Pope encourages Chinese bishops to defend their faith "with courage"

Here is a video that talks about the Chinese bishops mentioned in the previous post.

Pope renews plea for religious freedom in China

Pope Benedict XVI asked for prayers for the Church in China yesterday, saying that the faithful are “experiencing particularly difficult moments.”

The Pope also referred to tensions arising due to an ordination of a bishop sponsored by the Catholic Patriotic Association. The Pope asked the Virgin Mary “to support all Chinese bishops, who are so dear to me, that they may bear courageous witness to their faith.”

Interesting background on China vs. Christianity

Who says we can't learn from the past?

This TIME article, while slightly outdated (published in 2005), gives great background information on the Christian faith surviving and even thriving to the distaste of the Chinese government.

In my opinion, TIME magazine is one of the best and well-respected publications, and it definitely comes through here.

Some interesting facts from the article...

- As of 2005, there were 60 million Christians in China

- Christians are China's fastest growing religious group

- The $1.5 million Southern Church, with Ionic columns and a rooftop gazebo, stands as a monument to China's thriving Christians

Finally, the most interesting paragraph for me...

Christianity is legal in China, but fettered: The country's estimated 50 million Protestants, whose ranks grow by roughly 2 million a year, must submit to the authority of the government's Religious Affairs Bureau. Its officials make sure churches follow written and unwritten rules — no members under 18, no overt evangelical work, no emphasizing the Second Coming and, above all, no questioning of Communist Party rule. Christians who worship in unregistered "house churches" often face harassment, or worse. Last year a woman died in police custody after being detained for distributing Bibles on the street. Police regularly round up members of heterodox Christian sects like Lightning from the East, which believes that Jesus has already returned, as a Chinese woman.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1132243,00.html#ixzz16bPG2g3z

Chinese Perspective

My boyfriend's parents grew up in China. While visiting them this weekend, they were reflecting on Christianity in China, as they just returned from a visit. Mrs. Juang returned to the exact church she attended as a child and was able to sit in the same seat. She said that in China, there are two Christian churches that are "allowed" by the communist government-- but the kicker is, the pastors are hired and paid by the Chinese government as well. However, she also said that there are many underground churches, as we've commented on in past posts. According to Mrs. Juang, Chinese youth have been rapidly converting to Christianity in recent years.

Even in places where people may not be allowed to worship freely, they are still defending their faith and worshiping how they choose. I would be interested to learn about the communication structure of these underground churches-- how they recruit, how they obtain religious materials, where they gather together, and how they keep from being discovered.

NY Times: Assertive Chinese Held in Mental Wards

This atrocity relates with my last post. In that one, the Chinese government prevented practicing Christians from traveling to a conference in South Africa.

Because they were outspoken, I can't help but think they may become victims of what was reported to have happened in this New York Times article.

More or less, because the Chinese people disagreed with the government, they were thrown in psych wards. The man featured endured 54 electric shock treatments to go along with injections of drugs that made him swoon.

What is wrong with the Chinese government? I'm glad I live in the U S of A to say the least.

Moving forward, I found some posts relating to what Chinese dissidents and what they're doing to combat the suppressive government.

Check them out: http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/chinas-new-rebels/

Hidden

After Amy's video post about the Chinese Christian church being demolished, I searched for it online. I wanted to see if because the video said that reporters were being punished for covering the demolition. Would there be any other footage or coverage that I could find?

I Google-searched "chinese christian church demolished" multiple ways. Every result gave a religious-watch website, usually Christian, that was reporting about the persecution, but zero news media articles or responses. I even searched Sky News, the outlet that somehow obtained the cell-phone video of the demolition, and I could not find an article or even the video clip. No news outlet had any results.

The commentator on the video was right. These happenings across China are not being reported or made available for the public's knowledge. It is up to people in the religious affiliations to let their congregations know, and maybe even to alert the general public.

Journalists Can't Cover Christianity in China

In response to Tony's post, I wanted to share a brief video clip about the repression of Christianity in China. Here, the government is destroying churches. Chinese journalists who tried to cover this story were thrown in jail, along with many other Christians who've been thrown in jail for holding private Christian services in their homes. This report suggests that there has been an explosion of Christianity in China, so now there are more Christians than communists-- a fact that the government most likely dislikes.

Religious Convictions Cause Campaigns - Are they effective?

An article in The New York Times explains how in 1929, the Church of Scotland began a campaign in Kenya to eradicate the practice of female circumcision. The church had a successful missionary relationship with the Kenyans, but once they tried to get them to stop the practice, many of the church goers left. In fact, it became a political statement by one Kenyan political organization to deepen the cultural practice, and it became an even more entrenched norm.

In contrast, the article talks about a campaign made by Christian missionaries and targeted to China, encouraging them to stop binding women's feet. This campaign eventually had success, and the given explanation is a two-fold theory:

"First, begin with a dialogue of mutual respect, free of self-congratulation. Second, when you have a core of converts, organize a program of public commitment to new practices, which takes into account the traditions of the community. To end one practice, as the anti-foot-binding campaigners grasped, you need to start another."

In this campaign, the campaigners insisted on respecting the culture, and tried to get cultural authorities to follow their idea by reaching the elite with newspapers and article evidence. Then, once there was a trusted group, this group spread the message that foot-binding should not be practiced anymore, and it eventually caught fire.

Should missionaries, no matter their religion, even try to change cultural practices to begin with? In these cases, I say yes. I think that these practices by the Kenyans and the Chinese, with respect to women's health, are wrong and harmful. They were (and maybe still are?) manipulating the body in ways that are painful, but more significantly, unnatural.

This could easily be a religious issue, but in many ways it is a human rights issue as well. I think that the missionary's convictions had more to do with preventing suffering than with having an agenda heard. It seems to me that they were trying to love and care for the people they were ministering to.

China barring Christians from travel ---- what gives?

From the New York Times-

More than 100 Chinese Christians seeking to attend an international evangelical conference in South Africa have been barred from leaving the country, some in the group said, because their churches are not sanctioned by the state.

Organizers say that more than 4,000 Christians from around the world will discuss faith, poverty, the AIDS epidemic and other issues at the nine-day conference, which begins Saturday in Cape Town. But members of the Chinese delegation said that they could get no farther than the passport control at international airports in China before officials confiscated their documents.

“They said it is illegal to attend this conference, and they sent me home,” said Liu Guan, 36, a Protestant evangelical leader who tried to fly out of Capital International Airport in Beijing last Sunday. “The explanation was ‘for your own good.’ ”

Analysis- Really China?

The story goes on to say after these people were invited to the conference, the were pressured by the government not to go. On top of that, the ones that did try to attend had their passports confiscated at the airport and were sent home. After asking for letters on why they were taken, they received a short response.

They voluntarily gave them up.

All I can say is I am personally very happy I'm allowed to practice whatever religion I choose in the United States.

Determining religion as a reason to be prohibited from leaving the country is a complete joke. It's like saying if you like soccer, 'nope, sorry, you can't go see the World Cup.'

I know there's really nothing that can be done as it's a relatively small issue and if other countries were to get involved larger problems may present themselves.

That said, this is a travesty and the word should definitely get out about the situation.

Basically, Living in China + Practicing Christianity = Not allowed travel.

Fair? I think not.

-Tony