about by organized religion. Banning all organized religion is not an option for us, but it is declining in every western country except the USA.
The chinese have chosen another route and who are we to say that it will not serve that society better in the long run? We just don't know. But believers always think they have all the answers anyway. I just wish that religion was as private and personal as one's most intimate relationships and nobody elses business. Even in China there would be nothing to complain about.
As George Carlin said: Religion is in your heart and God is in the bushes.

[joshcryer]

10. 86% of American adults identified as Christians in 1990 and 76% in 2008.

A decline of 5% a decade is significant.

[pnorman]

12. I'm a proud part of that "NONE OF THE ABOVE".

(The fastest growing "sect" in the USA). But I am OUTRAGED at that news item!

[Nolimit]

15. China hasn't had the exact same policy for thousands of years

Until relatively recently the Chinese have had emperors that served as religious figures. If the emperor is revered as holy, no need to worry about how to control the people. The Communist Party of China has essentially taken that role. Any unregulated worship is seen as a threat to rule the Party has, similar to how medieval European sovereigns had to compete with the Pope. They value a harmonious society over individual freedoms. Atheism is the state religion in North Korea but any amount of research shows that the Kim dynasty is pretty much worshiped.

[DRoseDARs]

8. I wonder if anyone will notice the sarcasm tag in your post through all their tut-tutting...

For all the persecution complex US fundamentalists like to pretend they face to the point of orgasm - seriously, look at them, they get off on it - Chinese Christians face real, factual, ACTUAL persecution. And you can bet your sweet bippy that if you point out the incongruity to them, the US fundies will sputter like imbeciles and accuse you of ...wait for it... persecuting them.

I got the sarcasm. I wonder how many others will.

[Psephos]

9. Despite what you say, you didn't "get" the sarcasm.

Quite the opposite.

Rage for Order is sneering at people arrested for peaceable worship by their government.

What we really need is an irony tag.

[hardcover]

14. And if these were Muslims I wonder what your reaction would be.

[Duer 157099]

11. And yet millions of fundies here in America buy all their Easter crap from WalMart

and never, ever, ever, ever see any connection or irony.