CrossFeedNews.com has been blocked by the Great Firewall of China pretty much since its inception, yet until recently, our podcast feeds have been able to get through thanks to the redirection provided by FeedBurner.com and Podtrac.com, but while I wasn’t looking, they closed the hole. Now, without using a workaround, our listeners in China can no longer tune in to our incessant rambling.

Not only does this keep a wealth of information out, including most podcasts, this also keeps rss feeds from getting in, so even blogs are blocked for the most part. Not only does this keep out many ideas that would be critical of the Chinese government, it is one more evangelism avenue that the government has closed. Until early September or late August, even though Chinese people couldn’t attend a real Christian church without fear and secrecy, they now can no longer hear the Gospel as delivered by podcasts to their own homes.

The Chinese government has even gone so far as to block other podcast sites like podcastready.com, podshow.com, libsyn.com, and a host of others that allow podcasts to be played from the site, thus circumventing the system.

Yes, persecution still continues today, and there’s a reason that some countries are escaped from, while others are escaped to. Even though we don’t always agree with our governments’ decisions, if you can read this, thank God for your freedom.