Religion: A Church That Would Not Die

China's Christians re-emerge as Peking changes policy

In 1966 Red Guards burned Bibles in the streets of Shanghai for several afternoons. When boredom set in, the surviving stock was sent off to a pulping plant. In Xiamen (Amoy), a similar burning took place but with a sinister twist: Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. workers were forced to kneel by the books until their cheeks and hands blistered from the fire. All over China, church buildings were pillaged, closed down or turned into warehouses. Chinese Christians were often tortured or killed if they did not repudiate their beliefs. At the height of the 1966-69...

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