The Chinese Communist Party – one of the world’s worst violators of human rights and religious freedom – has taken their grave abuses to a new low. No longer content with torturing and “re-educating” innocent religious believers in their communist doctrine in prison camps, now the CCP is attempting to rewrite and completely alter the teachings of Christ.
This is not the first time the CCP has targeted Christians and religious groups. Just last year, the world watched in horror as the Chinese government persecuted Uyghur Muslims and placed them in death camps.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government levied a fine of more than 400,000 Yuan on a Christian pastor who refused to affiliate with the state-sanctioned church. Instead of allowing religious groups to practice freely, the state is adding them to a registry, and now, they are controlling the scripture in which they preach.
Communism, at its core, is a political theory that objects to the presence of an organized religion. One thing the CCP has failed to recognize until now is the idea that all men, women, and children should have equal opportunity to freedom of thought, conscience, and belief – it is how we are hardwired.
The CCP’s latest move begs the question, why are they rewriting the Bible if the Party does not believe in God?
The answer is simple: the CCP is so afraid of free will and religious convictions that they are now taking on the role of God to further manipulate those looking beyond the Party for meaning in life. If millions of Chinese citizens are going to practice their religion, despite attempts by the government to thwart them, then the government has no choice but to try and make the people worship them instead of God.
We have seen this before. Countries like North Korea, Iraq, and Iran have been victims of this theory. According to their leaders, the Ayatollah was hand selected by God to lead the hermit nation, Iran. Kim Il Sung and his son imposed Juche ideology, forcing citizens to worship them as spiritual deities. Saddam Hussein ruled over Iraq with the same idea that God anointed him to rule over Iraq forever – and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was no better, forcing people to adopt their extremist ideology or face brutal killings.
In recent years, the world has witnessed a lapse in global leadership for religious freedom. With inadequate leaders in the United States and around the world, dictators like Xi Jinping have stepped up in their endeavors to silence political dissidents and attack the characteristics humanity is hardwired with.
In places like Iraq, we saw a despot rule for decades. After his toppling, religious extremists attacked Christians and Muslim minorities in the region. Now, because of our work, Iraq has a brighter future, new leadership, and stronger protections for religious freedom for all groups of people, not just those in the majority.
We can and must do the same in China. Our leaders must stand up in the face of adversity and have the moral courage to defend the rights of all religious groups to worship freely together. There is no greater threat to humanity than the coordinated attack on religious freedom, and there is no greater interference than changing the words of the Bible.
By changing the text to include rhetoric about Jesus sinning and blaming Western civilization for sin, the CCP is attempting to alter the understanding of Christian scripture. One thing is for certain, though: the CCP might be trying to change the text of the Bible, but they will not be able to change the meaning of scripture.
Tina Ramirez, the Founder and President of Hardwired, an organization dedicated to fighting for religious freedom worldwide. She has served as a foreign policy advisor to members of Congress, helped establish the bipartisan International Religious Freedom Caucus in the US House of Representatives, and is a member of the United Nations NGO Committee on Religious Freedom or Belief
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.