Sometimes when I read the Bible I am totally amazed at how people responded to Christ's miracles. In fact, last night I was reading in the gospel of John where Jesus healed the blind man who was born blind. The result - Jesus was persecuted for it! There was no, "Hey let's follow this guy because of what he did proving He was the Messiah." Because in the Jewish culture of the time they believed that only the coming Messiah could heal someone born blind. And there was no, "Wow, this is amazing, Praise Jesus for giving the blind man sight!"
No, what happened was the religious leaders got mad and started persecuting Jesus because He didn't heal "correctly" or "the way they wanted Him to". So I read things like that and I think to myself, "You've got to be kidding me, people who are religious get upset when something GOOD happens! Unbelievable."
Which brings me to this story I found on the ABC Radio Australia website
Here's the article in its entirety.
In China, an underground protestant pastor, his wife and two other church members are to go on trial over 200,000 bibles uncovered at their church.
Cai Zhuohua and three others have been in detention for 10 months and are charged with illegal business practices in connection with the bibles.
But their lawyer has denied the bibles were being used for business purposes, saying they were to be given away free of charge to church members.
The case has drawn wide interest among China's legal community and rights activists.
China allows christians to worship only in state-approved churches, under strict government monitoring.
Many however prefer to attend unregistered "underground" or "house" churches.
Although Bibles are not prohibited in China, only the Amity Printing Press in Nanjing has government approval to print the text for distribution in state-approved churches.
Can you imagine being arrested in America for Bibles at your church?
This is an outrage. And I condemn the act of giving China "US most favored "trade partner status, while they are ruining peoples lives for profit.
Posted by: Karen | July 08, 2005 at 10:47 PM