China today.

The Chinese have a proverb, "If you visit for a week you can write a book; stay a lifetime and you won't be able to finish a sentence." It is a way of stating that China defies any attempt at a simple description. The more a person learns about China, the more complicated the subject becomes. China is too vast, too diverse, its population too large, its terrain too varied, and its history too rich for a single statement to capture every nuance of this most populous nation on earth.

Moreover, Chinese society is changing rapidly with its booming economy, a result of the seemingly contradictory combination of a socialist government with a market economy. Its rapidly expanding economy--fourth largest in the world and climbing--is the envy of many capitalist countries. The Chinese Gross Domestic Product grew 9.5 percent in 2004 while the U.S. GDP grew 1.1 percent.

Signs of progress in the country's economy are evident from the moment a visitor arrives in any large Chinese city. Construction is everywhere. Building cranes dot the landscape. There are so many in use in this country that the current joke claims that the crane is the national bird.

China plans to present the best possible face to the world at the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008 followed by the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

In this article I attempt to clarify certain issues concerning the status of Christianity in China and to point out three things we can learn from Chinese Christians. I spent the month of April, 2005, in China. My observations are limited to the month I lived there. While that hardly makes me an expert, I was in a position to observe church life and ministry in that rapidly changing society.

The observations I report arise from a combination of sources: reading (fiction and nonfiction, travel guides, and Web sites); formal interviews with General Secretary Qiu Zhonghui and staff members of the Amity Foundation (for more on the Amity Foundation, read articles I wrote for The LUTHERAN and Clergy Journal); and extensive conversations with my hosts, Michael and Louise Weber, and their colleagues at Concordia International School Shanghai, missionary Henry Rowold, and Peter Shen and Barbara Lund of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Division for Global Mission. Travel within China from my home base in Shanghai (Pudong New Area) to Nanjing, Beijing, and Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region, by air and by rail added to the mix.

The Chinese people are helpful, friendly, resourceful, resilient, hard-working, and industrious. As a person who depends on a wheelchair to get around, I was grateful when on more than one occasion they were responsive to my needs and quick to offer help when I confronted an obstacle.

Brief history

A quick look at Chinese history is essential for understanding China today. Successive dynasties ruled China for long centuries with little or no contact with the West. Then, around the turn of the twentieth century, China suffered grievously from foreign intervention as various Western colonial powers (including the U.S.) competed for concessions and carved out spheres of influence, primarily in coastal regions. One of the last of these enclaves to return to Chinese rule was the former British crown colony of Hong Kong.

The architecture of many Chinese buildings constructed in the era of colonial domination reflects Western influence, particularly in Shanghai's Bund. Once the focal point of foreign oppression, nowadays you find prosperous Chinese and foreign tourists rubbing elbows in the Bund's crowded shops, restaurants, and night spots.

Missionaries accompanied the colonial powers to China. While they deserve respect for their witness to the gospel, often under difficult and dangerous conditions, many Chinese remember their collaboration with the oppressive Western infrastructure. It was this Western face of Christianity that caused the much larger non-Christian population to be suspicious of where Christian loyalties lay.

The Japanese army occupied China during World War II (known in China as the Japanese War). The occupiers are remembered for their barbaric cruelty and unbridled ruthlessness. Bitterness from that experience remains to this day. On a Saturday in April 2005 demonstrators gathered in one corner of the vast Tiananmen Square, protesting the publication of history textbooks in Japan that the Chinese felt soft-pedaled the suffering of the Chinese at the hands of Japan. Japan's prime minister apologized for the textbooks, but the demonstrators said it was too little too late.

After the Japanese were defeated, civil war ravaged China. It came to an end with the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 by Chairman Mao Zedong from atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace. The People's Liberation Army successfully drove Chiang Kai-shek's ruling Nationalists, or Kuomintang (KMT), off the mainland to the island of Taiwan where they and their Western allies for many years kept alive the fiction that the KMT still governed the mainland. During their time in power on the mainland, the KMT was known mostly for widespread corruption and misrule and for under-the-table deals with various war lords. The PRC was barely off the ground when the country got sucked into the civil war on the neighboring Korean peninsula.

But the worst wounds China suffered during the last century were self-inflicted--the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s. Chairman Mao Zedong conceived it as the means to secure his place in history. He sought to purge Chinese society of "capitalist roaders." The Cultural Revolution was a total disaster for China--economically, spiritually, intellectually, and morally. Basic human rights were ignored, anarchy and chaos reigned, and the Red Guards--young and idealistic--roamed the country looking for ideological impurities, given license by Chairman Mao to wage their destructive activities without restraint. The institutions of society were brutally attacked; education, religion, the civil service, and the military all came under fire.

The Red Guards targeted the "Western-tainted" Christian church in particular. Sites of public worship were shut down, and all church-supported institutions, including colleges, seminaries, and hospitals, were closed.

We in the West were horrified by what we heard was happening in the nation we commonly referred to as "Red China." Communication was sketchy at best, and whatever information we could gather was misleading. We thought that Christianity had been entirely wiped out.

Instead, like the early church that hid in the catacombs of Rome, Chinese Christians went underground. The church survived and even thrived while facing a tsunami of persecution. When the chaos finally ended, the church emerged from hiding. Worshippers packed churches as they were reopened. The church was significantly larger in number and stronger in faith than ever before. There were an estimated 700,000 Christians in 1949 when the PRC was founded and upwards of 10 million at the end of the Cultural Revolution. If these figures are correct, that represents a 14-fold increase! This was a glorious surprise.

While the official stance of the government is atheistic, Christians and adherents of other religions enjoy a greater freedom of worship than they have known before. At the present time, the government officially recognizes the following religions: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism (Mahayana type), Islam, Christianity ("Three-self Patriotic Movement"), and Chinese Catholicism. Notice that Catholicism is listed as a separate religion from what we would consider to be Protestantism. That is because the government officially sees them as two separate religions. Also, the Chinese government does not recognize the authority of the Holy See and considers those who follow the pope to be disloyal to the PRC. The government is also at odds with the Roman church's teachings against birth control, seeing it as an absolute necessity.

The Catholic Patriotic Association falls in line with the government and does not recognize the authority of the pope. Interestingly, a delegation of pilgrims from the CPA traveled to Rome last year and were warmly received by Pope Benedict XVI. Priests and laity who are loyal to Rome need to be very careful about publicly exercising those beliefs.

One interesting sidelight to the religious history of China is that between 1931 and 1941 Shanghai opened its doors to some 20,000 Jews fleeing the Nazi holocaust in Europe. A tiny Jewish remnant remains there.

Lessons to be learned from the Chinese church

We can learn from the Chinese how to remain faithful in the face of tremendous hostility and the threat of death. Who among us knows what it is like to have a gun to our head or a knife to our throat threatening us with death unless we renounce our faith in Jesus Christ? Chinese Christians proved again the truth of the proposition that the "blood of the martyrs is the seedbed of the church" and that our faith is never as strong as when it is tested. They stand in a long line of faithful people reaching back to the early Christians on the floor of the Coliseum facing snarling lions.

The infants we baptize today are very likely to live through this century and some into the next. Are we passing on a faith that will endure throughout their lifetime, even when threatened? We cannot imagine what lies in wait for them, but we must find a way to teach them to "run with perseverance the race that is set before [them], looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame" (Heb 12:1-2).

The church that emerged from hiding took the name "Three-self Patriotic Movement," popularly referred to as the "Three-self Church." As Christians emerged from hiding, they wanted to make it clear that they posed no threat to the government and were not under the control of Western churches. The three selves are self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating. The three selves mean that the church does not accept monetary contributions or expatriate clergy from Western churches and does not follow the direction of the West. It is not in any way beholden to the West.

To be sure, the relationship with the government has been a slippery slope for the church at times, but in the face of the new realities the church has been led by the nimble-footed Bishop K. H. Ting, who holds a seat in the People's Congress and has negotiated with the government the opening of churches and their return to church ownership from when they were confiscated by the Red Guards. Now in his 90s, Bishop Ting is deeply admired by the people under his leadership for his kindness, courage, and humility.

It is true that the government keeps a close eye on the church. All churches must be registered with the government. Is that a form of persecution? Is it any more oppressive than the state churches of Europe, which also require registration? The application for an entry visa to the PRC asks journalists and church employees to name the organization in China that is sponsoring their visit. It is interesting that those are the only two professions singled out.

Reports from the hinterlands indicate that misunderstandings between pro-Red Guard cadres left over from the Cultural Revolution and church people do occur and may be reported in the West as evidence of persecution. When hearing such a report, it is important to inquire into the source and motivation. People reporting such incidents may have hidden agendas. The truth may be stretched in some cases, and others may be complete fabrications.

Unfortunately, Western Christians seem compelled to stir up trouble for our sisters and brothers in China. We in the West who have not suffered like Chinese Christians should step back and support the efforts of the Chinese to make their own decisions. There is no way that we can know what is best for them and should therefore not meddle in their affairs.

A surprising sign of the relationship between the church and the government is in the Pedong New Area of Shanghai. It is a church building called Abundant Grace Church under construction by the government. The handsome structure seats 1,200 worshippers in the main sanctuary with a chapel seating 300. Two blocks away is Sacred Heart Church, a new Catholic church also built by the government.

A huge accomplishment of the Chinese church as it emerged from hiding was its unity. It is truly one body. The divisions brought to Chinese shores by Western missionaries are gone. The church humbly labels itself "post-denominational," by which it means that the dross of divisions imposed by Western missionaries was burned off in the blast furnace of persecution. In their hour of suffering, Chinese Christians found they needed each other and could no longer enjoy the luxury of separation.

Bishop Ting was once asked by a visiting American church leader how they had accomplished such unity that we in the West have not been able to achieve. He replied, "When you have suffered enough you will understand." What will it take for us to move beyond the polite ecumenism that passes for unity in the West to the very real unity that the Chinese have achieved and that our Lord prayed for in John 17? Again, the Chinese are our teachers. As we examine the American church we see that this is a critical time for our nation's urban areas. The churches located there struggle to remain faithful to the mission to which they have been called by Jesus Christ. Joint ministry with partner churches provides one solution. Bishop Stephen Bouman of the ELCA's Metro New York Synod gave an impassioned appeal to the 1999 Church-wide Assembly in Denver during the debate on establishing full communion with the Episcopal Church. "We need partners," he pleaded.

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At the end of the day what matters is whether or not we have been faithful in carrying out the mission of Jesus Christ. Our divisions based on theological differences in the sixteenth century make little sense today, and the foul odor of our divisions stinks to high heaven. Our Chinese sisters and brothers show us how unity can be achieved. They achieved in suffering what we in the West have not been able to accomplish in relative safety.

To be sure, there is concern over what will happen to the church once Bishop Ting leaves the scene. People fear that the unity that he represents to the world will begin to unravel. Already, there are an unknown number of Christians worshipping in "house churches" apart from the official Three-self Church structure. A young man who left the Three-self Church and now worships in a house church told me that in his opinion the Three-self Church was becoming "too political." For now the Three-self Church is the officially recognized vehicle for Christianity in its dealings with the government.

Out of respect for the Chinese Christians and the tremendous suffering they endured for the faith, we need to be non-judgmental and support the decisions they make. Western Christians often act out of ignorance, thinking that they know what is best for the Chinese. It is an example of the arrogance of Western culture. It is appalling when the President of the United States lectures the PRC leadership on permitting Chinese-language Bibles to be published when the Amity Foundation, in collaboration with the United Bible Society, has printed over 35 million Bibles since 1986.

The church in China has a wonderful opportunity as it proclaims the gospel to fill the spiritual and moral vacuum left behind in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. There is a yearning for what the Christian faith offers to urban intellectuals and rural peasants alike. As the economy continues to expand, raising the prosperity of the people, they, like their counterparts in the West, will find their lives empty and meaningless as their long hours at labor and the material things they buy bring no lasting satisfaction. Christianity, with its teachings on the appropriate place of wealth in a person's life, provides a live option for persons in their search for fulfillment.

The glitzy new skyscrapers in urban areas give the impression of widespread wealth. The Amity Foundation, in stark contrast, exists to serve the poor. "Our country is a big country and we still have many, many people living under the poverty line," explains Qui Zhonghui, Amity's General Secretary. "In the remote areas especially are still many poor people. As our country develops we do not want to see anyone left behind." Amity staff members repeat that refrain in conversations with visitors. Indeed, with its focus on health and human services for the poor, Amity is the conscience of the church.

Amity's headquarters in Nanjing reflects the agency's commitment to the poor in China. It has borne the weight of Chinese history--and shows it! The building was first constructed as the home of the president of Nanjing University. The Japanese Army secured control of this building during the Japanese War, torturing Chinese victims in the basement. During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guard used it as a staging area for denouncing university professors. Eventually, a member of Amity's Board of Directors turned ownership over to Amity. This once-grand mansion has not aged well, considering all that it has seen. The rooms have been subdivided into numerous little offices with temporary walls. A dimly lit once-grand staircase creaks under the weight of human traffic. Qui would love to replace it with a modern, efficient structure, but he has other projects on his plate that minister directly to the needs of the poor and have higher priority.

Again, Chinese Christians can be our teachers. The fact is, we are basically a middle-class church, and the members of our churches by world standards are incredibly rich. The enormous gap between rich and poor grows wider by the year. We who are rich as Croessus need to learn how "to share our bread and feed the starving multitude" (LBW #433, stanza 4).

Three young Amity staff members drove me to the railroad station for the train ride to Shanghai. I remarked that their grandparents were part of the generation that had suffered so intensely during the Cultural Revolution. One of the three, a young man named Andrew Hsu, spent a year in Israel learning Hebrew that he might better understand the Hebrew Scriptures. We drove through traffic-choked streets, our driver competing aggressively for the same piece of road with bicycles and pedestrians, taxis, lorries, and buses, past spectacular, shiny new hotels and office buildings as well as multi-storied, dilapidated structures with laundry fluttering in the wind from the balconies of countless flats, housing for the urban poor. The four of us spontaneously began to hum "How Great Thou Art." It was a singularly moving moment whose significance cannot be overdrawn.

John Gugel

Muskego, Wisconsin

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