Philosopher calls to ban churches in birthplace of Confucius
A city within the Shandong province of China should ban Christian churches in the neighborhood, a political adviser in the city said.
"Qufu in China is like Jerusalem and Mecca," Zheng Zhenyu, a professor at Shandong University's Advanced Institute for Confucian Studies, told TIME. "It's the Chinese people's spiritual home."
Christian churches, he believes, should be banned from Confucius's birthplace. "You can build churches in other places," he says. "But you can't build them in Qufu, an iconic and holy spiritual place for the Chinese people."
Zheng, who is also a Confucian scholar, complained that there are already plans to turn a temporary Protestant Church into a permanent assembly area where about 3,000 people can gather together, with construction scheduled to begin after Chinese New Year.
Zheng even wrote an article on Jan. 21 about the history of Qufu, and how a previous plan by foreigners to put up a church triggered opposition from Confucius' descendants, as well as local residents.
This is not the first time residents of the city have fought against plans of construction for a Christian church.
In 2010, 10 scholars signed an open letter to oppose plans of building a Gothic-style Protestant church in the city.
The article sparked an on-going argument whether it is right to allow the Christian church to be built or not. One user on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, said that Qufu should only allow the Protestant church if the Vatican builds a mosque, which means that it should be banned forever.
However, there are other Chinese users on Weibo who encourage religious freedom not only in Qufu, but also across the Asian country.
China's current president, Xi Jinping, has asked for Chinese to turn back to their ancient beliefs and religions, and leave 'imported religions' that originated from the West.
President Xi visited Qufu in 2013 and announced that it will receive $260 million to build a Confucius Center in the city that displays various relics.
