Posted on 10/06/2008 12:16:36 AM PDT by KingJaja
ZHAO XIAO, a former Communist Party official and convert to Christianity, smiles over a cup of tea and says he thinks there are up to 130m Christians in China. This is far larger than previous estimates. The government says there are 21m (16m Protestants, 5m Catholics). Unofficial figures, such as one given by the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity in Massachusetts, put the number at about 70m. But Mr Zhao is not alone in his reckoning. A study of China by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, an American think-tank, says indirect survey evidence suggests many unaffiliated Christians are not in the official figures. And according to China Aid Association (CAA), a Texas-based lobby group, the director of the government body which supervises all religions in China said privately that the figure was indeed as much as 130m in early 2008.
If so, it would mean China contains more Christians than Communists (party membership is 74m) and there may be more active Christians in China than in any other country. In 1949, when the Communists took power, less than 1% of the population had been baptised, most of them Catholics. Now the largest, fastest-growing number of Christians belong to Protestant “house churches”.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
Some quick points.
1. The Economist is not exactly known for being pro-Christian.
2. Freepers tend to use outdated categories (’Chicom etc’) in defining the Chinese and China. This is intellectually lazy.
3. 130 million means that one in ten Chinese is a committed Christian. (This is a significantly higher percentage than either India, Japan, Britain or France - our traditional allies).
4. The China of the next thirty years could be a much strongly ally and have much more in common with US than rabidly anti-Christian India.
I’ve heard where the Chinese are persecuted for Christianity and they have to resort to secret ‘home churches’ and then at their own peril. They value The Truth - wonder how many here, USA, would go to such lengths for the same.
You make a great point. China is in an unstable state that is being carefully managed by the communists. The people have some economic freedom, some religious freedom but no political freedom. As economic freedom increases, there could be a push for the increase in other freedoms. It would be great to see something like a break up of the USSR happen in China. Political collapse from within.
This was true. I had a Chinese man work for me whose father was a Christian preacher who was sent to prison for teaching Christ in a public place. The state allowed Christians to meet in small numbers in private homes and he violated that statute. I have heard that currently the regulations against Christianity have been loosed a bit, but have no further information.
Your point about the strength of character in Christians in America is one worth pondering on a personal level.
I think we all need some time in self reflection to better understand what our Lord and Saviour did for us and what our response should be. Today, we are all so busy doing what we think we must, or even doing what we think society thinks we ought to do.
God Bless YOU!
So well said.
Thank you and God bless you, too.
The real Catholics are underground. That figure probably is not accurate.
The China Catholics are endorsed by the Chinese government. Need I say anything else?
With so many house churches meeting in secret, I wonder how they are able to estimate the 130 Million... just asking.
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