(PHOTO: REUTERS/KIM KYUNG-HOON)
Believers take part in a weekend mass at an underground Catholic church in Tianjin, China, November 10, 2013.
Despite China's ongoing crackdown on Christians, believers' faith is growing stronger in the world's most populous nation, one church member reveals in an interview with China Aid.
He also called on the United States to take an active role to help Christians in China.
China Aid reported that the interview was conducted back in May with a member of Huoshi Church in China's central Guizhou province, which has been serially targeted by the Communist Party. Government officials have been persecuting minority religious people on an increasing basis, with a separate China Aid report noting that 20,000 people suffered religious persecution throughout 2015.
The church member, who chose to remain anonymous, reflected that despite the ongoing church and rooftop crosses demolition campaign, along with the arrests of hundreds of Christians and pastors, Christianity is helping transform the hearts and minds of people.
"According to the Bible, the Church grows even faster under persecution. [For instance], you can see that in Europe and the United States — maybe not in Texas, however, but in Germany — the Church is shrinking. This is a very free country, and the government and people respect religion, but even still [the church shrinks]," the man said.
"In China, even though there is so much persecution, the church still grows. Personally, from my perspective as a Christian, I don't think all this persecution is totally a bad thing [since it helps the Church grow]."
He revealed that Huoshi Church is facing a number of struggles, such as the arrest of several of its members.
"There are so many. A case is going to be tried soon. We have four victims in jail. One pastor, Pastor Su, was released, but he is on bail and is still considered to be a criminal, so there are five cases [involving people]. We also sued the [Urban] Management Bureau. This is another case. So, we have six cases. If we put them all together, there are six cases," the church member said.
He called on the international community to help with donations to the church so that it can help pay for its legal and mortgage expenses in its battles with the Communist Party, but also suggested that the U.S. government could be doing more to help persecuted religious minorities.
"Of course, the international community can put some pressure on the Chinese government from all different angles as well. For instance, Congress or different states could write some joint statements. I don't know which state is the sister state of Guizhou province, but it must be some state," the man said.
"For instance, maybe [China Aid] could find out [if it is Texas] and then push a little bit. Additionally, I bet there are many connections in the business sector with Chinese state-owned companies or the Chinese government. Maybe, if they dare, they can do something about it."
He suggested that Chinese people living in America could also use their voices to raise awareness, even if many of them are not Christians.
"There must be a lot of Chinese students in the United States or in Europe — all over the world. Maybe we can talk to them. Most of them may not be Christians, but no matter what, if they stay in the United States, sooner or later some people will teach Christianity to them, no matter where they are or what kind of school they go to," he added.
"Maybe we can go through some channels so that most of the overseas students can get involved in distributing all this news."
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