There are two big stories in Christian media today where several churches are being destroyed around the world and, in some cases, their members attacked.
The first one is in China where the communist government destroyed a church that sat 3,000 people:
CHRISTIAN POST – The People’s Republic of China destroyed a church that reportedly could seat 3,000 people and detained its pastors, according to a human rights organization.
China Aid, an international nonprofit Christian human rights group based in Texas, reported the incident in a statement released Saturday. According to the group, Chinese authorities provided no legal papers to justify the demolition.
The church was located in Funan, Anhui province. Its pastors, Geng Yimin and Sun Yongyao, were detained under suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disturb social order.”
China Aid President Bob Fu said in a statement that the incident was “yet another clear example showing the escalation of religious persecution today by the Chinese Communist regime.”
“The total disregard of religious freedom’s protection as enshrined in the Communist Party’s own Constitution tells the whole world President Xi is determined to continue his war against the peaceful Christian faithful. This campaign will surely fail in the end,” he continued.
While China’s persecution of religious groups has existed for many years, recently under President Xi Jinping a wave of crackdowns on religious practices in China has taken place.
The Communist government has destroyed or damaged several churches, reflecting concerns about the increasing Christian population of the country.
President Xi’s crackdown has been going on since 2017 and it appears to be getting worse as it continues.
There are also reports that they razed a church over the summer to the ground and replaced the Ten Commandments in other churches with Xi quotes:
In the summer, True Jesus Church in Henan province was razed to the ground, according to persecution watchdog Bitter Winter. Police officers reportedly dragged out all believers from the church before they demolished the property.
Bitter Winter also reported last month that the Ten Commandments have been removed from nearly every Three-Self church and meeting venue in a county of Luoyang city and replaced with the President Xi Jinping’s quotes as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to “sinicize” Christianity.
Now to Muslim Alergia, where they are also destroying churches and attacking worshipers:
CBN NEWS – Algerian government officials continued their brutal crackdown on a number of Christian communities, shuttering the doors to the largest protestant church in the country.
The 700-member-strong Church of the Full Gospel in Tizi-Ouzou was told by government officials that it would be shut down on Wednesday. But on Tuesday, as the congregants gathered for prayer and worship, national guard officers stormed the building.
According to Morning Star News, many members fled the building in fear, while others were forcibly dragged out. Pastor Salah Chalah, who heads up the Protestant churches in Algeria, attempted to intervene and protect his flock, but was summarily beaten by police.
Chalah told Morning Star that “the police intervened to force us out of our church—a church that exists and has been active legally and in the light since 1996.”
“It’s been 23 years that we exist in plain view; why wait until today to do so? May everyone know that we have been beaten and abused, including our sisters too, in our own premises for one reason only—our Christian faith,” he added. “And because that’s the cause of our pain, we’re proud of it.”
On the same day, the 500-member Source of Life Church in Makoud was also shut down.
Footage of the raid shows members singing “Hallelujah” as police stormed the premises.
They report that 15 churches have been closed since last year:
Out of the 46 protestant congregations in the country, some 15 have been closed since the start of last year.
According to Open Doors USA, there are just 125,000 Christians among a population of over 42 million.
I don’t know if this 125,000 includes Catholics. But what I do know is that the intolerance of Christianity in the world seems to be growing and that’s a scary thing.