The Jan. 19 ruling said that Lei Li was improperly denied asylum after he told the judge that Thanksgiving is a Christian holiday and that the difference between the Old and New Testaments was the original languages of Hebrew and Greek.
After becoming a Christian in 1999 and then being beaten by Chinese authorities for hosting church services in his home, Lei arrived in the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2001.
In 2005, two years after he applied for asylum, an immigration judge ruled that Lei “failed to demonstrate credible evidence that he is a Christian” and made conflicting statements about his residency.
According to the 2011 ruling, Lei professed his “belief that Jesus came to save people from sin, that he willingly died on the cross, that he rose from the dead on the third day, that 40 days later he ascended into heaven, and that, in this way, he ‘save(s) our lives.’”
The court reversed the lower court’s denial of asylum and sent Lei’s case back for further consideration.
