CHINA - The Truth
25/04/06 - A look at the complex situation of Religious Freedom in China
For a full and comprehensive story of China told in pictures with accompanying captions, go to: http://www.opendoorsuk.org/galleries/china/HTML/index.htm
Last week, President George Bush urged China’s President Hu Jintao to allow greater religious freedom within China. As reported by CNS news, Bush said, "China has become successful because the Chinese people are experiencing the freedom to buy, and to sell, and to produce, and China can grow even more successful by allowing the Chinese people the freedom to assemble, to speak freely, and to worship."
However, the actual situation of religious freedom remains complex and China is a land full of paradoxes that appear very baffling to the outsider. While some Chinese Christian leaders languish in jail, others travel the world talking of religious freedom. Some smuggle the Bible to those desperate and unable to obtain a copy, yet the Bible is also legally printed and sold. There are still questions surrounding how many Christians actually exist in China and also how Christian organisations should assist the Chinese Church.
Open Doors have been working in China for many decades, and continue to do so, with more than 3.6 million Bibles/Christian literature delivered during 2005 and more than 8.600 Christian workers trained in Christian teaching, leadership and evangelism last year.
Open Doors UK and Ireland continue with their seven-year prayer campaign for China which culminates with the 2008 Beijing Olympics and fund-raising events such as the September 2006 trek across China’s Great Wall. An overview of persecution can be found at http://www.opendoorsuk.org/profile_china.php
Open Doors history in China
Although, there are now an estimated 60-80 million believers minimum in China, when the communists took power in China in 1949, there were only an estimated 700,000 Christians. This hundred-fold increase has come at great cost. Following the communist takeover, western missionaries were expelled, Chinese Christians were tortured until they renounced their faith or were thrown into prison or killed. Although, many did renounce their faith, many suffered the consequences for not renouncing.
During this time, Open Doors founder, Brother Andrew, managed to enter China in 1965 and tried giving away Bibles only to have them returned with an indifference that left him immensely discouraged. As he tried to make contact with Christians he encountered political correctness and a few very old people preaching a tired message from a bygone era. The church seemed as good as dead and the message of Christianity irrelevant to the ordinary person. However, the experience only intensified his determination to galvanise prayer support in the west.
In 1975, Brother Andrew and others organised a large prayer convention of some 400 people from all over the world, believing that the doors to China, despite the evidence and perceived wisdom of the time, would shortly open.
The following year, in 1976, the doors to China opened with the deaths of Mao Tse-Tung, communist party leader and brutal persecutor of Christians and the party premier, Zhou Enlai. As westerners were allowed as tourists back into China, Christians discovered a thriving underground Church and Christian believers desperate for Bibles. Open Doors were ready to respond to the need, but finding that the thousands they brought through the borders greatly inadequate to meet the requests, they managed to deliver one million Bibles by boat on one night on 18 June 1981 and continue today to deliver millions of Bibles to China every year.
Open Door’s current position can be stated under three headings: Progress, Persecution and Revival.
Progress
The last 30 years have seen great progress for the cause of religious liberty in China, resulting in remarkable opportunities for Western Christians to serve and witness in Chinese society. The ideological oppression of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) is long gone, and as China opens up its economy to global forces, it is now possible to work legally within China and partner with local Christians, albeit primarily with the official church as yet.
Over 46 million Bibles have been legally printed in China since 1988. The number of Bibles that the Chinese government has permitted the Amity Press to print has exceeded five million per year in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Although some of these Bibles are exported, the vast majority of them are distributed domestically. (Source: www.amityprinting.com/new/englishweb/bibles.htm)
These Bibles are sold cheaply through the official Protestant churches, and have generally met Bible demand in the cities. Some house church Christians have been able to buy these Bibles. In addition, many provincial church councils are able to print Christian literature. There are also many religious books produced and sold in government bookstores by academic publishing houses. This is a great improvement and is to be applauded.
In the rural areas, where 80 percent of house church Christians live, there are still considerable shortages of Scriptures. Often village Christians are unable to travel to the cities to buy Bibles, and could not afford to buy them anyway. Other house church believers prefer not to purchase through channels of the registered church out of concern that they may be required to reveal information about their house church memberships. As a result, millions of Christians in China still do not have a personal Bible. Thus it is still important to take Scriptures to them.
Given the growth of the Chinese church at a conservative 3-5 million new believers per year, it is likely that the Bible need may be internally met in the years to come. However, the Chinese church has grown spiritually and believers are now requesting for Bible versions that comprise more than just Scripture text, such as Study Bibles, concordance Bibles and cross-reference Bibles, which are not yet produced by the Amity Press for mass distribution. Thus if Western missions intend to help the Chinese church mature in their faith and understanding of God’s Word, the supply of Bibles which supplement the efforts of the Amity Press should continue.
Thousands of Christian teachers have taught English and other subjects in universities. Seminaries and churches have been rebuilt and orphanages and charities have been established, thanks to co-operative projects between Western missions and official, state-approved organizations.
These opportunities are likely to increase in the future, and discerning groups should continue to take advantage of this open door as long as they acknowledge the risks and remain aware of the levels of corruption involved. It is not Open Doors’ policy to criticise but to commend those involved in this work, so long as the price of involvement is not to be silent about persecution.
Persecution
Some deny there are significant levels of persecution at all. Yet the majority of Christians currently refuse to worship within the state-approved churches, finding the monitoring by government bodies invasive and controlling. Evangelism outside the registered church walls is illegal. Even though the China government doesn't have a national law that explicitly prohibits the teaching of religion to anyone under 18 years old, internal provincial regulations exist to forbid baptism of minors and restrict their children’s programs, with Sunday school teachers facing the likelihood of detention, fines, or imprisonment of up to three years if caught. House church leaders are still jailed and beaten for what in Western society would be regarded as the free expression of their faith.
Admittedly, some agencies do exaggerate the levels of persecution faced by the average believer, who faces discrimination and harassment, rather than jailing and beatings. Also, there is great variation of tolerance within the country. In some areas, house-church Christians sing at the top of their voices and even build their own churches in defiance of formal legislation, yet are left alone by police who know of their existence. In other areas, however, house church leaders can be arrested, beaten, jailed and the house church meetings stopped. Periodically, there are waves of crackdown on unregistered groups which are initiated by authorities in the higher levels, usually prior to major national or international events, seemingly meant to send a message to house churches about who is still in control.
The Christian church of China may not have as many martyrs as Colombia, face as many restrictions as their sisters in Saudi Arabia, or fight as many extremist mobs as their brothers in Indonesia, but the millions of Christians in China remain the world's largest single persecuted community today!
Revival
The Chinese church became the world's largest Christian community due to a massive revival dating from the early 1970s, the size of which is unprecedented in Christendom. We believe the total number of Christians to be between 60-80 million, though it could be higher.
Of this number, over 23 million worship in the two officially organized churches of China -- the Protestant Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM, over 18 million members) and the Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA, 5 million members). Since members of the official churches are in a minority, government-appointed leaders of the TSPM and CPA cannot claim to speak on behalf of the entire Chinese Christian community.
Consequently, to assist the entire church of China, one is forced to fall foul of government policy, which insists that all help goes only to the official churches.
Based on this commitment to assist the whole Chinese church, which is at least three times larger than officials admit, we must continue to find ways to supplement help given to the official churches. For example, since legal Bible production does not meet the spiritual needs and demands of the majority of Chinese Christians, we must supply Bibles and other Bible-related study tools directly to the growing and maturing house-church millions.
It is foolish for missions to criticise each other over what method is most appropriate when the needs of the Chinese church are so large. The Chinese church needs everyone's help now, and every method is still appropriate … so long as the local Chinese church is respected and served.
Summary
The official government-approved church leaders do not speak for the entire Chinese church. At the same time, leaders of house-church networks are denied a platform to state their needs. We at Open Doors seek to articulate the views of such house church leaders, speaking out on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves.
While there are positive, government-approved opportunities to assist Christians who worship in official churches, those opportunities in no way meet the needs of the entire church. We must not be misled by government propaganda or half-truths that emanate from Western-visitors-turned-China-experts that echo the official line.
The church in China is growing rapidly, but the spiritual depth of the church is comparatively shallow. Only by taking advantage of every avenue to assist the whole church in China through Bible deliveries, leadership training, prayer support and encouragement will we see the continued, solid growth of the world's largest revival.