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Ministry Expresses Concern for Well-Being of Arrested Chinese Pastor

by Allie Martin
December 27, 2004

(AgapePress) - A prominent house church leader in China was arrested earlier this month and hasn't been heard from since. A representative of a ministry to the persecuted Church is deeply concerned about what awaits the well-known pastor.

On December 1, Pastor Jhang Rongliang was arrested by Chinese Communist officers after they raided his apartment. Jhang, 53, is the leader of the Fangchen Mother Church and the China for Christ Church. The latter church network is estimated to have more than ten million members.

Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says officials not only confiscated all of Pastor Jhang's Christian materials, but also took photographs of him with foreign visitors -- an indication, Nettleton says, of possible charges against the pastor.

"They confiscated the pictures of him with foreigners, which could mean that they will charge with something they have charged other Christians with, which is releasing what they call 'top secret information' to organizations outside of China," the VOM's director of news services explains.

That so-called "top secret" information, he says, shares how Christians in China are being arrested and tortured. "That is information that the Chinese government simply does not want the world to know," Nettleton adds.

According to Nettleton, Jhang's arrest is further proof that religious freedom does not exist in China.

"It is not a free country," he says. "We sort of think if they sell us all the [consumer] goods, and if we can go and visit there, and if there is a church building that's standing and has the doors open, it must be free. But the reality for the people on the street in China is that it is a hundred and eighty degrees away from being free."

Nettleton maintains that the Communist-led Chinese government wants to control every aspect of Chinese society. That is why he says believers in the U.S. "need to be speaking out on behalf of the people of China" and contacting the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC.

The VOM officials is fearful Pastor Jhang faces an especially harsh sentence because he leads literally millions of Christians in China. He has already spent 12 years in prison for his faith. The pastor's wife and sons, thought to be the targets of the raid earlier this month, are currently in hiding.

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