Christians face harassment and disruption in Beijing crackdown on religion, US government agency reports

In their effort to “exert total control” over religion and to “sinicise” Catholic and Protestant Christianity, the authorities have “ordered the removal of crosses from churches [and] replaced images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary with pictures of President Xi Jinping,” the report said.

The report concluded that “every facet of religious life for Buddhists, Catholics and Protestant Christians, Muslims, and Taoists” was facing pressure to incorporate CCP ideology, and religious elements considered contradictory to the state’s political agenda were being eradicated.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    321·
    2 months ago

    I mean, it’s a pretty big step from “we need to pre-approve priests” to “actually, your religion is about something completely different now”.

    And, more importantly, it’s the Telegraph. If it was the Guardian I’d go “gee whiz, that’s a whole new level, very unexpected”.

    • Womble@lemmy.worldEnglish
      34·
      2 months ago

      replaced images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary with pictures of President Xi Jinping.

      Its not saying actually Xi is your god now, its just making churches one more place where you see the dear leader. Still bad but not at the insane level of trying to rewrite one of the world’s largest religions.

    • Squizzy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      17·
      2 months ago

      Why is the telegraph bad, I really like their journalists they have always come across well.

        • nickiwest@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          2 months ago

          Yes. Yes it does.

          From Media Bias/Fact Check:

          Bias Rating: RIGHT

          Factual Reporting: MIXED

          Country: United Kingdom

          MBFC’s Country Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE

          Media Type: Newspaper

          Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic

          MBFC Credibility Rating: MEDIUM CREDIBILITY

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
            5·
            2 months ago

            Yep. That tracks with what I was remembering. Sometimes their stuff is fine, sometimes it’s questionable right-wing rage-baiting.

        • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          They write anti Polish people propaganda as well. Remember the British elites hate poor people harder than they hate brown people.