DID CHRISTIANITY THRIVE IN CHINA?

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DID CHRISTIANITY THRIVE IN CHINA?

 

 

 

Digging for evidence in an ancient church

 

Dateline: LOU GUAN TAI, CHINA

 

Martin Palmer was covered in bird droppings when he made the discovery of a lifetime. He clambered up a rickety ladder into the ancient pagoda, picked his way through broken tiles and wood beams, looked up--and was shocked by what he saw. Above him, shrouded in dust, was a 10-foot-high clay grotto. The top was classical Tang dynasty sculpture, but at the bottom were the remains of a figure, one leg cocked and wearing flowing robes. Palmer recognized it at once: "It was a depiction of the Virgin Mary, and I was looking at China's first Nativity scene."

 

Here, beneath fields of kiwi fruit bushes, lay what is likely the oldest surviving Christian site in all of China. Dating back to 638 A.D., the site provides the first evidence that Christianity thrived throughout China from the seventh to the ninth centuries as the imperially sanctioned "religion of light." The excavation project was launched last week. "If they have found any Christian buildings, it would be an earthshaking discovery," says Jason Sun, associate curator of Asian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

Palmer, who heads the Britain-based Alliance of Religions and Conservation, became interested in the site while translating ancient Christian scrolls that describe it. His research turned up a map, made by Japanese spies posing as archaeologists, who had charted the area before Japan's invasion of China in 1937. The map showed only religious sites (and, if soaked in lemon juice, every military post in the county). Palmer followed it to an area 50 miles southwest of the ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an, where there stood a leaning pagoda called Da Qin, meaning "To the West."

 

Nun's tale. Palmer's first clue to the significance of the site came when he climbed a hill overlooking it. Looking down, he realized that the site was laid out not on a north-south axis, as Chinese temples are, but instead pointing toward the east like a proper Christian church. Palmer ran excitedly down the hill and was immediately confronted by an old Buddhist nun, who demanded to know why he was shouting. When Palmer told her he thought the site was Christian, she surprised him by snapping, "Of course it was! This was the most famous Christian site in all of China!"

 

Previously, all that scholars knew about the earliest Christians in China came from the Nestorian Stone, a tablet discovered in the 17th century that describes the arrival of Christian missionaries in 635 A.D. Led by a Bishop Alopen, they came from modern-day Afghanistan and did not recognize the pope. But in the absence of other documentation, they had long been considered a marginal group that never penetrated Chinese culture. But Palmer's discovery shows how important these first Christians really were: Their church sits squarely in the middle of what was an imperial compound for the study of Taoism, the official religion of the Tang dynasty.

 

The finding demonstrates the religion's powerful influence on Chinese culture. For example, the goddess of mercy, Guanyin, is the most popular Chinese deity and for centuries was depicted as male. It was not until the eighth century, when Christianity was at its height in China, that Guanyin began appearing as a female, wearing robes and carrying a baby--just like the Virgin Mary. "Here we see a Christian figure passing into Chinese folk religion," says Palmer.

 

The discovery also introduces a uniquely Chinese brand of Christianity. This version, mixed with Taoism and Buddhism, differed from the Roman church by discarding the idea of original sin and preaching against slavery and for gender equality and vegetarianism. "At the time Rome was trying to convert Anglo-Saxons to Christianity," says Palmer, "the church in China had developed another understanding of Christ that was more egalitarian, compassionate, and all-encompassing than the one in the West."

 

The excavated site is expected to become a major tourist attraction. Excavation of the sealed underground rooms, beginning this summer, could turn up liturgical vessels, scripts, and statues of saints. Palmer is working with Chinese officials on plans for a museum to house the artifacts. But sometimes he thinks back on the moment of discovery: "We all stopped suddenly in front of the Nativity scene and realized we would tell the world, and this was the last time it would be our secret. Then we all bowed and went out."

 

MAP: CHINA; Beijing, Da Qin

 

PHOTO (COLOR): Martin Palmer believes he has uncovered fragments of a Nativity scene in the grotto of this ancient pagoda.

 

PHOTO (COLOR)

 

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By Bay Fang ky ck .S. special Middle East coordinator, will be joining the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: CLAIMING OUR HERITAGE: CHINESE WOMEN AND CHRISTIANITY , By: Pui-lan, Kwok, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 02726122, Oct92, Vol. 16, Issue 4

Database: Academic Search Elite

 

 

 

 

CLAIMING OUR HERITAGE: CHINESE WOMEN AND CHRISTIANITY

 

 

 

Contents

On Writing Women's History in the Church

Chinese Women and Christianity

Conclusion

Notes

 

The history of Protestant Christianity in China has been interpreted largely from the missionary perspective. Kenneth S. Latourette, in his monumental study of more than 900 pages, A History of Christian Missions in China, records comprehensively the work and contribution of the missionaries.[1] The memoirs of both male and female missionaries, such as Robert Morrison, Timothy Richard, Harriet Newell Noyes, and Welthy Honsinger, fill out the details of the activities and private lives of missionaries in China.[2]

 

When Chinese scholars such as Ng Lee-ming and Lam Wing-hung began to study mission history from the Chinese side, they focused on the lives and thought of Chinese male Christians and their responses to the social change of China.[3] But the story of Chinese women in Christianity has seldom been told. Their relationship to the unfolding drama of the missionary movement has never been the subject of serious academic study. This oversight is hardly justifiable, since according to a national report of 1922 women constituted 37 percent of the Protestant communicants, and the number of women sitting in the pew certainly was far greater.[4]

 

On Writing Women's History in the Church

Scholars have not paid attention to Chinese women in the study of the history of Christianity in China for many reasons. Until women's history became a respectable field several decades ago, the contributions of women in history have been largely ignored. The lives and work of women missionaries have been taken up as serious subject matter only fairly recently. Several books published in the past few years, including Jane Hunter's Gospel of Gentility and Patricia R. Hill's The World Their Household, contribute to our knowledge of the public and private lives of American women missionaries.[5]

 

Chinese women were often assumed to be passive recipients rather than active participants and were treated more as missiological objects, rather than as subjects in the encounter between China and Christianity. They did not leave behind many books and writings, their voices were seldom recorded in reports and minutes of church gatherings, and they were not ordained until more than a century after the first Chinese man was ordained. Their contributions were regarded as insignificant and trivial compared to those of their male counterparts.

 

Even when one decides to research the lives of Chinese Christian women, the difficulties of locating resources and developing a workable methodology are formidable. Scholars who have worked on the history of Chinese women, including Ono Kazuko, Elisabeth Croll, Kay Ann Johnson, and Phyllis Andors, are not particularly interested in Christian women and their involvement in society. Other books and studies might mention Christian women in passing, or tell the stories of a few notable Christian women, such as the Song sisters, Li Dequan, Deng Yuzhi, and Wu Yifang, without offering many details about the time and context in which they lived.

 

Scholars in women's history have paid more attention to women's writings, autobiographies, letters, diaries, private papers, and other unpublished works. Treating women as subjects, they have attached more importance on how women have experienced and interpreted their lives rather than what has been written about them. The major difficulty of doing research on Chinese Christian women in the earlier period of the missionary movement is that the majority of them were illiterate. The first school for girls was opened by an English woman missionary in 1844 in Ningbo, and Christian colleges for women were not instituted until the early twentieth century.

 

There are very few resources by Chinese women in the nineteenth century, except some short articles in Jiaohui xinbao (Church News) and Wanguo gongbao (Globe Magazine). In the early twentieth century, when Chinese women's journals and newspapers mushroomed in Shanghai and Beijing, Christian women also began to publish more in the two Christian women's journals: Nuduobao (Woman's Messenger) and Nuqingnian (YWCA magazine). Several books and pamphlets were written by Christian women, such as Hu Binxia's study of the history of the Chinese YWCA, the autobiographies of Cai Sujuan and Zeng Baosun, and a study of Chinese women's movements by Wang Liming. Kang Cheng (Ida Kahn), Jiang Hezhen, and Zeng Baosun contributed English articles to the Chinese Recorder, Woman's Work in the Far East, and the International Review of Missions.[6]

 

Besides these written materials, the papers of a few Christian women leaders, such as Shi Meiyu (Mary Stone) and Kang Cheng, are preserved in the General Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church. The papers of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, located at Yale Divinity School, contain invaluable resources on female Christian educators and graduates of the Christian colleges for women.

 

Other helpful resources in reconstructing the lives of Chinese Christian women include the Chinese sermons of missionaries and Chinese preachers, church yearbooks, national church surveys, and even obituaries of women. The reports to the various denominational women's boards of foreign missions and the private correspondence of women missionaries contain rich data and often interesting materials on the "native women" they worked with. When using materials by the missionaries, special care must be taken to contrast and verify the accounts to avoid a one-sided interpretation. Missionary reports and writings must also be analyzed and evaluated in the Chinese social and cultural context.

 

After the collection of data, the process of reconstructing the lives of Christian women from the pieces and sometimes fragments of materials gathered is equally demanding. First, we should emphasize that Chinese women were integral partners in the historical drama, and we have to place them at the center of our historical reconstruction. Women's responses to mission work and the barriers forbidding them to participate in Christian activity influenced the policies of Christian missions and the organization of local congregations. Their participation in congregational life and in wider society needs to be analyzed. More important, their subjective interpretation of their own faith and experiences in the life of the church has to be clarified. This latter aspect should be the special task of scholars in religious studies, since most historians do not pay much attention to it or do not have the theological background to interpret it.

 

Chinese Christian women did not exist in a vacuum, and their history must be interpreted in the wider historical and social transformations of modem Chinese history. In particular, their responses to social changes need to be compared with those of the vast majority of women who did not share their faith. The influence of Christian women on the feminist movement in China and vice versa has to be closely studied. Their social analysis and strategy for social change should be contrasted with those of the socialist feminists and other secular feminists.

 

The women missionaries, too, did not act in a vacuum. An understanding of gender relationships and roles in the church and society they came from would help to clarify their motivation and work in China. The Victorian ideals of womanhood, stressing women's domesticity and female subordination, influenced the outlook of many women missionaries, and their evangelical upbringing reinforced their belief that women's God-ordained place is in the home. The study of Chinese Christian women must be a cross-cultural study because what happened to women on both sides of the Atlantic affected mission strategy and women's work in China.

 

Chinese Women and Christianity

In 1821 the wife of the first Chinese Protestant pastor, Liang Fa, nee Li, was baptized by her husband using water from a Chinese bowl instead of a baptism font.[7] In 1842, when the Treaty of Nanjing opened the five treaty ports to the missionaries, only six Protestant Christians were reported, and we do not know if any of them were women. In 1877 the first missionary conference estimated the number of female communicants to be 4,967.[8] The national survey of 1922 reported that there were 128,704 female communicants, with a heavy concentration in the two coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. The early female church members were drawn from the relatives of the Chinese helpers and converts, as well as the domestic servants of missionary households. Later on, when Christian missions opened schools for girls, the churches could reach girls from poorer homes, along with their mothers.

 

It is difficult to generalize the class and social background of female Christians because of limited information and scanty statistics. From missionary reports and the obituaries of Christian women, we can see that Christianity attracted particular groups of women. In general, rural women responded more readily than did women in the cities, since rural populations tended to be less bound by the dominant Confucian tradition and since rural women were less secluded. Also, young girls and older women, being situated somewhat at the margin of the family system, had more time to participate in church activities and more freedom to explore new identities. In the beginning, some of them had to overcome family prejudice and disapproval when they attended worship services or Bible studies of a "foreign religion."

 

For those who overcame various barriers to become Christians, Christianity offered them new symbolic resources to look at the world and themselves. In the process of adapting to the Chinese context, there was a process of "feminization of religious symbolism" in Christianity, especially in the nineteenth century.[9] Missionaries emphasized the compassion of God, used both male and female images of the divine, downplayed the sin of Eve, and stressed that Jesus befriended women. In a land where both men and women worshiped strong female religious figures such as Guanyin and Mazu, the feminization of Christianity made it more appealing. Later on, as more single women missionaries arrived in China, the total number of female missionaries exceeded that of the male missionaries. The feminization of the mission force sometimes gave the impression that Christianity was primarily for women and children.

 

Similar to the Chinese popular religious sects, the Christian congregations offered channels to women in which they could form bonds with their peers and that could provide group support in times of personal and family crises. Many women first learned to read in church because some knowledge of the Bible was required for baptism. The literacy rate of women church members far exceeded the rate in the general female public. Since social propriety at the time made it inconvenient for women and men to have Bible studies and prayer groups together, women organized their own meetings. The segregation of the sexes in congregational life allowed women to form their own groups and develop their own leadership, enabling them to experiment with new social roles besides the familial ones. Some of the more learned women served as teachers, counselors, and arbitrators in their local communities, and a few were employed by the churches as Bible women, teaching women to read and visiting them in their homes.

 

Since the 1890s, Christian women experienced a growing participation in church and society, based on the creation of a separate women's sphere and the affirmation of the role of women in reproducing and nurturing strong and healthy offspring. In their reform programs, leading Chinese intellectuals Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao advocated abolition of footbinding and the establishment of schools for girls. Although efforts of reform in 1898 were unsuccessful, in 1901 the Empress Dowager issued an edict permitting the establishment of schools for girls. At the turn of the century, members of the rich class and the literati responded more favorably to girls' schools, and a growing number began to send their daughters to mission schools to learn English and Western subjects. The establishment of Christian colleges for women in the first two decades of the twentieth century led to a new generation of trained Christian female leaders.

 

Chinese women first organized themselves to address the oppression of women in 1874, when nine working-class, illiterate women formed an antifootbinding society in a church of the London Mission in Xiamen.[10] It was not surprising that the first women's movement in China took the form of an antifootbinding program, because the practice of tightly binding the feet to produce the desired three-inch lotus feet symbolized the oppression of women in a most concrete and tangible way. In the 1890s the movement spread to many cities, supported by girls in mission schools and women in local church groups. The Bible women often took the lead in taking off their bandages, encouraging other women to follow and to pledge never to bind the feet of their daughters again.

 

Western medicine was introduced to China to relieve suffering and to serve as a "handmaid to the Gospel." Chinese women gained access to medical education in 1879 at the first hospital established in China, the Canton Hospital. Women doctors, together with the female nurses, were ardent supporters of antifootbinding, women's health care, and the welfare of children. Later, students of the women's colleges organized health campaigns and promoted social hygiene in the community. These efforts introduced scientific knowledge about female biology and physiology, shattering the centuries-old myths and taboos surrounding menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth.

 

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), formed in the United States in the 1870s, was introduced to China in 1886. Modeled after the American unions, the Chinese WCTU was a kind of "organized mother-love" committed to save the home from various evils, including opium and cigarette smoking.[11] When leadership was passed on to the Chinese, the new generation of leaders recognized the limitation of the ideology of "home betterment" and began introducing other programs to target larger social problems such as poverty, illiteracy, and the economic dependence of women.

 

In 1890 a small branch of the YWCA was established in China at a Presbyterian girls' school in Hangzhou. With chapters in the cities and branches in schools, by the 1920s the YWCA developed into the largest women's organization in China. In the beginning, the YWCA provided religious instruction and social activities for middle-class, urban women and girls in mission schools. In the late 1920s, the Chinese leaders of the YWCA began to recognize the need to work among the poorer sector of the populace, especially among rural women and female factory workers.[12] The literacy classes among workers of Shanghai cotton mills had a long-term effect of raising the consciousness of female workers and nurturing female leaders in the labor movement.

 

Some historians have attributed the rising consciousness of Chinese Christian women and their participation in social reforms to the influences of women missionaries. Women missionaries indeed served as role models, introduced new ideas from the West, and provided financial and institutional support for women to organize. But it seems farfetched to suggest that they were champions of women's rights, since most of them lived in patriarchal missionary households and subscribed to the Victorian ideals of female subordination. It is more convincing to argue that Christian women were living in a time when the traditional gender roles in society were being called into question, and they were significantly influenced by the secular feminist movement in the early twentieth century. The criticism made by the 1922-27 anti-Christian movement that Christianity is patriarchal further challenged Christian women to reflect on their religious faith.

 

The writings, religious testimonies, and autobiographies of Christian women suggested that they had begun to reflect on the relationship between China and Christianity from the women's perspective. On the one hand, they argued that Christian missions had provided the opportunities for the education of women and various social reforms. Christian women, they acknowledged, had served as leaven in society through the antifootbinding movement, the temperance movement, the publication of women's journals, and the campaigns against concubinage and domestic servants.[13] On the other hand, they criticized the discriminatory practices of the church, which prohibited women from preaching from the pulpit, from being ordained, and from exercising other leadership roles.[14]

 

Theologically, they emphasized the compassion and love of God, who is merciful to all human beings, both male and female. God was also described as the creator of the universe, sustaining the world and giving it meaning and purposefulness. When God was described as "the father," it was not intended to reinforce the patriarchal Chinese household but to challenge all kinds of patriarchal and hierarchical relations. God as the ultimate father relativized all forms of authority on earth, since all were equal before the eyes of God. Chinese women also positively responded to the historical figure of Jesus, who respected women, taught and healed them, and praised their faith. Zeng Baosun came close to writing a women's creed by saying: "Chinese women can only find full life in the message of Christ, who was born of a woman, revealed His messiahship to a woman, and showed His glorified body after His resurrection to a woman."[15]

 

Conclusion

The story of Chinese Christian women testifies to how their faith has empowered them to struggle for dignity as women and to reform their society. Chinese feminist theology, rooted in women's historical experience with Christianity, will be different from that developed in the West. Many Christian women in China and in other parts of Asia experienced Christianity not as an oppressive instrument but as a liberating force challenging some of the indigenous patriarchal practices. They are interested in further exploring the liberating potential of Christian faith to address the problems women face today, so that women can share greater responsibility toward building a just and humane society.

 

The heritage of the lives and thought of women in the Chinese church has to be reclaimed so that we can broaden our understanding of how Christianity influences women's lives in a cross-cultural context. Following the footsteps of their foremothers, many contemporary Christian women in China volunteer their service for the church and serve as leaders especially in the house churches and meeting points. Some are model workers and members of model families, contributing to the development of their society. Bringing to light the stories of these Christian women in the Third World can only enrich the shared memory of the worldwide church.

 

Notes

1.Kenneth S. Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China (New York: Macmillan, 1929).

 

2.Eliza A. Morrison, comp., Memoirs of the Life and Labour of Robert Morrison, 2 vols. (London: Longman, 1839); Timothy Richard, Forty-five years in China (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1916); Harriet Newell Noyes, A Light in the Land of Sinim: Forty-five Years in the True Light Seminary (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1919); and Welthy Honsinger, Beyond the Moon Gate: Being a Diary of Ten Years in the Interior of the Middle Kingdom (New York: Abington, 1924).

 

3.Ng Lee-ming, Jidujiao yu Zhongguo shehui biangian (Hong Kong: Chinese Christian Literature Council, 1981); and Wing-hung Lam, Chinese Theology in Construction (Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 1983).

 

4.M. T. Stauffer, ed., The Christian Occupation of China (Shanghai: China Continuation Committee, 1922), p. 293.

 

5.Jane Hunter, The Gospel of Gentility: American Women Missionaries in Turn-of-the-Century China (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984); and Patricia R. Hill, The World Their Household: The American Woman's Foreign Mission Movement and Cultural Transformation, 1870-1920 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1985).

 

6.For an extensive bibliography of the writings of Chinese women, see the bibliography in my book Chinese Women and Christianity, 1860-1927 (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1992), pp. 195-220.

 

7.Mai Zhanen (George H. McNeur), Liang Fa zhuan (Hong Kong: Council on Christian Literature, 1959), pp. 24-25.

 

8.Records of the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China, Held at Shanghai, May 10-24, 1877 (Shanghai, 1878), p. 486

 

9.For a fuller discussion of the topic, see my Chinese Women and Christianity, 1860-1927, pp. 29-64.

 

10.John Macgowan, How England Saved China (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1913), pp. 53-66.

 

11.Sara Goodrich, "Woman's Christian Temperance Union of China," China Mission Yearbook 7 (1916): 489.

 

12.YWCA of China, Introduction to the Young Women's Christian Association of China, 1933-1947 (Shanghai: National Committee of the YWCA of China, n.d.), p. 1.

 

13.For instance, Shi Meiyu (Mary Stone), "What Chinese Women Have Done and Are Doing for China," China Mission Year Book 5 (1914): 239-45.

 

14.Ding Shujing, "Funu zai jiaohui zhong de diwei," Nuqingnian 7, no. 2 (March 1928): 21-25.

 

15.Zeng Baosun, "Christianity and Women as Seen at the Jerusalem Meeting," Chinese Recorder 59 (1928): 443.

 

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By Kwok Pui-lan

 

 

Kwok Pui-lan is visiting theologian at Auburn Theological Seminary and lecturer at Union Theological Seminary, New York. She received her doctorate from Harvard Divinity School and teaches theology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is the author of Chinese Women and Christianity, 1860-1927 and coeditor of Inheriting Our Mothers' Gardens: Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective.

 

 

 

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Source: International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Oct92, Vol. 16 Issue 4, p150, 4p

Item: 9611271828

 

 

 

 

TOURING FOR A SONG: VISITS WITH CHRISTIANS IN CHINA

 

 

 

HOW FREE ARE churches in China? Are they subject to rigid government control? While these questions are much debated, people who have worked or studied in China know that it's difficult to generalize about Christian life in China. In conducting my own research in China, I've encountered a wide range of responses from local officials and have found that Chinese Christians are remarkably effective in dealing with the government's Religious Affairs Bureau. The variety and vibrancy of Christian life, as well as the graciousness of Chinese Christians to an outsider, were abundantly evident to me during a recent study trip.

 

I went to China because I wanted to hear the songs of China's Christian oral tradition--the songs that one can't find in print because they exist only in the singers' memories. Since major churches now favor a hymnal of music written by international and Chinese composers, visitors seldom encounter the thousands of local songs. In an effort to better understand everyday Chinese spirituality, I had begun to collect and translate some of these songs. But, as ethno-musicologists insist, one must record music when and where it is being used if one wants to learn its meaning. So I returned to China in hopes of hearing this kind of singing in worship.

 

On the first night of my trip I stayed with a Chinese friend who was pastoring a church in a booming county seat. She was preaching that night at a meeting point outside town and I went along. The lay couple who had recently started this meeting came by for us with two bicycles--one pulling a covered seat. The wife went ahead on her bicycle to get worship started--leaving her husband to pull two adults behind him. He pedaled with difficulty as my friend and I sat tight together. We traveled on a darkening dirt road, passing through village after village, until I thought we would never arrive. Then we began to hear singing.

 

After climbing up a steep flight of stairs, we walked into a room above a repair shop. Beds and cupboards had been pushed to the wall and about 30 people were sitting wherever they could, and singing loudly with their eyes closed. Between songs there were long prayers. Then my friend opened her Bible and preached for half an hour--shorter than usual, because we had come late. At the end everyone stood and prayed their own prayers aloud at the same time. At last they closed by joining in the Lord's Prayer. Then they greeted us warmly and passed my microphone around and recorded their songs.

 

The next day we went to meet the pastor in the church office. Two other men arrived: a policeman in uniform to say that I must move to a hotel licensed for foreign guests, and a Religious Affairs Bureau representative to say that foreigners may not visit unregistered churches. They were courteous to me but blunt with the church staff (I don't think they realized that I understood them).

 

We had not anticipated this problem, but I packed my bag while my friend called a church member at the hotel for foreign guests and got a special rate. Both of us went off to sleep in the hotel room.

 

By this time the churchpeople had heard that I could not attend services. They rallied to welcome me to their apartments for meals and recorded over a hundred songs on tape. They even found a friend with a car to take me out to the county museum. On the way back we stopped to see an impressive new church building. Caretakers there complained that the town authorities had made them take down the cross from the steeple. But the gate marked the site as a Christian church.

 

I attended the registered church Sunday morning and again in the afternoon, when a young woman preacher led us alternately in prayer and singing. We stood for nearly an hour, then sat for her lively sermon. When I left town, the people who had helped me cooked a special meal. A church member who works for the railroad got me a rare ticket on a nonstop train. I know I was a disruption in their busy ministry to thousands, yet they threw themselves into my project without complaint, quickly adjusting to the limits set by the Religious Affairs Bureau.

 

MY SECOND stop was a central China city recommended by the foreign visitors office of the Chinese Christian Council because "everything is peaceful there." The local RAB seems glad for the churches to join in stimulating the economy however they can. Christians have been able to build churches, clinics and Bible schools and to welcome foreign guests. I visited church services in the region with a delightful woman, a seminary graduate. When my shoes wore out from walking, we stopped at a street cobbler, who fixed them, but would not take money from a "Christian sister."

 

We attended a rural church in a village home across the fields from a country bus stop. We went to storefront churches in the city where the young people are new Christians wearing blue jeans and bright shirts. They wrote their songs into notebooks.

 

The older women have stronger voices and always preface their songs with prayer. Services include testimonies from those who have been healed and preaching from verses throughout the Bible that people find and read aloud. People sit on low stools (piled to the ceiling when not in use) or on sawhorses or homemade benches with backs--whatever allows the most people to fit into the least space. Verses of scripture are often taped on the plastered walls.

 

One evening we climbed the unlighted stairs of an apartment building and found or,e person sitting on each step all the way up. A loudspeaker on the third floor broadcast the preaching. Although two stools had been saved for the teacher and the foreigner, we had to find a place to set them down--the four tiny rooms were filled with people. All were facing the central hall, where the local high school art teacher was preaching. Finally he began to pray and all joined in with their own prayers, adding to the din of voices. Then the teacher brought a,l the voices together in the Lord's Prayer and ended the worship.

 

The owner announced twice that everyone should leave and many left, but the rooms were still crowded. Several older men sang psalms known by heart. Their cries to God were deep and slow; their thanks to God was high and joyful. The music often does not repeat itself from beginning to end of a psalm, and only five tones in the octave are used, as in traditional Chinese music. One woman knew some chants that added interesting twists to a gospel story told in couplets. She recited in a slow but tight rhythm, keeping time with a bamboo cracker, and then began to pick up speed until--to everyone's enjoyment--she suddenly finished with two repeated lines.

 

In this city the RAB representative appeared only for state occasions, and never with police escort. At my arrival, he came to a welcoming ceremony in a house church, hut slipped out when people began to worship. Another day he appeared for a review of a rural church health clinic and for an elegant restaurant meal honoring a visiting pastor from Taiwan. This pastor talked with the Christian leaders much more than with the RAB representative, and it was clear that church plans depended on the pastors and elders who make up the local China Christian Council (CCC). In most,places the members of the CCC also constitute the local Three-Self Committee which is organized to defend the churches' self-government, self-support and self-propagation in the wider society.

 

In this region, unlike some others I have heard about, the senior pastors seem to be fostering rather than frustrating the leadership of lay elders and young pastors, and Christians do not play off their RAB connections against one another. The churches grow, and registered churches establish other meeting points in the region, then help these new groups to find permanent locations, programs and leaders, and to raise the fee required for registration. In this setting I could attend unregistered gatherings. (In these cases the CCC made special arrangements.)

 

I MADE A STOP in a provincial town to see a young couple who had befriended me years before when they were seminary students. He directs a smell CCC Bible school in the back of a city church. It is so crowded that the students eat outside, sitting on a patio wall. We took a three-hour bus ride into the country to stay overnight with his mother-in-law, and I met their one-year-old daughter, who will live with her grandmother until she is old enough for city day care.

 

The mother-in-law, a vigorous woman in her 40s, pastors the village church. Her husband manages the village wine factory. Together they started the church in their house with one other believer six years ago. They now have a church building, and the five meeting points they began in nearby villages also have buildings. The singing I heard at her church was all from the hymnbook, with the literate young adults teaching their elders the words by singing line after line. But on Wednesday nights, testimonies alternate with "songs everyone knows." Thursdays they support each other's prayers, and on Fridays the youth share their interpretations of the text that was preached the previous Sunday. Here there was no sign of the RAB, which may be more prominent in the city.

 

My final stop was at a major Yangtze River city where I stayed at the seminary hostel while making arrangements to hear songs in outlying churches. Some students were going to a service after supper and I asked if I could go. We went off on bicycles through the city--not easy at rush hour in a sea of bikes, trucks and buses. In a ground-floor apartment, 200 people were packed in rows around a central table. Two unassuming "brothers" led the service from a pamphlet everyone held. They sang one printed song over and over, then read printed scripture verses and echoed "Amen" to the leaders' prayers to Jesus.

 

When the testimonies began, two dozen men and women thanked God at length for help in specific situations. They did not tell the healing stories so common in Chinese churches. The women members all wore dark berets; most of the worshipers were young people. I was told that this group was started in the 1920s. It has no clergy and meets Sundays in park theaters. Although it does not support Three-Self, the group considers itself to be a revival movement for the whole church rather than a denomination.

 

While I waited for permission to make some rural visits (I had applied in the wrong way, which caused some conflicts) other opportunities arose. One Sunday a seminary professor's wife and I took several buses to reach the place where she preaches. I listened as older women talked with each other about the difficulties they face as professional women with marginal jobs, and about the far greater trials they survived in the ten years when religion was suppressed.

 

Then, in one last visit, I drove to Soup Mountain, a hot springs where a new church had just been completed. We were met by the mayor and the RAB representative. There were speeches and toasts, and the church served us a banquet in the church hall. The Christian leaders insisted that as the first foreign guest I must write a greeting in Chinese characters for the church wall. They laughed when they saw my calligraphy.

 

Everyone trooped into the sanctuary for a worship service that included a humorous musical play, "A Family of Four Goes to Church," performed by young adults. A formal group photo was taken in front of the church. Best of all, after the town officials left, the women who had served the meal began to sing their own local songs.

 

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by Antoinette Wire

 

 

Antoinette Wire is professor of New Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Another look at religion in China.

Subject(s): PERSECUTION -- China; CHRISTIANS -- China; CHRISTIANITY -- China

Source: Network News, Winter98, Vol. 18 Issue 1, p11

Author(s): Rodenbough, Jean

Abstract: Responds to claims of persecution of Christians in China. Strict oversight of China's Religious Affairs Bureau; Employment discrimination against Christians; House churches; Underground churches; Profile of the China Christian Council.

AN: 289611

ISSN: 0745418X

Database: Academic Search Premier

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ANOTHER LOOK AT RELIGION IN CHINA

 

 

 

The current rash of articles in newspapers and periodicals about the persecution of Christians in China calls for a word of caution and balance in response to such charges. The claims of persecution are curious to me: Why are these being made, and for what reason? A background check for accuracy about the situation would demonstrate quite clearly that the charges are false. They mislead the public, already geared up to believe the worst of the Chinese government, and by extension, the people of China, into believing the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution continue. Nothing could be more wrong.

 

It is indeed true that the Christian Church in China must tread carefully in order to maintain its position in the society, not only because of strict oversight by the government's Religious Affairs Bureau, but because of the ignorance of Christianity by the majority of the people. (Christians make up less than 1% of the population.) Local authorities often discriminate against Christians in hiring, for example, and newspapers publish anti-Christian articles at times. But as Bishop K. H. Ting noted recently, this problem is not as widespread as it was earlier. "There is an almost complete disappearance of attacks on Christianity in national and provincial newspapers," he writes in the current issue of Chinese Theological Review. He notes, however, that "cheap caricatures of religion can still be found occasionally in papers on the county level."

 

We read of the "house churches," and the "underground church," as if persecution has forced Christians to practice their religion subversively, not unlike the Christians in the catacombs during Roman oppression. Let's be clear about those terms. "House churches" are those gatherings of Christians who, by choice, prefer not to register with the Religious Affairs Bureau. The members are characterized chiefly as 1) those who are elderly and have no regular transportation to a local church, 2) those who do not like the worship liturgies and sermons at local churches, and 3) those who bear grudges against the church dating back to the 1940's, and prefer to meet in local homes.

 

As for "underground churches," we find several reasons for their existence. There are many cults and heretical sects in China, such as The Little Flock. These groups are often led by someone claiming to be a descendent either of Jehovah or of Jesus, and claiming divinity, not unlike many cults in our own country. Another kind of underground church relates to the break with Rome by Chinese Catholics. Some Catholics refuse to renounce the authority of the Pope, and continue their ties, underground, with the Vatican. At present there are several controversies surrounding the efficacy of religious rites performed by priests not approved by Rome.

 

The China Christian Council oversees the life of the Christian Church, with ties also to the Three-Self Movement, which seeks a fully functioning indigenous Church in China: self-propagating, self-sustaining (financially), and self-governing. The churches in China are by law required to register with the Religious Affairs Bureau, but that act does not make them a voice for the government, nor "puppet churches," as A. M. Rosenthal labels them in a recent News and Record column. In effect, to be registered as a church provides governmental protections that non-registered churches do not have.

 

A major difficulty we have in this country, in trying to understand the relation of the Church to the government in China, is that we apply our own world view to something foreign to our perspective. The Rev. Dr. Philip Wickeri, Overseas Coordinator for the Amity Foundation in Hong Kong, clarifies this point in the current Chinese Theological Review. He explains that mainline Protestants understand the need for Chinese Christians to establish their church in the con-text of the post-denominational Christian body, formed in theology and structure by their own milieu, which is not a replica of American society. On the other hand, the evangelical branch of the American Protestant church sees Chinese Christians as standing in opposition to the communist government and the popular obsession with material goods. They over-estimate "the difficulties which ordinary Chinese Christians experience vis-a-vis the state, and so the church is viewed as a persecuted minority. The authority of the China Christian Council is not widely accepted in evangelical circles, and many American evangelical groups encourage and support 'underground' missionary activity in China."

 

To visit churches in China is to see a dynamic faith and a remarkable growth through evangelizing by Chinese mission workers. These growing bodies of the Church are no "puppet churches," but are witnessing to their faith with integrity. Some numbers here may demonstrate that growth. Every two days three new churches are formed; this has been going on since the church was re-opened after the Cultural Revolution ended. There are various estimates of how many Christians live in China, but the official count runs to 15 million (in contrast to 25 million Muslims and 100 million Buddhists). There are 12,000 church buildings and 25,000 "meeting points" (congregations without an ordained pastor, led by an elder, often meeting in a borrowed building). The 17 seminaries have sent out 2700 graduates, and currently enroll about 1000 full-time students, with an additional 3000 correspondence course students. Theologically, grass-roots Christians are evangelical in character, with a strong emphasis on fundamental beliefs and a literal interpretation of scripture. Seminarians and leading theologians are working very hard to provide sound biblical and theological training for members in local churches. These Christians are certainly not "puppets" of the government, mouthing official theologies, nor are they "persecuted" in the context described by journalistic attacks mounted in this country against them. Do such numbers of growing churches indicate persecution or puppetry?

 

Another point needs to be addressed also, in relation to the distribution of Bibles to the Chinese. There is no need to "smuggle" Bibles into China. Since 1980, over 17 million Bibles have been printed by the China Christian Council. The Amity Printing Company was established by the Council in 1987 and took over the printing of Bibles. These can be printed for as little as 85 cents each, whereas Bibles shipped in from elsewhere may cost up to $6.00 each. There have, however, been contracts with Bible distributors to ship additional Bibles through the Amity company.

 

There are many possible reasons for the current attack upon the Christian Church in China. Journalist Jinglun Zhao, son of T.C. Chao, well-known theologian and former Vice-President of the World Council of Churches in 1948, sees political and economic elements involved. With China's emerging power international relations, and an economy growing at a rate of 10% annually, the United States sees a threat to its own power. In contrast, Russia poses little threat to us these days, with an economy in shambles and confusion among its governmental leadership. Thus the focus of sharp attacks has moved from Russia to China. Unfortunately, the Christians in China are being smeared with the broad brush wielded by American media, when the chief interest of the Chinese is to build their own church base within their own culture.

 

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By Rev. Jean Rodenbough, Witherspoon Secretary-Communicator and Hospital Chaplain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: What's happening to Christians in China?

Subject(s): CHRISTIANS -- China

Source: Christian Century , 09/24/97, Vol. 114 Issue 26, p832, 7p

Author(s): Martin, Ann; Byler, Myrrl

Abstract: Focuses on the United States Christian groups' concern regarding the plight of Chinese Christians in China. Concern regarding the impact that the denial of most favored nation status would have on Christians; Specific changes in religious policy called by the Human Rights Watch; Debate on who should speak on their behalf.

Full Text Word Count: 5040

AN: 9710141935

ISSN: 0009-5281

Database: Academic Search Elite

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WHAT'S HAPPENING TO CHRISTIANS IN CHINA?

 

 

 

AN INTENSE DEBATE has been waged in recent months about Christians in China. At issue is whether or not Christians in China are being persecuted, and if they are, what the United States should do about it.

 

On one side of the debate is a constellation of organizations and individuals who contend that Muslim, communist and other totalitarian governments have launched an all-out attack on their Christian citizens and are getting away with it because the U.S. government, the media, human rights groups and mainstream American Christian churches are silent in the face of the slaughter. Some of the most articulate voices in this camp are Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council; Focus on the Family's James Dobson; Michael Horowitz, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute; New York Times columnist Abe Rosenthal; and Nina Shea, staff member of the human rights organization Freedom House and author of In the Lion's Den. This alliance sees parallels between the Jewish Holocaust and today's events, and they profess outrage that the lessons of history seem to have been so easily forgotten.

 

Michael Horowitz last year said: "Christians have become the targets of opportunity to the thug regimes around the world, and they are many. What's going on now is monumental, and it's affecting millions, tens of millions, of people. We're talking not about discrimination, but persecution of the worst sort: slavery, starvation, murder, looting, burning, torture."

 

Premier among the "thug regimes" in the eyes of many conservative activists is China. "China is the litmus test," says Shea. "If our government means to take the assault on Christians seriously, it must deal with China." The specific way that Shea and others urge the U.S. to deal with China is to deny it Most Favored Nation (MFN) trading status.

 

Responding to these charges have been religious, human fights and political figures, including former president Jimmy Carter; the China Service Coordinating Ofrice, a Wheaton, Illinois-based umbrella group representing more than 100 evangelical organizations working in China; staff of the National Council of Churches; and Human Rights Watch. These groups vary in their assessment of religious persecution in China, but all object to some aspect or assumption of the anti-China lobby. Carter, who saw Sino-American relations improve greatly during his administration, believes the lobbyists are eroding those accomplishments and triggering a dangerous anti-U.S. backlash in China. The NCC urges attentiveness to the voices of Chinese Christians and takes its cues from the China Christian Council (CCC), China's only nationally recognized Protestant organization. The NCC believes that much of what is reported as religious persecution is something less clear-cut. The evangelical groups represented by the China Service Coordinating Office do not refer to the CCC, but they too express concern about the impact that denial of MFN status would have on Chinese Christians as well as on the outsiders trying to witness there. Hutnan Rights Watch has issued reports on religious persecution in China and called for specific changes in religious policy, but it rebuffs the claim that persecuted Christians are getting less attention than their plight warrants. Those debating the state of Christians in China may seem like blind men describing an elephant--each basing his description on the leg or ear or trunk he has hold of and questioning the sanity or good will of those who have hold of a different piece. Most American Christians, concerned though they are about the status of Christians in the world's most populous country, have an extremely limited view of the elephant. They simply do not know whether religious persecution worldwide--and in China specifically--really is hitting epidemic proportions, and whether millions of Chinese Christians live each day in fear, with no hope of relief save from concerned outsiders.

 

A STRONG DOSE of humility is a proper first step toward understanding. China is enormous--not just big, but enormous--and conditions vary so widely from region to region that anecdotes from one or two places at one or two points in time cannot suffice as the basis for extrapolating a general truth. We must also understand how China's colonial experience still shapes church-state relations. Finally, we must be willing to at least consider that there may be valid ways to achieve more religious freedom for Chinese Christians other than through political confrontation.

 

For the past ten years we have worked with the China Educational Exchange, first as teachers in China and now as staff. CEE was formed in 1981 by four North American Mennonite mission boards and the Mennonite Central Committee, a relief and development agency. CEE emphasizes education, relations with the Chinese church, and social services and development. CEE has sponsored about 180 North Americans who have spent a year or more teaching in 15 Chinese cities during the past 16 years, and Mennonite colleges and seminaries have hosted more than 200 visiting Chinese scholars and professors.

 

Like most foreigners who spend time in China, we lived only in large cities and achieved only limited proficiency in the Chinese language. These are significant limitations, since the majority of Christians live in rural areas and do not speak foreign languages. Nevertheless, we have a network of contacts with Chinese Christians and prolonged exposure to the realities of urban and rural churches in several provinces.

 

ONE KEY question is: Who speaks for the church and Christians in China? No shortage of American groups attempt to do so. In China, the China Christian Council sees itself as an umbrella and service organization for all Protestant Christians in the country. It attempts to unite and speak for what it estimates are about 12 million Protestant Christians who worship in 12,000 church buildings and 25,000 home meeting points. The CCC also oversees the printing and distribution of more than 3 million Bibles per year. The Three-Self Patriotic Movement acts as a liaison between the church and the state. But there are Christians who do not recognize the authority of the CCC and TSPM.

 

The NCC regards the CCC and the TSPM as the two bodies that speak for Protestants in China, and from a structural and practical standpoint it is easier to take this approach. The CCC has membership in the World Council of Churches, sends and receives church delegations, issues statements and produces various publications about the church. There are no comparable handles for the unaffiliated Christian groups.

 

The groups that are urging the U.S. to pressure the Chinese government to give Christians more freedom believe that the CCC does not speak for the majority of Chinese Christians. They think it is either the tool of the atheistie government or tainted by its cooperation with that government. In the July 7 issue of the New Republic, Jacob Heilbrunn dismissed the CCC and TSPM by saying that these "official religious organizations" are "not at all free organizations or true Christian churches; they are rigidly managed by the state." If one dismisses the CCC and TSPM, then it is necessary to look to church leaders and persons not associated with the CCC and TSPM for information and direction. Heilbrunn cites "Protestant leaders in China" who say that 40 percent of the inmates in Henan labor camps are members of the Christian underground. He does not clarify who these leaders are; presumably they and their statistics are trustworthy by virtue of not being "official."

 

On the basis of our experience and that of other CEE teachers, we are not willing to dismiss either the CCC or the Three-Self churches as irrelevant or collaborationist. Outsiders who automatically equate "official" with "compromised" do so, we believe, on the basis of unexamined assumptions about what it means to follow Christ in a communist nation.

 

It is no coincidence that the question of how many Chinese Christians there are is almost always linked with the issue of who speaks on their behalf. Numbers are significant in this debate because they reveal what weight one gives to the CCC's claims that it represents most Protestant Chinese Christians. Each year the CCC compiles statistics on the total number of Protestant Christians in China, including both baptized Christians and persons who have been attending church regularly for some time and plan to be baptized. The estimates provided to the national CCC by local and provincial CCCs include Christians worshiping in CCC-related congregations and Christians outside the CCC network. The Amity, News Service, which publishes these estimates, cautions that the margin of error may be as high as 50 percent. The August CCC figures range from a low estimate of 9.2 million to a high of 13.3 million Protestants. Counter estimates by those who do not accept CCC authority range from 40 to 80 million for both Catholics and Protestants. If there are indeed two, three, four or five times more believers in China than the CCC acknowledges, then it appears that either the CCC is ignorant of the true situation or is covering up the truth for its own purposes.

 

Though we believe that even the "high" estimate of 13.3 million is low, we have seen no substantiation of the claim that China's Protestant Christian population is tens of millions above the CCC's estimates or that the majority of Christians live in constant fear of persecution, wanting nothing to do with the CCC and TSPM. We have seen no evidence that the groups offering these dramatically higher estimates have the grass-roots networks needed to gather such data on a nationwide, annual basis.

 

An August Reader's Digest article titled "The Global War on Christians" claims that "many of China's estimated 40 million Christians still worship in fear. They rise on Sunday at 3 A.M. to make their way to secret worship centers in the homes of evangelists, Police roam the countryside seeking out these 'house churches.'"

 

Statements like this strike us as either a careless or intentionally misleading blend of truth and fiction about rural Chinese Christians. First, the Reader's Digest writer should acknowledge a source for his estimate of 40 million. And since the rest of the article focuses on the plight of "many" of these 40 million, he should clarify what "many" means. The unsubstantiated figure of 40 million followed by the vague reference to "many" leaves readers to draw their own conclusions as to whether the journalist is describing conditions that affect 5 million or 35 million Christians. We know of rural Christians who routinely rise before dawn to walk for miles to join other worshipers in their homes and other nontraditional settings, including caves. Those we know about do so openly and with the full knowledge of local authorities. We do not believe that such Christians are a tiny, statistically meaningless slice.

 

If the CCC attempts to include in its annual statistics Christians with whom it has no contact, has it clarified what proportion of the whole this group represents? Unfortunately, it has not done so on a nationwide basis. In 1994, however, the CCC estimated that in Zhejiang, the province it believes has the largest percentage of Christians in China, 10 to 15 percent of the Christians oppose Three Self. In other places, the CCC estimated, the percentage could be 25 percent or higher. Even if 25 percent of all the Christians included in the CCC's August count were said to be op-posed to Three Self, that would total be-tween 2.3 million and 3.3 million people.

 

Who are the Christians who choose not to attend Three-Self churches or meeting points for reasons other than that they would have to travel too far to do so? We and other CEE teachers have met such Christians, and their reasons are varied. Some are intellectuals who believe they will not fit in; others have grievances from the past involving a current church leader. Still others have theological reasons for distancing themselves from these organizations--their distinctives may not mesh well with the CCC's "postdenominational" identity, for example.

 

In our visits to former Mennonite churches and meeting points in rural Shandong and Henan provinces, where some say opposition to Three-Self groups is strongest, we see little evidence of such opposition. It seems inconceivable to us, therefore, that there is a nationwide coverup designed to mislead the outside world on the true size or nature of the church. We have concluded that CCC leaders are speaking truthfully when they state that the number of Christians in China who oppose the Three Self is relatively small, that the CCC wishes to provide Bibles, hymnals and opportunities for theological training to these groups, and that reconciliation with them is a major goal. In February, 1994 Bishop K. H. Ting, then president of the CCC, said, "From the viewpoint of faith they are our brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we must seek to be reconciled. We must strive to serve them, to protect them and to unite with them. They are people whom the government should tolerate, protect and recognize."

 

SINCE THE 1994 adoption of new government regulations regarding the registration of all places of worship, there have been a number of reports on the closing of house churches and the detention and arrest of church members and leaders. Only a few weeks after the new regulations were reported, American missionary Dennis Balcomb and five colleagues from outside China were arrested and expelled because of their association with a house church. Christians from that house church were arrested as well. Balcomb told his story before a U.S. congressional committee, met with the secretary of state and received extensive media coverage in Hong Kong.

 

In 1995 the China News and Church Report gave evidence of government crackdown by citing the detention of several house church leaders in Anhui province, the detention of a Christian activist in Beijing, the closing of a house church in Beijing and the arrest of 140 evangelists in Henan Province. The following year the South China Morning Post reported that 300 house churches in Shanghai and 30 churches in Fujian were closed. A Hong Kong publication which focuses on the church in China reported on the arrest of a theological student in Zhejiang and on the closing of some house churches. There were also reports about five Christians in Xiujiang who were detained and about harassment by Public Security Bureau workers in several other locations. More recently, an elderly evangelist and popular religious figure, Xu Yongze, was arrested in Zhengzhou. Some reports state that he has been given the death penalty. Also, Bob and Heidi Fn, house church leaders in Beijing, fled house arrest and reached the U.S. with assistance from the National Association of Evangelicals and the State Department.

 

Some believe that these reports of arrests and closings are only the tip of the iceberg, signs of widespread persecution of Christians. The Reader's Digest states that in China "thousands have been sentenced to 're-education camps' for attending prayer meetings or Bible studies."

 

The abuse of religious freedom, including the beating and arrest of Christians, does occur in China, and the life of believers in some areas is severely affected by the interference of local officials. We do not believe, however, that incidents of religious persecution are now so widespread that they are the norm rather than the exception. The claim that "the government has created a witch huut for Christians," a statement made recently by the president of International Christian Concern, is irresponsible.

 

When Wenzao Han, president of the CCC, stated recently that "there is no general persecution in China," what did he mean? He meant, we believe, that there has been no dramatic recent worsening of the religious elimate, that outsiders should not assume Chinese Christians have no internal means to seek redress when they are treated unfairly, and that we should not assume all those who run afoul of the state are being treated unjustly. In the recent nationwide "strike hard" campaign against crime, some unregistered house churches fell prey to the abuses of local officials. The CCC says it is doing all it can to assist such groups.

 

The CCC does not protest, however, when the government arrests individuals or closes down groups the council believes have departed from biblical teaching. For example, the CCC earlier this year offered a detailed account of the activities and beliefs of the recently detained Xu Yongze. A former leader with the "Shouters" sect, Xu began his own group, claiming that the true mark of the Spirit is that people "cry when they pray, cry when they meet, cry when they worship." Because he encouraged people not to work but to gather together and cry hysterically, claiming that the end of the world was near, he was accused of disturbing public order and arrested on charges of violating several laws. The CCC regards his arrest and detention as a routine criminal case rather than a case of religious persecution.

 

PRESUMING even a worstcase scenario--that far greater numbers of Christians than the CCC suspects or admits are suffering abuses at the hands of local officials--the question still remains: How can American Christians and other concerned persons help Christians in China? The activists cited at the beginning of this article seek to mobilize a political campaign against the government of China. We think the cause of Christians in China would be harmed rather than helped by this strategy. The best hope for China's Christians is through the channels for churchstate negotiations that already exist. The CCC and TSPM are pursuing an authentically Chinese strategy for expanding the boundaries of freedom for Protestant Christians. They have already achieved much, and we believe they will continue to do so. We fear that American Christians, unwilling to acknowledge the legitimacy of these groups' approach, will contribute to a political climate in which the CCC and TSPM will have less room to negotiate with the government than they now have.

 

We realize that our advice to support and encourage the CCC and TSPM leaders will be unacceptable to those who view these organizations as fundamentally collaborationist. But on the basis of our experience, we believe such critics are wrong. We have heard many myths about Three Self churches among foreign Christians, some of which could be dispelled by simply attending a worship service. For example, many visitors are surprised when they visit to find that churches tend to be theologically conservative if not evangelical, that the content of sermons is not dictated by government officials, that persons under 18 are not denied entry, to the church and that Bibles and hymnals are generally available.

 

We have not heard pastors and laity in these churches ask American Christians to pressure the U.S. government to impose economic sanctions on Beijing on their behalf. What we have heard time and time again is how hard Christians have had to work to persuade their government and the rest of society that they are good citizens too. This struggle to make Christianity Chinese is rooted in China's experience of colonialism. After even a short stay in China one learns that the repeated humiliations that China suffered at the hands of Western powers have left an indelible mark on the Chinese psyche. During the 19th century Great Britain fought the Opium War with China in an effort to gain commercial access, and Western countries did not hesitate to spread their protective mantle over their missionaries and their Chinese converts. Given this backdrop, one can understand why Chinese authorities would view with suspicion and alarm the prospect of the U.S. flexing its economic muscles in order to protect Chinese Christians.

 

While those calling for U.S. sanctions avoid references to the way China's colonial experience has shaped church-state relations, there is no such amnesia about China's 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. This was the darkest period in recent centuries for Christians and most other greatly from that of the younger pastors. Capable younger leaders are not always given opportunities to exercise leadership, and this sometimes leads to bitter disputes. In several churches where CEE teachers have worshiped, the conflict between elder and younger pastors became so serious that government officials were called in to restore order. In one case, the Public Security Bureau arrested younger pastors with the approval of the senior pastor with whom they were in conflict. In another case, several young pastors who accused an older church leader of misusing church funds were themselves reprimanded by local authorities for creating unrest. In one part of Henan Province Chinese, Seminaries and churches were closed, Bibles and other religions materials were confiscated and destroyed, and one could not publicly identify oneself as a Christian. It is against the almost unrelieved bleakness of this period that Chinese Christians who are 30 and older measure their current status. The past 20 years have seen a renaissance for China in general, and the Chinese church has been no exception.

 

By its own account, however, the church in China faces serious internal problems which, in extreme cases, can trigger government interventions. One problem involves difficult leadership transitions exacerbated by an age gap. For at least 20 years (1960-1980) Christians had no real leadership training. This created a gap between leaders now in their 70s and men and women now in their 20s and 30s. The training and experiences of the elder pastors differ greatly from that of the younger pastors. Capable younger leaders are not always given opportunities to exercise leadership, and this sometimes leads to bitter disputes.

 

In several churches were CEE teachers have worshiped, the conflict between elder and younger pastors became so serious that government officials were called in to restore order. In one case, the Public Security Bureau arrested younger pastors with the approval of the senior pastor with whom they were in conflict. In another case, several young pastors who accused an older church leader of misusing church funds were themselves reprimanded by local authorities for creating unrest. In one part of Henan Province there are former Mennonite churches and meeting points that tend to be quite conservative; the leadership is elderly, and it is obvious that there is suspicion and mistrust of those who are young and have new ideas. Church leaders' relationships with local religious affairs officials and the PSB seem very friendly--something which causes us discomfort. We have spoken with young Christians who complain about the favors that older pastors and elders will do for local officials. Sometimes these favors involve money or even housing promised to younger church workers. Such collusion damages the reputation of the church and creates divisions.

 

However, in a nearby county, the leadership is young and the church is much more dynamic. Services are charismatic, and relations with the government's religious affairs officials are not as close. Young church leaders speak of trying to stay in the middle of the road--close enough to officials so that they can effectively carry on the work of the church, but not so close that church growth and activities will be hampered. The church in both areas is growing rapidly.

 

ONE OF THE most controversial issues has been the government's attempt to have all churches and meeting points officially register their place of worship. The criteria for registration are sometimes hard for groups to meet: religious groups must have a fixed place to meet, a regular congregation of believers, a management structure, leaders who are able to conduct meetings, and a legal source of income. While thousands of groups have registered, there are apparently many that have either not met the registration requirements or have chosen not to register.

 

When the registration laws were first announced in 1994, many Western groups saw them as a new crackdown on the church. There were reports of arrests and harassment of groups refusing to register. While the CCC admits that there have been problems and abuses, it has chosen to put a much more positive face on the new regulations, about which its leaders had been consulted. The CCC pointed out that the new regulations were not a departure from prior policies, and they heralded them as a positive step in the development of China's legal system since, for the first time, churches would have legal recourse should local officials make wrongful demands. Registered meeting points could have a legal status which would protect them.

 

The picture of what has happened these past few years as churches and meeting points have been asked to register is varied. CCC leaders often say that implementation of the new regulations hits been very uneven. The finger of blame is most often pointed at local religious affairs officials who are poorly educated or ignorant about religion. Meeting points, particularly rural ones, have complained about large registration fees, the need to pay bribes in order to register, and the consolidation of meeting points, which makes worship difficult. Appeals and complaints by Christians can meet with reprisals and accusations of disloyalty.

 

In the past few years the CCC has reported on various places where churches and house groups have successfully challenged local government officials in court. The CCC would gain great credibility were it to compile and publish details of all such grievances brought to its attention, what actions it took in response, and whether or not the incident was satisfactorily resolved. This is not likely to happen. The CCC does not want to be identified with Western criticisms of China and does not believe that religious believers will benefit if matters of church-state relations are internationalized. Bishop Ting, commenting on the recent release of a report by the U.S. State Department on religious freedom for Christians abroad, said: "I strongly feel that any U.S. government intervention as 'protector of religion' in the name of religious liberty would only jeopardize what we have been doing ourselves and intend to continue to do, and would give us the unenviable image of collaborating with the U.S. government."

 

Such sentiments are especially strong given that Beijing and Washington are at odds on issues ranging from the Spratly Islands to Taiwan and Tibet, trade deficits, international copyright laws and human rights. In such a elimate the CCC is likely to support the government position on sensitive foreign-policy issues. In the past year the CCC has spoken out in favor of renewed MFN trading status for China and in support of Beijing's positions on Tibet and Taiwan. One year ago, a CCC delegation walked out on a church conference in Thailand because of the status given to delegates from Taiwan.

 

The fact that the CCC makes such statements or takes such actions may strike those accustomed to sharper church-state divisions as strange or disturbing. What they reflect, however, is the clear understanding these leaders have of their government's attitude toward religion. The Chinese government views the practice of Christianity and other religions as permissible, not desirable. Since the Chinese Communist Party is concerned about any challenge to its power, the best hope for greater religious freedom in China is to encourage the delineation of careful boundaries for such activities and then work patiently to enlarge those boundaries. The pace at which overall progress can be made depends upon how strong the Chinese government perceives internal and external threats to its control to be. Beijing's response to U.S. charges of religious persecution is likely to be the opposite of the one the lobbying groups hope for.

 

BECAUSE of the adversarial nature of U.S.-China relations in recent years, many of our friends tell us they see a deliberate pattern of China bashing by the U.S. They assume that the ultimate goal is to contain China and keep it weak as it was in the last century. And who could blame them for such conclusions? A May 1997 letter from the Family Research Council refers to slave labor camps filled with Christians who were caught worshiping outside the official churches, and then immediately offers several paragraphs sounding the alarm over how the U.S. has appeased China and thus jeopardized its own national security. Citing "Beijing's massive military modernization," the FBC letter asserts that "that buildup is being used to intimidate our allies and outmaneuver us." There is something oddly discordant about defending the religious freedom of Chinese Christian brothers and sisters while advocating that our government maintain military superiority over theirs. Chinese Christians are, for the most part, as patriotic as are American Christians. They do not want to see China dominated by any other country, no matter what its ideology.

 

The charges of religious persecution would seem more authentic to us were China not being cast increasingly in the role of the new "evil empire." In the New Republic Heilbrunn states that China has emerged as a foreign-policy issue which has potential to reinvigorate conservatives. Conservatives such as Bauer view the China cause as "a chance to revive the strain of moralism in Reaganism" that caused Reagan to repudiate Henry Kissinger's "economics-based detente with the Soviet Union."

 

We appreciate Bauer's contention that U.S. foreign policy must be based on something more substantive than the marketplace. If American Christians reject the business lobby's defenses of China, to whom should they listen instead? We have not met Chinese Christian leaders or laypeople who asked us to pressure our government to impose sanctions on Beijing. They want increased space to live out their beliefs, but they also want to see China modernize and the lives of ordinary people improved.

 

Bauer unapologetically calls for U.S. dominance over China because he regards it as morally repugnant and inherently dangerous to its own citizens and the rest of the world. If one accepts this logic, then concern about the well-being of Chinese Christians and the unhindered spread of the gospel is closely tied to containing Chinese communism by America's military superiority. We believe this line of thinking encourages American Christians to unnecessarily vilify China and return to a cold-war mentality. It does Chinese church leaders a disservice by discounting how much they have achieved on their own behalf and by their own efforts. Finally, it does Chinese Christians a serious disservice by ignoring how creatively and fully they are using their existing space.

 

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By Ann Martin and Myrrl Byler

 

 

Ann Martin is director of East Asian Programs for the Men nonite Central Committee. Myrrl Byler is director of the China Educational Exchange.