China plans to end house churches

Originally published in Worthy Christian News

China’s closure of a dozen churches in Hainan Province while threatening to close many more strongly suggests that the Communist government has a clandestine plan to eliminate all unregistered house churches, according to the China Aid Association.

“The government is carrying out its plans to ‘eradicate’ the independent house church movement, a crackdown that would affect up to 100 million people,” CAA President Bob Fu said in a press release. “China Aid expresses its shock and concern that the relevant administrative departments of the Hainan government are systematically closing down house churches. Recent reports from many other provinces and regions indicate that the same thing is happening to house churches elsewhere as well, further confirming China Aid’s report last year of the intensification of the Chinese government’s secret 10-year plan to eradicate house churches.”

According to the CAA report, China has already initiated a three-phase plan to eradicate all unregistered house churches by forcing them to join the official Three-Self Patriotic Movement system.

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During the first phase from January to June, the State Administration for Religious Affairs had secretly investigated all of China’s unregistered house churches. In the second phase, these churches will begin to be shut down while their leaders are sent to labor camps for allegedly “organizing and using a cult to undermine law enforcement”.

House churches that join the TSPM will be renamed “house gatherings”. Although some house churches have already joined the TSPM to avoid further harassment, most congregations refuse to join because of the Chinese government’s censorship of sermon content, according to Morning Star News.

The third and last phase is predicted to span 2015 to 2025 after which time the government will shut down all unregistered house churches that still haven’t joined the TSPM.

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