Chinese authorities have removed the words ‘Bible,’ ‘God,’ and ‘Christ’ from beloved children’s stories, including Robinson Crusoe and The Little Match Girl.
China’s Ministry of Education said four literary classics written by foreign authors are included in the curriculum of fifth grade students to expose the children to other cultures. But, government officials have erased critical words used in these classics, reports Barnabas Fund.
In atheistic China, these pure and innocent children have been taught to hate God. —Anonymous Chinese Christian mother
In the 1718 novel Robinson Crusoe, author Daniel Defoe described how the title character rescued three Bibles in a shipwreck. Robinson Crusoe used the Scriptures as a moral compass throughout his journey. In China’s textbooks, instead of Bibles, Crusoe saved “a few books.”
Meantime, in Hans Christian Anderson’s short story, The Little Match Girl, it has a line, “when a star falls, a soul goes to be with God.” China revised this line with “When a star falls, a person leaves this world.”
Another children’s story, Vanka, by Anton Chekhov was also Sinicized. Every ‘Christ’ was erased as well as the part about praying in church.
This is not the first time China involved children in its crackdown on Christianity.
Last year, the communist country implemented the new Regulations on Religious Affairs, which require anti-Christianity lessons in primary schools, and grooming young kids to become atheists, reports Italy-based online news magazine, Bitter Winter.
Chinese students are taught that Christianity is a xie jiao (cult) and members of such group are terrible and they must be hated.
A son of a Christian woman worried that his mother might leave him someday. He said, “My teacher says that Christianity is a xie jiao. If you believe in it, you will leave home and not take care of me. You might set yourself on fire, too.”
To avoid problems with the child, the mother hid all Christian materials at home. However, the boy saw a religious leaflet in his mother’s bag. So enraged, he got a knife and stabbed the leaflet violently. He told his mother to give up her faith since “Christianity is a xie jiao.”
The Christian woman was alarmed at the sudden transformation of her child who was once well-behaved. “Before starting school, I told my child about God’s creation, and he believed it. But after being taught at school, my child is like a different person. In atheistic China, these pure and innocent children have been taught to hate God,” she said.
