Congressional
Record, Pages 4393 – 4407
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES -
March 3, 1960
Emphasis added
Rev. Shih-ping Wang,
East Asia director of the Baptist Evangelization Society International,
appearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee in March 1959,
described at some length the
commune system recently instituted in Red China. “This system has hurt the
churches,” he said, “because it has given the government much more complete
control of the people and all worship has been forbidden in
the communes”.
Concerning the system of communes, the Reverend Shih-ping Wang stated:
“The family unit is broken up. Husbands and wives are separated into different barracks. The children are taken away from the parents and placed in government-run nurseries. Husbands and wives may meet only once a week for 2 hours— they have, no other contact. Because these places of meeting are few, couples must stand in line at the special rooms waiting their turn. After they have finished, they must report to the commune group leader to tell the date and time and ‘how long they stayed together. They must also report what they said and did together.
"The parents may see their children once a week and when they see them they cannot show affection toward their children. The idea is to have the children and the family sever their affection and direct it toward the state. Names are taken away from the children, and they are given numbers. There is no individual identity. The basic unit of social life in the commune is the commune itself.”
Reverend Wang
was questioned further by the interrogator for the House Un-American Activities
Committee: “Do families try to meet at other times between the approved
once-a-week meetings?” In reply,
Reverend Wang stated:
“They cannot meet because they are not consigned to the same place and do not have freedom to travel. They come to work in a group, eat in a group, work in a group, and return in a group. There is no opportunity for individuals to get away and see their families. Husbands and wives are placed on different communes. Travel between, communes is only possible if the traveler has a pass. There is no contact between the once-a-week meetings;”
The commune system, the. Reverend Wang continued, is destroying morality in Red China:
“There is no morality because the, love of the family is taken away. There is no honesty and respect among men or between men. There is no human dignity; they are all like animals. There is no guilt associated with the murder of individuals for the improvement of the state.
"In Communist Party circles, a woman must submit herself to any party member who desires her favors. If the woman refuses a party member, she may be thrown into jail or stripped and nailed to a wall until she dies. Another punishment is to cut the breasts off the woman who refuses.”
Concerning the religious activities and beliefs of the Communists, the Rev. Samuel W. S. Cheng stated to the same House committee:
“At best they preach modernism: Christ the model for all humanity. They take away the divinity of Christ and point out He was a good carpenter, a good example for the working people to follow. At the worst they substitute Lenin the father, Stalin the son, and Mao Tse-tung the holy ghost, for the Triune God of ‘the Christians. They have completely changed the Christian faith. Where Christian teachings fit in with Communist aims, they are retained. Where they do not, they are eliminated.”
In similar vein, the Reverend Tsin-tsai Liu testified:
“With respect to the Bible * * * they teach that Jesus was a laborer, a carpenter’s son, a proletariat and because he was from the working class and wanted to establish a working class, the rich people (the Pharisees) crucified him because he was a revolutionist, or as the Communists say, a Communist, and that is the way they teach it.”
Reverend Liu stated that the Communists were friendly when they first took over China in 1949, but began wholesale persecutions of Protestant churches in 1950. Christian leaders were placed under house arrest. In addition, Christians had to be “reeducated” by attending confession classes to reveal their past associations and beliefs. After the Christian ministers and leaders were arrested, they were replaced with Communists. [See Brainwashing and "Education Reform"]
The Communists confiscated the churches
and then rented them back to the people at fantastic rentals.
When the people could not pay these rentals, the churches were closed. “The
only churches that were ‘allowed’ to remain open were Communist-run churches
that serve as showcases for visitors,” said the Reverend Liu.
Furthermore, Reverend Liu did not believe that these churches would ever be closed by the Communists because “they are a good means of spreading ‘propaganda and reeducating the people. Also, the churches give them an appearance of a dignified civilization.”
The foregoing hearings before the House Committee on Un-American Activities were published in an official Government bulletin on March 26, 1959, and doubtless released previously to the Nation’s press. Nevertheless, a United Press International News dispatch of May 7, 1959, said, “A, distinguished American theologian has some stern words to offer on the problem of communism and Christianity.” The distinguished theologian was none other than Dr. John’ A. Mackay, retiring president of Princeton Theological Seminary.
The news dispatch went on to say: “Dr. John Mackay * * * charged that America is turning its back on untold thousands of Christians in Red China. Dr. Mackay called for the recognition of Red China * * * backing a resolution that had been adopted at the General Assembly of the * * Church meeting at Indianapolis. ... Mackay told the delegates that while Red China had done some terrible things, so had the United States.”
Dr. Billy James Hargis, an evangelist and head of the Christian Crusade, Tulsa, Okla., commented on the foregoing as follows:
“Here is a typical example of the twisted and deceiving play on words used by left-wing clergymen in their attempts to disguise their blatant support of important Communist conspiracy objectives.
"Let’s analyze Dr. Mackay’s charge that America is turning its back on untold thousands of Christians in Red China.’ This charge is merely a continuation of a propaganda campaign Dr. Mackay has been carrying on in behalf of the Red Chinese slavemasters for years. He called for recognition of Red China and its admission to the UN back in December 1949. On December 10, 1956, he spoke before 400 religious executives in Indianapolis, Ind., and called for the sending of a delegation of American church leaders to Red China to ‘reestablish contact with colleagues there.’ * * *
“Dr. Mackay and other apologists for communism in the churches would have us to believe that there is actually freedom of religion in Red China and other Communist conspiracy held nations. They refuse to face the documented and indisputable facts about the Communist conspiracy’s takeover of churches in Communist nations, and how the Communists are utilizing these churches to promote the cause of atheistic communism.
"Now let us remember one thing— that is, that Dr. Mackay is not speaking of the suffering, persecuted Christians of China who have been tortured, sent to slave camps and denied the right to worship God. (Many were killed) Dr. Mackay is speaking of the so-called Christian leaders who were intimidated into cooperating with communism by converting their churches into tools for promoting Communist propaganda and objectives. He is speaking of the phony pastors placed in the churches by Communist leaders.”
The resolution to admit Red China to the United
Nations mentioned above is the same Resolution that
prompted the editorial of June 3, 1959, discussed earlier.
In North Korea, the practices of communism and
its attacks on religion are much the same as in Red
China. Instead of the system of communes, North Koreans are governed under what
is referred to as an
“agricultural association system.” In operation, it is quite similar to the
commune system.
Concerning religion, Mr.
Kyung Rai Kim, a deacon in the Hung Chun Presbyterian Church in
Seoul,
testified before the same hearings of the House Committee on Un-American
Activities mentioned above.
He stated,
“There are no true Christian Churches in Northern Korea; * * * persecution since 1945, intensified since the Korea War has closed the churches in North Korea. There are churches, but they are Communist-run churches.”
Upon being asked by the interrogator for the House committee as to how the disintegration of Christian churches was being accomplished, Mr. Kim said:
“Through brainwashing of the younger people; through the replacing of Christian values with Communist values; through the agricultural association system which makes the individual completely dependant upon the state for his food and existence.
"From all of the foregoing, you can judge for yourself how much you must be alert, and how carefully you must evaluate any conversation, speech, article, sermon, or book which you may have occasion to hear or read...
"...the Communists believe the state to be supreme— in individual lives, in family life, in morals, in religion, in government, and in the economics of making a living."
www.moravians.org/NCC&WCC/Congressional%20Record%20-%20Communist%20in%20Churches.pdf
Communist Exploitation of Religion: Testimony of Richard Wurmbrand
|
Home | Articles | Victory | Reinventing the World | |
|
Email this page