China’s efforts to mold Christianity in its own image draw resistance

[CopyBoy]

In August 2014, a top-ranking official in the Chinese government informed the world that China was planning on nationalizing Christianity.

Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, told a forum in Shanghai that the “construction of Chinese Christian theology should adapt to China’s condition and integrate with Chinese culture.”

The announcement, unsurprisingly, triggered significant consternation among Christian groups in China and around the globe.

religionnews.com/2016/03/08/chinas-efforts-mold-christianity-in-its-own-image-face-resistance/

 

[Padres1969]

religionnews.com/2016/03/08/chinas-efforts-mold-christianity-in-its-own-image-face-resistance/

Considering they’ve been trying to do the same with Tibetan Buddhism for years (and that effort will get worse when the current Dalia Lama passes), it doesn’t shock me in the slightest that they’d attempt the same with Christianity. The intellectual side of me is intrigued to see what this modern day state formed church would be like (as the idea of a “nationalized church” isn’t necessarily foreign to Christianity throughout history with the Early Church and many Protestant Churches having some form of Nationalized Character at some point (and some still do)). That said, as a Christian from a country where religious freedom is ingrained in our very identity, it also seems abhorrent. Particularly knowing how manipulated this “Chinese Christianity” will likely end up being as just another branch of the central government in Beijing.

 

[Thom18]

By nationalizing, do they mean forcing everyone to be Christian or only allowing one type of church? Because I’m pretty sure a certain group of people fled their country over that issue.

 

[Memaw]

By nationalizing, do they mean forcing everyone to be Christian or only allowing one type of church? Because I’m pretty sure a certain group of people fled their country over that issue.

It will be their idea of Christianity that won’t be Christian at all. God Bless, Memaw

 

[badnewsbarrett]

By nationalizing, do they mean forcing everyone to be Christian or only allowing one type of church? Because I’m pretty sure a certain group of people fled their country over that issue.

I seriously doubt they’ll try to force everyone to be Christian. Aside from all the atheists who wouldn’t like it, there is a fairly substantial Muslim population in the western part of China that would immediately kill some people if that happened. Although the Muslim population is a small percentage of China’s total, the raw number of Muslims in China is very comparable to the number of Muslims you’ll find in Syria, and I’ll leave it at that.

If I’m understanding the situation correctly, there may be a silver lining. It’s awfully far from ideal, but it may be something we can see as a small step in the right direction, something that can be built on. From what I am understanding, China used to be officially atheist, and all formal organized religion was illegal. More recently however, visitors to China from outside the country enjoy much more freedom to participate in formally sanctioned religious gatherings and observances that- in the experience of Protestants I know at least- basically amount to all the freedom that they want to have in practicing their religion. Again, this particular bit of progress is exclusive to visitors from outside China. China’s even become more permissive of evangelism in a certain sense, although regular Chinese citizens from the mainland aren’t allowed to go to the same religious services as foreigners and the foreigners are really not supposed to invite them. But Christians can talk about Christianity and take that conversation as far as it can go, just as long as there’s no invite to the gathering in question.

With that being said…I think we’re seeing just a bit of progress with religion among regular Chinese people too. Atheism used to be the rule of law, and now it seems like China is permitting exactly one kind of state-run church (edit- actually, now exactly three state-run churches) that they’ll only feel comfortable with if they can control certain things. Again, it’s pretty far from ideal, but it may be a step in the right direction. The thing needs to exist in the first place, and then perhaps China will eventually be more comfortable with having less oversight and less specific control over time.

The other thing to look for is the shifting demographics of China. It’s an aging country that will need to bring in a lot of immigrants before too long, and it’s very likely that quite a few of those immigrants will be of Chinese descent. How will China handle a dual-citizenship situation when a Chinese person is from Hong Kong, or Taiwan, or a third generation descendant of Chinese emigrants to California? How will their religious liberties be handled? That would normally be hard to say, but in this developing situation where China needs these people very much, I’d say they get to do whatever they want.

China already has different sets of rules for different types of people living within its borders. All of those rules are slowly evolving in a positive direction, and I’m particularly optimistic about how things are looking for the far-more-permissive sets of rules for those born outside of China, because China’s in the process of becoming an immigrant destination far more than an immigrant sending country.

Now on the other hand- and this is referenced in the source- the Uighurs, the Muslims in western China, continue to be repressed more aggressively, AFAIK. From what limited information I have, it seems like we’re seeing Muslim repression at close to the maximum level while there’s a bit of a draw-down on the Christian repression. This isn’t anything like forcing everyone to become Christian, but I don’t think you have to be a Muslim in order to see it as the beginning of a significant comparative advantage for Christianity.

 

[Padres1969]

By nationalizing, do they mean forcing everyone to be Christian or only allowing one type of church? Because I’m pretty sure a certain group of people fled their country over that issue.

Actually reading into it further it seems that the statement about nationalizing Christianity was somewhat misunderstood when it was first made 2 years ago. As I understand it, Christianity is already nationalized in China to a great extent with the central government only sanctioning 3 Christian bodies (the Three Self Church, China Christian Council, and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church).

The statement about nationalization was misread initially when Wang Zuoan said it. He wasn’t saying they’d be nationalizing Christianity, rather that it would REMAIN nationalized. All 3 Christian Churches in China have always been nationalized, centrally controlled, and government regulated. And the churches by extension regulate all local Christian gatherings which have to be registered if I’m not mistaken.

 

[badnewsbarrett]

It will be their idea of Christianity that won’t be Christian at all. God Bless, Memaw

As long as it’s both monotheistic and Trinitarian, it’s some type of Christianity. I can’t see a situation where a state-run church with “Catholic” on its sign is recognized as a properly Catholic parish, and I do believe the sacraments of such a church would be deemed non-valid and illicit. In the broader scheme, however, I do believe it would be properly considered a form of Christianity (albeit not Catholic), in the same sense that England’s churches were still Christian after the break from Rome, in the same sense that France’s churches were Christian during the stretch of time when all of France was under Protestant rule. It’s not exactly the same thing, given that this is basically an atheist state regulating Christian churches, but I do believe these would be properly considered Christian churches that chafe under state regulations and oversight, as evidenced by some of their protests and condemnations of certain actions by the state.

 

[badnewsbarrett]

Actually reading into it further it seems that the statement about nationalizing Christianity was somewhat misunderstood when it was first made 2 years ago. As I understand it, Christianity is already nationalized in China to a great extent with the central government only sanctioning 3 Christian bodies (the Three Self Church, China Christian Council, and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church).

The statement about nationalization was misread initially when Wang Zuoan said it. He wasn’t saying they’d be nationalizing Christianity, rather that it would REMAIN nationalized. All 3 Christian Churches in China have always been nationalized, centrally controlled, and government regulated. And the churches by extension regulate all local Christian gatherings which have to be registered if I’m not mistaken.

I thought the timeline seemed a little off when I first read it, I knew I’d been hearing things about state-approved and state-controlled churches since well before 2014.