According to CCC/TSPM News, on November 18, 2013, the China-US Protestant Church Leaders Forum, jointly sponsored by CCC/TSPM (Chinese Christian Church/Three-Self Patriotic Movement) and Graham Evangelistic Association, was held in Shanghai. This was the second such forum after it was first held in Washington, D.C. on September 27, 2011.
Same as the Cross-Straight Christian Forum held in Taiwan at the end of August of this year, this is another United-Front pageant by the CCP United Front Ministry and government-controlled church. The only difference is the change in target from Taiwan to the American Christian society. It is well known that this kind of forums are tools for CCP to take advantage of the universality of Christianity in its attempt to engage in United-Front tactics, to forge an illusion of religious freedom in China in front of the international society, to cover up the real situation of House Church being persecuted. It is such a pity that a few Christians in the international society have been fooled and taken advantage of.
Same as the Cross-Straight Christian Forum, this time, the so-called representatives of Chinese Christian society are uniformly from the government-controlled church, none from Chinese House Church. The officials from the United Front Ministry and CCP/TSPM even shameless claimed as the leaders of Chinese Christian society. However, House Church, with three or four times of followers as that of the official church, was excluded from this forum. Many House Church leaders who have firm belief, big social influence, and praises from the international society, did not give a chance to attend the forum. In fact, without participation of leaders from House Church, it could not constitute a real China-US Protestant Church Leaders Forum. This forum once again demonstrated Chinese religious authority’s silly act to completely deny the existence of Chinese House Church, to continuously make House Church remain “illegal and covert” despite that the whole world knows about the House Church in China.
Same as the Cross-Straight Christian Forum, this forum had no topics in religious freedom and persecution of Chinese Christians. Instead, “reconciliation” once again became the main theme. According to CCC/TSPM News, “After the opening ceremony, Pastors Gao Feng（高峰） and Billy Graham made speeches around the theme of Reconciliation-Gospel. Through elaboration on the concept of ‘harmony’ in both Chinese and Western cultures, Pastor Gao Feng expressed that advocating for harmony was common in both cultures, and the core message of Christianity was reconciliation and harmony, and Chinese Christians would uphold and spirit of harmony and make the Gospel of Christ flourish”.
We want to question those official church people at the forum, why don’t you reconcile with House Church? Why have you been uniting with the state machine to persecute House Church? Must your so-called reconciliation and harmony come at the price of sacrificing justice of God? When you were singing the high tune of harmony, Pastor Zhang Shaojie of Puyang, Henan was just arrested, so far there have been no news of his whereabouts; and one of the real leaders of Chinese Christian society, Pastor Jin Tianming, after under house arrest for more than two years, is still being kept at home; two Christians of the Taiyuan Grace Rain Study are still in prison for spreading the Gospel, and the House Church members in the Henan Ye County religious case are still in prison hoping for freedom after the second trial. These endless cases of persecution are great ironies to the so-called “reconciliation”.
Brothers and sisters in China and overseas, in addition to boycotting the misnomed, false reconciling, real propaganda forum, we also would like to advise the American representatives at this forum, the Graham Evangelistic Association, your close interaction with CCC/TSPM should stop at this moment. In his web essay “A Specimen of Compromisers: Billy Graham”, brother Chen Ge(陈鸽) pointed out: Billy Graham and his Evangelistic Association have made many visits to mainland China at the invitation of government-controlled CCC/TSPM, and have been promoting CCC/TSPM and the so-called Cina’s religious freedom overseas. About House Church, they either never mention them or strongly push House Church to throw away principles and reconcile with CCC/TSPM. It is said that one of the goals of his life is to facilitate the “syncretization” of House Church and CCC/TSPM.
Bible, 2 Corinthians6:14：Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? God hates evil. Not only House Church, who adheres to the pure faith, should not syncretize with CCC/TSPM whose head is the Chinese Communist Party, but American churches, with their roots in the Puritan spirit also should not “reconcile” and “syncretize” with CCC/TSPM. The whole world knows that the CCP regime represses religious freedom and persecutes House Church. A Christian, especially a pastor, should not make peace with them, much less sing their praises. In front of God’s truth, in front of Bible, even the most influential American pastor, must obey God’s truth. In front of God’s justice, a persecuted Christian in a Chinese village has the equal status with Billy Graham.
In summary, as Chinese House Church members, we hope Christians around the world (Chinese, American, etc.) can recognize the true nature of the so-called “The Second China-US Protestant Church Leaders Forum”. We also look forward to, in the not long future, that there will be House Church leaders and real representatives from Chinese and American Christian societies to convene a genuine, God glorifying and people benefiting China-US Protestant Church Leaders Forum, just as in Psalms11:7：For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.
