The stories are all over the web today about China's ban on Bibles during next year's Olympic games...but those stories are probably incorrect. Not, of course, that Communist China doesn't have a gruesome record in place regarding human rights abuses, coerced abortion, slipshod and even dangerous products, slave labor, brutal repression of political dissidents, sinister espionage activities against Western governments and, quite possibly, attempts to corrupt the American political process. (Are you listening, Mrs. Clinton?)But this particular rumor appears to be false. Reuters describes it this way:
China reacted angrily on Thursday to reports in the European press that the government would ban Bibles during next year's Beijing Olympics, saying it could not possibly be true. The reports, one of which appeared in Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, were picked up by the Catholic News Agency and spread to U.S. media sites.
"The facts show that this news is a total rumour," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference. "The Chinese government has not come up with any such rule. "China's religious affairs authorities and the Olympic organisers have not -- and could not -- issue a rule banning the Bible in the Olympic village."