Yesterday I was walking out of a market in Westmoreland and my eye caught the headline on this freebie newspaper by the door "Chinese Communist Party Members Increasingly Attend Church."
The article cites a recent US State Department report on International Religious Freedom:
"Although CCP members are required to be atheists and generally are discouraged from participation in religious activities, their attendance at official church services in Guangdon Province was reportedly growing, as authorities increasingly chose to turn a blind eye to their attendance."
The article goes on to quote Representative Frank Wolf (R.-VA) who authored the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and is well aware of this growing trend. "But it is taking place," he states, "that's why you're going to see the ultimate collapse of the Chinese government because of the faith community growing so dramatically."
This includes Protestants, Catholics (esp those loyal to the Vatican and not the propped Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association), and Muslims while the crackdown on certain sects such as Tibetan Buddhism and certain Christian "house churches" continues.
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