Christianity Booming

During the first half of the 20th century, Western missionaries swarmed all over China, yet they converted fewer than a million Chinese….

These days, China bars missionaries and the government sometimes harasses or imprisons Christians. Yet Christianity is booming as never before and some giddy followers say China could eventually have hundreds of millions of Christians—perhaps more than any other country in the world.

This boom in religion, particularly Christianity, but also the Bahai faith and various cults, reflects a spiritual yearning among many Chinese. While China has an official Catholic church and an official non-denominational Protestant church, which are not suppressed and people can join freely, the fastest growing churches are the underground ones—usually evangelical without any specific denomination—that are independent of the government. The total number of Chinese Christians today probably exceeds 40 million, and some estimates go far higher.

“This is growing explosively,” said Mr. Wang, baptized a year ago and now caretaker of the Ark Church a prominent underground church whose service I attended in Beijing. The Ark Church, one of thousands of house churches, meets in a rented apartment on Sunday afternoons. Forty people crammed into the living room, regularly crying “Amen!” as the minister spoke.

After two hours I thought the service was over—and then it broke into smaller groups for two more hours! One of the groups heard from a Christian who had been jailed and told about wretched prison conditions, particularly for mentally ill inmates. The meeting also planned a clothing drive to help poor people.

One reason for the boom in Christianity is that China is going through just the kind of turbulent social change including alarm at the eclipse of traditional values, that often drives people towards faith.

The rise of Christianity constituted one more challenge to the Communist Party by establishing a network the Party cannot easily control…. The Chinese government cracks down on the underground church but inconsistently and not nearly as harshly as it persecutes Falun Gong. The worst oppression is in rural areas: in rural Hubei a few years ago I interviewed evangelical Christians who had been stripped, beaten and given electric shocks to force them to renounce their faith. One woman was beaten to death. The China Aid Association, a U.S.-based group that monitors religious oppression, says that at least 1,958 Christians have been arrested in China in the last 12 months. The worst abuses are in Henan province where the police sometimes beat and torture Christians.

But such persecution is the exception in a country where tens of millions of people worship pretty openly and usually without any penalty. In half of China’s provinces there were no known arrests at all. The security authorities don’t normally bother to raid ordinary house churches or even spy on them much, but the police do apply pressure on those considered potential troublemakers. The Ark Church, for example, has had to move six times this year because State Security keeps getting landlords to evict the church.

State Security also called in the wife of a Christian and warned her to stay away from the church—and from him. They suggested she divorce him; outraged, she told them off. I complimented her on her boldness and she replied: “Actually, I am scared. But this is the only choice I can make.”

More and more Chinese are making that choice and their faith is reshaping China. One of the oddest legacies of the Communist dynasty in China may be that after 2,000 years Christianity gains a major foothold in China.

(Keeping Faith in China, published in the New York Times, 9 July 2006)

CULTS—A LONGSTANDING MENACE

China’s fast-changing society continues to be wracked by cults and heresies. Some enter from overseas, but many are home-grown. Recently a confused believer wrote to FEBC from Anhui about a self-appointed new “prophet”:

“God said in the end of the age, there would come a prophet from the East and we would have to listen to him. God’s prediction has been fulfilled today by a prophet from the city of Nanjing. He is over 50 years old and chosen by God. People can only be saved by listening to him. I wish I could let more people know this man through radio broadcasting so that more people may come to Mount Zion to listen to God’s words. If you are willing, please contact me.”

Then this self-proclaimed prophet even wrote letters direct to FEBC, urging them to follow him!

It was 150 years ago that the failed Confucian scholar, Hong Xiuquan, set himself up as the “younger brother of Jesus.” Under his leadership the pseudo-Christian Taiping Kingdom of Heavenly Peace conquered vast areas of southern China. Hong made his capital at Nanjing. His rebellion was brutally suppressed by the reigning Qing dynasty, and some 20 million people perished in the fighting. Protestant missionaries were initially much impressed by the Taiping respect for the Sabbath and Old Testament laws, but most became bitterly disillusioned when the movement revealed its deeper roots in traditional Chinese folk-religion.

Today many cults and sects arise in the Chinese countryside. Some are based in Buddhism and traditional folk-religion. But many claim to be Christian. Many denounce the government and declare God’s judgement is about to fall on unbelievers. Some leaders set themselves up as Christ. For instance, in “Eastern Lightning” a woman born in Henan claims to be a female messiah! These movements appeal to desperately poor, unemployed peasants and workers.

It is not surprising that today the Chinese government is extremely nervous of any sect or cult which could become a focus for political rebellion. That is why they suppressed the Falun Gong cult in 1999. The vast majority of house-church Christians follow the Bible and seek to live lives glorifying to God and as model Chinese citizens. However, Satan uses cults and sects to destroy the work of God. Sometimes local officials find it hard to distinguish between genuine religious activities and harmful cults, and Christians suffer as a result.

The crying need of the church is for the “milk of the Word” for ordinary believers and “solid meat” for Christian workers. OMF along with many other Christian organizations is producing materials to help train both believers and workers. Pray for this vital work!

NOT SO HEAVENLY

A well-known Chinese proverb declares: “Heaven above—Hangzhou and Suzhou below!”
But the experiences of the house-church Christians in the suburbs of Hangzhou, a popular tourist destination, were far from heavenly recently.

On July 29, 2006 hundreds of police broke up a peaceful protest by some 3,000 house-church Christians in Dangshan Township, Xiaoshan, near Hangzhou. They were protesting the demolition of their church building which had recently been rebuilt following a devastating typhoon. Local authorities repeatedly refused their requests to rebuild the church although they had met all the legal requirements.

The police used electric stun-batons on the crowd, and about 20 people were injured—four quite seriously.

Fifty Christians were arrested, of which twenty had been released by mid-August. Four leaders have been charged, and face lawsuits and prison.

Local believers have hired lawyers to fight back.

The incident has been widely publicized internationally, including by the BBC, Agence France Presse, the Daily Telegraph, etc.

BOOT CAMP FOR LITTLE EMPERORS

Those who remember the harsh days under Mao would scarcely credit it. Today many city children in China are obese through eating too much junk food and watching too much TV—not much different from their American or European counterparts.

Strapped into a safety harness, a small, plump 10-year-old boy is clinging for dear life 20 feet up a pole on a military assault course outside Beijing. “Come on! You can do it,” bellows his instructor, dressed in fatigues. Last Monday the boy was happy at home watching DVDs, playing video games and being pampered by two sets of indulgent grandparents who fed him sweets and meals on demand.

Then on Wednesday to loud protests he was packed off to hell—otherwise known as the Golden Dream Summer Camp. Here anxious middle-class parents (his are bankers) pay 2,000 RMB to inflict a 10-day short, sharp shock to their spoilt, domineering children.
There are 60 children aged 8 to 13, mostly boys at this summer boot camp. It is one of scores that have sprung up across the country. The children are woken at dawn and fed a meagre breakfast of rice porridge. Lights out is at 9:30 pm. “They have suffered from too much love,” says the camp director. “They lack discipline, are lazy, selfish and expect to be waited upon.”

Conditions are spartan. The children are stripped of mobile phones, MP3 players and pocket money on arrival. They live in bare dormitories with no TV or air-conditioning. The director continues: “I couldn’t tell the difference between the behavior of some moms and their kids. When you see a mother argue with their son or daughter it’s like watching two 6-year-olds. Neither has developed their emotions properly.” Last year he started a day camp for adults. “They come to learn how to discipline their kids and say no to them. We are trying to get the two generations to grow up together.” (Sunday Telegraph, 13 August 2006)

We add: Does not all this sound depressingly familiar to pagan, post-Christian families (and we fear too many supposedly Christian ones) in the West?
Copyright 2006 OMF International