| This thread has been locked, it will not receive new replies. |
|
Locked on 09/11/2011 9:10:33 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator, reason:
dupe: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2776966/posts |
Posted on 09/11/2011 7:50:48 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
More people go to church on Sunday in China than in the whole of Europe.
Many of China's churches are overflowing, as the number of Christians in the country multiplies. In the past, repression drove people to convert - is the cause now rampant capitalism?
It is impossible to say how many Christians there are in China today, but no-one denies the numbers are exploding.
The government says 25 million, 18 million Protestants and six million Catholics. Independent estimates all agree this is a vast underestimate. A conservative figure is 60 million. There are already more Chinese at church on a Sunday than in the whole of Europe.
The new converts can be found from peasants in the remote rural villages to the sophisticated young middle class in the booming cities. Driven underground
There is a complexity in the structures of Chinese Christianity which is little understood in the West. To start with, Catholicism and Protestantism are designated by the state as two separate religions.
Throughout the 20th Century, Christianity was associated with Western imperialism. After the Communist victory in 1948, the missionaries were expelled, but Christianity was permitted in state-sanctioned churches, so long as they gave their primary allegiance to the Communist Party.
Mao, on the other hand, described religion as "poison", and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s attempted to eradicate it. Driven underground, Christianity not only survived, but with its own Chinese martyrs, it grew in strength.
Since the 1980s, when religious belief was again permitted, the official Churches have gradually created more space for themselves.
They report to the State Administration for Religious Affairs. They are forbidden to take part in any religious activity outside their places of worship and sign up to the slogan, "Love the country - love your religion."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
That wouldn't take many
Stop missing the forest for the trees. China is the biggest story of the last decade in many more ways than one.
something to remember the next time you hear a western athiest say that Christianity is dying...
it’s not dying, it’s just moving elsewhere.
Fascinating article.
China is a potential threat to the U.S. and to the world. It would be absolutely wonderful if Christianity became dominant and deflected that threat.
There would be an enormous difference between a Communist China and a Christian China—to say the least.
I have chatmates in China who are hungry for spiritual resources
Sometimes the links I send them are censored.
“...it’s not dying, it’s just moving elsewhere.”
Quite korrect. It started in the Middle East and then moved westward to America, and now east Asia. I wonder what’ll happen when it ends up back in the Middle East?
Nice to hear but remember the population of China is over 1 BILLION! That's 1 thousand million.....and a long history of Confucianism behind it.
Free enterprise capitalism (as opposed to state capitalism) and Christianity may end up say the USA a war with China.
Catholicism has also been steadily growing in Africa. There are many new Priests coming out of Africa. The church is only on the decline in the west. When I adopted my little girl in China, our guide asked us if we wanted to take her to be blessed by the Buddhist monks. We said no thank you, that we were Catholic and would take care of that when we got home. She said “Oh, The Catholic church is only a few miles away.” We waited until we got home for her Baptism, but it was nice to know there was a church nearby.
N. America is in spiritual crisis. I wouldn’t doubt if there’s more true Christians in China than in the US.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.