Chinese President Xi Jinping
In another part of a crackdown on Christianity, China is now grooming schoolchildren – from kindergartens and primary schools – to become atheists, even encouraging them to report any family members who embrace Christian views.
Uganda Christian News has learnt that since the adoption of the new Regulations on Religious Affairs last year, which, among other things, prohibit children from attending places of worship, schools around China have adopted unprecedented measures to keep students away from the matters of faith.
“My teacher says that Christianity is an evil cult,” one boy explained to his mother, according to Chinese persecution watchdog, Bitter Winter. “[That] if you believe in it, you will leave home and not take care of me. You might set yourself on fire, too.”
The policy has resulted in predicaments for many families: children are taught to oppose their Christian relatives, they suffer great psychological stress out of fear that their parents or loved ones could be arrested because they go to church.
Bitter Winter reports that after one Chinese Christian mom had discovered a wildly anti-Christian school textbook in her son’s backpack, she hid many of the items that marked her as a believer — this was done to help her son with his anxiety.
But it didn’t help. Things got worse, as Bitter Winter noted:
“A month later, when her son found another religious leaflet in his mother’s bag by chance, he angrily took a fruit knife from the kitchen and fiercely poked several holes in it. Holding the pierced through leaflet on the knife, he threatened his mother to give up her faith, because “Christianity is an evil cult” and she “mustn’t believe in it.””
The mother was horrified by the shift in her son’s attitude.
“Before starting school, I told my child about God’s creation, and he believed it,” she explained. “But after being taught at school, my child is like a different person. In atheistic China, these pure and innocent children have been taught to hate God.”
Turning Children Against the Faith of Their Parents
“If your mom goes to church and believes in God, she doesn’t want you as her child anymore.” Those were the vicious words uttered by a headteacher at a school in Henan Province.
Another school screened a propaganda video in which Jesus-followers were depicted as big scary monsters. After the presentation was complete, a teacher warned that Christian relatives might “cast spells” on the youngsters.
One of the parents at the school said that, following these actions, her son actively opposed her reading Christian books in the family home. Another student was terrified that his mom was going to be led away by police.
Others students were advised to “supervise” their parents to ensure that they don’t partake in any Christian activities.
“It leads to a dead-end,” one young said of his Dad’s Christian faith. “If you attend gatherings, you will be arrested.”
China’s constitution guarantees religious freedom, but since President Xi Jinping took office several years ago, the government has tightened restrictions on Christianity seen as a challenge to the authority of the ruling Communist Party.
“Anti-China forces in the West are trying to continue to influence China’s social stability and even subvert our country’s political power through Christianity, and it is doomed to fail,” a senior government official in China said earlier in March, speaking to parliament’s largely ceremonial advisory body.
News Agencies contributed to this report.
