Xi and Mao replace Jesus and Mary in Chinese churches
Xi and Mao replace Jesus and Mary in Chinese churches
Christians face harassment and disruption in Beijing crackdown on religion, US government agency reports
In their effort to “exert total control” over religion and to “sinicise” Catholic and Protestant Christianity, the authorities have “ordered the removal of crosses from churches [and] replaced images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary with pictures of President Xi Jinping,” the report said.
The report concluded that “every facet of religious life for Buddhists, Catholics and Protestant Christians, Muslims, and Taoists” was facing pressure to incorporate CCP ideology, and religious elements considered contradictory to the state’s political agenda were being eradicated.
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While fucked up, at least Xi and Mao are nominally real (though their particular origin stories and revised histories are also just as made up as those of the religious bunch).
I'm a "pagan" demonolater, therefore, I do not worship the christian god neither Christ as a "savior" (I'm actually a Lilith's worshipper) but, it's needed to be mentioned that the existence of Christ as a Nazarethian man is well-proven even by the religion-free science and history. While I agree that it doesn't prove any of his "holiness" nor his affiliation to "God himself", he truly existed as a man. One doesn't need to worship Christ to know his historical existence as a human being.
For example, as from Wikipedia's article regarding Publius Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman historian:
The Annals is one of the earliest secular historical records to mention Jesus of Nazareth, which Tacitus does in connection with Nero's persecution of the Christians.
Also from the article regarding Yosef ben Mattityahu, a Jewish historian:
Josephus's works are the chief source next to the Bible for the history and antiquity of ancient Israel, and provide a significant and independent extra-biblical account of such figures as Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, John the Baptist, James, brother of Jesus, and Jesus of Nazareth
It's worth mentioning that the latter is Jewish and Jewish beliefs do not worship Jesus (because the arrival of a "Mashiach" is a promise yet to be fulfilled by "HaShem", according to Orthodox Jewish tradition), so I bet his work is even more valuable in proving Christ as a man than the bible's new testament itself.