One of the pastors taken into custody was Jin Mingri, also known as Ezra Jin, who is the founder of the Zion Church network. According to another article, critics believe this is a part of a bigger effort to halt underground churches and control religious ideologies.
Several U.S. officials have spoken out, including former Vice President Mike Pence. He posted on X Matthew 5:10 and wrote, “The Chinese Communist Party must release Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and other Christian leaders immediately. This attack on Christianity will not prevail.”
Bob Fu, a Chinese-American pastor and the founder of ChinaAid, spoke with Jody Hice on Washinton Watch about The China Communist Party (CCP) and it’s crackdown on Christians. Fu is the founder and president of China Aid Association and a senior fellow for International Religious Freedom at Family Research Council.
“On October 9th, within 72 hours, the Communist Party in China basically had launched a most coordinated, orchestrated by the central government, crackdown against the Chinese house church,” Fu said.
He says the government went after one of the largest urban house church networks, Zion Church. They have over 5,000 members across 40 cities in China, Fu says.
“Just because of the church's explosive growth, the Communist Party took this very unprecedented action -- since the cultural revolution of 40 some years ago -- by rounding up nearly 30 major church leaders, including the founder of this church, Pastor Ezra Jin, and many of the senior pastors across China,” explains Fu.
He says that these church leaders were taken “terrorist style” from their homes in front of their infant daughters, children, mothers, and family members.
Critics point out that the China’s constitution claims that they support and protect religious beliefs, but in reality, China is ignoring its own constitution. Fu agrees.
“Oh, this is a total violation of the Chinese Constitution, certainly. It's also a brutal violation against the international norms of the protection of religious freedom,” states Fu. “What happens in China shows that the CCP and its leadership, led by this Emperor Xi Jinping, has declared a war against the Christian faith.”
He emphases that hundreds of churches have been involved in this CCP crackdown, and within the last few months, pastors have been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
“Many of them are being accused of committing fraud for simply taking the offerings and tithing. The CCP basically criminalizing the tithing and offering of the churches for the first time since the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s,” reveals Fu.
In response to this, he comments that biblical history and the history of the revival of the Chinese church teaches that, where there is more persecution, there will be more revival. Pastor Ezra Jin has noted this, Fu said.
Pray for the persecuted pastors
“I think we need to pray for the perseverance, pray for the protection of those who are in jail as we remember those who are in bond, as if we are bonded with them, like Hebrew 13.3 told us,” says Fu.
He also calls for people to speak up for those in persecution, highlighting that political figures such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former Secretary of State Mike Pomeo, and former Vice President Mike Pence all have spoken out.
“(They) have already spoken against this violation and have called on the CCP to immediately release those innocent pastors who have done nothing wrong except preach the gospel and build a healthy civil society in China,” Fu said. “We need to pray for them.”
