Posted on 06/11/2020 6:33:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
As the Chinese coronavirus distracts the world, the Chinese Communist Party has ratcheted up its crackdown on religious freedom, and sources say President Xi Jinping is working on rewriting the Bible itself to “create a new version of Christianity shorn of its transcendent visions and values.”
Xi Lian, a professor at Duke University Divinity School, told The Wall Street Journal‘s Matthew Taylor King that Beijing doesn’t just want to repress religion — the Chinese Communist Party wants to transform it.
Lian said Beijing wants to “drain Christianity of its spirit.” China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported last year that Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Yang had presided over a meeting of so-called scholars and “religious people from the grassroots level” to discuss “making accurate and authoritative interpretations of classical doctrines to keep pace with the times.”
The Chinese Communist Party sees Christianity, which is likely China’s largest-growing religion, as a unique threat, Lian insisted. He mentioned three key reasons: Christianity’s international connection to believers inside and outside of China; Christianity’s congregational strength — “You have this ability to mobilize a stable, reliable community;” and the faith’s “transcendent vision, transcendent values,” which form a “moral and ideological rivalry” to communism.
Lian argued that Chinese people largely see the party’s Marxist-Leninist foundation as a spent force.
Xi has long insisted that religion should be “Chinese in orientation.” China is notorious for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims in the northern province of Xinjiang, but it also heavily restricts religious freedom for a wide range of beliefs, including Tibetan Buddhists.
According to sociologist Rodney Stark and co-author Xiuhua Wang in A Star in the East: The Rise of Christianity in China, there has been a 7 percent increase in Christians every year in China.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
I can only imagine what the liberal rewrite here would be.
It would be mandatory reading k-12.
Needs a strong Pope to foment the same moment John Paul II had against the USSR.
Also, historically there was a Greek tyrant called Antiochus Epiphanes who tried to do this to the Jews, in God’s own temple. He came to a very sticky end.
Which is why the CCP is trying to co-op the trend through their “deal” with the Catholic Church. Beyond sad that the Church is cooperating...
RE: Needs a strong Pope to foment the same moment John Paul II had against the USSR.
Whatever Pope is needed, it isn’t going to be THIS present pope.
Francis has all but capitulated to the Chicoms already, even acceding to their demands to nominate Chinese Bishops that meet Beijing’s approval.
They got one of their own as Pope.
The liberal church in the US has been doing this for over a hundred years.
That’s why I said “strong”. Comrade Jorge Mario is anything but that.
How is this different than what happens even here in the US?
Are you telling me that with our feminist, gay-friendly, divorce-accepting Christianity we don’t rewrite what it actually stood for?
So how was “unequally yoked” viewed in the past, and how is it viewed today?
Want more examples... I can keep going-
EVERYONE in Western Christianity does this, and best of all, because the church leaders are only looking for money and butts in seats, they are OK with Narco-saints and a little bit of voodoo synchronism.
However, if the Chinese do it, well then it’s bad.
Just two goals out of the 45 listed in the 12th chapter of The Naked Communist, and of course just because the book dates from 1958 does not mean that the commies were not aiming to do that to the USA even a century before its publication.
- Infiltrate the churches, and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious” crutch.
- Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state”.
“create a new version of Christianity shorn of its transcendent visions and values.
”“drain Christianity of its spirit.
”You have this ability to mobilize a stable, reliable community;”
a “moral and ideological rivalry” to communism.
= = =
These positive characteristics are not due to the Chinese Christians’ personal efforts and works.
They are due to GOD indwelling His people.
The commies think they can redirect the Christians to use their successful self-efforts (as they see it) toward commie directions.
Sorry.
The commies hate Jesus because He was pro-capitalist. One example of how Jesus was pro-capitalist was how Jesus opposed taxes. He only paid them to avoid trouble. And once, when he had to pay a tax, he didn’t want to waste his or his disciples’ money, so he used his miraculous powers to create a coin and put it in the mouth of a fish that was caught, and then used that coin to pay the tax.
How is it different? It’s not official state policy as in Red China, where it is very overt. And the fearsome “religious right” (leftist umbrella term for all believers, but they use it to mean those who have strong traditional belief) still is a force to be reckoned with.
Of course, the source of the heretical Christianity you speak of is the second world, i.e. the part of the world where communism ruled/rules absolutely and held/holds sway.
RE: One example of how Jesus was pro-capitalist was how Jesus opposed taxes. He only paid them to avoid trouble
Hmmmm... All I know is He said : RENDER UNTO CESAR’s THE THINGS THAT ARE CESAR’s AND UNTO GOD THE THINGS THAT ARE GOD’s.
Do you read opposition to taxes in that statement?
The chicoms are going to control their people with the help of a state religion that will have the name “Christian,” but won’t be.
And the pope is OK with all that.
Wasn’t China the base for Nestorian Christians centuries ago?
ping
Been tried in 1940s Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Christianity
and the New Age since then.
China wants their young to take part in our universities, but not in our churches. They can’t have it both ways. Our church has many Chinese students from the nearby university sitting in our pews, eagerly learning about American Christianity.
But their "systems" have a history of failure--MASSIVE failure.
Those in charge are interested only in power, money, fame and status...just what the human race has been pursuing since there were human beings.
Nothing new here.
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