An Open Letter to Joseph Kahn – The New York Times Reporter in Beijing

 

From:    Shixiong Li, President

            The Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China

            146-01 Jasmine Avenue, Flushing, NY 11355, USA

            Phone/Fax: 718-358-5605

            E-mail: ciprc1@yahoo.com (English); jiayuan@usa.com (Chinese)

 

To:        Joseph Kahn, Reporter

            The New York Times

 

Date:    December 31st, 2004

           

 

Respected Mr. Joseph Kahn:

 

Happy New Year!

 

Regarding the persecution on Christians, I have not received your phone call since our conversation in July 2004. Later, I sent you several heart-breaking cases through email in September (attached with this letter). Still, you did not reply. I could not understand until in the past Thanksgiving morning when I heard The New York Times front-page report “Violence Taints Religion's Solace for China's Poor”, and learned your writing power. I saw my hands trembling and could not stop. It seems I lost control over them. I have been dealing with the terrorists believing in “regime from guns” for all my life, but have never been angered to tremble since I have never believed them. However, I trusted you, simply because you are not only a hundred percent American but also the representative of the world-famous New York Times in Beijing. I could not respond until now just because I was completely shocked by your pen fixed with bayonet. Killing without bleeding, much superior to gun! Finally, I calmed down and started to react. However, there will be no chance for those Christians in or to be in the Communist Party’s hands to react, because they all become cults full of violence under your pen, and deserve punishment by the law.

 

The violent image of the Chinese police could not be reversed by your pen. Then the “killing” pen went to another direction: connecting the house church with a brutal murder. It appeared to condemn both the police and the house church, while the actual goal was to defame the whole Chinese house church, preparing the international propaganda for the coming crackdown. After such a report – throwing stones into the well after someone falls in, I asked many knowledgeable figures for how to let you speak with your conscience. They all discouraged me, saying it was not wise to offend you because The New York Times was behind you. Then they can cover the truth and frame the innocent? Then isn’t it true that this is no longer America but the kingdom of the Communist Party? I do not fear. I have to voice out since the truth is behind me.

 

As a survivor under the ruling machine, I have received the political asylum from the United States for eight years. Although I am deeply grateful to the US government and people, I will surely return to China as soon as it becomes truly free, going back to my motherland which appears in my mind every time I close my eyes! You are a lucky American, having no idea about what red terrorism or survival through it means! You cannot understand how the survivors’ longing for justice! I have been missing my motherland more and more over the time, even though I almost died there for many times – but it was the terrorists who messed up our country did it, but not our motherland who delivered and fostered us! I cannot forget my fellows behind us who were mistreated and crashed by the ruling machine! The endlessness of the crimes and distress! The crimes never end because there are always some one to create it and some money-centered writers to cover it by various means. As long as there is an excellent propaganda, the biggest crime can become not only legal but also necessary. Isn’t it true that the “June 4th” murder of the patriotic students has led to more than ten years of peace and development and numerous the Communist Party’s millionaires?

 

 Thanksgiving is an unforgettable day for the Americans. I guess your front-page article on that day was deeply impressed into the Americans’ brains together with the holiday. However, whether “Violence Taints Religion's Solace for China's Poor” or money taints the conscience of American reporters and millionaires? I want to ask you, “Is your article a fair report? Or there is something behind and you cannot control yourself?” At the beginning, I asked you to help Evangelist Shuangfu Xu who was kidnapped and extorted on April 17th in Haerbin City, China and then disappeared, as well as Xianggao Gu who was arrested on 26th, and beaten to death on 27th and whose family received 230,000 RMB (~$28,000) compensation money from the police. I wished that you would speak justly, and find out what happened to the disappeared. Surprisingly, you did not mention anything about the kidnapping and extortion, in stead, bound Shuangfu Xu with the murder in Huaide, covering up the truth! Did you want to help the Christians in need or put them to death? Why should you hate those Christians who thought you would help them? Can you tell us? I plead you to answer this open letter with a reporter’s morality and courage. Openly answer: whether you are a friend of the weak class of Chinese or a special “screw” of the Chinese ruling machine?

 

Now let us recall what happened. In early this past May, to help the kidnapped Shuangfu Xu, I went to Professor Andrew Nathan (Chairman of East Asian Department of University of Columbia). He recommended me you, Mr. Joseph Kahn, and also gave me your phone number in Beijing. I immediately called you, and briefly told you the kidnap and extortion of three million RMB. I also pointed out the kidnappers might be the agent from the State Safety Bureau or Public Security Bureau because the kidnappers announced to kill if no money and the police did not take any action at all. Something must be wrong.

 

You expressed that you were willing to help the helpless, and told me that to avoid being tailed, you could find a quiet place and have some coffee with them. At the end, I waited until you hanged up first and then put down the phone in full gratitude. Right after, I gave your phone number to those in China waiting for a “life-saving straw”. Many days passed and they did not go to see you, still hesitating. I then told them with much confidence, “Mr. Kahn is the head of the Beijing Office of The New York Times. It is known that The New York Times to the world is like the People’s Daily to Chinese. He is a reporter, a 1st-class reporter, not a money-centered businessman. He can speak Chinese. There is no need of interpretation. There should be no danger. Please tell him all the terror attacks you suffered from the police, party secretaries, security agents, as well as your situation of no security at all. He will surely report the truth and let the whole world know.”

 

They took my words and went to you finally. (You called me and asked whether I belonged to “Three Grades of Servant” or other denominations. I said I did not belong to any of them and I acted according to the conscience from God.) However, what kind of help these in need received? (The one who met with you was arrested shortly after.) You declared in your article, “Earlier this year, the government ordered the agency established to combat Falun Gong, called the 610 Office, to pursue a crackdown against rural cults”. It actually passed on by tactically using The New York Times the spirit of the document from the central of the party to suppress the Christian “according to the law”. By the lesson they learned from the failures in suppressing Falun Gong, the Communist Party knew that this time there could not be no solid propaganda. The problem was that nobody would take the party’s words. Therefore, this should be done through a foreigner, a 1st-class writer, a most-influential media, and an article on a special date which is heavy enough to defame and sentence the house church! You happened to be the tool. Through careful design, you paved for the justification of crackdown, telling the American people and the world readers of New York Times violence is cult, cult is the underground (house) church and terrorists, and terrorists should be destroyed! Your pen out effects millions of police. The action of police is always unjust, giving the image of violence and barbarity. But you connected a common murder with cult, to let the readers to think by themselves – this is the house church that we heard were cracked down by the Communist Party? Of course they should be suppressed! Nobody can replace your achievement. Who has more influence than New York Times?! Not to mention it will be continuously copied and fermented. On December 18th, three weeks after your report, Beijing caught this chance and published “State Department Order (No.426): Religious Affair Regulations” signed by the Prime Minister Jiabao Wen (which was approved by the 57th meeting of the Standing Committee of the State Department on July 7th, 2004 to be implemented on March 1st, 2005). It is obvious that the government tried to “legalize” the suppression on “illegal” religious groups. Those house church Christians who refuse to supercede God with the party will surely become the main target, since these several ten millions have determined to follow Jesus Christ on the road of cross and to use their lives to protect the truth and testify God, and they will never be overcome by the evil power of persecution to become its tool to deceive the world. “In this world we are like him. There is no fear in love.” (1 John 4:16-18)

 

Although I don’t dare doubt about the truthfulness of the murder you reported, I doubt you would not understand as a 1st-class reporter that whether the United States can be reported as a country where people take off their pants all the places just because there was a president did it in his office? Or whether we can report on the front-page “Catholic corruption: a cult of gays” just because there was a gay bishop?

 

I plead you to respond in a week. No response will mean you do not want to answer. Then I will open this letter in order to protect the truth and for the sake of the justice. Please forgive me!

 

We are all sinners. May God save our souls!

 

Shixiong Li

 

P.S.      The original letter was e-mailed to Mr. Joseph Kahn on December 31st, 2004. Seven days has passed and Mr. Zhou did not respond at all. Two hours ago, I called again The New York Times Office in Beijing, leaving a message to explain the situation and ask them to respond. But still nothing came back. Now the only thing can be done is to open this letter to let everyone take a look at the “fairness” of the main international medium. Is there any place in this beautiful world for hundreds of million of the persecuted Chinese to voice? Any questions are welcome. Please communicate in written or open form with real names. I will surely respond.

以下是纽约时报2004年11月25日的

头版头条新闻

 

 

Violence Taints Religion's Solace for China's Poor

暴力败坏了宗教对中国穷人的慰藉

By JOSEPH KAHN

 Published: November 25, 2004

 

HUAIDE, China - Kuang Yuexia and her husband, Cai Defu, considered themselves good Christians. They read the Bible every night before bed. When their children misbehaved, they dealt with them calmly. They did not curse or tell lies.

中国怀德 - 匡岳霞和她的丈夫蔡德福，都自认为是好基督徒。他们每晚睡觉前都读圣经。当他们的孩子做错事时，他们心平气和地对待他们。他们不骂人不说谎。

But when Zhang Chengli, a neighbor, began hounding them last year to leave their underground religious sect and join his, it seemed like a test of satanic intensity. He scaled the wall of their garden, ambushed them in the fields and roused them after midnight with frantic calls to convert before Jesus arrived for his Second Coming and sent them to hell.

但是当去年他们的邻居张成立纠缠他们让他们放弃他们的地下教派而加入他的教派，这似乎是一个邪恶的试探。他用爬上他们家花园的墙、躲在地里侯着他们、在半夜用怪叫把他们扰醒等方法，试图让他们转成他的教派，否则在耶酥第二次来时会送他们进地狱。

Ms. Kuang poured dirty water on Mr. Zhang's head. Mr. Cai punched him. Yet Mr. Zhang persisted for months until the couple's sect intervened and stopped his proselytizing for good.

匡女士向张的头上倒脏水。蔡先生打了他。然而张这样做一直坚持了数月，直到后来这对夫妇的教派进行了干预并使张永远再也不能诱人改教了。

Mr. Zhang's body - eyes, ears and nose ripped from his face - was found by a roadside 300 miles from this rural town in Jilin Province, in northeastern China. The police arrested Mr. Cai and fellow sect members. One of them died in police custody during what fellow inmates described as a torture session.

眼、耳和鼻子被挖后的张的身体在距这个中国东北吉林省小镇300英里以外的路边发现。警察逮捕了蔡和他的几个教友，其中一个同伙在警察羁押期间死亡，他的同监室的人员说他是被拷打致死的。

China's growing material wealth has eluded the countryside, home to two-thirds of its population. But there is a bull market in sects and cults competing for souls. That has alarmed the authorities, who seem uncertain whether the spread of religion or its systematic repression does more to turn peasants against Communist rule.

中国的物质财富虽然一直在增长，但占三分之二人口的乡村却不是这样。那里,偏门邪教有很大的市场,他们在争夺灵魂。这种情况导致政府很警觉，他们不能确定到底是宗教的传播还是政府的全面镇压，更能导致农民反对共产党统治。

The demise of Communist ideology has left a void, and it is being filled by religion. The country today has more church-going Protestants than Europe, according to several foreign estimates. Buddhism has become popular among the social elite. Beijing college students wait hours for a pew during Christmas services in the capital's 100 packed churches.

共产主义意识形态灭亡后留下的空白正在被宗教所填满。按照几个外国的统计数字，中国去新教教会的信徒已经超过欧洲。在社会的精英中,佛教很盛行。在圣诞节，为了座位,北京的大学生们在首都的100个满是人的教堂里愿等上几个小时。

But it is the rural underclass that is most desperate for salvation. The rural economy has grown relatively slowly. Corruption and a collapse in state-sponsored medical care and social services are felt acutely. But government-sanctioned churches operate mainly in cities, where they can be closely monitored, and priests and ministers by law can preach only to those who come to them.

但是最渴望得到拯救的是那些农村下层人。农村的经济发展相对很慢。可深刻感受到腐败及由国家资助的医疗保障和社会服务的垮台。但是政府批准的教堂主要是在城市，在那里他们可以被严密监控，根据法律,牧师和传道人只能向那些来教堂的人传道。

The authorities do not ban religious activity in the countryside. But they have made it so difficult for established churches to operate there that many rural Chinese have turned to underground, often heterodox religious movements.

政府并不禁止在农村的宗教活动。但是在农村政府使现有的教堂很难经营下去，以致许多农民转向了地下教会，但这些教会往往信仰不正统。（言下之意，还是政府的教堂，三自爱（党）国教会的信仰正统？）

Charismatic sect leaders denounce state-sanctioned churches. They promise healing in a part of the country where the state has all but abandoned responsibility for public health. They also promise deliverance from the coming apocalypse, and demand money, loyalty and strict secrecy from their members.

灵恩派教会的领袖们谴责官方的教会。在国家已经放弃了保护公民健康的责任的地区，他们许诺可以治病。他们还许诺在即将来临的灾难中可以得以拯救，要求信徒奉献金钱、忠心和严守秘密。（既然“政府并不禁止在农村的宗教活动”为什么要“严守秘密”？美国的教会领袖不“要求信徒奉献金钱”么？）

Three Grades of Servants, a banned Christian sect that claims several million followers, made inroads in Huaide and other northern towns beginning nearly a decade ago. It lured peasants like Yu Xiaoping, as well as her neighbor, Ms. Kuang, away from state-authorized churches. Its underground network provided spiritual and social services to isolated villages.

三班仆人，一个被禁止的（请问是被谁禁止的，共产党吗？那么，在您看来，共产党的所作所为是正还是邪呢？如共产党是正教，其禁止的必然是邪教，如共产党是邪教，其结果必然相反。）号称有数百万信徒的基督教派，十年前开始大规模在怀德和其他北方城市布道。它引诱（引诱，是中共把善良无知的老百姓“引诱”到邪恶之中时，使用得最多的一个词）了象于小平及她的邻居匡女士等农民离开了官方教会（就是“引诱”于小平这样的农民离开了党的领导）。这个教会的地下工作网络为偏僻小村庄的人提供了精神和社会服务。

But it also attracted competition from Eastern Lightning, its archrival, which sought to convert Ms. Yu, Ms. Kuang and others. The two sects clashed violently. Both became targets of a police crackdown.

但它也引起对手东方闪电的竞争，东方闪电想要让于女士和匡女士等转信他们的教。这两个教派冲突很激烈，都成为了警察打击的对象。（您的意思是说，打击是“激烈冲突”引起的是吗？）

 

Xu Shuangfu, the itinerant founder of Three Grades of Servants, who says he has divine powers, was arrested last summer along with scores of associates. Mr. Xu was suspected of having ordered the execution of religious enemies, police officers said.

徐双富，四处巡回的三班仆人的创建者，自称拥有神的能力，去年夏天和他的同工被捕。（奇怪！您为何只字不提徐被绑架勒索三百万的事实呢？谁有能力“引诱”您掩盖了这些真相呢？是不是党不便自己出面，需要由一位“没有”利害关系的，公正的，有影响力的美国记者出面来制造一个谎言呢？）警方说，徐被怀疑下命令处死了教敌。

Yet such efforts rarely stop the spread of underground churches and sects, which derive legitimacy from government pressure.

然而警方的这些作法很难阻止地下教会及异端的传播。（请问：警方的“这些作法”究竟是哪些作法？是依法逮捕，还是恐怖手段的绑架，流氓行为的勒索呢？这些都是为了“阻止异端的传播”吗？）这些他们本来就是起源于官方的打压。

"Beijing cannot tolerate religious groups that are not directly under its control," says Susanna Chen, a researcher in Taiwan who has studied the rural sects. "But for every group they repress, there are two to replace it. And the new ones are often more dangerous than those that came before."

对农村异端有研究的台湾研究者陈苏珊那说：“北京不能容忍地下教会脱离它的控制，但是他们每镇压一个,就会出现两个新的取代它.而且这些新出现的教会通常比以前的更加危险.”（危险指的是什么？究竟是危险，还是危言？）

The Comfort of Baptism Huaide is in the heart of China's breadbasket. Corn grows 10 feet tall on treeless plains that surround rust-belt factories and tidy brick villages, stretching east to the North Korean border.

洗礼的安慰怀德处在中国粮产的中心.在没有树木的平原上玉米能长到10英尺,这些平原上到处是生锈的工厂和整洁的砖房盖成的村子,与东边的北韩接壤.

After the autumn harvest, the fields have been stripped of all but a foliage of corn leaves and the town settles into a languorous winter rhythm. But the placid surface hides Huaide's spiritual turmoil.

在秋收之后,土地上只有玉米叶,小镇开始进入毫无生机的冬季旋律。但是这表面的平静掩盖了怀德精神上的骚动.

Yu Xiaoping, a farmer and shop attendant here, grew up an atheist. Her father was a Communist Party member and a elementary school administrator who frowned on religion, especially when he discovered that his sister attended church. But he died of stomach cancer a decade ago, leaving a small plot of land, a tiny pension and a dying ideology.

于小平,是个农民和商店售货员,原本是个无神论者.她的父亲是共产党员,是个小学校长,特别是当他发现他的姐姐加入教会时,更对宗教极其反感.十年前他死于胃癌,留下了一小块地、一点点退休金和一个垂死的意识形态。

Ms. Yu got a part-time job in the local farmers market. She, her sister or her baby niece slept shoulder-to-shoulder with her mother on the family kang, or platform bed, in their two-room home. She felt pinched for cash and confined.

于女士在当地农贸市场兼职工作。她、她的妹妹和她的侄女与她妈妈一起肩靠肩地睡一个炕，她们的家只有两间屋。她感到生活的艰苦和不自由。

One winter day in 1995 her aunt invited her to attend services in Gongzhuling, about 40 miles away, the closest state-authorized Protestant church. Ms. Yu agreed on a whim. She was surprised to find the simple beige-and-white assembly hall packed with 700 congregants, praying and singing in one voice. Ms. Yu returned the next week, this time taking the bus alone. On her third trip, she was baptized.

1995年的冬天的一天，她的婶婶邀请她到最近的、40英里外的公主岭官方教堂参加聚会。于女士一时兴起就同意了。她很惊奇地发现这个米白色的大厅挤满了700个聚会者，他们一口同声地祷告、唱歌。于女士第二星期又去了，这次她独自一个乘公共汽车。当她第三次去时，她受了洗。

Ms. Yu is now 36 years old, petite, rosy-cheeked and prone to giggle. But she talks about having a purpose in life imparted by God.

于女士现在36岁，身材瘦小，脸颊蔷薇色，经常爱笑。但是她常常谈到主在她生命中有一个目的。

"Until the day I found God, I felt like I was wandering aimlessly," she said. "Suddenly I felt clear of mind and free of guilt and sin."

“直到我找到神的那一天，我才知道我以前的生命是漫无目的的，”她说：“突然间我感到我头脑清醒，我的罪得了释放。”

Huaide did not have its own church. But soon Ms. Yu received invitations from new friends to attend private services. Villagers discussed the Bible. Sometimes a visiting minister delivered a sermon.

怀德没有自己的教堂。不久于女士接到新朋友的邀请参加家庭聚会。村民们讨论圣经，有时外地的传道人来讲道。

Many visiting ministers criticized the government-licensed church Ms. Yu had attended. They questioned its mandate that parishioners must be at least 18 years old, arguing that God intended children to hear the Gospel. The state's requirement that church members register offended her, as did the stipulation that Communist Party officials, like her late father, forswear Christianity.

很多来访的传道人批评于女士曾去的官方教会。他们质疑官方教堂的规定：必须年满18岁才能参加。他们说神更愿意小孩听到福音。使于女士感到不高兴的是：国家规定教会成员必须登记、象他父亲这样的共产党员不准信教。

"Religion must be based on your heart, not on such rules," she said.

她说：“宗教必须植根于你的心，并不在于这些规定，”

One day a visiting minister - Ms. Yu says she remembers him clearly for his southern accent - delivered a scathing criticism of state-backed churches. He said they emphasized outdated, literal readings of the Bible instead of interpreting how scripture should inform today's world. He urged her to consider an alternative that he said brought Jesus' teaching alive: Three Grades of Servants.

一天，一个来访的牧师，于女士说她清楚地记得他的南方口音严厉批评了官方支持的教会。他说官方教会强调过时的按文字表面含义读圣经而不是解释圣经对当今的世界说些什么。他催促她考虑选择加入把耶稣的教导活出来的三班仆人。

The Appeal of a Sect Xu Shuangfu, who the authorities say was born Xu Wenkou, is a religious entrepreneur. Now in his 60's, he founded Three Grades of Servants in Henan Province in the late 1980's and oversaw its growth despite serving time in custody.

一个异端的诱惑徐双富，官方说他出生时叫徐文候，是信仰的创业者。现在60多岁，他在80年代后期，在河南创建三班仆人派，并领导使其成长，即使在他被抓进监狱的时候也一样。

The sect's hierarchy is based on what Mr. Xu argued is the theme of a trinity that runs through scripture, including three servants of God (Moses, Aaron and Pashur, the ancestor of a priestly family) in the Old Testament, and three friends of Jesus (Martha, Mary and Lazarus) in the New Testament. Mr. Xu occupies the top grade and maintains that he, as Moses did, talks to God.

教会的级别是基于徐所说的贯穿圣经的三位一体论，包括旧约中神的三个仆人（摩西、亚伦和巴施户珥，祭司家族的祖先）（巴施户珥并不是“祭司家族的祖先”,是祭司的儿子），和新约中耶稣的三个朋友（马大、马利亚和拉撒路）。徐占据最高级别的地位，象摩西一样不断与神说话。

The group is millenarian. Mr. Xu, followers say, predicted that Jesus would return to earth and eliminate nonbelievers in 1989, then again in 1993. When this did not happen, Mr. Xu explained that even God misjudged how long Abraham's descendants would stay in Egypt. He did not set a third date for the Second Coming.

这个组织有上百万人。跟随者称，徐预言耶稣将于1989年来临并除去不信者，后又说是1993年。当后来没有发生时，徐解释说，甚至主都会判断错亚伯拉罕的后代会留在埃及多长。他没有第三次说主再来的时间。

Though he failed to divine the future, Mr. Xu did reach deeply into the lives of his peasant followers. The sect played a guiding role in Ms. Yu's life not unlike the way the Communist Party, in its heyday of molding people according to Maoist and Marxist doctrine, shaped her father's life.

尽管他对未来预测失误，徐仍然深深吸引了他的农村信徒的心。象共产党用马克思主义、毛泽东思想指导她父亲的一生，这个教派在于女士的生命中起了指导作用。

Ms. Yu reported to a "fellow worker" in Three Grades of Servants, a woman who went by the code name Xing Zhi, or Fortunate Aspirations. Xing Zhi coordinated prayer sessions, collected donations and taught Ms. Yu what to wear, what to eat, when to wake up in the morning. She even matched Ms. Yu with another of her young charges, Zhang Qinghai. Ms. Yu and Mr. Zhang read the Bible together, discussed their goals and fell in love. They married a decade ago, six months after meeting.

于女士由三班仆人的一个女同工带领，她的代号叫幸知，意思是渴望好运。幸知管理祷告课程，收集奉献并教于女士穿什么、吃什么，早晨什么时候起床。她甚至安排于女士和另外一个她的年轻的助手张青海在同一组。于女士和张先生一起读圣经，讨论理想，后来相爱。他们十年前结婚，那是在他们相逢的六个月后。

"You are not required to marry within the group," Ms. Yu said. "But Xing Zhi said if you find someone you love who is also in the group, then that is the ideal."

于女士说：“这个教会并不会要求你在教会内部结婚，但幸知说如果你发现了教会里有你爱的人，这是最理想的。”

Like Ms. Yu, Kuang Yuexia and her husband, Cai Defu, had their first religious experience at a state-authorized church. But the distance and the demands of raising two girls and a boy made their visits infrequent.

象于女士一样，匡岳霞和她的丈夫蔡德福，都是在官方教堂进行的第一次聚会。但是因为距离远以及要抚养两个女孩和一个男孩使他们后来很少去了。

Then in 1995, Mr. Cai developed a brain tumor. He underwent an operation that forced the family to borrow $1,500 and left his speech impaired. Doctors recommended further procedures. But they could afford no more medical bills and he recuperated at home, slowly.

1995年，蔡先生长了脑瘤。他家借了1500美元，动了手术，却得了语言障碍。医生建议他进一步治疗，但他们负不起医药费，只好在家慢慢恢复。

Three Grades of Servants sent a local organizer, Chen Zhihua, to read the Bible and sing hymns with Ms. Kuang and the bedridden Mr. Cai. Sect members helped Ms. Kuang tend her four acres of corn during her husband's illness.

三班仆人派了一名当地的管理者陈枝华，和匡女士及卧床不起的蔡先生一起读圣经和唱圣歌。在她丈夫生病期间，教会成员帮助匡女士照看她四英亩的玉米。

Ms. Kuang, 46, talks in nervous soliloquies that often give way to tears when she discusses religion. She said Three Grade of Servants became a defining force in her life.

匡女士，46岁，当她谈起宗教时很紧张，并经常流泪。她说三班仆人派改变了她的生命。

"I loved the songs and the discipline," she recalled. "I used to get angry with the children before they taught me how to change my personality. I learned that you must eliminate hate from your mind."

“我很喜爱这些歌和基本规定，”她回忆，“我以前经常对小孩发脾气，他们教我如何改变我的性格。我学到了必须从心中除去恨。”

She said the teachings improved her husband's health. The sect preached calm when facing trial, and Mr. Cai learned to control the flow of blood to his brain, she said, reducing the hemorrhaging that had occurred when he became stressed. He resumed working in the fields.

她说这些教导好转了她丈夫的健康。她说，这个教会教导面对考验时要平静，而且蔡先生也学会了控制脑部的血流，减少了曾由于紧张而引起的脑溢血。他重新恢复了田间的劳动。

"Enhancing our understanding of the Bible achieved results that expensive medicine could not achieve," Ms. Kuang said.

匡女士说：“提高对圣经的理解达到了昂贵的医药所达不到的效果。”

A few years ago Ms. Yu and Ms. Kuang received a summons to attend a service at the home of Ms. Chen, the local organizer, and discovered that the "big servant" himself, Xu Shuangfu, had arrived to deliver a sermon. Everyone kept silent in his presence.

几年前于女士和匡女士接到通知，去参加在当地管理者陈女士家的聚会，发现“大仆人”徐双富来了，他是来讲道的。他出场时每个人立刻安静下来。

Ms. Kuang remembers better how he looked than what he said. He had round cheeks but very white skin and a beatific smile, making him appear part Chinese and part Western.

对他的印象匡女士看到的比听到的深。徐脸圆、皮肤很白、有好看的微笑，看起来部分象中国人，部分象西方人。

"He looked like Jesus," she said.

“他看起来象耶稣，”她说。

On the Margins Since the early days of economic reforms in the 1980's, China has eased restrictions on religious activity, especially in the cities.

自从80年代经济改革初期以来，中国已经放松了对宗教活动的限制，特别是在城市。

But registration requirements and periodic harassment limit growth, as does a chronic shortage of clerics. The five officially recognized religions - Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism – cannot promote themselves or expand easily. The goal seems to be to prevent any from acquiring clout to rival the Communist Party.

但是官方要求注册和周期性的干扰及牧师的长期缺乏限制了发展。五个官方认可的宗教：佛教、道教、伊斯兰、天主教和基督教不能宣传自己或者顺利扩展。这个目的似乎是阻止任何（组织）成为共产党的竞争对手。

The losers are marginalized people who need spiritual support the most, like laid-off workers and rural migrants in cities and peasants in the countryside. They get little benefit from churches that cannot, by law, reach out to them.

受损的是最需要精神支柱的底层的人民，象失业者和城市里的及农村的农民。他们基本上从（官方）教堂得不到一点点益处，因为法律规定使得这些教会不能接触他们。

One movement that took advantage of this gap was Falun Gong, which espouses an idiosyncratic mix of traditional Chinese qigong exercises and meditation. Its millions of loyal followers resisted stubbornly, though peacefully, when the government crushed it in 1999.

法轮功利用了这个空隙，它们主张个人混合吸收中国传统气功锻炼和打坐。它的数以百万的忠诚信徒通过和平方式坚决地抵抗政府自1999年来的镇压。

Christian sects form and mutate in the countryside, vying to attract the same disadvantaged classes.

在农村基督教的异端不断产生和变异，也在争取这些弱势群体。

"Cults are thriving among those the government has abandoned," says Kang Xiaoguang, a political scientist at Qinghua University in Beijing. "They provide social services the government no longer does. They give people a sense of belonging," he said.

“在政府放弃的地方邪教非常兴旺，”北京清华大学政治科学家康小光说，“他们提供政府不再做的社会服务。他们给人民一种归靠的感觉。”

There are the Shouters and the Spirit Church, the Disciples Association and White Sun, the Holistic Church and the Crying Faction. Many are apocalyptic. A few are strongly anti-Communist. Three Grades of Servants and Eastern Lightning are among the largest, each claiming membership in the millions.

有许多教派：呼喊派和灵教会、门徒会和白太阳、整体教堂和哭派。许多是有启示的。其中一些坚决反对共产主义。三班仆人和东方闪电是其中最大的，都宣称有数以百万信徒。

Their identities may be less important than their profusion. They erupt suddenly, shocking authorities with their secrecy, financial wherewithal, tight-knit organization and, occasionally, their willingness to use force.

与他们的身份相比，他们的数量更为重要。他们突然大量增长，其秘密性、资金实力、紧密组织和偶尔的武力倾向，震惊了当权者。（您的大笔一挥，便将数百万中国人定性为“偶尔的”武力倾向，于是“震惊”了当权者：还好，若是定个恐怖主义组织！又得到国际舆论的呼应，那就要血流成河了）

For the Communist Party, this is uncomfortably reminiscent of China's past. Millenarian sects have been harbingers of dynastic change since the Yellow Turbans contributed to the fall of the Han Dynasty at the end of the second century. As recently as the 19th century, the Taiping and Boxer rebellions weakened the Qing Dynasty and fostered the social turmoil that eventually helped the Communists themselves to take power.

对于共产党来说，这使它想起中国的往事而不敢掉以轻心。自从二世纪末黄巾起义导致汉朝垮台以来，相信太平盛世将会来临的教派都是朝代更换的前兆。在最近的19世纪，太平天国及义和团的起义削弱了清代的统治，导致了社会动乱，最后帮助共产主义者夺取了政权。（您对党的江山的“忧患意思”非同寻常啊，对中国的历史，以及朝代更迭的原因，似乎比我们中国人搞得更清楚。）

Earlier this year, the government ordered the agency established to combat Falun Gong, called the 610 Office, to pursue a crackdown against rural cults.

今年初，政府命令为打击法轮功而成立的610办公室，开始对农村的邪教进行镇压。

"The threat posed by Falun Gong has been superseded by organizations in the countryside that are vying with the party for people's hearts," a document posted by the 610 Office says. "Some are even the spearhead of a movement to seize power from the Communist Party."

“由法轮功的威胁已经被农村的一些组织代替，他们与党争夺民心”，一份610办公室的文件说，“一些甚至是从共产党手中夺权运动的先锋。”

The Religious Battle　The 610 Office lists Eastern Lightning as a top target. The group was founded in 1990 by a woman, surnamed Deng, who claims that she is the returned Jesus Christ. It recruits mainly from other religious groups and often uses tactics that include spying, kidnapping and brainwashing, according to two people who say they were forcibly held by the group.

宗教的战争  610办公室所列出的宗教打击名单中东方闪电名列首位。这个组织于1990年由一个邓姓妇女成立，她宣称她是重返的耶稣。按照两位被强制拉入该教派的人说，它主要从其它宗教团体中拉拢教徒，经常使用窥探、绑架和洗脑的手段。

Authorities banned Eastern Lightning several years ago. But it has expanded to become by some foreign estimates the largest underground religious group in China.

政府几年前禁止东方闪电。但按照外国统计，它已经发展成中国最大的地下宗教团体。　

In Huaide, as in other northeastern hotspots, Eastern Lightning set its sights on the main local religious force: Three Grades of Servants. In early 2003, Eastern Lightning recruited a few members in Huaide. They in turn were given conversion quotas and an urgent timetable: to save as many souls as possible before the female Jesus wiped out nonbelievers.

在怀德，象在其它东北的热点地区一样，东方闪电把它的主要目标定在了当地主要的宗教团体：三班仆人派。在2003年初，东方闪电在怀德新招募了一批教徒。接着，给他们一个紧急的时间表及入教的人数要求：在女基督除去不信者之前尽可能多地拯救灵魂。

Ms. Yu and her husband were approached by two former members of their own sect who had converted. They were given a 1,000-page customized Bible and hymn book, bound in yellow. Eastern Lightning followers returned frequently to discuss the contents and persuade them to convert.

俩位从他们教会转变成东方闪电的人接近于女士和她丈夫。他们得到了一本1000页的改过的圣经和圣歌本，以黄线装订。东方闪电的信徒经常来找他们劝说他们转化。

"If you didn't say yes to one person, they would just send another, like messengers from the Devil," Ms. Yu said.

“如果你不对这个人说是，他们会换另一个人来，象是魔鬼的信使。”于女士说。

Zhang Chengli, a local farmer and Eastern Lightning operative, headed the team to convert Ms. Kuang and Mr. Cai. According to Ms. Kuang, he followed them to their home and in the fields. His message was blunt.

张成立，一个当地的农夫，也是东方闪电的转化者，领导着负责转化匡女士和蔡先生的小组。按照匡女士的说法，张成立跟随他们到他们家和地里。他的信息很直接。

"He told us that if we joined Lightning, then God would protect us," Ms. Kuang said. "But if we didn't join, we would die."

“他告诉我们如果我们加入了东方闪电，神将会保护我们，”匡女士说，“但如果我们不加入他们，我们就会死。”

After midnight one night he stood outside their bedroom with a bullhorn. He yelled through the window, "Convert or die!" Ms. Kuang said.

匡女士说，一天的半夜张成立拉着一个牛站在他们的卧室窗外，大喊：“不转化就死！”

Another day he clipped the wings of a pigeon and tossed it into their vegetable garden. The bird hopped around until Ms. Kuang captured it and brought it into her pantry, thinking it might make a meal. When she inspected it, she found a note glued to its belly. It read, "Those who cannot see the light will die."

另一天张成立把剪断翅膀的鸽子扔进了他们家的菜园。鸽子乱跳，最后匡女士逮住了它带回了厨房想要做熟了吃。当她仔细看这只鸽子时，她发现在它的胃部贴了一个条子，上写：“看不见光的人将会死。”

To get rid of Mr. Zhang, Ms. Kuang dumped household wastewater on his head. Mr. Cai, ignoring his own sect's teachings on remaining unruffled, punched Mr. Zhang and smashed his bicycle tires with a metal pipe.

匡女士把脏水倒在张成立的头上，想要摆脱他的纠缠。蔡先生也忍不住违反了本教派要平静待人的教导，打了张成立并用金属管把他的自行车轮拧弯了。

When Mr. Zhang persisted, they considered alerting the police. But they were themselves part of an underground Christian group. And they decided it was morally wrong.

可是张成立仍然不停止，他们考虑要报警。但是他们自己都是地下教会组织。所以他们认为这是不道德的。

"However bad he was," Ms. Kuang said, "I could not report another Christian to the police."

匡女士说：“不管他怎么坏，我都不能把一个基督徒报警。”

A Lethal Solution Three Grades of Servants had been fighting defections in several northeastern provinces. So when Xing Zhi, the chief coordinator for the sect in Huaide, heard about Mr. Zhang's campaign, she took decisive measures.

致命的决定  在几个东北省份三班仆人一直在与背叛的人斗争。所以当怀德的主要负责人幸知听说了张成立的挑战，她决定采取断然措施。

She told Mr. Cai to notify her the next time Mr. Zhang came calling, Ms. Kuang said. Ms. Yu's husband was deployed in a stakeout. When Mr. Zhang pedaled by, he was intercepted, gagged with tape and stuffed into the back of a white van, which sped away, according to local residents who saw the abduction.

匡女士说，幸知告诉蔡先生在下次张成立来骚扰的时候通知她。于的丈夫负责监视。据一个目击说，当时张成立骑车经过时，被人截住，用胶带封嘴，被塞进了一辆白色面包车后部，车快速地开走了。

Assassins sliced away Mr. Zhang's facial features before discarding his corpse. That turned out be a calling card of Three Grades of Servants, which has been linked to several grisly murders. The police were able to identify him only because he was carrying a report card from his son's school, Huaide Elementary, in a back pocket. They began a crackdown.

这些暗杀者肢解了张成立的面部器官，然后抛尸。联系到几起恐怖暗杀事件，这与三班仆人的做法相似（您意思是说，“恐怖暗杀”是“三班仆人”的一个固定的“做法”是吗？）。警察是因为在死者的后衣口袋里翻出了他儿子怀德小学校的报告卡才确认了死者的身份。警方开始镇压。（就是说，警方此前并没有镇压过他们）

In an evening raid, Ms. Yu and her husband; Ms. Kuang and Mr. Cai; and Ms. Chen, their neighbor and fellow sect member, were whisked to Jilin provincial police headquarters. Ms. Kuang was so nervous she threw up in the back seat.

在一次夜袭中，于女士和她丈夫，匡女士和蔡先生，他们的邻居及信徒陈女士，被突然抓到了吉林省警察公安厅。匡女士被扔进了后座，她非常紧张以致呕吐了起来。

Ms. Yu and Ms. Kuang said that they were shackled to metal chairs and interrogated through the night in adjacent rooms. In the early hours, both women recalled hearing Ms. Chen scream and moan in pain.

于女士和匡女士说她们被铐在了金属椅子上，在相连的房间里被整夜审讯。一开始的几个小时，她们都听见了陈女士的惨叫和痛苦的呻吟。

When dawn broke, the police abruptly suspended their inquest and dismissed Ms. Yu and Ms. Kuang with orders to say nothing about their detention. Shortly thereafter, the women learned that Ms. Chen had died in custody. The police told Ms. Chen's family that she had suffered a "sudden heart attack."

天亮时，警察突然暂停了对于女士和匡女士的审讯并释放了她们，但命令她们不得对外说任何关于她们被拘禁的事（奇怪，既然是“恐怖暗杀事件”的嫌犯，凭什么又释放了呢，还不许说出去？）。此后不久，她们知道陈女士已经死在警察所。警方告诉陈的家人她是因为“突发心脏病”。

Nearly a year after they were detained, their husbands remain in custody, though they have yet to be charged with a crime. Xing Zhi, the sect's promoter, was also arrested.

在她们被拘留近一年后，她们的丈夫仍然在被拘留，尽管他们会被控有罪。幸知，教会的发展者，也被逮捕。

The founder of the sect, Xu Shuangfu, was apprehended this summer after a long manhunt. Christian activist groups abroad led a campaign to protest the arrest, citing it as evidence of harsh reprisals against house churches. China's Public Security Bureau said in a written statement that Mr. Xu was charged with ordering murders and leading an "illegal cult."

经过长时间的搜捕，教会的创建人徐双富于今年夏天被抓捕（您明明知道徐双富是今年的春天，即4月17日在街头被恐怖绑架失踪的？怎么又说“经过长时间的搜捕，才于今年夏天被抓捕”呢？）。一些国外的基督教活动分子组织领导了一场抗议逮捕的运动，把这作为家庭教会被残酷镇压的例子（根据您的描述，中国的家庭教会恐怖之极，“一些国外的基督教活动分子把这作为家庭教会被残酷镇压的例子”完全是天良丧尽，颠倒黑白嘛。您是这个意思吧？）。中国公安局有一份文件，说徐领导了一个非法邪教而且下了几起谋杀令（请问周先生：您是想让那些希望通过《纽约时报》认识中国的美国人相信中国公安局的一份或者无数机密文件的说法，还是想让美国人知道政府文件之外的事实真相呢？特别是在这些真相被您以“公正”的报道成功地掩盖了之后？）。

Ms. Kuang now lives alone in Huaide. Her children have moved away to find jobs in the city. She says she lives in fear of retaliation, either by Eastern Lightning or the police.

匡女士现独自一人在怀德居住。她的孩子已经离开到城市去找工作了。她说她生活在恐惧中，担心受到东方闪电或者警察的报复。（根据您排的秩序，老百姓对警察的恐惧小于邪教）

Recently she spotted two police officers entering her yard, presumably to resume their interrogation. She said she was so afraid of another round of grilling that she drank a bottle of rat poison in front of them. She was taken to the hospital to have her stomach pumped.

最近，她看见两名进入她家院子、估计是来继续提审她的警官。她说她是如此害怕受酷刑，她在这两名警官面前喝了一瓶耗子药。她被送到医院洗胃。

Ms. Yu still lives with her mother and sister. A charcoal grill her husband used to sell barbecued meat on the street is rusting by their door, filled with rainwater and sludge.

于女士仍然与她的母亲和姐姐同住。她丈夫以前用来在街上卖烤肉的烧烤架放在门口已经生锈，里面满是雨水和污泥。

The police confiscated her Bible. But she still prays often for her husband's release. The violence in her village only confirmed her faith in Xu Shuangfu. She said he predicted all along that evil authorities and devilish sects would compete for influence at the crucial juncture.

警察没收了她的圣经。但她仍然经常为她丈夫能够获释祷告。她们村里发生的这起暴力事件，使她对徐双富更加忠心。她说他一直预言邪恶的执政者和邪教（究竟是她，还是您说徐称自己为“邪教”呢？）将会在这关键的交汇点竞争影响力。

"This is exactly what happens," she said, "when the world is coming to an end."

她说：“这正是正在发生的事，世界已经快到末日了。”（她说：“已经到了末日，”依您看这个世界到了怎样的日子呢？既然“暴力败坏了宗教对中国穷人的慰藉”。那么，您的笔又给中国的穷人带来了什么呢？）