Difference between revisions of "Growth of Christianity in China"

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The historian Martin Van Crevel points out that sovereign states are losing power/influence due to technology democratizing access to information, welfare states increasingly failing, [[fourth-generation warfare]] being waged against countries and sovereign states increasingly losing their ability to maintain internal order.<ref>[http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/Articles/96spring/creveld.htm The Fate of the State] by MARTIN VAN CREVELD</ref><ref>[https://www.sonshi.com/martin-van-creveld-interview.html Martin van Creveld interview]</ref>
 
The historian Martin Van Crevel points out that sovereign states are losing power/influence due to technology democratizing access to information, welfare states increasingly failing, [[fourth-generation warfare]] being waged against countries and sovereign states increasingly losing their ability to maintain internal order.<ref>[http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/Articles/96spring/creveld.htm The Fate of the State] by MARTIN VAN CREVELD</ref><ref>[https://www.sonshi.com/martin-van-creveld-interview.html Martin van Creveld interview]</ref>
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== Chinese Christianity and anti-evolution free speech ==
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As noted above,  evangelical Christianity is flourishing in China. Generally speaking, evangelicals have been critical of [[evolution]]ism.
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Jun-Yuan Chen Research Professor Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology was quoted in the ''Wall Street Journal'' as saying, "In China we can criticize [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]] but not the government. In America you can criticize the government, but not Darwin."<ref>[http://www.uncommondescent.com/evolution/two-views-about-how-darwinism-stays-in-place-with-but-one-difference/ Two views about how Darwinism stays in place, with but one difference]</ref>
  
 
== See also ==
 
== See also ==

Revision as of 02:01, May 30, 2016

In front of the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

The current atheist population mostly resides in East Asia (particularly China) and in secular Europe/Australia among whites.[1] See: Western atheism and race

According to Slate, "Protestant Christianity has been the fastest growing religion in China."[2] Evangelical Christianity is especially growing sharply in China.[3] See also: Desecularization and Asia

On November 1, 2014, an article in The Economist entitled Cracks in the atheist edifice declared:

Officials are untroubled by the clash between the city’s famously freewheeling capitalism and the Communist Party’s ideology, yet still see religion and its symbols as affronts to the party’s atheism...

Yang Fenggang of Purdue University, in Indiana, 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 250m Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. Mr. 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.[4]

On April 19, 2014 The Telegraph published a story on the growth of Christianity in China which stated:

The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America....

Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.

Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution.

Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world's number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation....

China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline.

By 2030, China's total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.

"Mao thought he could eliminate religion. He thought he had accomplished this," Prof Yang said. "It's ironic – they didn't. They actually failed completely."[5]

The Telegraph reported on December 19, 2012:

The notice, apparently issued in May 2011 by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, suggests ongoing misgivings among senior leaders that religion, and in particular Christianity, poses a direct challenge to the ruling party.

Bob Fu, the founder of ChinaAid, the group which obtained and published the document, said the directive was proof China's central government was "directing a national crackdown against religious freedom especially targeting Christianity [in universities]".

Mr Fu claimed the document also indicated "panic" among Chinese intellectuals about the "rapid" growth of [China's] underground Christian population".

An official from the propaganda department of the State Council said they were unable to immediately comment on whether the document was genuine. But posts on the websites of several Chinese universities appear to confirm the leaked document's existence....

Yet despite government controls, the number of Christians in China has rocketed since the 1980s with many worshipping in illegal "house churches" which are subject to sporadic crackdowns. Some estimates suggest there are now as many as 130 million practicing Christians in China.[6]

A January 2011 news article entitled Third Church' China's New Face of Christianity indicated:

Christianity in China began decades ago in the countryside, but today, a dramatic shift is happening.

Young professionals in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai are changing the face of Chinese Christianity, as faith moves from rural to more urban areas.

On a recent Wednesday evening, a group of men and women in their late 20s met in an apartment not too far from the city center to discuss how to thrive in their rapidly changing nation.

Those who attended are members of China's new privileged class -- highly educated, cosmopolitan, middle or even upper class of urban professionals. And they're all Christians.

"We've never had it so good in China today," Jia Li Tian, a member of the group, told CBN News. "But there's more to life that just money and materialism."...

Although Christianity continues to grow in China's countryside, experts say it's in big cities like Beijing where the church is growing fastest.

"Whereas the rural church was not able to have an impact on society as a whole, the 'Third Church' in the cities is able to do that because they are comprised of leaders who can have an impact," Peter explained. "[They are] businessmen, government officials, professors, leaders in engineering, every aspect of life...

The Chinese government has always maintained a tight grip on religion. Torture, arrests, imprisonment, and beatings of Christians are still practiced in the country.

But in recent years, authorities have made positive overtures towards house church leaders -- especially those in urban areas.[7]

Justin Wood wrote:

Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day, according to a stunning report by ...veteran correspondent John Allen, and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world's largest concentration of Christians by mid-century, and the largest missionary force in history...

I suspect that even the most enthusiastic accounts err on the downside, and that Christianity will have become a Sino-centric religion two generations from now. China may be for the 21st century what Europe was during the 8th-11th centuries, and America has been during the past 200 years: the natural ground for mass evangelization. If this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it...

China, devoured by hunger so many times in its history, now feels a spiritual hunger beneath the neon exterior of its suddenly great cities. Four hundred million Chinese on the prosperous coast have moved from poverty to affluence in a single generation, and 10 million to 15 million new migrants come from the countryside each year, the greatest movement of people in history. Despite a government stance that hovers somewhere between discouragement and persecution, more than 100 million of them have embraced a faith that regards this life as mere preparation for the next world. Given the immense effort the Chinese have devoted to achieving a tolerable life in the present world, this may seem anomalous. On the contrary: it is the great migration of peoples that prepares the ground for Christianity, just as it did during the barbarian invasions of Europe during the Middle Ages. [8]

China, state atheism and persecution

See also: Atheism and communism and Communism and religious persecution

Communist countries practice state atheism (See: Atheism and communism).

In 1955, Chinese communist leader Zhou Enlai declared, "We Communists are atheists".[9] In 2014, the Communist Party of China reaffirmed that members of their party must be atheists.[10]

In 2016, the International Business Times reported:

A senior Chinese advisor on religious affairs has said the country should promote atheism throughout society, in remarks that appear to reflect a deepening campaign to reinforce traditional Marxist values in China — and could add to concern about official attitudes among believers in the country’s five officially recognized religions.[11]

There is growing persecution of Christians by the Chinese government.[12] Historically persecution has often been an ineffective means to stop the growth of Christianity in a region.[13] Persecution and exponential Christian growth have frequently coincided. On the other hand, persecution often coincides with diminishing Christianity.[14]

The historian Martin Van Crevel points out that sovereign states are losing power/influence due to technology democratizing access to information, welfare states increasingly failing, fourth-generation warfare being waged against countries and sovereign states increasingly losing their ability to maintain internal order.[15][16]

Chinese Christianity and anti-evolution free speech

As noted above, evangelical Christianity is flourishing in China. Generally speaking, evangelicals have been critical of evolutionism.

Jun-Yuan Chen Research Professor Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying, "In China we can criticize Darwin but not the government. In America you can criticize the government, but not Darwin."[17]

See also

External links

Videos:

Notes