It's been a brutal Olympics for Chinese Christians
LORNA DUECK
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
August 21, 2008
The Olympic prayer bands -- those ubiquitous white bracelets known for
championing a cause -- were a performance worthy of gold, except for
the fact that the Chinese pastor who inspired the idea was arrested
just two days before the Games began. The offending prayer bands said,
"Pray for China."
The Chinese state seems confused about how best to persecute its
massive unregulated crowd of Christians. The director of China's State
Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) is reported to have put the
number of Christians in China at nearly 130 million. The various forms
of Christianity in China self-report about half that number, while,
according to conservative estimates, Christians now exceed the number
of members in the Communist Party of China.
"There used to be a saying, 'One more Christian is one less Chinese,' "
said SARA's Ma Yuhong in a recent PBS documentary. "Today, nobody says
that any more. It is no longer a foreigner's religion. It's now
something that belongs to the people."
It may belong to the people, and China's constitution does proclaim
freedom of religion, but it's been a brutal Olympics for China's
non-registered church. Just a snapshot of the crackdown happened in
Beijing, where all major house churches were forced to stop meeting
during the Games and most of their leaders were arrested or put in
seclusion. That excludes the names on nearly a dozen pages of
documented Chinese church arrests and assaults publicized by Canada's
Religious Liberty Commission just before the Olympics.
What has China to fear in Christianity?
If Christians have the courage to stay faithful to their beliefs, it is
only a matter of time until they find they must say no to what the
state has in mind. Eventually, those convictions will reshape the way
China interacts with the world.
China did think it could control God, first in the early 1950s by
regulating the devout into religious "patriotic associations." That
launched a period of extreme persecution that peaked during the
Cultural Revolution, when absolute atheism banned all religions. Today,
registered churches, such as the one U.S. President George Bush visited
before the Olympics, have more than 50,000 meeting points. Restrictions
include not being able to acknowledge Rome as their bishop, not being
able to baptize or evangelize those under the age of 18, and ensuring
that all teaching is "compatible with socialism."
Many more millions have ignored the state and, as in the launch of
Christianity in the New Testament, government controls and some wild
experiences have been helpful in its expansion. When the Cultural
Revolution smashed thousands of idols, for instance, it left the soul
market open for Christian teaching. Miracles and deep personal
encounters with God fuelled Chinese evangelists on to their nation's
new transportation routes. Large-scale literacy projects were
undertaken, giving many a chance to read Christian teaching.
In the spring, the world's largest Bible factory expanded to keep up
with demand: Nanjing's Amity Printing Press, which reports that it's
already produced 64 million Bibles, says it will now print a million
Chinese Bibles a month - seeking an audience of readers in a
billion-plus market just beginning to discover what a Bible is.
Beijing University professor Zhao Xiao, a prominent Chinese economist,
told PBS's Frontline that he spent three months studying the Bible. "I
discovered that this kind of book China does not have. China does have
morality books. For instance, the Analects of Confucius teaches people
morality. China also has many intelligent writings - for instance, the
Buddhist texts. But the Bible is a book that claims inspiration from
the will of God. It talks about the history of the relationship between
God and human beings, and this kind of book does not exist in China."
Well, the book does exist. So, too, do reports of seminary staff in
China being arrested for trying to buy Bibles from Amity. Nothing can
be generalized about the phenomenon sweeping China in Christian belief,
except that suffering and violation of the rights of many is common. It
is an awakening outside the control of any propaganda machine, and one
by which Western Christians are being instructed.
Lorna
Dueck
is the Executive Producer of Listen Up TV www.listenuptv.com
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On April 30, 2005 Lorna was privileged to receive an honorary Doctorate of Christian Ministries from Canada's largest Christian university, Trinity Western University. Lorna was recognized for the witness and leadership that Listen Up TV has provided in public messaging: "a leader in the voice of evangelical life in Canada."
