The Kenya Connection

This article from the Daily Nation provides another interesting perspective on Christianity in China, slightly aside from the main story I’ve been following. Despite the current unrest around the Shouwang Church, China’s government is apparently reaching out to Kenya to seek inspiration for how to grow Christianity. As the article points out, Christianity is one of the smallest of China’s five main religions, but apparently the public stance of the Chinese government is that they are moving to make Chinese Christians more welcome into mainstream Chinese society, instead of treading them “like foreigners.”

An interesting tidbit from this article is the apparent disparity between the estimate of Christians in China by the State Religious Affairs minister Wang Zuoan (about 23 million) and estimates given by outside sources (up to 40 million). One of the reasons the article cites for this disparity is that some Chinese Christians may not be openly practicing their religion for fear of persecution.

I’ll have to do some more investigation, but it doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me that this article was published the day BEFORE the one I posted about originally. China may have to backtrack on some of its recent public statements to save face, though which side they will backtrack on is yet to be seen.

Founding Document

So I found an interesting Washington Post Opinion article regarding Christian churches in China. One of the things I found most interesting about this take on the situation is the information that the Shouwang Church (the organization that prompted the reaction I mentioned in my first post about this) was apparently founded as a Bible study group for university students. An anonymous source described the membership of Shouwang as “intellectuals and professionals” to the author of the article. What is interesting about this is the implication that other Christian groups in China are not comprised of that same group of people. Whether that is just the opinion of the “anonymous source” or if it has more factual backing is unclear to me, but if it is correct it might clarify some of the thought process of the Chinese government. “Intellectuals and professionals” as a group have a lot more potential to influence culture than people who fall outside of that group.

This article also acknowledges that this kind of crackdown on churches is a new phenomenon, ascribing it to the geographical and social differences in this group’s membership from many of the smaller church-groups, and points out that the exact motivations of the Chinese government are unclear. But what is not unclear is the message this sends, whether it is intended or not, to other church-groups. “Stay home, and stay quiet.”

Where I feel the author goes a little off the reservation is in saying the petition to the Chinese government has the potential to be “one of the founding documents of a new China” (hence my post title). While I suppose he has sufficiently couched his opinion by adding the word “potential” I still feel that this statement is a little strong. Even if this particular incident has a wide influence in the development of Christianity and Christian churches in China, I doubt this document will (either literally or figuratively) become a foundational one.

Who Ever Thought…

That what would eventually get me to actually post content on this blog would be a project for school? Certainly not me. Maybe this will give me the kick-start I need to actually start writing things here.

So, a brief introduction: This blog was originally started as a political dissent project, but I never posted anything that I didn’t delete soon after, since I was trying to write radical things and I kept changing my radical point of view. Flash forward to Summer 2012, and I have an assignment to pick a news topic related to religion and write blog entries following it for the next few weeks.

And that brings me to China, or, more specifically, Christian churches in China. Apparently some pastors in China have started calling out the government for its (unsurprising) lack of tolerance for established Christian churches. Said pastors have signed a petition to the government, thus putting pressure on a political body not known for taking well to having pressure put on it.

I’m a little excited to follow a story like this, but I have a feeling that it will only serve to dissuade me from my potential future plans of going to China to teach.