"Growing" Christianity in China, Sounds Like a Joke

 


For years, several Christian pundits, both Catholic and Protestant, have crowed about coming growth of the faith, especially in China. With its vast population, one can see a small percentage of converts there would add big numbers. Now we are seeing this was and remains a mirage. China's leader has declared Christianity must preach (both in person and on line) a message in line with the message of his Party. 

I'm not understanding the logic of spending money from collection plates on missionaries in China if the effort pays for Chinese Communist political messaging. Of course, those in the pews are told their money is saving souls.

There is no way to compare times past with times present, but the impression one gets is that of murder and prosecution of Christians in many areas. I suppose there is also murder of other religions that is not covered by our media but the impression is there are lots of Christian victims. 

There have been news stories for several years about the competition between Rome and the Chinese government on the appointment of Bishops. The situation now, as I understand it, is the government has more seats on the appointment committee than does Rome. The Bishops appointed will be Party loyalists.

When missionaries stated some generations ago, the idea was to take the version of Christianity practiced in the West and send it everywhere. We all know many new versions have spun off. In addition, the host countries have altered the Western version to fit whatever existed before the missionaries. 

It is a stretch to say China will be an area of growth for either Catholics or Protestants.

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