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The pastor of one of China’s biggest underground evangelical churches was arrested Friday in what appears to be a roundup of Christian leaders, and his family and followers fear for his safety.
Pastor Ezra Jin of Zion Church was detained by Chinese authorities, his daughter, Grace Jin, told Fox News Digital. Zion Church was at one point Beijing’s largest church. In a document provided to Fox News Digital by Grace, it states that Jin’s arrest came as nearly 30 Zion Church pastors and workers were detained or went missing across Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Chengdu, Beihai, Jiaxing, and Huangdao. The Associated Press reported that dozens of other church leaders in Bejing and at least five other provinces across China were arrested Friday as well.
“One after another, they were also taken, detained. Like, they were saying that there were people outside their doors, and then one at a time they were taken into custody,” Grace told Fox News Digital.
Zion Church is one of several underground churches operating in China, meaning that it is not registered with authorities, making it unlawful, according to the AP.
“The charges have been something like online dissemination of religious materials, but they have not given any paperwork out to anyone physically, but they’ve shown the detention slip, and that’s what it says on most people’s detention [slips],” she said.
Grace told Fox News Digital that China has implemented a sweeping crackdown on religious leaders in recent months. In May, Light of Zion Church Pastor Gao Quanfu of Xi’an was detained by authorities on charges of “using superstitious activities to undermine the implementation of justice.” Additionally, in June, multiple church workers from the Golden Lampstand Church in Linfen were sentenced to prison time for “fraud” charges. Grace is concerned that authorities could tack a fraud charge onto her father as well, as she said financial documents were taken from Zion Church.
Since 2018, Jin has been under surveillance and faced an exit ban, meaning he has been unable to reunited with his children, who are U.S. citizens. He has not seen them in more than six years.
Grace told Fox News Digital that the Chinese government shut down Zion Church in 2018 because of its influence, as it would host up to 1,500 people each week.
“When it shut down in 2018, there was no longer anywhere like physical locations that would ever rent out such a big space for Zion,” Grace said. “In fact, if you were to rent out even a small space, they would immediately find out and they would come and take down Zion.”
This put Zion Church in a difficult position, but it instead turned to the now-familiar hybrid model, holding live praise and worship sessions online while also distributing information, so people could pray together in smaller groups.
“When COVID hit in 2020, Zion Church was one of the only churches with this online model,” Grace said. “Zion kind of blew up at this point … Christians all across China were attending Zion’s services because it was the only church service for a while that was hosting things every Sunday online with music and sermons.”
She recalled that as other churches tried to adjust to the virtual world, her father offered his resources and methods to others. She said this helped her father connect not only with the other churches, but with congregants as well.
Jin’s family is calling on the U.S. State Department to demand the Chinese Communist Party release him “immediately and unconditionally, allowing him to return to his family in the United States prior to further persecution at the hands of the Chinese government.”
Jin’s fate and the fates of the other church leaders arrested alongside him remain uncertain, but China Aid, a U.S.-based religious group, said that so-called “house churches,” such as Zion, are “facing unprecedented pressure.”
“Xi Jinping has waged a war against God’s Church, such as the Zion Church, that he will never win. The level of persecution against religious freedom has reached the worst [level] in 40 years,” China Aid founder and president Dr. Bob Fu told Fox News Digital. “Faith is not a crime. Worship is not a crime. Prayer is not a crime.”
“The courage of China’s urban pastors and believers will be remembered in history as a living testimony that the light of Christ cannot be extinguished by tyranny,” Fu added. He also called on President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to speak out and condemn the CCP’s crackdown.
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