The Chinese Saga of Olympic Shame Continues.... China sweeping
Christians out-- Biggest expulsion of missionaries since 1954

WND Exclusive FAITH UNDER FIRE

China sweeping Christians out
Biggest expulsion of missionaries since 1954

Posted: July 14, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

(c) 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

More than 100 foreign Christians in China have been accused of being
involved in illegal activities and have been expelled in just a 90-day
period, the biggest assault on the presence of Christianity in China
since 1954, according to a new report from the Voice of the Martyrs.

Most of those who have been expelled are from the United States, South
Korea, Singapore, Canada, Australia or Israel, and had been working in
or visiting Zinjiang, Beijing, Tibet and Shandong, according to the VOM
report.

A Christian who had worked in Xinjiang for 10 years told a VOM source
that more than 60 foreign religious workers, many who had served people
in the area for more than 15 years, were expelled from Zinjiang alone.

(Story continues below)

As WND reported a week earlier, officials also are reporting an increase
in arrests of Chinese house-church pastors and leaders, who have been
accused of being "suspects using evil cults to obstruct the enforcement
of the law."

VOM reported that the campaign against Christians is called Typhoon No.
5, and "is part of the Chinese government's efforts to prevent foreign
Christians from engaging in mission activities before the Beijing
Olympics in 2008."

Earlier, WND documented reports from VOM, which monitors and publicizes
instances of persecution of Christians worldwide, that a Christian was
jailed in China for no more than walking near the construction site of a
hotel being prepared for the 2008 events.

"This is the largest expulsion of foreign missionaries since 1954 when
the Chinese Communist government expelled all foreign religious workers
after taking power in 1949," reported a VOM source. "At least five
different mission agencies and sources within the Chinese government
report that in February, the government launched a massive expulsion
campaign against foreign Christians."

"In spite of the public face of religious freedom the Chinese government
tries to convey through its state run system, the arrests of Chinese
Christians, and now the expulsion of active Christian visitors is a
demonstration of their true nature," said Tom White, executive director
for Voice of the Martyrs.

The government's effort, however, is facing an uphill battle, because of
estimates, as WND has reported, that 3,000 people are being added daily
to the Christian church in China, mostly the house-churches that do not
register with the government and therefore are considered part of those
"evil cult activities."

Last week's reports raised concern over the house-church pastors who had
been arrested, and now are facing possible sentences to China's famous
"re-education" camps, and about the half dozen house-church leaders who
were arrested in one city. They are facing fines of about $1,500.

In China dissent is discouraged, and sometimes faces an outright ban. So
Christians who do not subscribe to official Chinese government religious
doctrine face harassment because their very presence is viewed by the
government as objectionable.

The Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, available through an online signup
process, is written to provide constant updates on the situations
Christians are facing in 2007.

"Because we are so free and so comfortable, a lot of us don't ask about
how it is for Christians in the rest of the world. We've never been
reminded, don't think about it, and sad to say in some cases, we don't
care," Todd Nettleton, a VOM spokesman, told WND.

Unlike the popular contemporary concept that the persecution of
Christians happened in biblical times and then ended, he said, such
attacks now are escalating in dozens of nations around the world.

But before supporters can get involved in the battles over steadfastness
in the faith, they have to understand what is developing, Nettleton said.

"One of our purposes is to be a wake-up call to the American church, and
say, 'Here's what reality is for our spiritual brothers and sisters in
restricted nations,'" he said of the newsletter.

Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry
working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith,
and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in
Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.

It was launched by Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who began smuggling
Bibles into eastern Europe and Asia in the 1940s. Shortly later Richard
was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his
refusal to recant Christianity.

He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about
the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security
Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound
scars on his body.

The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized
in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released.

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