Movie
China censors film production with Christian content including miracles, healing
China has issued strict new guidelines banning film and television programs including instances of miracles and healing — a move some fear will outlaw Christian content completely.
According to UCA News, the National Administration of Radio and Television, which controls the content on radio, film, and TV aired in China, recently passed new regulations banning 20 categories of content, including material promoting fabricated history, sacred relics, demonic possessions, and instances of faith and healing.
A filmmaker working with the church’s film and television industry said the new guidelines “almost entirely ban” faith-based content.
The filmmaker, who identified himself as Joseph, told UCA News: “If we film the life of Jesus, avoiding the content banned by the guidelines, we will only be presenting Jesus as an ordinary person, and this is unacceptable to Christians.”
The guidelines also require filmmakers “not to film the dark side of society but to film the good life of normal people” and stipulate that historical dramas should be based on “true history” rather than fabrication.
Father Yo from Shandong called the guidelines “strange.” “How can people have a good life when they don’t even have the natural right to freedom of religion? If we do not even have the most basic human rights, how can we be good?”
“What is true history? Is it the one fabricated by the Chinese Communist Party? Would it not lead to creating more fake television dramas in line with the party to brainwash the public?”
In 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping put the Communist Party’s propaganda office in charge of regulating films. Earlier, Xi announced that “all the work by the party’s media must reflect the party’s will, safeguard the party’s authority, and safeguard the party’s unity.”
Zhang Lifan, a historian, told The New York Times that Xi’s attempts to impose total control over the media is a way for him to “announce his absolute authority.”
“He doesn’t feel effective and confident in dealing with problems, and he lacks a sense of security,” Zhang said. “He worries the Chinese Communist Party will lose political power, and he also worries that his peers will shove him from his position.”
Last year, a former employee of one of China’s largest tech firms monitors citizens’ mobile phones, blocking any words deemed “sensitive to the state” — such as “Almighty God.”
In 2018, China banned online retailers from selling the Bible in efforts to control the country’s growing religious scene.
China claims that it allows religious freedom; however, it has been carrying out a crackdown on underground churches and Christian activists for years.
A recent report from persecution watchdog International Christian Concern documents how the CCP targets Christians through its “sinicization” campaign, meaning, to make beliefs, including Christianity, fall in line with their interpretation of Communism.
Specifically, the report notes that the campaign “seeks to diminish the effectiveness of Christian theology” by removing Christian symbols at churches and replacing them with CCP symbols, rewriting portions of the Bible, observing major Christian holidays with a Communist twist, and indoctrinating state-sanctioned clergy and leaders with CCP dogma.
“The Religious Affairs Bureau and the CCP have a single goal: to prevent religious influence from threatening their communist control,” the report says.
“The issue of international religious freedom is one that should be at the core of U.S. interests,” it adds. “Both sides of the political debate agree that China’s flagrant disregard for religious freedom must be stopped. It is only by coming together that effective policy will be passed and the U.S. will send a clear message to China that its persecution of religion is unacceptable.”
Open Doors USA ranks China 23rd on its World Watch List of 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
“A policy of ‘sinicizing’ the church is becoming increasingly influential because the Communist Party is relying strongly on Chinese cultural identity to stay in power,” Open Doors explains. “The new restrictions on internet, social media and NGOs—and the new regulations on religion—are all seriously limiting freedom.”
Sources:Christian Post
Actor Mark Wahlberg is crediting his faith for the massive success he’s had in Hollywood.
“My faith, and my family, and just finding good balance,” Wahlberg told Fox News, cataloging the reasons for his success. “But I have to attribute all my success to my faith.”
The “Patriots Day” star made his comments at the opening of his new restaurant, Flecha. He also had the establishment blessed by Bishop Kevin W. Vann of the Diocese of Orange Christ Cathedral.
Wahlberg is no stranger to sharing about his Catholic faith. In addition to being outspoken, he funded and starred in the 2022 film “Father Stu” about amateur boxer-turned-priest Stuart Long.
“You got to stay prayed up,” Wahlberg told fans the year the movie was released. “God bless you.”
Prayer is certainly central to the actor’s life. He has said he starts each day with Scripture and invocations. But Wahlberg doesn’t foist these values upon his kids. Knowing they see his daily example of devotion, he hopes it resonates with them.
“Even with my faith, I don’t force it on [my kids]. But they know that dad can’t start the day without being in prayer, can’t start the day without reading my Scripture or going to Mass,” Wahlberg told NBC’s “Today” in 2022. “And hopefully, instead of forcing that on them, they’ll say, ‘Well, if it works for dad, maybe it’ll work for us,’ and they’ll kind of gravitate toward it on their own.”
The actor’s consistency in his faith has been notable over the years, as he has discussed the impact clinging to God has had in his life. In fact, Wahlberg has repeatedly spoken about the power of faith not only to bring good things into his life but also to help him cope with issues that might unfold.
“As soon as I started putting my faith and focus on God, good things started happening for me,” he told Fox News in 2023. “And even when they didn’t, it gives you the coping skills to deal with things that are inevitable, like loss and failure and those things.”
Wahlberg added, “But, you know, again, my faith and my family, those are the most important aspects of my life.”
Sources:faithwire
It’s a story that needed to be told, says “Sound of Hope” writer and producer Rebekah Weigel, because Possum Trot is not just another small Texas community near the Louisiana border, but a town that chose to live out God’s command to care for the orphan.
“This is such an amazing story,” says Weigel, an adoptive mother herself, adding, “we need to see more churches step in” the way that Bennett Chapel Missionary Baptist Church did.
Back in the 1990s, W.C. Martin, the pastor of the small church in Possum Trot, and wife Donna felt the Lord call them to adopt a child. Martin began preaching to his rural church about what the Bible says about adoption, and the congregation was moved to action. In total, 22 families in the church adopted 77 of the hardest-to-place children in the foster care system.
“There’s probably only a couple hundred people in the community of Possum Trot, an unincorporated area,” Weigel says, “but, you know, they took it seriously, and they did it together as a community. And I think that’s something I really loved about this story, was just the sense of doing it together, like bearing each other’s burdens, and, you know, when one was weak, they came together, and they helped each other, and I think we need more of that.”
Now, the inspirational story of what happened years ago in the little community of Possum Trot is hitting the big screen on July 4 in the feature film “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot.” Angel Studios is distributing the film. To learn more and purchase tickets, click here.
Weigel joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the true story behind the film and the experience of telling such a moving story through film.
Sources:BREAKING CHRISTIAN NEWS
Jennie Allen has had a front-row seat to much of the revival unfolding across America, particularly among young people.
She’s been speaking on college campuses and witnessing Gen Z’s rising interest in faith and the Bible.
“It is so real,” Allen recently told from the red carpet of the KLOVE Fan Awards in Nashville, Tennessee. “There’s no hype. They actually are hungry for God. It’s been the most beautiful thing.”
Allen has seen massive college-age audiences hang on her every word as she shares the Gospel, with the fervor so strong at some schools she’s found herself impromptu baptizing young people in the backs of pick-up trucks — or even in local creeks.
“They are responding to the Gospel,” she said. “And they are showing up in droves. So, it’s been super encouraging that this generation wants God.”
Allen said she first noticed Generation Z’s hunger in 2018 when she spoke at Texas A&M about sin, and the young audience immediately responded in a truly “special” way.
“They were hungry,” she said, noting the intense interest wasn’t lost on her. “They were willing to be honest; they wanted God.”
Allen said the experience of ministering to young people has had a profound impact on her life as well. Today, she’s focused on reaching youths with the Bible’s message of grace and redemption.
“I want to just keep my head down, and be faithful, and not be distracted by many things,” she said. “So, for me, it’s given me such clarity, such boldness. I want to serve God, and I want to serve them well, and I don’t want to hold back.”
Sources:faithwire
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