Chinese Pastors told to preach on Xi Jinping’s anniversary speech saying “only socialism can save China”

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – China’s government-controlled Protestant Church (known as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement) has told its pastors they must now preach sermons that include a July 1 speech given by President Xi Jinping in which he glorified the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and said “only socialism can save China”, Bitter Winter reports.

Xi Jinping gave his July 1 speech on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the CCP, Bitter Winter reports. During the speech, the president glorified the CCP as the “lifeblood of the country,” and asserted the party had brought to the world the “six common values” of humankind: peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom. Using defiant rhetoric, the president also threatened the West and Taiwan.

One week after the president’s speech, the Three-Self Movement held a national conference, during which the pastors in attendance were told to preach sermons on the speech, as well as learn it and teach it to congregants during Bible studies, Bitter Winter said. Pastors were told that if they failed to carry out the mandate, their church would not be considered “sinicized” and would be shut down.

Themed “Learning and Implementing the Spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Speech of July 1, the conference was led by Xu Xiaohong, chairman of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee, and by Wu Wei, chairman of the China Christian Council.

At the conference, Xu Xiaohong offered attendees a 9-point model sermon on the July 1 speech, Bitter Winter said. The points that pastors were advised to weave into their sermons include the assertions that Christians should tell hostile powers that “the era when the Chinese nation was slaughtered and bullied is gone forever.” Moreover, Christians should often repeat the slogans “Long live the great, glorious and correct Chinese Communist Party! And “Long live the great, glorious, and heroic Chinese people!”

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