Defnyddiwr:Lo Ximiendo/Eglwys Duw Hollalluog
Yr Eglwys Duw Hollalluog (Tsieineeg syml: 全能神教会; Tsieineeg draddodiadol: 全能神教會; pinyin: Quánnéng Shén Jiàohuì), also known as Eastern Lightning (Tsieineeg syml: 东方闪电; Tsieineeg draddodiadol: 東方閃電; pinyin: Dōngfāng Shǎndiàn), is a new religious movement established in China in 1991,[1] to which Chinese governmental sources attribute from three to four million members,[2] although scholars regard these figures as somewhat inflated.[3] The name "Eastern Lightning" is drawn from the New Testament, Gospel of Matthew 24:27: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Its core teaching is that Jesus Christ returned to earth in their days as the incarnate Almighty God (全能神), this time not as a man but as a Chinese woman.[4] The movement is regarded by the Chinese authorities[5] as a xie jiao (邪教; a term often translated as “evil cult” but in fact used since the Ming dynasty to indicate “heterodox teachings”)[6] and accused of various crimes, including the infamous Zhaoyuan McDonald's Cult Murder.[7] Christian opponents and international media have in turn described it as a cult[8] and even as a "terrorist organization."[9] The Church denies all accusations, and there are scholars who have concluded that some accusations they have investigated so far are indeed false or exaggerated.[10]
Hanes
golygu1989 revival and the Shouters
golyguAlthough the movement never mentions her name nor any biographic details (while admitting she is female), and cautions that any information supplied by outside sources may be wrong,[11] several scholars believe it identifies the incarnate Almighty God with a Chinese woman, Yang Xiangbin (b. 1973; Tsieineeg: 楊向彬; pinyin: Yáng Xiàngbīn), who was born in northwestern China.[12] In 1989, during a revival of the Chinese independent churches, the person identified by the movement as Almighty God formally entered the House church movement, i.e. the Protestant churches independent from the government, and began to utter words that followers compared for authority and power to those expressed by Jesus Christ.[13] At that time, she was attending meetings of the groups founded by Witness Lee (Tsieineeg: 李常受; pinyin: Lǐ Chángshòu), known as the Local churches in the West and as The Shouters (Tsieineeg: 呼喊派; pinyin: Hūhǎn-Pài) in China,[14] as did most of her early devotees.[15] Many believers in the Chinese House Church movement believed that those words were from the Holy Spirit and started to read them in their gatherings in 1991, so that the origins of the church may be dated back to this year, although only in 1993 the person who was the source of these messages was recognized as Christ, the incarnate God, and the only one true God, and The Church of Almighty God emerged with this name.[16]
Zhao Weishan
golyguZhao Weishan | |
---|---|
Administrative leader of The Church of Almighty God | |
Manylion personol | |
Ganwyd | Acheng District, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China | Rhagfyr 12, 1951
Cenedligrwydd | Gweriniaeth Pobl Tsieina |
Galwedigaeth | Teacher |
Among those who accepted the person and the message of Almighty God was Zhao Weishan (Tsieineeg syml: 赵维山; Tsieineeg draddodiadol: 趙維山; pinyin: Zhào Wéishān; born December 12, 1951), the leader of an independent branch of the Shouters.[17] While some scholars regard Zhao as the founder of the movement,[18] others believe that this is due to a bias in the Chinese sources, which would not easily accept that a large religious movement was founded by a woman, and in fact the title of "founder" of The Church of Almighty God should rather be attributed to the (female) person the movement venerates as Almighty God.[angen ffynhonnell] According to Australian scholar Emily Dunn, in 1991, the organization had more than a thousand members. After being investigated and prosecuted by a local police station, Zhao left Heilongjiang Province and continued the organization in Qingfeng County, Henan, where it continued to expand.[19] He was later recognized as the leader and the Priest of The Church of Almighty God. The church insists that it is personally led and shepherded by the person it recognizes as Almighty God, and that Zhao, "the Man used by the Holy Spirit," is the administrative leader of the movement.[20]
Ehangu a gormes
golyguThe Chinese government was immediately suspicious of The Church of Almighty God because of its anti-Communist teachings,[21] and the harsh repression of the mid-1990s targeted together the Shouters and The Church of Almighty God, whose theological differences were not necessarily clear to the Chinese authorities.[22] In 2000, Zhao and Yang went to the United States, where they entered on September 6, and in 2001 they were granted political asylum. Since then, they live in and direct the movement from New York.[23] In early 2009, He Zhexun (Tsieineeg: 何哲迅; pinyin: Hé Zhéxùn), who used to be in charge of the work of the Church in Mainland China, was arrested by the Chinese authorities. On July 17, 2009, Ma Suoping (Tsieineeg: 馬鎖萍; pinyin: Mǎ Suǒpíng; female, 1969–2009), who took over He Zhexun’s role, was also arrested by the Chinese police and died while in custody.[24]
Despite governmental repression, and the fact that some leaders of Christian mainline churches accused The Church of Almighty God of heresy,[25] the Church grew in China and, according to Chinese official sources, had reached three or even four million members in 2014,[26] although scholars regard these figures as somewhat exaggerated.[27] Since the Zhaoyuan McDonald's Cult Murder of 2014, the repression in China intensified, and several thousand members escaped abroad, where they founded churches in South Korea, United States, Italy, France, Spain, Canada, and other countries, in addition to those established in Hong Kong and Taiwan, with non-Chinese members also joining the movement.[28] An unattended consequence of the diaspora was the flourishing, in the countries where the Church of Almighty God can freely operate, of a considerable artistic production of paintings and movies, with some films winning awards in Christian movie festivals.[29]
Refugee issues
golyguParticularly after the crackdown following the 2014 McDonald’s murder, thousands of members of The Church of Almighty God escaped to South Korea, the U.S., Canada, Italy, France, Australia, and other countries, seeking refugee status. While authorities in some countries claim that there is not enough evidence of the fact that asylum seekers have been persecuted, some international experts counter that with evidence that The Church of Almighty God is persecuted as a movement is enough to support the conclusion that members would face serious risks should they return to China, and decisions unfavorable to applicants are not justified.[30]
Honiadau newyddion ffug
golyguThe Church of Almighty God claims to be the victim of fake news campaigns instigated by the Chinese Communist Party. It insists that some flyers and banners depicted in Chinese and Western Web sites as evidence of its 2012 prophecies were in fact either fabricated or derived from alterations with Photoshop and other techniques of existing materials of the Church of Almighty God.[31] Some scholars have indeed studied certain Chinese campaigns against the Church as a classic example of fake news.[32] The Church has also denounced the existence in the United Kingdom of a false Web site “Church of Almighty God UK.”[33] Attempts by The Church of Almighty God to have it removed have been so far unsuccessful, despite scholars stating that the fact that the Web site does not represent the positions and theology of The Church of Almighty God should be obvious to anybody familiar with them.[34] A “Declaration Concerning Websites Imitating The Church of Almighty God” was issued by the Church denouncing the incident.[35]
See also
golyguCyfeiriadau
golyguCitations
golygu- ↑ Dunn (2008a).
- ↑ Li (2014), Ma (2014).
- ↑ Introvigne (2017c).
- ↑ Dunn (2008a); Dunn (2015), 62.
- ↑ Irons 2018.
- ↑ Palmer (2012).
- ↑ Dunn (2015), 2-3.
- ↑ Gracie (2014); Shen and Bach (2017).
- ↑ Tiezzi (2014).
- ↑ Dunn (2015), 204; Introvigne (2017a); Introvigne and Bromley (2017), Folk (2017).
- ↑ Introvigne (2017c).
- ↑ Dunn (2015), 68-72.
- ↑ Zoccatelli (2018), 8.
- ↑ Introvigne (2017c).
- ↑ Folk (2018), 72.
- ↑ Dunn (2015), 48; Introvigne (2017c).
- ↑ Dunn (2015),48: "Other Chinese sources present a far more complex account of Eastern Lightning's origins. They charge a middle-aged man named Zhao Weishan 赵维山, once a physics teacher or railroad worker, with founding the movement. These sources ... was a member of the Shouters in the late 1980s. He left the group with other believers in 1989 to form an offshoot called the Church of the Everlasting Foundation (永存的根基教会 Yongcun de genjijiaohui), in which he presented himself as a 'Lord of Ability' ( 能力主 nengli zhu). In May, 1992, a Chinese Christian magazine reported that a group called 'the New Church of the Lord of Ability' (新能力主教会 Xin nenglizhu jiaohui) had been distributing tracts and cassette recordings in the southwest Henan since March 1991."
- ↑ Kindopp (2004), 141: “Similarly, a disgruntled Protestant Christian named Zhao Weishan broke from his church to establish the Eastern Lightning cult, also in Henan"; Aikman (2003), 242: “"Some time in the 1990s, the man regarded as the founder of Eastern Lightning, Zhao Weishan, came to the United States with a false passport and applied for—and in 2000 was granted—political asylum.”
- ↑ Dunn (2015), 48.
- ↑ Introvigne (2017c); Zoccatelli (2018), 9.
- ↑ Dunn (2008b).
- ↑ Introvigne (2017c); Irons (2018).
- ↑ Dunn (2015), 49; Introvigne (2017c).
- ↑ Introvigne (2017c).
- ↑ See e.g. China for Jesus (2002; upd. 2014); Chan and Bright (2005).
- ↑ Li (2014), Ma (2014).
- ↑ Introvigne (2017c).
- ↑ Zoccatelli (2018), 10.
- ↑ Introvigne (2017b).
- ↑ Šorytė (2018).
- ↑ Introvigne (2017c).
- ↑ Introvigne (2018c).
- ↑ See the (false) Web site "Church of Almighty God UK 英国全能神教会," Archifwyd 2018-02-21 yn y Peiriant Wayback last accessed February 20, 2018.
- ↑ Introvigne (2017c).
- ↑ Introvigne (2017c).
Sources
golygu- Aikman, David (2003). Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power. Washington D.C.: Regnery. ISBN 978-0895261281.
- BBC News (2014). ”China Cult Murder Trail: Two Members Sentenced to Death.” October 11, 2014.
- Chan, Lois, and Steve Bright (2005). “Deceived by the Lightning”. The Christian Research Journal, 28,3.
- China People’s Daily (2014).“Inside China’s ‘Eastern Lightning’ Cult.” June 3, 2014,.
- Dunn, Emily C. (2008a). “‘Cult,' Church, and the CCP: Introducing Eastern Lightning." Modern China 35(1):96–119. ISSN 0097-7004.
- Dunn, Emily (2008b). “The Big Red Dragon and Indigenizations of Christianity in China." East Asian History 36: 73-85. ISSN 1036-6008
- Dunn, Emily (2015). Lightning from the East: Heterodoxy and Christianity in Contemporary China. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-29724-1.
- Dunn, Emily (2016). “Reincarnated Religion? The Eschatology of the Church of Almighty God in Comparative Perspective.” Studies in World Christianity, 22(3):216–233. ISSN 1354-9901.doi:10.3366/swc.2016.0157.
- Gracie Carrie (2014). “Chasing China’s Doomsday Cult.” BBC News, August 14, 2014.
- Introvigne, Massimo (2017b). “Church of Almighty God and the Visual Arts.” World Religions and Spirituality Project, Virginia Commonwealth University, December 3, 2017.
- Introvigne, Massimo (2017c). ““Church of Almighty God”. Profiles of Millenarian & Apocalyptic Movements, CenSAMM (Center for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements).
- Introvigne, Massimo (2018b). "Family Networks and the Growth of The Church of Almighty God.". Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 14(12):1-20.
- Introvigne, Massimo (2018d). “The McDonald’s Murder of 2014: The Crime The Church of Almighty God Did Not Commit.” Bitter Winter, September 20.
- Introvigne, Massimo (2019). "The Church of Almighty God / Eastern Lightning: 10 False Myths." Bitter Winter, April 9.
- Introvigne, Massimo and David Bromley (2017). “The Lü Yingchun/Zhang Fan Group.” World Religions and Spirituality Project, Virginia Commonwealth University, October 16, 2017.
- Irvine, Chris (ed.) (2014). “Chinese Boy Whose Eyes Were Gouged Out Fitted with Prosthetic Eyeballs.” The Telegraph, December 12, 2013.
- Jacobs, Andrew. 2012. “Chatter of Doomsday Makes Beijing Nervous.” The New York Times, December 19, 2012.
- Kindopp, Jason. 2004. “Fragmented yet Defiant: Protestant Resilience under Chinese Communist Party Rule." In God and Caesar in China: Policy Implications of Church-State Tension, edited by Jason Kindopp and Carol Lee Hamrin, 122-145. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 0-8157-4936-8.
- KKNews (2017). “「反邪動態」美國、義大利專家赴鄭州進行反邪教學術交流 (‘Anti-Cult’: US, Italian Experts Went to Zhengzhou for Anti-Cult Academic Exchanges).” KK News, July 11, 2017.
- Lai, Ting-heng [and others] (2014). “Chinese Doomsday Cult Expands to Taiwan”. Want China Times (Taiwan), June 2, 2014.
- Li, Cao (2014). “招遠血案讓全能神教再入公眾視野 (Zhaoyuan Blood Case Brings into Public View the Case of the Reincarnation of the Almighty God).” The New York Times (Chinese edition), June 3, 2014.
- Ma, Xingrui. 2014. “马兴瑞同志在省委防范和处理邪教问题领导小组全体成员会议上的讲话 (Comrade Ma Xingrui's Speech on the Meeting of All Provincial Leadership Leading Group on Preventing and Controlling Cults, July 9, 2014).” Reproduced on the Web site of the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Religious Freedom.
- Palmer, David Alexander (2012). “Heretical Doctrines, Reactionary Secret Societies, Evil Cults: Labelling Heterodoxy in 20th-Century China.” In Chinese Religiosities: The Vicissitudes of Modernity and State Formation, edited by Mayfair Yang, 113-134. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520098640.
- Patranobis, Sutirtho. 2012. “400 Members of Doomsday Cult Held in Central China.” Hindustan Times, December 20, 2012.
- Shen, Xiaoming, and Eugene Bach. 2017. Kidnapped by a Cult: A Pastor’s Stand Against a Murderous Sect. New Kensington, Pennsylvania: Whitaker House. ISBN 1629118044.
- Sina Video 2014 “视频:招远案嫌疑犯接受采访全程-我感觉很好 (Video: Zhaoyuan Case Suspect Interviewed in Depth – ‘I Feel Good.’”) May 31, 2014.
- The Beijing News (2014). “山东招远血案被告自白:我就是神, The Confession of the Defendant of the Murder Case in Zhaoyuan, Shandong: 'I Am God Himself.'” August 23, 2014. Compiled by Yang Feng (Accessed August 22, 2018).
- Tiezzi, Shannon. 2014. “China’s Other Religious Problem: Christianity.” The Diplomat, June 3, 2014.
Dolenni allanol
golygu- Gwefan swyddogol
- Web TV of The Church of Almighty God
- ““Church of Almighty God.” Entry on The Church of Almighty God in the British data base Profiles of Millenarian & Apocalyptic Movements, operated by CenSAMM (Center for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements).
- Archive of an old Website of The Church of Almighty God.
- "What Is Eastern Lightning?", Evangelical site criticizing the "heresies" of The Church of Almighty God.
- "Deceived by the Lightning." Another Evangelical criticism of The Church of Almighty God.
- The Origin and Development of The Church of Almighty God