About a week ago, I found myself watching a christian film on Youtube titled "the lies of communism", produced by "The Church of Almighty God". I managed to sit through about three-quarters of it before skipping to see the end. The film, to the extent it has a plot, follows the journey of christian missionaries, already tortured by the government, through one of China's [sadly real] re-education facilities. It is somewhat based on real-life experiences of religious people in China, though how much I'm not sure. The film may very legitimately be wish-fulfilment for a people, seeking to portray themselves in a favourable light, whilst unable to speak for themselves in those real-life situations due to persecution.
Whilst there is an obvious propaganda element to the film, with characters providing extremely long monologues on their beliefs and their correctness, it brings up very real issues relating to religious freedom in China and to the treatment of religious groups designated as cults more generally.
I spent a good chunk of the film going back and forth on whose side I'm on; the plucky missionaries facing persecution and torture, utterly insistent in their moral righteous and spectacularly crude belief in God or the Chinese government's efforts at re-education, trying to bring the "heroes" down by undermining their faith, with bemused officials endlessly repeating the word "science" as the justification for the Communist Party's policies and rule.
[On a hunch, I think the film downplays the government's arguments for atheism, but I can attest that the "role of labour in the formation of human consciousness" at the 58 minute mark, which infuriates the missionary forced to read it from a book, is authentically and embarrassingly Marxist in its origins, dating back to Fredrich Engels. The rest of the depiction of the Chinese Communists has a Marxian tone, but is more subdued. So it is possible the CCP is really that dumb to just say "science" as if it the answer to everything as Marxism isn't very good on saying "why" it's atheist to begin with. ]
Though I did enjoy the spectacularly and refreshingly naive belief that one side is "good" and the other "evil", finding myself wanting to cheer on the "villains" plotting on how best to "reform" Christians in to model atheist citizens unsurprisingly makes me feel uneasy. If you think "thought reform" is ok, it is only a matter of time before it is used against you. The experience nevertheless shines a spotlight on the reality of religious persecution and state atheism in the People's Republic of China which may be worth sharing.
The Church of Almighty God, also known as "Eastern Lightning", is a millennial group that claims Jesus Christ has returned as a Chinese woman in 1991, believed to be Yang Xiagbin (b. 1973) now thought to be living in the United States after being granted asylum. Chinese authorities claim that Yang suffers from a history of mental illness. The name Eastern Lightning comes from the passage in Matthew (24:27): "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
Since having roughly a thousand members in 1991, the group has grown to perhaps three or four million members based on Chinese government estimates. In 1995, the Chinese government classified Eastern Lightning as a cult. The group has been described as the nation's "most dangerous cult" by Chinese media and it has been labelled a "terrorist organisation" by Christian opponents and media internationally, though the group denies all accusations of this. Because the group is essentially clandestine and operating underground, it remains extremely secretive with very limited information available on the group to western observers.
Members of the group have been involved in a mass kidnapping, doomsday riots related to the Mayan end of the world prophesy in 2012, and the murder of a woman who refused to provide a phone number for contact details when demanded to by missionaries.
Eastern Lightning is banned in China, with the US state department claiming that in 2018 over 11,000 members of the group were arrested, with 525 members subjected to torture and forced indoctrination, and that "some" were tortured to death whilst in custody of the Chinese authorities. In 2020, there were claims that at least 32,815 Church members were persecuted in 2019 (compared to 23,567 in 2018), with at least 19 members dying from the result of abused (compared to 20 from 2018).
My question is quite simple. If you were the Chinese authorities, would you protect the rights of members of Eastern Lightning to practice their religion? Or would you continue to prevent them from worshipping according to their beliefs based on the assessment they are a dangerous cult and a threat to the government?
[Either way, you can see the group's content on youtube using English subtitles. A further news article on the group is available here. ("Sixth Tone" is a media company controlled by the Chinese Communist Party) ]
Whilst there is an obvious propaganda element to the film, with characters providing extremely long monologues on their beliefs and their correctness, it brings up very real issues relating to religious freedom in China and to the treatment of religious groups designated as cults more generally.
I spent a good chunk of the film going back and forth on whose side I'm on; the plucky missionaries facing persecution and torture, utterly insistent in their moral righteous and spectacularly crude belief in God or the Chinese government's efforts at re-education, trying to bring the "heroes" down by undermining their faith, with bemused officials endlessly repeating the word "science" as the justification for the Communist Party's policies and rule.
[On a hunch, I think the film downplays the government's arguments for atheism, but I can attest that the "role of labour in the formation of human consciousness" at the 58 minute mark, which infuriates the missionary forced to read it from a book, is authentically and embarrassingly Marxist in its origins, dating back to Fredrich Engels. The rest of the depiction of the Chinese Communists has a Marxian tone, but is more subdued. So it is possible the CCP is really that dumb to just say "science" as if it the answer to everything as Marxism isn't very good on saying "why" it's atheist to begin with. ]
Though I did enjoy the spectacularly and refreshingly naive belief that one side is "good" and the other "evil", finding myself wanting to cheer on the "villains" plotting on how best to "reform" Christians in to model atheist citizens unsurprisingly makes me feel uneasy. If you think "thought reform" is ok, it is only a matter of time before it is used against you. The experience nevertheless shines a spotlight on the reality of religious persecution and state atheism in the People's Republic of China which may be worth sharing.
The Church of Almighty God, also known as "Eastern Lightning", is a millennial group that claims Jesus Christ has returned as a Chinese woman in 1991, believed to be Yang Xiagbin (b. 1973) now thought to be living in the United States after being granted asylum. Chinese authorities claim that Yang suffers from a history of mental illness. The name Eastern Lightning comes from the passage in Matthew (24:27): "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
Since having roughly a thousand members in 1991, the group has grown to perhaps three or four million members based on Chinese government estimates. In 1995, the Chinese government classified Eastern Lightning as a cult. The group has been described as the nation's "most dangerous cult" by Chinese media and it has been labelled a "terrorist organisation" by Christian opponents and media internationally, though the group denies all accusations of this. Because the group is essentially clandestine and operating underground, it remains extremely secretive with very limited information available on the group to western observers.
Members of the group have been involved in a mass kidnapping, doomsday riots related to the Mayan end of the world prophesy in 2012, and the murder of a woman who refused to provide a phone number for contact details when demanded to by missionaries.
Eastern Lightning is banned in China, with the US state department claiming that in 2018 over 11,000 members of the group were arrested, with 525 members subjected to torture and forced indoctrination, and that "some" were tortured to death whilst in custody of the Chinese authorities. In 2020, there were claims that at least 32,815 Church members were persecuted in 2019 (compared to 23,567 in 2018), with at least 19 members dying from the result of abused (compared to 20 from 2018).
My question is quite simple. If you were the Chinese authorities, would you protect the rights of members of Eastern Lightning to practice their religion? Or would you continue to prevent them from worshipping according to their beliefs based on the assessment they are a dangerous cult and a threat to the government?
[Either way, you can see the group's content on youtube using English subtitles. A further news article on the group is available here. ("Sixth Tone" is a media company controlled by the Chinese Communist Party) ]
Last edited: