China's Communist Party Bans Believers, Doubles Down on Atheism

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/02/china-communist-party-atheism-zhejiang-ban-religious-members-christianity_n_6599722.html

Matt Sheehan

Posted: 02/02/2015 6:44 pm EST Updated: 33 minutes ago


A young Chinese worshipper attends the Christmas Eve mass at a Catholic church in Beijing, Dec. 24, 2014. FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images) | FRED DUFOUR via Getty Images

Karl Marx long ago disparaged religion as “the opiate of the people,” and now the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wants to ban all addicts. The Communist leadership of coastal Zhejiang province has declared it will double down on a long-standing but little-enforced rule that bars religious believers from joining the Party.

That move comes amid a widely reported tightening of the ideological screws in Chinese universities and across the media landscape. Professors across the country have reportedly been fired for speaking against the Communist Party, and the country's education minister declared last week that China should "never let textbooks promoting Western values appear in our classes."

December also saw scattered protests by Chinese students demanding an end to Christmas celebrations on Chinese campuses, a move supported by authorities in one Zhejiang city. One professor at a Party-affiliated university speculated that the recent moves to bar believers from joining the Party are meant to guard against “penetration of Western hostile forces," according to a Global Times report.

Last week's declaration from Zhejiang province’s party committee called for CCP groups to organize activities where members disavow religious belief. It also stated that all applicants to the Party must first be screened for evidence of religious faith or participation, and rejected if any such evidence is found. Party ideology is rooted in Marxist-Leninist thought, which decries religion as a delusion that distracts the oppressed masses from demanding their fair share.

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[rug]

1. In the current Chinese system, party membership is the entry to better positions.

In the current Chinese system, the emphasis in democratic centralism is on centralism.