Chinese Government Replaces Images of Jesus Christ With Pictures of Xi Jinping in Churches
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reveals in a new report that China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party is continuing its program of Sinicization and crackdown on believers in Christ by removing Christian images and art, including depictions of Jesus, from churches and replacing them with pictures of President Xi Jinping.
Warning that the Chinese government has “implemented the coercive ‘sinicization of religion’ policy, which has fundamentally transformed China’s religious environment,” the USCIRF attests that the suppression of religious groups has become the “core driving principle of the government’s management of religious affairs.”
“Government officials have installed CCP loyalists as leading religious figures, altered houses of worship with CCP-approved architecture, integrated CCP propaganda into religious doctrines, and otherwise criminalized non-CCP-backed religious activities, all with the goal to ensure the stability of CCP rule,” the report says.
According to the USCIRF, the Chinese government’s policy now includes “the removal of crosses from churches” and “replaced images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary with pictures of President Xi.” The government has also “required the display of CCP slogans at the entrances of churches, censored religious texts, imposed CCP-approved religious materials, and instructed clergy to preach CCP ideology,” the USCIRF report explains.
China ranks 19 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s goal is to make sure churches don’t fall out of line with official viewpoints,” the Open Doors Christian advocacy organization explains in a current website report. “Official churches are encouraged to praise and pledge allegiance to the Communist Party and its ideology. Churches that claim Christ as King are viewed with suspicion, especially since Christianity is seen as a primarily Western influence,” Open Doors says.
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