Parents of kindergartners in one Chinese city are now required to sign a pledge promising not to hold any religious beliefs, religious-freedom organization ChinaAid reports.
In early March, many kindergartens in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, issued a “Pledge Form of Commitment for Family Not to Hold Religious Belief” to all students’ parents, assent to which was mandatory. The pledge requires parents to raise families that “do not hold a religious belief, do not participate in any religious activities, and do not propagate and disseminate religion in any locations.” In addition, the document commits families to “exemplary observance of the [Communist] Party discipline” and eschewal of “Falun Gong and other cult organizations.” And, according to Bitter Winter, it mandates that parents “avoid ‘feudal superstition,’ and teach kindergarten children faith in science, socialism, and the Chinese Communist Party.”
A Wenzhou kindergarten teacher who, for obvious reasons, wished to remain anonymous, told ChinaAid, “In the past, the higher-level education department made it compulsory for kindergartens not to be superstitious and not to participate in cult organizations, but did not mandate kindergarten children’s families not to believe in religion or participate in any religious activities.”
Breitbart reports:
In 2019, the Chinese district of Lishan launched a campaign to eradicate religious belief in kindergartens, forcing kindergarten students to sign an atheist manifesto promising to avoid religious activities.
Both pupils and teachers were required to sign a statement pledging not to browse religious websites or participate in religious forums, and including the declaration, “I will adhere to the correct political direction, advocate science, promote atheism, and oppose theism.”
The campaign forbade schools from hiring new teachers who hold religious beliefs, and called for increased supervision of teaching staff, including “comprehensive inspections of teachers’ preparation for lessons in order to root out any and all religious content.”
With Christianity, the enemy of authoritarianism, on the rise in the officially atheist country, Chinese officials have sought to bring all religions under state control. China expert Steven Mosher told LifeSiteNews
that in a December 2021 speech at the National Conference on Work Related to Religious Affairs, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping “emphasized that ‘religion and religious organizations must be actively guided to adapt to socialist society,’ and that those working on ‘religious affairs’ within the Party must take the Sinicization of religion as their major task.”
“Sinicization,” Xi explained, “means that all religious communities should be led by the Party, controlled by the Party, and support the Party.”
To that end, Beijing has tried to co-opt as many churches as it can. Those who have refused to become Communist tools have instead been subjected to persecution, particularly in Wenzhou, “one of the most vibrant Christian regions in mainland China,” according to LifeSiteNews. Of the city’s 750,000 people, roughly 10 percent — and growing — are Christians, and half of Zhejiang Province’s 4,000 churches are within its limits.
Beginning in 2014, the government began removing crosses from churches and even destroying entire church buildings. It installed surveillance cameras in churches. It forbade hospital employees, schoolteachers, and civil servants from attending services. It made it illegal to organize religious activities for minors and prohibited minors from going to church and from sharing their faith with other school students under penalty of fines or failure to graduate.
Writes Breitbart:
“We know of some school teachers who warn children that if they follow Jesus they may not be allowed to graduate,” said one Chinese church leader on condition of anonymity. “This creates a terrible struggle in young people’s hearts.”
“They are torn between living free in the truth of who they really are, versus possible punishment at the hands of their teachers or parents,” he continued. “If they admit they follow Jesus, they could lose everything they have worked for.”
Of course, by requiring parents of young children to live as atheists, as it is now beginning to do, the government expects to prevent many kids from ever hearing of Jesus, let along coming to faith in him. But then this is the modus operandi of state-run schools everywhere, which always seek to exalt the government — usually by seeing to it that students worship the potentate of the present rather than the King of Kings.
