2010 Devotions: Chinese Checkers - Isaiah 62 v 1

Isaiah 62:1     For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.

We hear a lot about religious terrorists and faith fanatics in the news, but how often do we hear or read about religious persecution and prisoners of faith? You will perhaps remember that I boycotted the Chinese Olympic Games because just miles from the glorious athletic stadiums, a Chinese Christian called Alimujiang Yimiti, had been arrested for distributing Bibles and leading a house church. Whilst the world was in awe of the athletic games, this good man was languishing in a Beijing cell for sharing the same Gospel that we believe in.

Well, after spending two years in prison, even although the Chinese Communist government had promised to be more tolerant of Christians in order to host the Olympics, Alimujiang has been sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment and hard labor. He was found guilty of ‘providing state secrets to overseas organizations;’ in other words, because the West had knowledge of his arrest and imprisonment through organizations like Voice of the Martyrs, he was unjustly and inhumanely imprisoned.

I will not keep silent about this. The Chinese Communist government is one of the most heinous, inhumane, and wicked authorities that has ever existed. Our Western leaders placate and appease them because we are financially indebted to China, but these militaristic monsters and religious persecutors should be exposed for what they are and excluded from the United Nations, the Olympic Games, and other international organizations and sports until they free the thousands of Christians like Alimujiang Yimiti.

I will continue to pray for his freedom, but I will also pray for the downfall of the cowardly Communist regime in China. I will not keep silent or remain quiet till China’s righteousness, through the courageous Christian Church, shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a blazing torch.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, our faith is so secure and cozy compared to that of Christians in other lands. We take so much for granted and forget that each day our brothers and sisters in the faith are being harassed, arrested, unjustly tried, and inhumanely imprisoned for the same beliefs that we profess to have. Liberate the souls Lord that are languishing in prison for You. Bring down the bad governments that bully, berate, and beat up Your people. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

4 Minute Daily Devotions: Prisoner for Christ

Our government is concerned about torturing terrorists over here, but what about human rights abuses taking place against Christians in China?

Click on Podcast version here

Deuteronomy 26:6     But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor.

Before last summer’s Olympics, I wrote to you about a Chinese Christian, Alimujiang Yimiti, who had been arrested in January 2007 for preaching the Gospel. He was one of the reasons that I boycotted the Games in China. I couldn’t stomach the fact that whilst the whole world was marveling at the Olympics, a Christian brother was languishing in a Chinese jail just because he was a preacher like me.

A couple of days ago, word came out that Yimiti was still in prison and is very, very sick. On March 31, Alimujiang was seen with his hands bound being roughly escorted by police and a prison doctor. He shouted, "I'm sick. Tell my lawyer to come quickly to see me."

I personally think that it is both despicable and deplorable that a fellow Christian is being maltreated in this way. In recent weeks, our own government has deplored the use of torture on terrorists. I wonder when the same leaders and politicians will make a similar stand against the human rights abuses that are going on in China today. It’s one thing to pose for the cameras and take a posture against human rights violations over here; it seems to me that because China holds a lot of our national debt, our government is afraid to speak out and do something about those atrocities over there.

I pray that Alimujiang gets better and that one day he is released back to his distraught family and Christian friends. It is important that we Western Christians, who tend to have a much easier life and greater freedom of religion, should never forget that our brothers and sisters in Christ are being harassed and hunted down, persecuted and imprisoned, tortured and even executed for the same beliefs that we often take for granted.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, today we pray for Alimujiang Yimiti and his family. We ask that You will heal him of his sickness and rescue him from his persecutors. We pray for his release back into his community and church. May we continually remind ourselves that if not for the grace of God and the land of our birth, we could have faced the same mistreatment for having the same faith. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Why I’m Boycotting the Olympics - Reason #3: Christians being targeted

Breaking news from China reveals that authorities are clamping down on Roman Catholics who wish to worship at a Marian shrine during the month of May. The xenophobic Chinese leaders fear Christians mingling together for worship because they are afraid that it might lead to protests.

Here’s what Bernardo Cervella had to write in yesterday’s edition of Spero News

There is a subtle war underway against pilgrimages to the Marian shrine of Sheshan, the national Chinese shrine that is typically visited during the month of May. The war is being waged by the government and by the Patriotic Association (PA). Both "recommend" (meaning: order) that people not visit Sheshan for the entire month of May.

The government cites safety problems, while the PA does not give any reason, but wants to block any mingling among official and underground Catholics, who meet each other every year at the shrine, above all on May 24, the feast of Mary Help of Christians, to whom the church of Sheshan is dedicated. Moreover, this year Benedict XVI has asked Chinese Catholics to celebrate May 24 as a Day of Prayer for the Church in China, praying for its unity and for its persecutors (cf. Letter to the Chinese Catholics, no. 19).

For the entire month of May, the local government of Shanghai has placed restrictions on traffic and the movement of the faithful on the roads to Sheshan, about 50 kilometres southwest of the city.

According to reports sent to AsiaNews, the authorities have also asked the various dioceses, especially Shanghai, Wenzhou, Ningbo - the dioceses closest to the shrine - not to go on pilgrimage this month.

Read the rest of the report here…

How To Tame a Dragon

The Olympic Games are just a season away and within the next couple of weeks athletes from around the world will be competing for places on their national teams. For years, many of these young people will have been preparing themselves to physically and mentally peak during this summer. They will have lofty ambitions and seek to gain international reputations by the winning coveted medals for their countries.

They will represent the best of humanity’s strongest, fastest and most competitive people. They are the elite athletes of the world. Throughout the summer, the hype, publicity, and commercial exploitation of the Games will take place in practically every nation on earth. Theoretically, it will be a time to lay down our arms and pick up our running shoes. It is a quadrennial event when we aspire as a species to live at peace with one another and joyfully compete. The Games symbolize the greatness, grandeur, and godliness of humankind.

But there is a shadow over this year’s Games. The host nation, China, is an unworthy venue for the Olympics. China’s human rights abuses, religious persecutions, and contempt for democracy and liberty makes it the 21st century’s equivalent of Nazi Germany. Despite giving assurances that they would do something about these internal problems eight years ago, the Chinese authorities have instead increased their inhumane practices of political executions, religious intolerance, and tyrannical policing of their nation.

In a civilized world, the evil excesses of China should not be condoned by presenting the Games in the heart of an oppressive regime. The dictatorship of Communist China dishonors the heart, spirit, and majesty of the Olympics. They are abusing the privilege of hosting the World. They should be held accountable for their human rights atrocities and boycotted for their abuse of religious minorities.

I will not watch the Olympics, nor will I esteem any new sporting records or applaud any athletes who accomplish their goals. I will not buy into the “let’s keep politics out of sports’ mentality that passes for civilized sophistry amongst sports commentators, newspapers, and television channels. China, under its present totalitarian leadership, is a bloody stain upon human rights and freedom. I will not make myself a hypocrite by watching an oppressive nation use the Olympics as propaganda to deceive its own people.

In the 20th century, the whole world made terrible mistakes by allowing Nazi Germany to host the Olympics. It seems that in the dawn of this new century, we are about to embark on a course that will see us make the same mistakes. If there is no boycott of the Games by our leaders, then we had better prepare ourselves for war in the next decade, because the Beijing will treat our acquiescence as decadent weakness, just as Hitler did in the 1930s.

Remember this: after the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games, the tyrannical Soviet Union collapsed within a decade; but three years after the participation of all nations at the 1936 Berlin Games, the World was involved in total war.

If we do not learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat history.

Pray for China

By: George Conger.

A COALITION of Christian advocacy groups has issued a call to prayer for the persecuted Christian Churches of China following a meeting in Zurich on March 28.

The Zurich Statement “reaffirms the solidarity of the international Christian community with the Chinese faithful, especially the persecuted house church” movement, Bob Fu of the China Aid Association said. “We pray the true religious freedom in China will finally be realized soon.”

The members of the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP) noted that since the dark days of the Cultural Revolution there had been “advances in religious freedom in China” and that the Communist Party’s recent affirmation that “religious believers have an important role to play in the development of society” were welcome steps forward.

China’s burgeoning Christian population could not be considered a subversive foreign element, the Zurich Statement said, as Chinese Christians were “law-abiding citizens” committed “to the development of the nation of China.” Official statistics published by China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) state there are 10 million Protestants and 4 million Catholics in China. However, China Aid reports the number of unofficial Christians being 10 times as large.

In a briefing for Community Party cadres and academics held last year in Peking, SARA director Yie Xiaowen reported there were 110 million Protestants and 20 million Catholics in China at the close of 2006. In 1949 there were an estimated 750,000 Chinese Protestants, many of whom subsequently fled to Taiwan and Hong Kong following the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces.

Read the rest of the report here…

Unholy Ban: Why I am Boycotting the 2008 Olympic Games

Audio Version here

Next year, the Olympic Games take place in Beijing, China. Thousands of athletes from around the world will gather together to compete for the highest awards in their individual sports. Billions of viewers will tune in to see their favorite sportsmen and sportswomen, hoping that they will win medals for their country. Throughout the three week event, the world will seem to be at one.

But will it? A couple of days ago, the Chinese authorities declared that no religious icons or items will be allowed in the Olympic Campus. Crosses and sacred medallions, Bibles and Korans will be excluded from the Olympic area. The atheistic Communist government is banning religion from the Games, which goes against the Olympic spirit of tolerance. The Chinese leaders want to impose their will on the rest of the world. Now that they have secured the Olympics in their nation, there seems to be nothing that can be done.

Eight years ago, if the Chinese had announced that they were going to impose a religious ban on all the athletes attending the Games, Beijing would never have been chosen to host the 2008 Olympics. I think that this is outrageous and the rest of the world should protest against this. If China wants all the nations of the world to converge in their capital for these international games, then China should accept all the religious baggage that comes with it. To deny athletes the right to bring along articles of faith that may have inspired them is wrong. The mighty dragon may wish to keep their people mainly atheistic, but they cannot impose their will on the rest of the world. Christians and Jews, Muslims and Buddhists, Shintoists and even pagans all have the unalienable human right of practicing their own religion wherever they are located.

I think our leaders should pressure the Chinese Government into backing down from this denial of human rights. If not, then religious people everywhere should seriously consider boycotting the Games entirely. I, for one, will not be watching the Games or show any interest in them until this religious ban is lifted.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, there are forces in the world that seek to deny religious freedom and any expression of faith. Help us to stand up against those authorities that would seek to deny basic human rights and actively oppress religious people. Give us the courage to profess the truth and not accept these shameful ways. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.