Is China Cracking Down On Religion?

After church tonight, I had dinner with a few friends on Capitol Hill, near Eastern Market. One of my friends mentioned that she believes China is starting to crack down on religious groups and will increase the severity of their restrictions of religious freedom around the country between now and the Olympics next year. There are already stories of Western missionaries getting kicked out of the country without any notice. (One likely reason? They are one of the primary sources of information to the outside world about abuses of religious freedom.)

Ostensibly, the Chinese government is cracking down on religious groups to minimze the chances of cults and Islamic terrorists to interfere with the Olympics. Regardless of the Chinese governments attempts to squelch religion, Christianity seems to be growing at a healthy pace. My guess is that other religions are growing as well.

Christians have long noted that when there is widespread persecution, the church often thrives and grows. An economic explanation for this is that persecution leads to a higher cost for belonging to a religious group. In the short term, this reduces the number of members, but increases the average commitment level of the group. The quality of religious groups is typically proportaional to average commitment/participation of its members, so persecution can lead to higher quality churches with greater benefits than non- persecuted churches. If persecution leads to increased benefits that are greater than the increased costs, the persecuted religion will typically grow rather than shrink in the long-term.

Read more on Chinese religious persecution here.