Today I read a very interesting article from The Associated Press entitled
Evangelist Franklin Graham visits China ahead of Olympics .
As we all know, there are numerous brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus who are under persecution in China, which is why The Voice of the Martyrs has a great program called Bibles Unbound that you can join and send bibles to China. I do it monthly, and I love it!
Back to the article, and why I'd like you to read it. The first sentence in the article says...
BEIJING (AP) — The son of American evangelist Billy Graham said Friday
he is opposed to missionary work at this summer's Beijing Olympic Games.
The article goes on to say...
While some Christian groups have said they plan to proselytize
during the August games, Graham said he was against that because
Chinese law does not permit such actions.
"I would not support any illegal activity at all," Graham said.
The reason I wanted to highlight this today is because earlier today I was listening to a Christian radio program and the host was blasting Franklin Graham for not standing for Jesus in China. That got me curious because to my knowledge, Franklin Graham has never had an issue proclaiming the gospel, and yet it appears in this instance that he is simply wanting to be obedient to the laws in China. And I don't think he denies or likes the fact that Chinese Christians are being persecuted.
The article goes on to say...
Graham, whose mother was born in China where her father worked as a
physician, said he had seen improvements in religious freedoms in the
20 years since he had been coming to the country, but said Christians
in China must obey the law as they work with authorities to "resolve
these areas of misunderstanding or where there is tension."
"I
think the government of China is recognizing that more and more and are
seeing the value of a personal faith that people can have and so I'm
here to encourage that," Graham said.
"I'm not here to condemn,
I'm here to work with them and help to build better bridges of
understanding between Christians and government," he said.
And yet the article previously says the following about Christian persecution going on in China.
While the Protestant church has grown rapidly in China in recent
years, the party maintains strict control over the official church,
seminaries and individual congregations. Christians who meet in
independent, unauthorized congregations — often private homes — are
frequently subject to harassment and arrest.
In the most recent
such report, police raided a gathering of about 40 members of the
Chengdu Qiuyu Blessings Church at a resort near the southwestern city
of Chengdu on May 2, New York-based Human Rights Watch reported.
Officers
joined by officials of the local religious affairs bureau told the
participants they were "suspected of being involved in illegal
religious practices," the group said. Members were detained for hours
and photographed, and Bibles, hymnals and Bible study materials were
confiscated.
Separately, three leaders of unauthorized churches
in the eastern province of Shandong were detained during a Bible study
group on Thursday morning, the Texas-based monitoring group, China Aid
Association reported.
Among them, one pastor from Taiwan was
expelled and banned from returning to China for five years as part of
China's ban on missionary work of all types.
So here is the question of the day: What do you think of Franklin Graham's stance regarding obeying the law of the land in China, by not participating in illegal activity during the Olympics and doing evangelism. Versus what is happening to the many persecuted Christians in the country.
Is this a situation of we must obey God rather than man, a compromise or something else. Please share your thoughts in the comments. All comments are moderated so they will not appear automatically.
