Chinese Police Arrest Christians Zooming Easter Service
(
Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
AP Photo/Michael Conroy
THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.
18 Apr 2020
Chinese police raided the homes of members of the Early Rain Covenant Church on Easter Sunday, arresting six church leaders for participating in an online religious service via Zoom.
“At that time I was also in the Zoom call, but there was a long period of time where I did not hear a thing,” one church member
told persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern (ICC). “I thought it’s the network connection issue at first, but I soon heard a quarrel erupt. Our co-worker Wang Jun was questioning some people, ‘Who are you to do this [to us]?’”
Police disconnected the electricity in one of the homes and others were warned via phone calls that the security forces were coming.
Early Rain Covenant Church was first raided during a Sunday evening service in December 2018 after authorities claimed it violated religious regulations because it was not registered with the government.
Communist authorities shut down the 5,000-member Early Rain Covenant Church in December 2018 and
arrested its pastor, Wang Yi, along with his wife, Jiang Rong, and more than 100 members of his congregation. Wang was later sentenced to nine years in prison. Since the closing of the church, members have conducted worship services online . . .
. . . “Don’t participate in already banned [religious] activities anymore! Don’t listen to Pastor [Wang]’s sermons anymore! If you do this again, we will deal with it seriously and take you away!” Zhang reportedly said.
Since Sunday’s raid, all six church leaders who had been detained have been released and the electricity restored to the home where it was cut off.
As Breitbart News has
reported, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been using the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic as an excuse to intensify its crackdown on religion, bulldozing some churches and placing others under heavy surveillance.
“China is now holding itself up as a model for fighting the coronavirus. But fighting the pandemic hasn’t stopped communist officials from persecuting Christians,” . . .
www.breitbart.com