Source: www.ChinaAid.org
Date: July 16, 2021
(Guiyang, Guizhou Province—July 16, 2021) Recently, as a Guiyang City house church held a memorial service for an elderly Christian at a local funeral home Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials raided the venue, and forcibly confiscated religious memorabilia. After changing the arrangements the senior’s family had made, prior to invited guest arriving, CCP authorities removed the tablecloth imprinted with the symbol of a cross, and insignia, “God loves people,” “Rest in peace,” etc. Officials banned praying, singing hymns, and reading the Scriptures from the service.
The next day, CCP personnel monitored the funeral home’s entrance, prohibiting Christians from bringing musical instruments (including an electronic keyboard) into the funeral home. Officials threatened members of the band, “You are responsible for the results if you bring any musical instruments in….”
Dissimilarly, while intensely cracking down Christianity, CCP authorities approve local customs/practices of Buddhism and Daoism, which include clanging gongs and beating drums, as well as burning incense, and kowtowing,* and accepts them. One Christian professing to have been a Christian for 20 years, who had attended several dozens of memorial services held either in the urban or rural area, had never witnessed CCP authorities forcibly confiscate religious memorabilia, nor of them maliciously raiding, razing, and ruining a memorial service venue.
~Yu Bing, ChinaAid Special Reporter
*worship or submissive practice, kneeling and touching the ground with one's forehead as part of Chinese custom