Comments from a Non-Practitioner: Atheist Chief of the National Bureau of Religion

By Li Pingshan

(Clearwisdom.net) Editors' Note: All the reference materials reprinted here are not written by Falun Gong practitioners and may not share the same opinions with Falun Gong practitioners.

In the afternoon of February 20, 2003, at the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto a ridiculous press conference took place, hosted sneakily by "the Delegation of High-Rank Leaders from the National Bureau of Religion." The delegation leader and the head of the National Bureau of Religion, Ye Xiaowen, the president of the Chinese Catholic Patriots' Association, Fu Tieshan, and the president of the Chinese Christians' Association, Cao Shengjie, spoke on the conference to advertise the "flourishing development" of China's religions and their enjoyment of true "freedom of religion" because of the loving care taken by the Party. Then they launched an offensive against Falun Gong. Having fulfilled their task, they snuck away.

This ridiculous show really made many overseas Chinese people feel ashamed. As history has come to the stage, the Party in China, an atheist party originating from a group of proletarians, is still leading the religions of China and presumptuously appointing the heads of various religions. Even more ridiculous is the fact that these appointed heads can never realize what they are believing in, gods or of the Party. Viewed by any clear-minded person, they are nothing but a handful of politicians in the garb of religions.

As Li Shixiong, the founder of the "Committee Investigating Persecution of Religions in China," said, "Religious leaders in any country of the world are working for their God, no matter what kind of religion they belong to. Only China's 'patriot' religious leaders Fu Tieshan, Cao Shengjie and so forth are excellent Party members. They are directly responsible to Jiang Zemin and the Central Committee of the Party. Their Lord is the central committee, is Jiang Zemin, instead of God."

With its headquarters located in New York, the "Committee Investigating Persecution of Religions in China" in recent years published many cases exposing persecution of Christians by the Chinese Communist Party in mainland China. Among the cases are those of Chinese policemen cruelly tortured Christians and sexually attacked female members. Their cruel means have drawn wide attention from the media and the whole society.

The recently founded "World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong" also published in succession more than 560 proven cases of people tortured to death just because they practiced Falun Gong, exposed the fact that more than one hundred thousand Falun Gong practitioners have been jailed in Forced Labor Camps and evidence has been offered to show the cruel and inhuman torture in those camps. In addition, many media, including the famous "New York Times," "Washington Post" and "Rhine Messenger" in Germany, have been reporting with irrefutable and conclusive evidence of the suppression and persecution of "Roman Catholic Underground Church," "Falun Gong," "Family Church" and others in China. However, these religious politicians called nowadays "the best times for China's religions." It seems that the most important thing to these politicians are their official positions.

The official mouthpiece of the Party, "People's Net," reported the speeches of these heads of religions. There was no substantive content in the speeches but hackneyed and stereotyped expressions, which just repeat the Party's accusations against Falun Gong and dished out again the staged show of "self-immolation," which was taken by the Party and used as a lethal weapon. However, several years has passed and everyday people have not only realized the tricks played in the "self-immolation" but also told others the fact that Falun Gong practitioners themselves oppose suicide and any killing. Within several years, the government made a huge effort to criticize and suppress Falun Gong, while Falun Gong has become stronger and stronger. Having never heard of Falun Gong before, many people now receive Falun Gong clarifying-truth material every three or five days. Furthermore, it is heard that even the high-ranking officers in the government try to purposely play down the Falun Gong issue, and TV programs attacking Falun Gong have been obviously reduced.

However, these government-appointed heads of religions not only showed no love to their Christian bothers and sisters persecuted by the government, but also voluntarily serve the Party, searching for reasons and pretexts for the Party to persecute and kill Falun Gong practitioners. Where is the love God has given you?

Ye Xiaowen even spoke of so-called "threatening phone calls" from Falun Gong practitioners, taking them as the only evidence to accuse Falun Gong. As posted by the "People's Net," the content of a phone call was, "You are a believer in God and God will see everything you do. You will pay for these kinds of deeds that trouble your conscience. To your life in the future and your soul, can you feel at ease after doing these kinds of deeds against the heaven's law and human being's moral standards?"

What makes this author feel perplexed is that nothing threatening can be discovered in this. On the contrary, it seems an exhortation to a person doing evil and a good will to hope that the person would have his bad deeds on his or her conscience to consider them. However, the author wants to tell Falun Gong practitioners that Ye Xiaowen, the head of the National Bureau of Religion, doesn't believe in God at all. He is an atheist and a Party member. It is no use to tell him something about his future, since his life already has no future. He believes that nothing would be left to him as long as he dies and it would be nonsense to say anything to him about a life's future and a soul. This head of the National Bureau of Religion once made a speech asserting no contradiction between atheism and religion and they are just the same thing. Perhaps, this is the most lamentable thing for China's religions.

("Absurd lackey of the communist party, the atheist head of the religions" was the title of the original article, which has been abridged by our editorial staff.)

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