BEIJING, Sep. 21, 00 (CWNews.com) - A leader in China's state-controlled Protestant association on Thursday defended the Communist government's record on religion and said tight control is necessary to ward off invasive foreign influences.
Deng Fucun, vice chairman of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of Protestant Churches, said religion in China was thriving under «patriotic» churches set up by the officially atheist government. «As to whether there is religious freedom in China, I think the figure of 15 million Protestants is self-evident,» Luo Guanzong, head of the Three-Self group.
The Communist Chinese government requires Christians to worship only in state-controlled associations including the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which eschews any connections to the Vatican or the Pope. Many Catholics worship in illegal, underground churches following only bishops appointed by the Pope.
The rare public statement on religion in China follows recent reports of arrests and persecutions of Christians in China, including the arrests and beatings of Catholic bishops, priests, and laypeople of the underground Catholic Church in recent weeks, as well as a US State Department report on religions freedom.
The Chinese officials said foreign governments are trying to use religion to control China. «Even now, some hostile forces are still unwilling to see the Chinese church develop independently,» said the Rev. Cao Shengji, vice president of the China Christian Council. Deng said the Patriotic Associations made Christianity acceptable to China which associated Western missionaries with «opium traders and spies» and 19th century Western imperialists.
Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs