The Chinese government recently removed Pray.com from the Apple app store in mainland China as part of its restrictions on faith-based content.
According to Faithwire, the app's removal comes as part of China's Measures for the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services," which went into effect in March 2022.
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, an independent agency of the U.S. government monitoring human rights in China, noted that those restrictions placed in 2022 require a permit issued by the government when it comes to posting religious content and banning the online airing of religious ceremonies, events, and worship services.
Pray.com, which launched in 2017, is the world's #1 app for daily prayer and features daily-Bible reading plans and spiritual formation programs. Its removal comes several months before the National Day of Pray on May 2.
"Since starting Pray.com, we've grown accustomed to positive relations with China," cofounder Michael Lynn said. "President Xi [Jinping] has allowed for the printing of nearly 150 million Bibles per year, and [former] President [Donald] Trump ensured that Bibles were exempt from Chinese tariffs."
Steve Gatena, founder and CEO of Pray.com, said in a press release, "In response to these limitations, our team is exploring alternative avenues to deliver our content and services to people in mainland China. As we work on a solution, I want to personally extend an invitation to President Xi Jinping to join us for this year's National Day of Prayer event in Washington, D.C."
Throughout the years, the Chinese Communist Party has cracked on Christianity, even to the point of rewriting Scripture and calling Jesus a "sinner."
In 2019, the CCP announced that it would start "updat[ing] the Bible to 'keep pace with the times.'"
"The revisions will include adding 'core socialist values' and removing passages that do not reflect communist beliefs," The Voice of the Martyrs, a watchdog for Christian persecution, said. "In a textbook for high school students released in September 2020, the authors included a passage from John 8, as revised in their new version."
As CBN News reported last year, Chinese officials are testing out an app requiring citizens to pre-register to attend religious services.
"This spring, in Henan province, they rolled out an app to get approval to go to any kind of religious service," Todd Nettleton of VOM explained. "What that means is you need to have the app on your phone."
"You need to pre-register in order to go to a religious gathering, give the Chinese government all of your information, tell them who you are, where you live, your ID information, and so forth," he added.
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
