Activist Calls Chinese Ministry Conference 'Staged' Communist Propaganda
by Allie Martin
February 12, 2004
(AgapePress) - An outspoken Christian activist based in Wisconsin is leading an informational protest this year at an annual symposium on ministry in the People's Republic of China.As the Sixth Annual Symposium on Church Ministry in China kicked off earlier this week in Cypress, a suburb of Houston, Texas, Pastor Ralph Ovadal of Wisconsin Christians United (WCU) was on hand to lead a protest at the four-day gathering.
WCU's executive director says that symposium, which is being presented and underwritten by the Christian Leadership Exchange, is nothing more than a shameless propaganda stunt, completely staged on behalf of the Chinese government's state church. He notes significantly that this year's symposium features no Chinese house church Christians or pastors, and no representatives of the unofficial or "underground" Christian movement China.
Ovadal says the symposium organizers came with an agenda. "These people are here to convince Americans that there is no persecution in China for the Christians and that if everyone would just get on board and join the state church, then everything would come up roses," he says.
But the pastor contends that the view of Chinese Christianity being presented at the symposium is false. "Of course we know that we have Christian brothers and sisters suffering greatly in China," he says, "and so we're here to expose what's going on."
To that end, Ovadal's group has been handing out leaflets, talking to attendees, and holding up signs at the entrance to the symposium bearing slogans such as: "The Christian Church Council is Red."
The Wisconsin-based activist is also trying to make more people aware of his assessment of Christian Leadership Exchange's Danny Yu, one of the principal organizers of this year's conference. Ovadal says Yu is nothing more than a propagandist for the government of Communist China.
"Many people don't realize what Danny Yu is up to, but they need to understand that it was just a few years ago that he was honored in Beijing for his work with the Christian Leadership Exchange," Ovadal says. "There's a story in the People's Daily telling about how the government honored him. They don't honor Christians in China unless they're not true Christians -- they're state Christians, working for the state."
The 2004 Symposium on Church Ministry in China will conclude on Friday, February 13.
