RLPB 356. China:Lawyer Yang Maodong in Critical Need

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 356 | Wed 11 May 2016

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CHINA: LAWYER YANG MAODONG IN CRITICAL NEED
By Elizabeth Kendal

'He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?' (Micah 6:8 ESV)

Yang Maodong (right)
with Gao Zhisheng (left)
in Beijing, 2006.

Yang Maodong, also known by his pen-name Guo Feixiong, is a Christian human rights lawyer in China. Like his close friend and colleague, Gao Zhisheng (another of China's Christian human rights lawyers), Yang is compelled by his commitment to Jesus Christ and his firm belief in Biblical truth and Gospel principles, to fight (as a lawyer) for righteousness, mercy, liberty and justice. Like Gao (52), Yang (49) believes the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should not only honour the constitution and uphold the law, but respect the dignity of the human beings under its care. Both Gao and Yang have suffered imprisonment and torture for their human rights advocacy. Yang was arrested in September 2006 and sentenced to five years in jail, whilst Gao was arrested in December 2006 and sentenced to three years. Subsequently, Gao wrote a full account of the torture he endured, while Yang simply described his own treatment as 'beyond people's imagination'. The families of both men have asylum in the US.

In April 2010 Gao was 'disappeared' into the 'black jail' system. In December 2011 the CCP reported that Gao had been returned to prison for a further three years. Released in August 2014 [see RLPB 275 (25 Aug 2014)], the frail but recovering Gao is presently under house arrest in his late mother's 'cave dwelling' in Shaanxi Province and is denied access to much-needed medical and dental care.

Released in September 2011, Yang was rearrested in August 2013.
On 27 November 2015 the trial court in Guangzhou found him guilty of 'gathering crowds to disturb social order' and 'picking quarrels and provoking troubles', and sentenced him to six years in Yangchun prison in Guangdong Province. Pre-empting the verdict, Yang prepared a statement: 'Hidden deep inside the law, is the voice of essence and dignity. "You ... have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness",' he said, referencing Jesus' condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:23. [Click here for Yang's statement.]

When Gao Zhisheng heard that Yang Maodong (Guo Feixiong) had been returned to prison, he was so distressed he was unable to sleep. On 28 November 2015 he released a statement on the situation: 'This morning in prayer I thanked God for providing China with Guo Feixiong in our time, for strengthening him and giving him the power to strike terror into the evil forces, for making him an intimate friend of mine, and for having him become a peaceful, rational, and unique force for changing China.' The CCP responded by cancelling Gao's phone service. [Click here for Gao's statement].

As a torture survivor, Yang's health has been delicate for some years. When Yang's sister, Dr Yang Maoping (54), visited him in prison on 26 April 2016, she found him to be in a critical state -- deteriorating and fearful. His mouth and throat were bleeding, he had bloody stools, and he was pale, thin and unsteady on his feet. Yang's lawyers visited him on Friday 6 May, but the visit was cut short when guards took him away after only two minutes. The lawyers' request to have Yang transferred to hospital was ignored. Yang Maodong is being held in inhumane conditions and denied access to medical treatment. His sister, a practising physician, is convinced his condition is critical and that, without appropriate medical care, he will die.


PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL

* intervene on behalf of Yang Maodong and all other Christian human rights advocates and pastors presently suffering inhumane and even life-threatening punishment in Chinese prisons simply because their Biblical convictions lead them to challenge CCP policy. May evil be restrained; may they receive the medical care they urgently need and may '... justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.' (Amos 5:24 ESV)

* pour out his Holy Spirit abundantly on Yang Maodong and all who suffer for righteousness' sake; may they have deep abiding supernatural peace. May the eternal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ be palpable. 'For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.' (From Romans 8:31-39 ESV)

* awaken dulled consciences, so that those who deny medical aid to the ill and those who order and commit torture and abuse will repent 'in dust and ashes'.

SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN WHOLE ARTICLE
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DESPERATE SITUATION OF CHRISTIAN LAWYER IN CHINA

Yang Maodong (49) is a Christian human rights lawyer and religious liberty advocate in China. Yang was first arrested in 2006, tortured and sentenced to five years in prison. Released in 2011, Yang was rearrested in 2013 and sentenced in November 2015 to another six years in prison. As a survivor of torture, Yang's health is precarious. When Yang's sister, a medical doctor, visited him on 26 April she found him in a critical, deteriorating and fearful state. When Yang's lawyers visited him on 6 May, he was dragged away after only two minutes. Requests for medical care are being denied. He is bleeding internally and his sister is convinced that, without appropriate medical care, he will die. Please pray for Yang Maodong, for China and its Christian prisoners.

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Elizabeth Kendal is the author of Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat.

Elizabeth Kendal’s new book, After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East, is presently being published by Wipf and Stock (Eugene, OR, USA) and will be available shortly. 

RLPB 355. Turkey: Church seizures reflect Ottoman policy

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 355 | Wed 04 May 2016

Please forward this prayer bulletin widely, and encourage others to sign up to the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog. "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." (James 5:16 NIV)

TURKEY: CHURCH SEIZURES REFLECT OTTOMAN POLICY
By Elizabeth Kendal

Aware that the neo-Ottoman Islamist AKP government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is unwilling to accept any outcome in Syria other than regime change, many analysts expect Turkey will move to escalate the Syrian war. Meanwhile, in Turkey it is already escalating its military campaign against the Kurds and its covert campaign against its remnant Armenian and Assyrian Christian communities. In a sense the Genocide never really ended, as Christians are still being driven out -- albeit quietly -- primarily by means of deprivations and threats. 'In some ways,' wrote political scientist Dr Elizabeth H Prodromou and historian Dr Alexandros K Kyrou (2013), 'Ankara's policies against Turkey's Christian citizens have added a modern veneer and sophisticated brutality to Ottoman norms and practices. ... In the words of an anonymous Church hierarch in Turkey fearful for the life of his flock, Christians in Turkey are an endangered species.'

As reported in last week's RLPB 354 (April Update), the mostly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir (majority Christian just 100 years ago) has been heavily shelled -- no area more so than the historic, World Heritage listed Sur district on Diyarbakir's eastern fringe. After ordering residents out of Sur district, the government then seized 6300 plots of land, including six churches: the Assyrian Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary (built in the 3rd Century), the Mar Petyun Chaldean Catholic Church, the Surp (Saint) Sarkis Chaldean Catholic Church, an Armenian Catholic church, the Diyarbakir Protestant Church and the largest Armenian church in the Middle East -- the magnificent, recently renovated and hugely significant Surp Giragos Armenian Apostolic Church.

Surp Giragos Armenian Apostolic Church, Diyarbakir (Nov 2014)

These churches are now the property of the Turkish state, which has no interest in their survival. Christians are deeply concerned that the government may be planning to raze Sur district and rebuild it entirely. Unlike mosques, which are all state owned and run, these churches were the private property of their foundations, maintained and staffed through the donations of the faithful.  Furthermore, they are an integral part of Turkey's cultural heritage -- lest people forget that Anatolia, once part of the Byzantine Empire, was a land of Greek, Armenian and Assyrian Christians.

Though a remnant survived the Genocide of 1915-1923, the pressure has never subsided. Few of the Greek, Armenian and Assyrian churches seized during the Genocide have been returned. Rejecting the pleas of Christians, the government prefers to use these historic churches and cultural treasures as warehouses, sports centres, stables for animals or squats for drug users. Occasionally the government sells them to investors and developers over the internet. And so the state-sponsored cultural destruction continues, quietly.

This is the context in which many Muslims in Turkey are calling for Istanbul's (Constantinople's) famous 6th Century Byzantine Cathedral -- the magnificent Hagia Sophia (Church of Holy Wisdom) -- to be opened as a mosque [see RLPB 315 (24 June 2015)]. Pressure has been mounting since June 2012 when Iznik's Hagia Sophia (formerly the Hagia Sofia of Nicaea) was converted into a mosque and December 2012 when a Turkish court ruled that Trabzon's Hagia Sophia should be opened for Muslim worship. Since May 2013, when Muslims celebrated the 560th anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople, calls to 'complete the conquest' through the removal of all churches have become even more shrill. On 9 April 2015, as Eastern Christians prepared to celebrate Easter, Istanbul's Hagia Sophia hosted the first Qur'an recitation under its roof in 85 years. Today, as the government seizes control of six more churches, there are reasons to be concerned about the future of Christianity in NATO-member, and aspiring EU-member, Turkey.


PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL

* grace Turkey's Christians (including some 2,000 Greeks and 80,000 Armenians and Assyrians) with holy wisdom in abundance as they seek to navigate the difficult and dangerous days ahead.
'My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Redeem me from man's oppression, that I may keep your precepts.' (Psalm 119:28,105,134 ESV)

* provide for, guide and bless advocate Ali Elbeyoğlu, the lawyer for the Surp Giragos Armenian Church Foundation, as he appeals to the Council of State for a stay of execution and annulment of the expropriation of the hugely significant Surp Giragos Armenian Apostolic Church. 'For the Lord loves justice; he will not forsake his saints.' (Psalm 37:28 ESV)

* awaken Western leaders to start caring truly about the plight of Middle Eastern Christians and really listening to them in the realisation that their plight pre-figures our own; may West and East stand in solidarity against re-energised, belligerent Islam.

SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN WHOLE ARTICLE
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CHURCH SEIZURES IN TURKEY REFLECT OTTOMAN POLICY

Turkey has escalated its military campaign against the Kurds and its covert campaign against its remnant Greek, Armenian and Assyrian Christian communities. Few churches seized during the Genocide of 1915-1923 were ever returned and in March 2016 the government seized six churches in Diyarbakir, south-eastern Turkey. They include a 1700-year-old Assyrian Orthodox Church, Armenian and Assyrian Catholic Churches, the Diyarbakir Protestant Church and the largest Armenian church in the Middle East: the magnificent, recently renovated and highly significant Surp Giragos Armenian Apostolic Church. Calls to open Istanbul's magnificent Hagia Sophia (Church of Holy Wisdom) as a mosque grow louder by the day. Deprivations and state-sponsored cultural destruction are fuelling Christian migration. Concern for the future of Christianity in Turkey is valid. Please pray for Turkey and its Church.
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Elizabeth Kendal is the author of Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks toChristians Today (Deror Books, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat.

Elizabeth Kendal’s new book, After Saturday ComesSunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East, is presently being published by Wipf and Stock (Eugene, OR, USA) and will be available shortly.