Christianity crackdown in China as cross torn down and ‘demolished’ from church – VIDEO

Father Francis Liu has shared footage on social media of a holy cross being removed from the Hefei Christian Church in China’s Anhui province. On April 27 local authorities used large cranes to take down the symbol of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ from the oldest Christian establishment in the region.

The historic church was founded by American missionaries sent by Disciples of Christ In China in 1896.

In the surreal video, the bright red crucifix can be dangling in the night sky from a crane as groups of emotional worshipers watched on in horror.

In the background gatherers can be heard crying, one woman shouted: “the cross has been taken down, the cross is no more”.

Along with the video, Father Liu wrote on Twitter: “On April 27, 2020, the cross of the Christian Church in Hefei, Anhui was demolished!”

The Hefei Christian Church is the second centre to have its cross removed in the past fortnight.

On April 15 in the south-central Anhui province, the Feixi Sanhe Church also had its cross taken down.

According to a 2017 study by ChinaAid, a Texas-based Christian organisation, there have been more than 1,000 cases of religious persecution against Christians.

The report cited 1,256 cases of religious persecution against Christian worshipers.

The study found more than 3,700 people were detained, including 650 church leaders.

DON’T MISS

Pope Francis: Catholic church ‘will FALL’ if Benedict’s not halted [INSIGHT]
Oldest-known manuscripts from the Bible proven to be FAKE  [ANALYSIS]
Jesus Christ proof: Does this First century text prove the existence? [EXPLAINER]

According to the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based think-tank, there are around 67 million Christians in China.

This figure represents around five percent of the total population.

In Article 36 of the Chinese constitution its state’s citizens “enjoy the freedom of religious belief”.

However, for many religion is not widely practised and the Communist Party of China (CPC) is officially atheist.

The CPC is the political party of the People’s Republic of China led by President Xi Jinping.

The second-largest political party in the world prohibits its nearly ninety million party members from holding any religious beliefs.

Source: Read Full Article