The existence of house church is really in comparison of the existence of the so-called Three Self Church, which is a government-sanctioned Protestant church denomination, we can call it. It’s called Three Self Patriotic Movement. They enjoy the government protection, you can call it.
But the majority of Chinese Protestant Christians choose to worship in the house, in their own houses. And that’s why it’s called “house church.” And it’s from 50 to 60 million members. And most of the house churches worship independent of the government control. So by that nature, they’re subject to persecution at any time. And they were declared as illegal according to the government definition of legal status.
And we, as house church members, we have to be careful. And usually we worship – it depends on the city or in the countryside. If it’s in the countryside, you worship in the early morning. You pray for two hours. And then on Sunday, or even Saturday, you have the worship time for a long time. And almost all of the leaders had been persecuted in one way or another. And it’s most of the senior leaders had experienced long term imprisonment.
And the pastor who married my wife and I, Pastor Alan Yuan, from Beijing, had experienced a 22-years and 8-months imprisonment. And the pastor who actually baptized me was imprisoned for 17 years. And among the house church pastoral leadership there’s a loose network. And there is a famous saying that the first theological course for the house church pastors is called “Prison Theology.”
So everyone has to taste the imprisonment as their first theological course for their faith. And of course Chinese government regarded the house church movement as a political threat. And it is really a misunderstanding, I think. But that’s how the house church pastors and leadership had been treated. And the members are always subject for persecution.
In terms of the differences or relationship between the government-sanctioned Three Self Patriotic Movement Church and the independent house church movement, I would say, I mean, the vast majority of those members who are worshiping in the government-sanctioned churches are evangelical Christians.
But the leadership which mean this Three Self Patriotic movement, their central leadership, provincial and local leadership, this TSPM organization, and the other one is called Chinese Christian Council (CCC), they are really nothing but a political organization just with a religious uniform. And many of them are undoubtedly Communist Party members or secret Communist Party members. So they choose to be more loyal to the Party’s interest than to the believer’s interest.
Actually, President [George W.] Bush and Secretary [of State Condoleezza] Rice both attended that church called Gangwashi Church in Beijing. But the former pastor, Pastor Yang, was publicly, in front of the congregation, removed by force by the government’s Religious Affairs Bureau officials, just simply because the church grew too fast and he baptized some young people who were under 18 years old, which is a violation of the government’s religious policy. And he was kicked out.
So we have to organize our own independent churches from that time on. And I think the younger generation of Chinese house church Christians are more willing to work together and to worship with the believers in the government-sanctioned churches because they don’t have the historical baggage.
And of course the leadership of the TPSM and the CCC remain, you know, the same. I think the difference today still remains. And in some areas the current leadership of the TSPM even participated in the persecution against their fellow house church brother and sisters. So it’s going to be very hard to have, you know, if you call it a reconciliation, unless they choose to be independent and more faithful to their faith than to their political affiliation.
Bob Fu was a leader in the student democracy movement at Tiananmen Square in 1989. He later converted to Christianity and became a house church pastor and a founder, along with his wife Heidi, of a Bible school. In 1996, he was arrested and jailed for running a secret bible school. After his release, he and his wife escaped to Hong Kong. They were admitted to the United States as refugees a few days before the handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China in 1997.
Fu founded the China Aid Association (CAA) in 2002. CAA monitors and reports on religious freedom in China, particularly focusing on the fate of believers who belong to banned or unofficial house churches, which encompass 60 to 80 million followers. CAA issues frequent news releases on cases of religious persecution involving Protestant house church congregations and assists victims to assert their right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religious practice in China.
CAA also provides a forum for discussion and information exchange among experts on religion, law, and human rights in China through its bilingual journal, the China Law & Religion Monitor, and a bilingual website. Its headquarters are in Midland, Texas, where Fu now lives and works.
The People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, after a decades-long civil war between communist and nationalist forces. The communist victory drove the nationalist government to the island of Taiwan. While tensions have eased in recent years, both the nationalist and communist forces still claim to rule all of China. China ranks as the world’s third largest country by area, and the largest by population, with over 1.3 billion people.
Since 1949, China has been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. Revolutionary leader Mao Zedong led the country until his death in 1976. Mao’s era was marked by dramatic swings in policy, massive crackdowns on perceived opponents of the regime, and harsh repression. Since 1976, the Chinese government has broken with Marxist economic orthodoxy by instituting limited market-based reforms, but the party has retained its monopoly on political power.
Freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and religion are severely restricted, and the people of China are denied the right to change their government. The courts are controlled by the Communist Party and do not provide due process of law. Government control extends into every aspect of people’s lives, most notably in the one-child policy in which unauthorized pregnancies often result in forced abortion and sterilization. While technology has spread quickly in recent years, Freedom House ranks China as one of the three most repressive governments in the world in terms of Internet freedom.
While the rapid expansion of the private sector has dramatically changed the Chinese economy, fundamental principles of free market systems are lacking, including property rights and independent labor unions. Official corruption remains a major obstacle to developing a fully free economy.
In 1989, 100,000 people gathered in a peaceful demonstration in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to protest human rights violations and demand democratic reforms. The protest lasted several weeks and inspired similar nonviolent demonstrations in other cities throughout China. On June 4, 1989, the People’s Liberation Army converged on the area with troops, tanks, and other advanced military weapons. Estimates of the death toll ranged from several hundred to several thousand. The army used similar tactics to suppress demonstrations in other cities and subsequently rounded up and imprisoned many thousands of protestors. The government vigorously defended these actions and instituted a campaign to purge those who had sympathized with protestors from the party and the government.
Although the Tiananmen Square massacre put an end to hopes for a speedy transition to democracy, courageous Chinese citizens have continued to risk imprisonment and worse to demand freedom. These human rights activists have included students, workers, lawyers, artists, and writers; Tibetan Buddhists and Uyghur Muslims who demand respect for their cultures, traditions, and religious practices; members of the spiritual discipline known as Falun Gong; Catholics who insist that their church is headed by the Pope rather than by government-appointed religious officials; and members of the “house church” movement, representing millions of Protestant Christians who are forced to worship in secret because their churches are not authorized by the government. China’s many prisoners of conscience include members of each of these groups.
In 2010, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to imprisoned Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo. His wife was arrested in order to prevent her from attending the award ceremony, and the government employed a range of coercive techniques to prevent other human rights activists from attending. China’s leading human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, disappeared in early 2009 and is presumed to be in government custody.
The most recent Freedom in the World report from Freedom House gave China scores of 6 for civil liberties and 7 for political rights, where 1 is the highest and 7 the lowest possible score. Freedom House categorizes China as a “Not Free” country.
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