Fushan church attack condemned by Chinese house church leaders

The incident occurred a week ago on Sept. 13 when some 400 people in police suits raided the "Good News Cloth Shoes Factory," which served as the site for the Fushan Church. The mob used bulldozers to destroy the brick buildings and physically attacked church members sleeping at the construction site of a new church building using bricks and other objects. Over 100 people were injured in various degrees. Some members were unconscious, while others needed blood transfusions or oxygen masks.

Members of Fushan Church, reportedly numbering 80,000, arrived hours later for church service and were shocked to find the buildings completely destroyed.

The attack on the house church has been described as unprecedented in nature because of the scale of destruction and the brutality of the attack against church members.

The Chinese House Church Alliance (CHCA), a network of house church pastors and congregations based in Beijing, issued a formal statement on Sept. 21, concerning the Fushan attack, declaiming the government's actions, and calling attention to their right to religious freedom--as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

CHCA leaders said they were compelled to take action: "As Christian brothers and sisters of the victims, we are deeply concerned and pray earnestly for them..."T hey affirmed the status of Linfin-Fushan house church as a strong and faithful congregation of believers, asserting the family status of all Christians.

The CHCA Statement further itemizes the abuses of the church by the local government, under the authority of the law, and the God-granted responsibility of service to the people.

"The government has committed a crime against civil property, civil rights and religious freedom; it is ironic propaganda that the local government [claims to be] 'for the people'."

The statement also lamented how the attack brought bad reputation of the Chinese nation; "This incident has strikingly marred China's image in the international community; it [has] destroyed the judicial integrity and dignity of China and demonstrated the tragedy of refusing to rule the country by law..

"We hope the local government will not humiliate the Chinese people by their wicked behaviors," the statement concluded.

Under pressure from the central government, local Chinese officials from Fushan city secretly offered to pay $219,000 (1.5 million yen) in damages to the megachurch it leveled last week, ChinaAid reported.

ChinaAid calls on the international community to protest the brutal treatment of Chritians in China by praying and contacting offices in Fushan, which is supervised by Linfin city.

On the Web: www.chinaaid.org