{"id":587,"date":"2020-02-02T10:10:27","date_gmt":"2020-02-02T09:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=587"},"modified":"2020-02-02T10:10:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-02T09:10:27","slug":"persecuted-even-after-death-china-bans-christian-funerals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=587","title":{"rendered":"Persecuted Even after Death’ \u2013 China Bans Christian Funerals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Communist officials throughout China are using regulations that restrict religious freedom to also prohibit religious-themed funerals, even going so far as to arresting family members and stopping ceremonies mid-service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is quite adverse, and some believers don\u2019t even dare to accompany the deceased to the graveyard,\u201d an elder of a government-sanctioned Three-Self church\u00a0told Bitter Winter<\/a>, a religious watchdog.<\/p>\n

For example, in one city in the province of Henan, government officials passed regulations prohibiting \u201cvisiting groups, choirs, orchestras, and other groups\u201d from holding religious services anywhere except in a church. Such regulations are used to ban religious-themed funerals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government prohibits religious funerals, and doesn\u2019t allow church choirs or orchestras to perform during them,\u201d the Three-self church elder told Bitter Winter. \u201cPastors can only sneak into believers\u2019 homes for a hurried prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar stories of persecution have been related throughout China.<\/p>\n

In another village in the province of Henan, officials passed regulations that say ministers and other religious personnel should be \u201cstopped from using religion to intervene in citizens\u2019 weddings and funerals or other activities in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The funeral of a preacher in yet another location in Henan was stopped when policemen stormed the event and accused family members and friends of spreading \u201creligious propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Wuhan, the capital of the province of Hubei, the daughter of a woman who had just died was arrested while the family was arranging the funeral,\u00a0Bitter Winter reported<\/a>. Apparently, someone had reported the family to authorities. The daughter was released two days later — but only after the funeral had been held. The family was not allowed to include Christian customs and rituals in the ceremony. The woman had been a member of a state-sanctioned Three-Self church.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my father died, village officials threatened to arrest us if we didn\u2019t conduct a secular funeral. We did not dare to go against them,\u201d a villager in Henan told Bitter Winter. \u201cMy father had been a believer for several decades. He is persecuted even after death.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one city in the province of Zhejiang, communist officials passed new regulations that \u201cget rid of bad funeral customs and establish a scientific, civilized, and economical way of funerals,\u201d according to the text of the new rules, which went into effect Dec. 1. One specific regulation says that \u201cclerical personnel are not allowed to participate in funerals,\u201d and \u201cno more than ten family members of the deceased are allowed to read scriptures or sing hymns in a low voice,\u201d Bitter Winter reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cOfficials said that state laws prohibit religious funerals. We even didn\u2019t set up a cross on the tomb,\u201d a Three-Self church member said.<\/p>\n

Churches within China must register either with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (if they\u2019re Protestant) or the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. Because such congregations face extreme regulations, millions of Christians in the country worship in underground congregations.<\/p>\n

This article was culled from Christian Headlines<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Communist officials throughout China are using regulations that restrict religious freedom to also prohibit religious-themed funerals, even going so far as to arresting family members and stopping ceremonies mid-service. \u201cThe situation is quite adverse, and some believers don\u2019t even dare to accompany the deceased to the graveyard,\u201d an elder of a government-sanctioned Three-Self church\u00a0told Bitter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":596,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions\/596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}