MCLC: faithful protect church

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: faithful protect church
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Source: Sinosphere blog, NYT (4/4/14):
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/04/faithful-rush-to-protect-chu
rch-with-a-cross-deemed-too-tall/

Faithful Rush to Protect Church With a Cross Deemed Too Tall
By MIA LI 

Thousands of Christians gathered for a second day Friday outside a large,
new church in eastern China to protect the building from armed police sent
by the local government to demolish it.

The newly built Sanjiang Christian Church in Yongjia County, near Wenzhou,
in Zhejiang Province, was ruled to be an “illegal construction” by the
county government about a month ago. Local Christians said the church was
ordered to be demolished earlier by higher-level provincial officials, who
said the building and the cross atop it were too tall and visible. The
church is part of China’s official Protestant church, the Three-Self
Patriotic Movement and not an underground church.

After two and half years of construction, the church was finished in
December. But in early March, before the decoration of the building’s
interior could start, the local authorities ordered the grand cross to be
taken down, saying it was too large and high, according to several local
Christians.

They posted on social media that they believed the order came after Xia
Baolong, the Communist Party chief of Zhejiang, visited the county in
January, and said the cross atop the church was too ostentatious. Calls to
the county and city government offices seeking comment were not answered
Friday.

The Christians refused to take the cross down.

“We are not taking the cross down. It is a symbol of our love,” Li Xile,
32, a Wenzhou native, said in a telephone interview. “A church without a
cross is just a warehouse.”

Online video taken Thursday shows hundreds of people milling around the
building, singing. This week, thousands of churchgoers have taken turns
guarding the building round the clock — with others bringing food and
blankets — in a standoff with police who had bulldozers parked nearby,
said Ms. Li.

The cost of the church’s construction, almost 30 million renminbi, or
about $4.8 million, was financed by local families, said Ms. Li. “Many of
us donated our life savings. The elderly donated their coffin money,” she
said, referring to the money a person would save in their lifetime to buy
a good-quality coffin for their remains. “This is our home.”

The construction plan and design of the church was approved by the Wenzhou
municipal government, according to Ms. Li, citing church staff.

The church was designed to have a home at the back to take care of many of
the county’s elderly, many of whose children were overseas and unable to
care for them. The overseas children donated substantially to the church,
local Christians said. Christianity is prevalent among the population in
Wenzhou, which sees many of its natives emigrating abroad.