Related articles and links |  1 of 8

•

Attending one of five state-sanctioned churches in Beijing, President Bush urged Chinese officials to allow more religious freedom. "It wasn't all that long ago that people were not allowed to worship openly in this society," the President said after the service, his first public event during this trip to China. "My hope is that the government of China will not fear the Christians who gather to worship openly. A healthy society is a society that welcomes all faiths."

The Associated Press reports, "The service at Gangwashi Church, one of five officially recognized Protestant churches in Beijing, was in Chinese, but its structure and content would have been familiar to any Protestant parishioner in the United States. Bush and other guests listened to a translation over headphones." According to the London Times, the President's father attended the church when he lived in Beijing between 1974 and 1975 as head of the U.S. Liaison Office.

At the same time, The Dallas Morning News reports that Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., said the recent report on religious freedom by the State Department and the work of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom showed that religious freedom in the country is deteriorating. "The communist government views religion as a threat to their power and acts accordingly," Wolf said.

Simlarly, The Independent reports that there is little evidence that China is listening to the U.S. State Department or the American President. "The between 40 and 80 million Chinese Christians routinely face religious persecution. Earlier this month, the Protestant minister Cai Zhuohua, his wife, and brother were sentenced to three years in jail for printing Bibles without the permission of the authorities, while when the Catholic Bishop Xie Shiguang died in August, he had spent 28 of his 88 years in prison."

More on Bush in China:

• Chinese Christians forced to worship in secret | ABC news visits ghostly church ruin and learns of secret services in defiance of Chinese communists (ABC News)
• Bush attends church in Beijing | U.S. President George Bush made a point of attending a Protestant church in Beijing Sunday after calling for more social, political and religious freedoms. (Washington Times)
• Bush attends Beijing church, promoting religious freedom | Bulk of his China trip focuses on trade and security issues (Washington Post)
• In China, Bush urges religious freedom | President Bush took a front-row seat at a church service Sunday, sending a quiet signal to China's leaders that they should expand religious freedom in this communist nation. (Associated Press)
• Bush pokes Chinese with church visit | President Bush has had his eye on church here for quite a while, eager for his worship today to champion greater freedom throughout China. (The Dallas Morning News)
• Bush stresses freedom of expression in China | He visits church, cites value of society that 'welcomes all faiths' (The Dallas Morning News)
• Bush makes faith a topic in China | On whirlwind tour, the president visits church in an effort to push notions of religious freedom (Newsday, N.Y.)
• US President George Bush opened a rare visit to China yesterday by attending a Chinese church. | Bush goes to church amid crackdown (The Age, Australia)
• Chinese Christians step out of shadows for Bush | China's Christians are more used to police surveillance and harassment and worshipping in secret than basking in the limelight. (Independent, UK)
• China's Christians worship in state shadow | U.S. President George W. Bush attended a state-run "patriotic" Christian church service in Beijing on Sunday, while across town underground worshippers applauded his call for unfettered religious freedom. (Reuters)

next page... |  1 of 8

November (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49