A few days ago, I posted a story about the kidnapping and torture of Christian lawyer Li Heping in Beijing. Mr. Li is now in hiding with his family in fear for his life.
What wasn't initially told in Li Heping's story is the role his Christian faith has played in this ordeal. Here is a Newsweek article about Mr. Li's faith and the persecution of Christians in China:
[Mr. Li] began going to church regularly and started taking on riskier, politically sensitive cases. Recently, the 35-year-old lawyer defended another attorney who was detained for helping clients sue provincial authorities for an illegal land seizure. The historic case, one of the largest in Chinese history, puts the country's legal system itself on trial, according to Li. "I still don't have a complete understanding of Christianity," he says. "But my road is different now than it was before.Read the whole thing.
Growing numbers of progressive lawyers, journalists, environmentalists and other civic activists in China are converting to Christianity, finding support for their causes as well as personal strength in the teachings of Jesus.
China is experiencing a religious—and, in particular, Christian—boom. Scholars and clergy estimate that there are at least 45 million Christians in the country now, most of whom practice in illegal churches rather than in the state-sanctioned Catholic and Protestant organizations.
… the new Christian activism is a potential headache for the government. The party has long been wary of Christianity because of its ties to the West and its potential as an organizing force that the authorities cannot control. Already, churches have helped reform-minded people meet, recruit supporters and work together. Recently, Christian activists rallied to support a well-known lawyer, Chen Guang-cheng, whom authorities roughed up and detained. Chen (who is not a Christian) ran into trouble after he tried to organize a lawsuit on behalf of peasants who claimed their local authorities had forced them to have abortions or undergo sterilization to enforce the one-child policy.
Thanks in part to the Christian activists and other supporters, his case has become a worldwide cause. "Christianity is a challenge to the Communist Party because more people are turning to it and it presents alternative viewpoints," says Liu Xiaobo, a prominent free-speech advocate who is not a Christian. "This fact, along with pressure from the West on the Communist government, will help the cause of freedom in China."
Here is more on the social revolution Christianity is making in China and China's steps to sweep Christians out of the country.
See these BBC articles on Christian persecution in China:
- China's Christians suffer for their faith
- Three Chinese Christians jailed
- Chinese Christian leader jailed
- Chinese Christians win re-trial
1 comment:
And how much influence or control will the American Evangelical movement exert over these Christians? Will they take marching orders from Focus on the Family as so many Protestant churches do? I doubt it. I think in the long run this new Chinese Christianity could well become the dominant form of Christianity in the world. American Christianity is in its death throes, all the growth is in Asia and Africa, where ancient traditions collide with Christian teachings. America was largely a blank slate, hence the rise of evangelicalism in my opinion.
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