The Tibetan protests show that Christians aren't the only ones fed up with the Party's interference in ecclesiastical matters.
Today's Wall Street Journal comments on China's inability to control religion. The recent protests in Tibet underscore that the Communist Party's attempts to subdue spiritual structures have little effect.
Bret Stephens writes:
The regime banned religion -- one of the so-called Four Olds -- during the Cultural Revolution. Once it figured out that that didn't work, it sought instead to turn clergy into bureaucrats, and replace the idea of the divine with the mechanics of political control. The results have been, at best, a partial success.
The Party created state sponsored religious groups that do, indeed, have a following. But the official religious groups pale in comparison to the underground ones.
Unofficial Protestants, who attend unsanctioned "house churches," are said to number anywhere between 70 million and 130 million; one prominent Chinese pastor puts the count closer to 300 million. That latter figure is probably exaggerated, but there's no question that Christianity of the unofficial kind is winning Chinese converts in huge numbers. Not only that, it's winning them among every class of Chinese: farmers, urban migrant workers, professionals and intellectuals.
Stephens argues that in "smashing" religion, the country also smashed traditional social structures. That was, of course, the point, as the state was to take over that role. But of course, it couldn't then, and in today's China can do even less.
The Party destroyed the traditional relationships between neighbors, young and old, farmer and villager. But it also destroyed morality. "To a degree that alarms even Chinese rulers, morality and ideology have been replaced by corruption, opportunism and widespread indifference to life's ordinary decencies. Religion offers a corrective to this, too, as it does to the quandaries of 21st century existence."
Ironically, it was this destruction of religion that allowed for the massive growth in Christianity that will be the subject of CT's next cover story. If people's traditional views of religion and society had not been so utterly smashed, Christianity would never have been able to get its foot in the door.
Posted by Rob Moll on March 18, 2008 7:49PM
Comments
Another problem is the Party leadership's mentality. Although there are some closet Christians in Party positions, most members are married to the Marxist idea that religions are all the same. Therefore, if say Falun Gong is causing trouble (which it does --they've earned the "evil cult" label), the crackdown is upon all faiths.
Lots of the rioters and "Free Tibet" activists don't know how the Buddist clergy did Tibet no favors when they were the rulers. It was a corrupt, medieval system that deserves no nostalgia. But for this weak system, Tibet would be a hard place to "liberate." I hesitate to say it, with Christianity's medieval Inquisition, but Tibetan Buddhism seems to create slavery and oppression more than it does real freedom. Chinese rulers know this, but unfortunately the Church gets tarred with the same brush.
Another concern is that Han Chinese popular opinion doesn't think much of it's minorities. A lot of the unrest has racial roots, not just religous and economic. Han Chinese settlers in the region tend to have an outpost mentality like white Americans did toward Native Americans. Often they don't see the cultures that first occupied the territory as equals. Let's hope that the Church can take the lead in examining their attitudes to marginalized groups such as the Tibetans. I hope there will be real engagement.
P.S. I know they are full of stress, disappointment and anger, but these rioters put the kibosch on the stereotype of noble pacifist monks.
Posted by: Robert at March 19, 2008
An excellent overview of a serious problem. With over 3+ Billion people involved to reach for Christ, we need to act quickly and with serious concern. A recent Amer Bible Society study on distribution of Bibles in China indicated at least 1 1/2 billion Bibles distributed in recent years - some 90 million in previous years.
But a reminder, that several centuries after Jesus died and rose again, that the Roman Empire split and then fell, then the Muslim religion filled the vacuum where Paul and so many others preached and gave their lives in doing so.
How much time do we have left now in Asia?
Posted by: Pastor David Jones at March 31, 2008
White imperialist and Christian imperialist will perish. Stop harming other people culture in pursuit of delusion.
Posted by: ASein at January 26, 2009
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