The rapid spread of Christianity in China is forcing an official rethink on religion, reports The Economist.

Christians in China have long suffered persecution, but since the death of Mao in 1976 the party has slowly allowed more religious freedom. There are about 57,000 so-called Three Self churches - self-supporting, self-governed and self-propagating. They profess loyalty to China, and are registered with the government. Many Christians however meet in unregistered house churches, which the party for a long time tried to suppress. But Christianity is hard to control in China. It is spreading rapidly, and infiltrating the party’s own ranks. The line is blurring between house churches and official ones, and Christians are starting to emerge from hiding to play a more active part in society.

The Communist Party has to find a new way to deal with all this. There is even talk that the party, the world’s largest explicitly atheist organization, might allow members to embrace a dogma other than that of Marx.

'There are more Christians in China today than there are members of the 87 million-strong Communist Party.'

The upsurge in religion in China, especially among the ethnic Han who make up more than 90% of the population, is a general one. New Christian churches and Buddhist temples are springing up everywhere. While there were perhaps 3 million Catholics and 1 million Protestants when the party came to power in 1949, there are more Christians today than there are members of the 87 million-strong Communist Party. Most are evangelical Protestants. Yang Fenggang of Purdue University in Indiana (USA) says the Christian church in China has grown by an average of 10% a year since 1980. He reckons that on current trends there will be 250 million Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. Yang says this speed of growth is similar to that seen in fourth-century Rome just before the conversion of Constantine, which paved the way for Christianity to become the religion of his empire.



In the 1980s the faith grew most quickly in the countryside, stimulated by the collapse of local health care and a belief that Christianity could heal instead. In recent years it has been burgeoning in cities. A new breed of educated, urban Christians has emerged. Gerda Wielander of the University of Westminster (UK), in her book ‘Christian Values in Communist China’, says that many Chinese are attracted to Christianity because it offers a complete moral system with a transcendental source. People find such certainties appealing, she adds, in an age of convulsive change.

'Christianity is also seen as the force behind the development of social justice and civil society.'

Some Chinese also discern in Christianity the roots of Western strength. They see it as the force behind the development of social justice, civil society and rule of law, all things they hope to see in China. Many new NGOs are run by Christians or Buddhists. There are growing numbers of Christian doctors and academics. More than 2,000 Christian schools are also dotted around China, many of them small and all, as yet, illegal. One civil-rights activist says that, of the 50 most-senior civil-rights lawyers in China, half are Christians. Missionaries have begun to go out from China to the developing world.

The authorities have responded to this in different ways. In places like Wenzhou, they have cracked down on the church. But overall persecution seems to be no longer the norm. That is largely because many officials see advantages in Christianity’s growth. Some wealthy business folk in Wenzhou have become believers - they are dubbed ‘boss Christians’ - and have built large churches in the city. One holds evening meetings at which businessmen and women explain ‘biblical’ approaches to making money. Others form groups encouraging each other to do business honestly, pay taxes and help the poor. Rare is the official anywhere in China who would want to scare away investors from his area.

'Increasingly, the party needs and asks the help of religious believers.'

In other regions local leaders lend support, or turn a blind eye, because they find that Christians are good citizens. Their commitment to community welfare helps to reinforce precious stability. Increasingly, the party needs the help of religious believers. It is struggling to supply social services efficiently; Christian groups are willing, and able, to help. Since about 2003, religious groups in Hong Kong have received requests from mainland government officials to help set up NGO’s and charities. Selfless activism has helped the churches’ reputation; not least, it has persuaded the regime that Christians are not out to overthrow it.



One Chinese article in 2004 claimed that 3-4 million party members had become Christians. Despite that, the party still has doubts about officially admitting them. Recent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong are likely to reinforce those fears: some of the organizers were Christians.

'If we get full religious freedom, then the church is finished.'

But some officials are becoming more discerning in their crackdowns. This has been evident in Beijing where, around 2005, two large house churches began renting office space for their Sunday services. The largest, Shouwang church, was led by Jin Tianming, a graduate of Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University. It drew an intellectual crowd from the university district. On some Sundays up to 1,000 people attended services. Parishioners could download sermons from the church’s website. Another unregistered congregation, known as Zion church, meets in a similar venue; its pastor, Jin Mingri, is a graduate of Peking University. The pastors of both churches are members of China’s 2.3 million-strong ethnic Korean minority, who see the Christianization of South Korea as a model for China to follow.

The paradox, as they all know, is that religious freedom, if it ever takes hold, might harm the Christian church in two ways. The church might become institutionalized, wealthy and hence corrupt, as happened in Rome in the high Middle Ages, and is already happening a little in the businessmen’s churches of Wenzhou. Alternatively the church, long strengthened by repression, may become a feebler part of society in a climate of toleration. As one Beijing house-church elder declared, with a nod to the erosion of Christian faith in western Europe: “If we get full religious freedom, then the church is finished.”

Source: The Economist