China Digital Times

China news tagged with: Christianity (59)

• Atmosphere Of Fear At Christmas In North China

  

  From AFP:

  Christians in north China are facing a Christmas of fear after 10 local religious leaders were jailed in recent weeks and their new church shut down amid a crackdown on unauthorised worship.

  Five of the church leaders were given prison terms of up to seven-years by a Linfen court, while the others were sentenced without trial to labour camps for two years, their lawyer said.

  Their crimes? “Illegally occupying farm land” and “disturbing transportation through a mass gathering”.

  “The authorities are clearly sending a message to the Christians,” lawyer Li Fanping, who defended the church leaders at their trial last month, told AFP. He expressed shock at the severity of the punishment for minor offences.

  » Read more
  • December 22, 2009 4:00 AM

• One Billion Souls to Save

  

  Times Online has a lengthy article about the spread of Christianity in China:

  In fact, across China religion is undergoing a defiant and extraordinary revival. Millions of Chinese are turning to familiar traditional faiths such as Buddhism and Taoism – a mystical belief with about 400 million adherents that is China’s only indigenous creed. Taoist believers, like Buddhists, visit temples across the country to burn incense, present offerings and request readings from fortune tellers. Others are finding comfort in Confucius, but it is Christianity that is leading the battle for China’s 1.3 billion souls.

  Many regard religion as a new force, unaware that missionaries – Protestant for the most part but also Roman Catholics – tried to spread Christianity across China in the 19th century and met with fierce opposition during the anti-Western Boxer Rebellion in the early 1900s. But it was former leader Deng Xiaoping, who effectively endorsed freedom of worship, and gave Christianity the chance to take hold, with his sweeping market reforms in 1978.

  » Read more
  • March 27, 2009 10:19 PM

• Evangelical Church Leaders Detained in China

  

  The Associated Press reports on a crackdown on a number of Christians and church leaders in Henan Province:

  Police raided a private evangelical seminar in central China and detained more than 60 worshippers, with four of them still in custody a week after the roundup, a U.S.-based Christian group said Wednesday.

  More than 30 police office broke into the gathering Feb. 11 in Nanyang city in central Henan province, the China Aid Association said in a statement.

  China’s communist government allows worship only in state-supervised churches, which claim about 11 million members. Christians and clergy in unofficial churches are regularly harassed and detained.

  » Read more
  • February 18, 2009 7:03 PM

• Pastors Say China Easing Up on Churches

  

  Protestant pastors operating out of illegal “house churches” in China may soon be able to practice their religion in the open. From UPI:

  Recent meetings between government officials and leaders of banned underground Protestant house churches marked the first step toward reconciliation in decades, the Rev. Ezra Jin said.

  Jin, who founded his Zion house church two years ago, said the government, including the police, have realized the time for confrontation is past.

  “The government is anxious to work out the way to go forward,” said Jin, noting he prays and sings with several hundred worshippers each Sunday in Beijing.

  For more information on underground Christianity in China see this Frontline World production with Chicago Tribune reporter Evan Osnos.

  » Read more
  • January 26, 2009 4:14 PM

• U.S. Condemns Beating Of Sons Of Chinese Pastor

  

  From Reuters:

  The United States strongly condemned on Thursday the “brutal beating” of two sons of a detained Beijing pastor and voiced concern over what it said was a pattern of intimidation of religious leaders in China.

  State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Beijing-based pastor Zhang Mingxuan, president of the China House Church Alliance, had been detained along with his wife, and their two sons were beaten up this month by public security officials.

  “We are gravely concerned by the brutal beating of Pastor Zhang ‘Bike’ Mingxuan’s two sons by public security officials,” said Wood, who did not provide details of the beatings.

  Read also Congressional Leaders Issue Letter to Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice Urging Advocacy for Zhang Family, and Interview with Zhang Jian from China Aid Association.

  » Read more
  • October 23, 2008 8:30 PM

• Sons of Heaven

  

  The Economist reports on growing number of Christians in China and the political impact it might have on China someday:

  Zhao Xiao, a former Communist Party official and convert to Christianity, smiles over a cup of tea and says he thinks there are up to 130m Christians in China. This is far larger than previous estimates. The government says there are 21m (16m Protestants, 5m Catholics). Unofficial figures, such as one given by the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity in Massachusetts, put the number at about 70m. But Mr Zhao is not alone in his reckoning. A study of China by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, an American think-tank, says indirect survey evidence suggests many unaffiliated Christians are not in the official figures. And according to China Aid Association (CAA), a Texas-based lobby group, the director of the government body which supervises all religions in China said privately that the figure was indeed as much as 130m in early 2008.

  If so, it would mean China contains more Christians than Communists (party membership is 74m) and there may be more active Christians in China than in any other country. In 1949, when the Communists took power, less than 1% of the population had been baptised, most of them Catholics. Now the largest, fastest-growing number of Christians belong to Protestant “house churches”.

  Formally, the Communist Party forbids members to hold a religious belief, and the churches say they suffer official harassment. The president of the Beijing house-church alliance, Zhang Mingxuan,was thrown out of the capital before the Olympic games and told he was unwelcome when he returned. In early June, the state government of Henan arrested half a dozen house-church members on charges of illegally sending charitable donations to Sichuan earthquake victims. CAA claims harassment of house churches is rising.

  This story comes in conjunction with the first Chinese tour group to Israel where New Testament sites are attracting Chinese tourists. Alison Klaymon reports from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency via the Jewish Exponent, “Destination Israel: China Launches First Official Tours.”

  See the photos posted by People’s Daily where the official story presents no religious component.

  At the same time, Beijing has denied bishops a trip to the Vatican, see Times of India “China Denies Bishops trip to Rome: Vatican”:

  China’s 8 to 12 million Catholics are split between the officially approved church and an “underground” one loyal to the Pope. The lack of participation by the mainland bishops came as a surprise because there had been signs of an improvement in relations this year. A bishop from Hong Kong represented Pope Benedict at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in August and in May China’s national orchestra played for the Pope at an unprecedented concert in the Vatican.

  Benedict has made improving relations with China a main goal of his pontificate and hopes diplomatic ties can be restored. China says before restoring ties, broken off two years after the 1949 Communist takeover, the Vatican must sever relations with Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province. The synod, at which the bishops will be discussing scripture, will see a first when Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen becomes the first Jew to address such a Vatican gathering. The rabbi of Haifa, Israel, will lead a one-day discussion of Jewish interpretation of the Scriptures on Oct. 6.

  See also related recent ban on religious music.

  » Read more
  • October 3, 2008 4:46 PM

• China Stops Activist From Attending Bush Service

  

  From Reuters:

  Chinese plainclothes police detained a Christian activist on Sunday to stop him from attending a service at a church where U.S. President George W. Bush was worshipping, the activist’s brother said.

  Hua Huiqi, 46, and his brother, Hua Huilin, 52, an electrician, were taken into custody while cycling to Kuanjie Protestant church in Beijing at dawn, the brother said hours after he was released.

  “Police came to our house last night and told me not to let my brother venture out today. My brother was baptised at the church and determined to go. I went along to try to protect him,” the brother told Reuters by telephone.

  Read also Chinese activist detained on way to church from AP.

  » Read more
  • August 10, 2008 8:20 PM

• China Forces Underground Pastor from Beijing-Paper

  

  China continues its suppression of dissenters before the Olympic Games, today targeting a Christian pastor and his wife. From the U.K. Guardian:

  Chinese police have removed a prominent Beijing-based pastor and his wife from the capital as it steps up efforts to control dissidents in the run-up to the Olympics, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.

  Zhang Mingxuan, president of the Chinese House Church Alliance, told the Hong Kong newspaper he and his ailing wife, Xie Fenglan, had been whisked off to neighbouring Hebei province on Friday night after a week of harassment.

  Police told the church figure, who has often met foreign officials visiting China, that they do not want him in Beijing during next month’s Olympics to prevent him from meeting foreigners, the article quoted Zhang as saying.

  Pastor Zhang Mingxuan has been very vocal in the past about government repression of Christianity, writing letters and meeting with foreign government officials. See background information from the Christian Newswire on Pastor Mingxuan’s most recent arrest:

  China Aid has learned that pastor Zhang Mingxuan was detained at 12:08pm on June 18 (2008) along with his interpreter when he was on his way to meet with a seninor EU official.. . . Zhang was detained on a bus while he and his interpreter were on their way to meet with Dr. Bastiaan Belder, Rapporteur of the EP Committee of Foreign Affairs for the relationship between the EU and China, at Yanshan Hotel in Haidian District.

  . . . Since his conversion to Christianity in 1986, Pastor Zhang has been arrested, beaten and incarcerated 12 times. Most recently, PSB and State officials forced Zhang to close the orphanage he had been running with his two sons.

  Ironically, even as China tries to silence Pastor Mingxuan, officials are still planning on giving away Bibles during the Olympics. See CDT’s coverage here.

  » Read more
  • July 20, 2008 2:11 PM

• Bible To Be Available Free During Beijing Games

  

  The state-run China Daily reveals Beijing’s plans to do its part in the dissemination of the Gospel come Games time (h/t Wall Street Journal’s China Journal blog):

  Athletes, officials, spectators and tourists can pick up the Bible or just the New Testament for free during the Olympic Games next month.

  Tens of thousands of copies of the Bible, the New Testament and booklets with just the four Gospels (according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) have been printed for the purpose, say officials of China’s Christian society.

  The cover of the Gospel booklet will have the Beijing Olympics logo. “This is especially significant (because) as far as I know, this is the first time an Olympics logo will be used on a religious booklet,” Xu says. “The Olympic spirit and the spirit of living a ‘purpose-driven life’ that Christians believe in come together in the combination.”

  As the newspaper notes, the announcement is attempt to quash rumors that suggested Beijing would refuse to help Christian athletes procure Bibles.

  » Read more
  • July 7, 2008 2:56 AM

• Christianity is Flourishing in China

  

  The Chicago Tribune (via the LA Times) reports on the growth of Christianity in China today, and looks at the recent Frontline/World documentary on the topic:

  Some Chinese Christians say their faith is actually a boon for the party, because it shores up the economic foundation that is central to sustaining communist rule.

  “With economic development, morality and ethics in China are degenerating quickly,” prayer leader Zhang Wei told the crowd at Jin’s church as worshipers bowed their heads. “Holy Father, please save the Chinese people’s soul.”

  At the same time, Christianity is driving citizens to be more politically assertive, emboldening them to push for more freedoms and testing the party’s willingness to adapt. For decades, most of China’s Christians worshiped in secret churches, known as “house churches,” that shunned attention for fear of arrest on charges such as “disturbing public order.”

  But in a sign of Christianity’s growing prominence, in scores of interviews for a joint project of the Tribune and PBS’ “Frontline/World,” clerical leaders and worshipers from coastal boomtowns to inland villages publicly detailed their religious lives for the first time.

  » Read more
  • June 30, 2008 9:55 AM

• Jesus in China

  

  From Frontline/World:

  Deep in China’s heartland is a region known as “The Bethlehem of China,” where, more than a thousand years ago, Western missionaries first brought Christianity to the area. It is here, in a series of caves hidden in the hills, where members of China’s underground Christian Church tell FRONTLINE/World and Chicago Tribune reporter Evan Osnos how they have kept the religion alive. For years, they moved from place to place to avoid government detection, until they found safety in these hills.

  “When we were in an underground state, we would gather here to meet,” Zhang Yinan, a pastor who’s chronicling the rise of Christianity in China, tells Osnos.

  See also China Beat’s interview with Osnos from earlier this month.

  » Read more
  • June 29, 2008 4:04 PM

• Jesus in China: Life on the Edge

  

  From The Chicago Tribune:

  He moved to Beijing and, in 2005, he and others established the House Church Alliance. The alliance is the first of its kind, said Bob Fu, president of China Aid Association, a Texas-based advocacy group for Christians.

  “They are the first group willing to stand up and operate aboveground,” Fu said. “Traditionally, they would have been underground. But they took a public role, educating churches and pastors on how to protect themselves with existing laws, and to use lawyers to protect their rights.”

  The alliance claims followers in provinces across the country, representing 300,000 Christians, but those figures are impossible to verify. Still, it was enough to draw the concern of the government. When Zhang tried to get official approval, his application for registration was denied.

  » Read more
  • June 27, 2008 4:00 AM

• Evan Osnos on Jesus in China

  

  China Beat conducts a short but interesting email interview with Chicago Tribune and New Yorker writer Evan Osnos on his participation in a soon-to-be-released documentary from Frontline WORLD on Christianity in China.

  CB: Do you think of the rise of Christianity mainly as a subset of a larger phenomenon, such as a turn toward spirituality more generally that has also seen an increase in the popularity of other imported and local religions? Or do you see it as something that is completely distinctive?

  EO: The rise of Christianity in China is part of a broader spiritual awakening. People are seeking new sources of guidance everywhere, from mystical Taoist sects to B’hai temples. Among the measures of that, a survey by East China Normal University found that nearly a third of those polled described themselves religious. In particular, the rising middle class seems to be searching for a kind of moral reference as they confront new social and economic choices. One of the interesting things about Chinese Christians is that we don’t yet know what kind of social positions they will endorse: Will the mainstream of Christianity in China be a form of liberal Protestantism familiar in some American churches or will it be closer to the conservative brand that is thriving in the developing world?

  See an video diary by Osnos, plus other pre-release materials related to the documentary, here.

  » Read more
  • June 22, 2008 9:22 PM

• China Set to Become Top Bible Maker

  

  Even though Chinese Christians are still a religious minority that can only legally obtain Bibles from state-approved churches, the economies of Bible printing seem to be loosening these restrictions. From the Los Angeles Times:

  The factory looks like it could be any plant in this export-driven nation. Hundreds of Chinese workers huddle over loud machines churning out large orders for customers at home and abroad.

  But what they’re making might surprise you: Bibles. . . . a booming Bible industry is turning the world’s biggest atheist nation into the world’s largest supplier of the Good Book.

  Chairman Mao might have said, “Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people,” but here at Nanjing Amity Printing Co., China’s only state-sanctioned Bible printer, little time is wasted pondering the contradictions of a metaphysical mismatch.

  “We are printers,” said Li Chunnong, the general manager of the plant, which has about 500 employees. “As long as somebody legitimate sends us an order, we will print them.”

  China has also decided to allow Amity Printing Co. to distribute Bibles to Olympic athletes. From the Times U.K.:

  After months of rumours that the Chinese authorities would ban Bibles during the Beijing Olympics, it may now be taken as gospel that Christians will be free to practise their religion during the Games.

  A British-based Christian charity has confirmed that 50,000 special bilingual booklets containing the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John will be made available in the Athletes’ Village in Beijing and five other Olympic cities. Ten thousand Bibles and 30,000 New Testaments will also be printed.

  It is the first time that Bibles have been distributed freely in China outside registered shops and with the full blessing of the Communist Party. Far from suppressing their distribution, the Beijing Olympic organising committee (Bocog) is putting its official stamp on the initiative by allowing the free use of its logo on the Scriptures.

  » Read more
  • June 21, 2008 11:17 AM

• Pope’s Prayer for Church in China Banned in Some Dioceses

  

  From AsiaNews:

  Priests under house arrest; others forced to visit a Buddhist temple; others under surveillance for days, to prevent them from praying “with the pope”; dozens of faithful in Hong Kong warned not to go to Sheshan: this is the world in which some of the dioceses of China have experienced (or better: forcibly omitted) the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China instituted by Benedict XVI.

  The day was suggested by the pope for last May 24, to coincide with the traditional pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin of Sheshan, near Shanghai. The local government and the Patriotic Associations permitted the pilgrimage only for the priests and religious of the diocese of Shanghai, and prohibited the faithful of other Chinese communities from participating in it.

  For this year, because of the pope’s initiative, the diocese of Shanghai had been expecting at least 200,000 people. But because of all of the limits imposed, only 2,500 faithful were able to visit the Marian shrine on May 24.

  » Read more
  • June 1, 2008 10:51 PM

CDT BOOKSHELF

China Digital Times is run by the Berkeley China Internet Project | Copyright © China Digital Times | Powered by WordPress.