I get my share of religious persecution alerts every day and, in my opinion, that is the big uncovered religion story around the world. But some countries are worse than others and the Chinese have sunk to a new low in the past two weeks.

According to an alert sent out by China Aid, a Texas-based organization with very good intelligence as to what's happening over there, Zhang Jian, the elder son of Beijing evangelist "Bike" Zhang Mingxuan, was set upon by Public Security thugs on Oct. 16 and beaten within an inch of his life, just for being related to his father. 

It was in the middle of the day that the PSB folks arrive at Zhang's house, locked the doors, then beat him senseless with iron bars for 25 or so minutes while his mother had to stand there and watch.

When she tried calling an ambulance, the operator told her they'd been instructed to send no one. When a younger son rushed to the scene, he was beat up as well.

After the family finally managed to get the eldest son to the hospital, they learned he was probably blinded for good in one eye, probably because of the blows to the back of his head.

Read the whole account on the China Aid web site. If it does not enrage you, you're not human. There is more to the story as the son has regained consciousness but now the father, who was traveling, has disappeared. 

The family of Christian evangelists has undergone multiple persecutions over the years from authorities but one wonders: Why this and why now? The latest is that the government has thrown all the family's possessions into the street and told the mother to clean up after them; moreover, it has dumped two truckloads of garbage in front of the church. 

You know, they say that silence implies consent, so this blog at least will complain and complain about some of the religious repression that goes on and on and on around the world.

- Julia Duin, religion editor, The Washington Times

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