On a recent Sunday morning, the local authorities broke into a church service in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China, and demanded that children under the age of 18 leave the service immediately. One of the women pleaded with the officer to allow her to stay at the service with her infant baby. The officer rejected her request and replied: “Anyone under 18 shall be banned from all religious activities.” The woman was dragged out of the meeting room with her baby.
Similar incidents have happened during church services in many cities around China since the revised Regulation on Religious Affairs became effective on Feb. 1, 2018, which severely curtails the religious freedom of minors. According to the Regulations, unregistered religious groups, such as house churches, are deprived of the right to provide religious training, including Sunday school, to the children of their church members. Sunday schools were forced to shut down or change the type of class to something non-religious, like drawing or crafting. READ MORE
