Church persecution and growth in China
Christianity always seems to grow where its followers are persecuted and paradoxically seems to die away where its followers have the absolute freedom to worship. The United States seems to be one of the few exceptions so far — despite all the freedoms and distractions that we have, there are many who practice authentic Christianity. We need to pray that this will last.
China is not as fortunate as we are. Early missionaries were not always so successful in gaining new believers. My sister-in-law’s mother grew up in China as a missionary child and her family had to flee when the Communists took over. Another Chinese friend’s parents had to bribe their way out of their country back in 1948, first to Shanghai, then to Hong Kong, and finally to the United States.
Newsweek had an interesting article last May about how Christians are being heavily persecuted in China even as the church is growing at a rate never before seen in history. Being a Christian in China literally means risking one’s life, so there are probably few who worship just to look good to their friends and neighbors.
Some estimate that there are 90 million Christians in China. Are there 90 million believers in the United States? Maybe, and maybe not. It’s quite possible that China is the most heavily Christian country in the world in terms of sheer numbers of believers. Not only is the church thriving under persecution, but they are sending missionaries to other countries. Here’s what the Newsweek article has to say:
May 10 issue - When they praise the Lord, they close the windows. In a packed classroom in China’s southern Henan province, 35 young Christians stand behind their desks singing the Hallelujah prayer. These students have pledged the next three years of their lives to this illegal seminary, one of the many run across China by members of the Chinese Protestant underground. Tucked away in a two-story apartment donated by a fellow believer, these future preachers study, eat and sleep together, girls in one room, boys in another. If the students want to leave the school, they must do so one or two at a time, at night, so as not to make the neighbors suspicious. They often go weeks without venturing outdoors. After the last Hallelujah, they open the windows.
…
All across China, more and more people are turning to Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. The numbers have been growing for years, encouraged by the personal freedoms that have slowly accompanied the country’s economic reforms. Protestantism—and especially evangelicalism—appeals to many Chinese in rural areas that have been left out of China’s economic miracle. Now China has at least 45 million Christians, the majority of whom are Protestant, according to Chinese academics. Western observers say the numbers are much higher. Dennis Balcombe, a preacher from California who has made hundreds of mission trips to China since the late 1970s, and Western researchers put the number at closer to 90 million.
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“It’s that kind of bravery that terrifies the Communist party.”Meanwhile, under-ground churches are expanding with lightning speed. Some of these groups oppose all state controls. Others are willing to register, but the government won’t accept them. Faced with the accelerating growth of so-called house churches, the government has cracked down hard—bulldozing many of them and increasing the number of arrests. In January the government arrested Xu Yongling, a top leader in the movement to evangelize abroad. Last June, a group of underground Christians in Guangxi province who had applied to register were summoned by the authorities to finish the final steps of the application process. They arrived with all their paperwork completed and notarized, only to be arrested on the spot and sentenced to re-education camps. The government eventually released them, but there are scores of examples of others who have been similarly duped and not as lucky.
The level of organization within China’s Christian community is almost as great a concern as its size. The underground movement is largely divided into five groups that began in Henan, Anhui and Zhejiang provinces and spread across the country, sometimes branching off in different directions or under different leaders. Each has its own head and council of nine elders, and members of the groups meet quarterly to discuss issues facing the church. In 1998, for example, they penned a letter to the country’s top leaders, demanding recognition. They even regulate themselves: one member says the five bodies were instrumental in helping to curb the activities of Eastern Lightning, a Christian offshoot that the government had labeled a violent cult. “We worked really hard to get rid of this sect,” says Liu Ling, an underground preacher who asked that only the name on her fake travel documents be used. “I believe our efforts were more successful than the government’s.”
Liu was one of China’s first missionaries to strike out across the country after the end of Mao’s destructive Cultural Revolution. But compared with 20 years ago, the converts come much more easily than they once did. Last year she trained more than 200 students to be missionaries in hidden seminaries in southern China. Liu still takes special precautions to evade the authorities—every three days she changes her mobile-telephone number—but schools like hers are so successful, they now have to turn some applicants away. One school in Henan province weeds out less-promising candidates after a two-month trial period and sends them to an alternative program, where they work part time in a textile factory and study religion. The seminaries always hold Bible classes, but also often arm disciples with practical lessons in composition, computers and, in some cases, Arabic.
At a meeting in March, about 60 believers gathered in a southwestern Chinese city to discuss proselytizing. The believers were keen to penetrate China’s 56 minority groups. Minorities like the Muslim Uighurs are often isolated from mainstream Chinese life and face discrimination in their work and education. Of course, this makes them natural targets for a message of redemption. But preaching to them is risky for the missionaries, who are mostly Han, China’s ethnic majority. “Because we speak different languages… it’s not easy for us to stay among them,” says Paul, one of China’s top underground Christian leaders, who is under close surveillance by authorities and asked that only his Christian name be used. “It’s quite easy to detect us.”
“But this group of Christian faithful has higher ambitions than converting Chinese minorities. They’re hoping for converts around the world. In fact, Paul is part of the first wave of Chinese missionaries to scout out opportunities for proselytizing in Muslim countries.”But this group of Christian faithful has higher ambitions than converting Chinese minorities. They’re hoping for converts around the world. In fact, Paul is part of the first wave of Chinese missionaries to scout out opportunities for proselytizing in Muslim countries. Using a pseudonym, he recently traveled to Egypt and Jordan and says he was happy to discover many people of moderate Islamic beliefs. “So in those places, we will set up factories where Arabs can come and work,” he says. The factories will make real products, with the profits going to support the preachers. Paul shrugs off the risk of angering Middle Eastern governments. “We’re not going to go out in the street. We’ll just meet people one on one, so even if they don’t agree with us, there’s no harm.”
He is only one disciple in the early stage of a massive crusade organized by Chinese Christian leaders worldwide. Dubbed the “Back to Jerusalem Movement,” the initiative calls for Chinese Christians to spread the Gospel in every country, to every ethnic group between China and Jerusalem. The movement’s Web site calls the crusade a cause Chinese Christians are “willing to die for.” The idea has been percolating for decades, but Chinese Christians are only now preparing to launch it in earnest. They’ve held conferences in Milan and Paris, and they run six training and information distribution centers in the United States and Europe.
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It’s that kind of bravery that terrifies the Communist Party. It sees the Protestant and Catholic churches, in part, as responsible for the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. The party quickly crushes any movement that is a potential threat to its power, especially if it organizes people from different social or geographic backgrounds. Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi did just that when he mobilized thousands of his followers to gather near Tiananmen Square in 1999. Beijing responded by violently cracking down. Now that the Falun Gong has been virtually wiped out on the mainland, Christians are one of the biggest threats in terms of sheer numbers and organization.
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