House Church Pastor and Wife in China Face Charges for Homeschooling Kids
A court in China’s southern Fujian province has summoned a house church preacher and his wife for choosing instead to homeschool their kidsinstead of sending them to public school.
Pastor You Guanda of Dianqian Church in Xiamen city, and his wife are scheduled to appear in court on September 23. According to Christian Concern, local government officials have charged the couple with “custody disputes.”
News of the crackdown on the preacher comes as the Chinese government is placing deeply restrictive rules over churches seeking to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.
As Faithwire previously reported, any of the congregations within the government’s approved network of churches planning to resume services must meet a 42-item list of prerequisites.
Included in that list are orders to “intensify patriotic education” and “study China’s religious policy.” Reopening churches are also compelled to promote the so-called “four requirements” campaign that began in 2018 as part of the government’s “sinicization” of religion, in which non-Chinese cultures are mandated to assimilate to Chinese influence.
Bitter Winter, a magazine covering religious liberty issues in China, defined the “four requirements” like this: “ritually raising the national flag, often while singing the national anthem; teaching beliefs about, and promoting, the Chinese constitution, laws, and regulations; preaching and promoting the ‘core socialist values’; and promoting ‘China’s excellent traditional culture.’”
