Franklin Wolf | Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom | China Aid Advisory Board website
Reflections from Pastor John Cao is a series of poetry and writings from the recently released Chinese Christian prisoner of conscience exclusively published by ChinaAid. The piece below was written on April 26, 2024 and has been minimally edited for clarity. To read more of Pastor John Cao’s poetry, one can purchase the collection written while he was imprisoned, Living Lyrics: Poems from Prison.
"Recently, many pastors and preachers from house churches have been convicted of 'fraud' and sentenced to prison. Why have pastors who teach people to be honest turned to deception themselves? It turns out that judges have determined that house church pastors and preachers receiving allowance from their churches constitutes 'fraud', and have therefore sentenced these pastors and preachers to heavy punishments."
"When Chinese judges issued such verdicts, the whole world was shocked and bewildered. There have been all kinds of critical responses. My personal feeling is that Chinese judges lack imagination."
"I do not have a legal background, so I won’t go into details about what constitutes 'fraud'. I will only explain it in a way that the general public can understand. So-called fraud refers to a fraudster concocting a reason to take possession of the property of a victim or victimized country through deception."
"Now, do the actions of house church pastors and preachers fit the above descriptions? Pastors receiving a certain allowance from their churches is done with the full knowledge of all church members. Christians in the church are willingly donating their money, which is managed by people selected and designated by the church, and the entire church unanimously agrees on how to use it, including disbursing it to pastors and preachers as allowances, because these pastors and preachers have devoted a lot of time and energy to the church."
"There is a basic common sense in a society ruled by law, called 'no plaintiff, no trial', which means that if there is no plaintiff, the judge will not take the initiative to convict a citizen. Now we must ask, who did the house church pastors and preachers defraud? Are there any victims? Did anyone in the church accuse the pastors and preachers of deceiving them into making donations? Some Chinese judges have no bottom line."
"Obviously, Chinese judges lack imagination. They should rack their brains to convict house church pastors and preachers of some other crime, rather than using 'fraud'. Using 'fraud' to go after pastors and preachers can only invite ridicule from the whole world. Or perhaps it is the National People’s Congress of China that lacks imagination."
