Central China: Public school students asked to fill out questionnaires to declare their religious affiliations.
Open Doors has received a report that a public school in Central China has asked students to fill out questionnaires to declare their religious affiliations.
Li*, our in-country contact, told Open Doors that a number of Christian youths innocently declared their faith in the questionnaires. These answers were escalated to the higher school management.
Teachers invited the parents and children for separate meetings and asked them to sign a declaration form renouncing their faith. The parents risked their children being expelled from school if they refused the request.
One parent shared: “We signed it because we had no other choice. It will affect our kids’ future.”
Li* told Open Doors: “Currently these families are not attending our services. It is their first time to experience this kind of treatment, and they are still in the middle of processing their feelings. It is shocking for them. But again, we have learned the great importance of preparing our young believers on how to cope with pressures in any form due to their faith at any time. They do not know what and how to answer.”
China is #16 on the World Watch List.
Pray For Central China:
- Please pray for the affected families to be comforted after this traumatising experience. May the Holy Spirit guide them in this trying time, and may their faith in the Lord be strengthened despite what happened.
- Please pray that we can provide training to our contacts, partners, and their church congregation in order to equip them for any forms of persecution.
- Please pray for the authorities to be able to understand and receive the love of Christ.
*Name changed for security purposes.
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