Rick Manning: Christian Publishers Complain About China Tariffs While Ignoring China’s Christian Persecution

Did you know that the two largest Christian publishing companies, Thomas Nelson and Zondervan, print such a large number of English language Bibles in China that the president of their parent company, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, believes that retail prices of God’s Word in the U.S. will go up due to increased tariffs on Chinese goods? Yes, that would be the same China which is busy razing churches that don’t conform to the communist state’s religious registration policy. For example, China’s Golden Lampstand congregation of about 50,000 Christians had the audacity to build a church in 2009 even in the face of government opposition. By opposition, I mean one of the church leaders was sent to a re-education camp for two years and another was imprisoned for seven years by China’s communist regime. In late 2018, the Chinese government dynamited the church, making worldwide headlines. But the allure of low-cost printing is too much for Christian publishers in the United States to move their supply chain out of a country whose horrendous human rights abuses include persecuting their own Christian citizens.-- More...