By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News International Correspondent
TEHRAN, IRAN (Worthy News)-- The general director of comparative religious studies in Iran claimed the enemies of Islam donate approximately $50,000 a year to Iranian house churches that often have memberships of only 15-20 members.
Hojatoleslam Tarashioon, the general director of comparative religious studies of Medhi Seminary in Qom, attacked the Iranian house church movement.
"This cult in recent years has become active and today they work under the pretext of cultural and educational centres and have expanded their activities in several provinces," he said.
Home churches are gatherings of Christians who grow from within, so there are no official statistics available; this makes it more difficult to provide such groups any financial support.
With increasing surveillance from security officials, Iranians who convert to Christianity are often unable to attend church services in designated buildings, so they gather in private homes to worship, but the popularity of these house churches has led the mullahs to accuse them of moral and financial crimes as well as working as spies for Britain, the United States and Israel.
Ironically, Iran's Islamic government uses its own national resources to promote their Sh'ite version of Islam to North Africa and the Sunni nations of the Gulf, yet the monies spent on building mosques and financing Islamic missions rarely receives media coverage; in the mean time, Christians aren't allowed to build churchs in Iran, or publicly discuss their faith with others.