In a significant development affecting religious communities in China, authorities have detained the leader of a major underground church network. This move is seen as part of a broader initiative to suppress unregistered churches nationwide.
Pastor Ezra Jin, who leads Zion Church in Beijing, was apprehended last Friday, according to his daughter, Grace Jin, who shared the details with Fox News Digital. The arrest is part of a larger sweep that has reportedly seen nearly 30 pastors and church staff from Zion Church detained across cities like Shanghai, Huangdao, Jiaxing, and Beijing.
Reports, though unverified, suggest that the crackdown might extend to church leaders in at least five additional provinces, as noted by The Associated Press.
Grace Jin expressed the shock and surprise felt by the families of those detained. “One after another, they were also taken, detained. Like, they were saying that there were people outside their doors, and then one at a time they were taken into custody,” she explained to Fox News Digital.
The detained individuals face accusations related to the illegal “online dissemination of religious materials,” but their families have yet to receive official documentation regarding these charges.
The government had previously shut down Zion Church in 2018 after it refused to register with state authorities, classifying it as an outlawed “house church.” Despite this, the congregation continued to meet through digital services and small prayer gatherings, reportedly attracting a large online following during the pandemic.
Pastor Jin, who has been under surveillance and forbidden from leaving China since 2018, has not seen his US-citizen children in over six years. In the recent raid, authorities confiscated financial documents, raising concerns among Jin’s family that he might face “fraud” charges, a tactic previously used against other Christian leaders.
China Aid, a religious rights group based in the United States, has termed these actions as part of “unprecedented pressure” on independent churches. Dr. Bob Fu, the group’s founder and president, criticized the Chinese government in a statement to Fox News Digital: “Xi Jinping has waged a war against God’s Church, such as the Zion Church, that he will never win. The level of persecution against religious freedom has reached the worst [level] in 40 years.
“Faith is not a crime. Worship is not a crime. Prayer is not a crime,” he further stated. “The courage of China’s urban pastors and believers will be remembered in history as a living testimony that the light of Christ cannot be extinguished by tyranny.”
Grace Jin’s family has called on the US State Department to advocate for Pastor Jin’s “immediate and unconditional” release to reunite with his family in America.
Additionally, Dr. Fu has urged the Trump administration to openly criticize the Chinese government’s actions against churches.
US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has publicly condemned the detentions, stating: “The United States condemns the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s recent detention of dozens of leaders of the unregistered house Zion Church in China, including prominent pastor Mingri ‘Ezra’ Jin.”
“This crackdown further demonstrates how the CCP exercises hostility towards Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship at unregistered house churches. We call on the CCP to immediately release the detained church leaders and to allow all people of faith, including members of house churches, to engage in religious activities without fear of retribution.”
This article was originally written by www.christiantoday.com
