Members of a Christian house church in Linfen were violently attacked by local officials, the Toronto Star reports:
As he lay there he could hear a man yelling, “Beat them. Beat them as hard as you like. I’ll take responsibility for everything.”
To his amazement, and the amazement of other eyewitnesses, the mob was led by a local Communist Party official backed up by uniformed police.
They were clearly on a mission. But what that mission was, wasn’t clear to those under attack.
It was, in fact, one of the more violent flare-ups in China’s ongoing campaign against Christians, a community that – according to researchers – exceeds 100 million and is growing rapidly.
That growth has stoked concern and even alarm among some government officials, who see the spread of Christianity as a threat to their authority.
Officials here took the threat seriously and decided to act – with force.
