Churches are also not allowed to organise a youth summer camp.
Authorities in China have tightened their grip on the country’s churches by ordering that children are to be banned from joining religious groups.
The Chinese Government has placed a ban on children in the country attending church services.
The move is reportedly a bid to crack down on religion in the country, particularly Islam and Christianity.
According to Daily Mail, over one hundred churches in Wenzhou, China’s Zhejiang province were served a notice saying minors will not be allowed to enter churches.
They will also be banned from participating in religious activities and attending religious sermons. Churches are also not allowed to organise a youth summer camp.
It is unclear how widespread the bans on children attending church services are in China, but these alarming reports seem to be coming in from fairly diverse areas throughout the country.
According to UCA News, the ban also promises that officials will investigate government approved churches and underground congregations who operate outside the tightly controlled Beijing-run Catholic and Protestant Churches.
While in Hunan province, Liang Guochao, head of the Education Bureau, stressed making a ‘decisive effort to prevent religions infiltrating into schools and to guide students to consciously resist religious cults.’
In neighbouring Henan province, a document was issued in July reinforcing the communist policy of not allowing religions to run study classes for minors.
William Nee, a researcher for Amnesty International told MailOnline:
‘In an important speech on religion last year, China’s President Xi Jinping said that young people must study science, believe in science and develop a ‘correct’ worldview and set of values.
‘In this speech, President Xi Jinping also re-emphasized the need for Communist Party cadres to be strict Marxist atheists, and not to find values or beliefs in religion.
China is in the midst of a religious revival and the current government seems concerned that religion could be a means through which foreign values may ‘penetrate’ into China and ultimately affect political stability.
It is suspected that the ban is to ensure the development of a generation whose idea of the truth and general worldview would be whatever is taught by the Chinese government through the public education system.
It could be that the government is concerned that young people going to church or religious activities may challenge their monopoly on truth and the government’s ability to instill its own historical narratives and worldview through the public education system.
