this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2024
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In the USA, while there is on paper separation of church and state, in practice there isn't, because theists can control the state, and so they will just make up fake justifications for their religious laws they don't believe in themselves. The only way to genuinely separate church and state is to not allow theists to control the state. Legally, the CPC controls the state, and you cannot join the CPC is you are a theist, so you will be limited in any sort of political ambitions.
Proselytizing is also illegal. If people come to your church it should because of their own personal interests or for family reasons because of your heritage. It shouldn't be because some charlatan convinces you on the street or the television that you need to attend, because that just opens the way for a lot of exploitation, like snake oil salesmen and generally people who do harm to society at large.
If you are fine with those conditions, there are churches in China of many different faiths. The people who cry about persecution are often Christians who don't like these conditions, they want to be able to control the state like in the US and they want to be able to proselytize and can't. These are the evangelical types which definitely get persecuted in China but that's a good thing.
This is, I think, where Americans get their “China persecutes Christians” narrative; at least to the extent their opinions have any sort of grounding in an echo of truth. For white Evangelical Christians, proselytizing is a fundamental aspect to their religion. You must convert the non-Christians or else they face an eternity of conscious torment in hell. For that reason any restrictions on proselytizing by any government are seen as invalid and must be disobeyed.
Also, evangelical Christians just have a persecution fetish. There is nothing they love more than feeling or claiming that they feel persecuted. In their mind this makes them more like Jesus or the apostles or whatever. Which is kind of ironic when you think about it, because although they claim to believe that pride is a sin they sure do love feeling superior to everyone else...