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Christian parents in Wenzhou City, part of China’s Zhejiang Province, are being forced to align with Atheism.

The mandate, a first of its kind, was issued to Kindergarten parents, who have been asked to sign a “Kindergarten Family Commitment Not to Believe in Religion.”

ChinaAid reported,

“… many kindergartens in Wenzhou’s Longwan district uniformly issued the pledge to the guardians of students. Two compelled families to make multiple commitments.”

Families were asked to pledge the Atheist oath, agreeing “not to hold a religious belief, not participate in any religious activities, and not to propagate and disseminate religion in any locations.”

An anonymous source confirmed the mandate, telling ChinaAid,

“In the past, the higher-level education department made it compulsory for kindergartens not to be superstitious and not to participate in cult organizations, but did not mandate kindergarten children’s families not to believe in religion or participate in any religious activities.”

Known as China’s Jerusalem, for ‘being the most vibrant Christian centre’ in Communist-controlled China, Wenzhou has been a hotbed of Christian persecution.

Sunday Schools were banned in 2017 forcing parents to “teach children in private homes or at other venues”.

According to Reuters,

“… some even billed Sunday School classes as day-care, not education, or moved them to Saturdays.”

Parents, Reuters said, were determined to see their children study the “Bible, because state education fails to provide sufficient moral and spiritual guidance.”

One parent testified,

“Drugs, porn, gambling and violence are serious problems among today’s youth and video games are extremely seductive.”

“We cannot be by his side all the time so only through faith can we make him understand (the right thing to do).”

A fact sheet from the U.S. State Department explained, Communist Chinese “law mandates the teaching of atheism in school.”

As such, authorities are active in “discouraging” parents from educating their children in anything other than the tenets of Marxism.

Teachers are to “plant the seeds of loving the party, the country and socialism in young hearts.”

Beijing’s belligerence toward Christian Youth Groups is explained by the existential threat they pose to the Chinese Communist Youth League.

Christian groups are more resistant to the CCP leader’s personality cult, exemplified by China’s national curriculum adopting, “Xi Jinping thought.”

Similar to the Hitler Youth, the CYL is “the Party’s main channel to socialize youth (aged 14-28) in the official political discourse and practices”, states Harvard.

When it comes the CCP’s insistence that China has religious freedom, the fine print often gets overlooked.

The devil is in the details, or rather the devil is in the distinction.

Through a clever separation of faith, and practice, CCP’s commissars can constitutionally enforce religious persecution.

China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) was abolished in Xi’s “leader for life”, dictatorial power grab in 2018.

The successful cancellation of SARA removed any semblance of real religious freedom.

Subsumed into United Front Work Department, the five State “sanctioned” religious associations, now “report directly to the Communist Chinese Party.”

Consequently, Buddhism, Catholicism, Daoism, Islam, and Protestantism – the five faiths “approved” by the CCP – are in effect, controlled by the Marxist State.

China’s so-called religious freedom is policed by Atheists.

All source material, and every act of worship has to pass through the grubby, blood-stained hands of the ‘Glorious Revolution’.

The proletariat are allowed to ‘believe in a religion’, just not live it out.

This is owed to Article 36 of the CCP constitution, and its intentional ambiguity.

Article 36 gives the appearance of freedom, declaring, all citizens, “shall enjoy freedom of religious belief” and “be free from coercion, and discrimination”.

However, this section also states,

“No one shall use religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the state’s education system.”

Article 36 also denies Chinese Churches from having any association with Churches not within reach of the State:

“Religious groups and religious affairs shall not be subject to control by foreign forces.”

Despite the CCP’s claims, religious freedom in China is a farce.

Observe the double standard.

The CCP appear to be in breach of Article 36.

Atheism is a theological statement of faith. Forcing Christians to convert to Atheism seems to fall inside the jurisdiction of, “citizens shall be free from coercion.”

More to the point, wrote former French Communist, Simone Weil, “Marxism is a badly constructed religion.”

Yangyang Cheng, writing about his experience, shared Wiel’s sentiment.

Recalling his 8^th grade teacher telling him, “Communism is a faith”, Cheng said,

“No one in China exists free from the Party, regardless of their membership status.”

“An alternative to the Party’s doctrine was not a difference of opinion; it was treason”.

Cheng’s essay concludes with a tribute to Lin Zhao, infamous for defying Mao, and writing protest letters from prison in her own blood.

Purged as a “Rightest” in 1958, Lin, a lone dissident, “rooted her dissent in a fervent Christian faith”, wrote author, Lian Xi.

Lin, after refusing to pledge allegiance to the Atheist State, was executed at the age of 36.

Her death didn’t just make her a Christian martyr. The memory of Lin’s defiance has become a rallying point for pro-Democracy protesters.

This is why the CCP still monitor her resting place.

Lin’s protest is a constant reminder to an increasing nervous Chinese Communist Party that its days as lord are numbered.

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Photo by Wikimedia Commons.