The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China’s ruling political class, released a plan on 7 May mandating Protestant churches to alter their worship music to include songs and lyrics praising communism, according to a recent report.
“The mandate has sparked serious concern, as it is viewed not merely as a formal adjustment but as a deliberate shift intended to displace God from the centre of worship and replace Him with loyalty to the Communist Party,” the report states.
The plan is part of the nation’s Sacred Music Ministry Blueprint for 2025, which will advance China’s plan to install elements of communism and Chinese patriotism within Christianity. On 7 May, about 40 Christian church leaders gathered to devise ways of adding CCP values into church worship music.
Members of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, a Chinese government-approved Protestant denomination, and the China Christian Council were involved in the meeting. According to sources, during the meeting, “the government urged churches to use only approved songs through a designated mobile app and to exclude any worship music that does not conform to communist values.”
In recent years, the nation has pursued a policy of Sinicisation, a plan that seeks to elevate current CCP ideologies such as socialism and communism over God.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemned the policy in 2024.
“Sinicisation, or the complete subordination of religious groups to the CCP’s political agenda and Marxist vision for religion, has become the core driving principle of the government’s management of religious affairs,” the USCIRF stated. “They also forcibly eradicate religious elements considered contradictory to the CCP’s political and policy agenda with ultranationalist overtones. Government officials have installed CCP loyalists as leading religious figures, altered houses of worship with CCP-approved architecture, integrated CCP propaganda into religious doctrines, and otherwise criminalised non-CCP-backed religious activities, all to ensure the stability of CCP rule.”
While China is an open persecutor of Christianity, Sinicisation may be seen as a more insidious way of attacking Christ’s followers from inside the church. For the CCP, a stealthy altering of Christianity from Christ-centred to something that adds elements of communist patriotism may divert hearts and minds away from Christ long enough to increase loyalty to China. But for many Christians, especially those who are new to the faith, redirecting their precious faith and devotion away from Christ and to a political party is a sorrowful thing and nothing short of tragic.
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