The genius of Christianity was in the celebration of Christmas itselfas a showcase of Christian thinking. What it does is that everyyear, every child is drawn into a cycle of gift giving that isimpossible for families to resist. And once begun, it becomes apattern and way more importantly, that child remains sympathetic tochristian teaching.
In a vacuum of spiritual teaching, there is still Christmas.
A successful university experience does include investigating manyviewpoints, so it is little surprising to see plenty of activitythere. Whatever the case, the government is typically nervous andwalking on eggs as they should.
In the meantime, the Chinese Government need only look next door intoSouth Korea to glimpse the future. That country is well on the wayto becoming a majority christian country.
At the same time, I think the government really does not have astrategy to stop the process itself and plenty of experience in howrepression fails miserably.
Sooner or later, Chinese political life will rationalize and we allknow pretty well what it will look like even if they are waiting fora few more of the old boys to die out. At that point, freedom ofreligion is easily and safely granted. A government secure in thesupport of the people has no reason to fret over religion.
Robert Fulford: InChina, yes they know it’s Christmastime
Robert Fulford Dec 22,201
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/12/22/robert-fulford-in-china-yes-they-know-its-christmastime/
Christmas will be morewidely celebrated in China this year than at any time in memory.Everyone who claims any knowledge of the subject believes that thenumber of Chinese Christians has been growing steadily over the lastdecade. Communist bureaucrats harass Christians, isolate them, try tomanipulate and divide them. And yet by the standards of recentdecades, Chinese Christianity now seems remarkably resilient.
No one knows how manyChinese are Christian. The State Administration for ReligiousAffairs, which supervises all religion, says there are about 25million, apparently the government’s optimistic understatement.Christian activists, on their many blogs, claim 50 million to 100million. The Global Religious Landscape, a demographic study releasedthis week by the Pew Research Center, estimates 68 million, based on2010 data.
Whatever the realnumber, no one denies the memorable comparison made on the BBC inSeptember by Tim Gardam, a journalist and principal of St Anne’sCollege, Oxford: “There are already more Chinese at church on aSunday than in the whole of Europe.”
Since about 1980, theChinese government has directed toward Christians a relativelymoderate but still annoying and persistent form of religiousoppression. The meager results of its efforts are heartening: Havingbeen subjected to the most extreme and degrading forms of governmentharassment and directives over three generations, many Chinesenevertheless insist on making up their own minds about issues theyconsider important.
Brent Fulton, alife-long China-watcher with a PhD in political science, runsChinaSource, a Christian nonprofit based in Hong Kong. Recently heremarked that Christian parents, like many other Chinese parents,dislike the narrowly technical education many schools in the countryoffer: “You’ve got Christians now setting up schools —primary schools, kindergarten, home-schooling networks. There’s amovement of Christian families even sending high school studentsabroad for study in a Christian high school.”
These developmentshave frightened the power centre. A 9,000-word document on theprevention of campus evangelism was issued last year by the CentralCommittee of the Communist Party, but leaked only this week. Itclaims that foreign governments are using Christianity to infiltratehigher education and create “ideological and cultural erosion” inChina.
The document gives offan aroma of paranoia that makes it, despite the clotted prose,fascinating.
The Central Committeeclaims that US-led elements “market” their ideas under the guiseof donating funds for education, academic exchanges, etc.
Marxist atheismremains popular on our campuses — maybe more so than in Chinaitself
“The college yearsare a critical time in the establishment of a person’s worldview,view of life and system of values,” we are told. The goal of thealien forces “is not just to expand religious influence but more tovie with us for our young people, our next generation.”
Infiltration isgrowing more intense, the Central Committee warns: “You must notunderestimate the current harm and the long-term effect of suchphenomenon, and you must take forceful measures.” It orders localgovernments, “Public Security organs” (police) and universitiesto treat education as an ideological and cultural battlefield whereChina’s political stability must be ensured.
Among therecommendations: Universities should strictly control religiouspersonnel entering China, and they must not invite foreign professorswho might be tempted to proselytize. For some years foreign teacherswith Christian affiliations have been required to promise in writingthat they won’t talk about religion when they lecture at Chineseuniversities; that precaution has apparently proven insufficient.
So Chinese embassiesaround the world will report on possibly dangerous teachers. TheMinistry of Education will set up a data bank to circulateinformation about religious organizations infiltrating institutes ofhigher education. Instructors who insist on proselytizing will befired. If sites of religious activity are established nearuniversities, Public Security organs will abolish them.
The regulations of theState Administration for Religious Affairs forbid public praying,hymn-singing and other “religious activity” except in officiallydesignated places of worship. But many thousands of unauthorized“house churches” have sprung up, offering energetic andcharismatic worship that proves particularly attractive to the young.In recent years the house-church movement has moved beyond its ruralbeginnings and found new adherents in the cities. House churches aremostly ignored by the authorities but may be closed down if worshipspills out into the streets.
The CentralCommittee’s warning says that universities must “Make educationin Marxist atheism the foundational work in resisting infiltrationand campus evangelism.” Marxism has lost its influence in economicaffairs, but the Central Committee assumes that it still appeals tointellectuals in the universities — much as it does in theuniversities of Canada and other nations of the West.
Indeed, Chinesefunctionaries would love our college campuses. In most cases,“Marxist atheism” remains popular — Arguably more so than inChina itself.
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder