When the coronavirus pandemic took hold two years ago, online church became a lifeline for many Christians around the United States. Now, with many hoping the worst is behind us, church-goers in America are debating the proper role of livestreaming, social media, and other digital offerings as aids in regular worship and community outreach.

It’s an important conversation. But what if its premise was undercut? What if online church was prohibited?

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That is the situation now facing tens of millions of our brothers and sisters in Christ in China. On March 1 — just days after the Olympics wrapped up in Beijing — a new ban on huge swaths of online religious content came into force.

China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs promulgated these “Measures for the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services” shortly before Christmas. In essence, a license from the communist state’s authorities are now required for any group to legally use online tools like websites, social media, text messaging, apps, and livestreams to distribute faith content.

Christians and other religious minorities are at risk of surveillance, intimidation, and worse in China. The communist giant views followers of Christ as a threat to its power and this new online rule is a next step in President Xi Jinping’s “Sinicization” campaign against those who refuse to bow to state-approved religion.

“Any reference to religion on the web is now totally illegal in China, including sharing content online – which means that the unregistered or housechurch movement has effectively been driven offline,” said David Landrum of Open Doors, which lists China in its top 20 most dangerous places for Christians on the 2022 World Watch List.

Between pandemic restrictions and intensified state persecution, many Christians took to online environments for communication and fellowship. But that did not sit well with the communist authorities. When China announced its new internet mandate, Gina Goh of International Christian Concern (ICC) noted the Chinese Communist Party “intends to control every aspect of a Chinese citizen’s religious life.”

“The CCP’s latest measure reveals the regime’s determination to crush religious groups that are not vetted by Beijing,” she said.

Of course, hope is not lost for our brothers and sisters forced underground. Following the new internet ban, one Chinese missions pastor suggested in Christianity Today that the Chinese people have always been creative in finding ways around such directives. Highlighting opportunities and challenges of coming technological changes like the metaverse, he said, “To this day, I still firmly believe that the greatest feature of new media is that it has overturned the power, capital, and monopoly of elites over the right to speak. This is its essential characteristic and will not change. The future will continue to see a competition between strong measures and (hopefully) even stronger countermeasures.”

Let’s continue to pray for Christians in China as they seek to honor Christ under such an aggressive and  repressive regime. Let’s pray, too, that our leaders continue to speak up against this growing hostility to people of faith.

On that note, some observers noticed that U.S. President Joe Biden failed to highlight China’s human rights abuses in his recent State of the Union address. Despite official determinations that China is guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity and leading a diplomatic boycott during the Beijing Olympics, Biden focused on China as an economic rival in his premiere speech. ICC, for one, found the omission of a high profile condemnation of China’s abuses to be “very troubling.”

So let us not let up in standing for our brothers and sisters in Christ in China. Let’s pray for favor and courage for them and influential voices who will speak for them.

How are you praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ in China?

Aaron Mercer is a Contributing Writer with two decades of experience in Washington, D.C.’s public policy arena. Photo Credit: Ezreal Zhang on Unsplash