For a while, the Christians had almost been an unreachable group for me to promote the Fa to and tell the truth of Dafa to. But one day when I realized that how people treat Dafa would determine their future, I was filled with tears. For those Christians who had been prejudiced against Dafa, I must break through the boundaries of my personal thoughts. I must tell the Christians the truth of the ongoing persecution in China so as to awaken their righteousness and compassion.
Having this idea in mind, I was told by a practitioner that her officemate, who read our newspaper about the truth of Falun Gong, wanted to invite us to his church. At noon on Sunday, the three of us went to the church. The pastor welcomed us warmly and politely shook hands with each of us. The seated dozens of Christians smiled to us and applauded us in a friendly manner. We introduced ourselves and explained the purpose of our visit: "First, we would like to thank everybody for giving us this opportunity to share our views. Everybody here may have already heard about the persecution of Falun Gong. Currently, the persecution is still going on and it grows worse each day. So far, more than seventy practitioners have been tortured to death. Lots of people around the world expressed their great concern about the suppression of Falun Gong in China. We are here today mainly to tell the truth of the persecution in China, and we are also open to any questions you may have. We believe that when more and more people know the truth and stand up for righteousness, the disaster in China will soon end. We brought newspapers for everybody."
One Christian said he was very grateful that we could come and tell the truth of Falun Gong. Later, we were invited to have dinner with them. While distributing the newspapers, one practitioner talked with an interested person. Two of us had a one-hour conversation with the pastor. Following is a summary:
Practitioner: Thank you very much for giving us this opportunity to tell the truth of the persecution of the Falun Gong practitioners in China.
Pastor: No problem. I read some media reports about it before. I am very sorry for the situation.
Practitioner: Thank you. At the moment, there are more than seventy practitioners who have been tortured to death. The measures used to torture the practitioners are extremely cruel. More than six hundred practitioners were sent to mental hospitals, suffering inhuman torture. Some practitioners there were injected with a drug that can destroy their central nervous systems.
Pastor: (shaking his head and sighing) It is so hard to imagine such things are still happening in today's society. Even if we assume the worst and say that the Falun Gong practitioners have ever done anything wrong, they still do not deserve to be treated and tortured like this. Have the practitioners overseas been harassed as well? My friend told me that one practitioner was arrested when he went back to China.
Practitioner: Yes. The practitioners overseas have also received different types of interference and disturbance. The government widely spreads fabricated stories about Falun Gong to people all over the world. In some areas, practitioners were tailed, telephones tapped, cars broken into, etc. On the 22nd of last month in San Francisco, Falun Gong practitioners were practicing in the "Garden Corner" in Chinatown, when some people showed up to tear up our newspapers that revealed the truth of Falun Gong. The practitioners who went to stop them were beaten. Those people were hired to attack Falun Gong.
Pastor: What? I really don't understand why they treat Falun Gong in such a way!
Practitioner: Actually it is not only Falun Gong. In China, other beliefs are also under attack.
Pastor: I know, including Christianity. In China, some Christians have been forced to move their activity underground. The government advocates freedom of belief on the surface; actually all spiritual beliefs are suppressed.
Practitioner: Yes. The truth is that since Falun Gong was introduced to the public in 1992, wherever it has spread, the public morality has been improved. The media in China had also published many positive stories about Falun Gong before the crackdown. As of 1999, more than 100 million people were practicing Falun Gong. It also has spread to 40 countries around the world. But when the government noticed there were so many people practicing, it began suppressing the practice, going from small-scale harassment, to banning the books, to the large-scale crackdown in the past year. My personal view is that this has happened because of the large number of practitioners, both at the common populace level as well as at the government leadership level.
Pastor: According to what I heard, Falun Gong is not a religion.
Practitioner: Right, Falun Gong is not a religion, but it shares common ground with religion in the sense that we all try to become better and better people, and eventually hope to ascend to the high realms.
Pastor: Yes, teaching people to be good. Having a right belief is better than having none, just like a person with a license would be a safer driver than one without one. (Sigh) Why be so mad about the people who want to be good?
Practitioner: Actually, Jiang Zemin and his followers are behind the tragedy of this crackdown on Falun Gong. In fact, many higher officials are against this suppression. Jiang Zemin is so stubborn, self-centered and jealous that he has brought a terrible tragedy to our history.
Pastor: It is said, "When those in the high positions behave unworthily, those below will do the same." It is because of Jiang Zemin's dictatorial regime that those followers could dare to behave so viciously, but they underestimated the strength of belief. The true believer never surrenders. You can get the point from the history of Christianity. The more severe the suppression is, the stronger the belief becomes. From another point of view, their persecution of Falun Gong brings a great awareness of Falun Gong to the world in a short time.
Practitioner: Yes! But the way they are persecuting is too ruthless!
Pastor: If God wants to let a person die, God will let the person go to extreme madness, as he wishes. Following the person's madness is his doom.
Practitioner: Yes. Good will be rewarded with good, and evil with evil. But we really don't want to see so many kind people fooled by the rumors and behave madly like those evil people. It would be a great shame! This is also why our practitioners overseas want to tell the truth to everyone. On one hand, we hope once people know the truth, they will not aid the evil. On the other hand, we believe that when more and more people in the world know the truth, the righteous people will stand up against the suppression of Falun Gong. Then, the evil people's doom will soon arrive.
Pastor: Yes! Hopefully that day could be coming soon. We would like to suggest that you tell the truth to everybody using all possible channels and methods. I will tell what I know to others. We will have a sermon soon. Could you please leave your contact information with me? I would like to know more when I get a chance. This is my card, please contact me anytime you need to. I will help you to distribute the newspapers that you haven't yet distributed. Please give me a copy of other materials that you will have in the future.
Practitioner: (taking the tape of "Falun Gong, the Real Story" from the bag and handing it to the pastor) Thank you very much. This is the tape about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. If you like, you may take it home.
Pastor: May I play it to other people?
Practitioner: Certainly! We would appreciate it.
...
(Shaking hands in departure)
Pastor: Keep it up!
Practitioner: Yes! We should work hard! There are still many people who do not know the truth!
Practitioners in Columbus, Ohio
Nov. 5, 2000