CHINA— China has pledged to change the face of world Christianity at a conference for pastors of state-controlled churches. China’s Communism Strategy aims to export a Communist-Christian hybrid around the world. This report is from Andrew Boyd.

China’s been trying to compel churches to adopt the atheist ideology of the Communist Party which denies the existence of God. A UK-based release international warns atheism and Christianity can never mix and says China’s policy is a smokescreen to mask increasing persecution. A conference for state-appointed pastors of the government-controlled Free Self Church was broadcast throughout the nation.

Rallying cry to change the face of world Christianity was greeted with thunderous applause. So what does this atheist take on Christianity look like in China itself? Tightening state control has led to the tearing down of more than a thousand crosses from official churches and imprisoning pastors, along with Chinese lawyers who try to defend their legal right to display the cross of Christ on their churches. The Communist Party has insisted that pictures of Mao and President Xi Jinping are displayed in churches, and lately demanded that a hammer and sickle be put up alongside a church sign in Zhejiang province.

Pastors who take up offerings have been arrested for fraud or illegal business operations. China Watch’s Bitter Winter point out that thousands of Christians each year vote with their feet to leave the state-controlled church and join illegal house churches, where they face surveillance and imprisonment for exercising their freedom of faith.

Bob Fu is president of Release International partner China Aid. He said despite the persecution, the church in China is growing.

Bob Fu:

Purdue University estimates the number of Christians in China today has already, at minimum, they said, reach to over 100 million. Some actually said as many as 130 million. That’s almost 10% of China’s population.

In choosing to pair atheist communism with Christianity, China should heed the lesson of nature, that when you combine different species, their offspring are nearly always sterile. Release International warns China’s atheist version of Christianity will be a dead end.

About Release International

Release International is a Christian ministry working through local church partners in around 30 countries across the world, helping persecuted Christians prayerfully, pastorally and practically. The ministry was founded in 1968, inspired by the testimony and ministry of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand. Following the demise of Communism in Eastern Europe and the increase in the persecution of Christians elsewhere in the world, the Ministry broadened its activities and changed its name to Release International.

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