Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Christianity in China

After going to local churches in Beijing and Xiamen, I don't get why people need to be so hush-hush about the missionary trips or why I still hear stories about underground churches.

To the left is a picture of the church I went to in Xiamen. The building is enormous, and the congregation is at least double that of LGCC. As far as I can tell, their teachings are pretty normal:
  • Holy Trinity
  • We're all sinners
  • Jesus Christ is God's only the begotten Son, was born of Virgin Mary, died on the cross for our sins, and resurrected in 3 days
  • Baptism
  • Salvation through faith
The Bamboo Church (ZhuShu Tang) is the other big community. Their website (click here), which can be found easily on all search engines, has lots of resources and is pretty well developed. And, here is a big BBS site in Xiamen.

Is this openness towards Christianity only true in the cities? I just don't get it... Can anyone explain this to me?
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1 comment:

Josekin said...

If you ran the same experiment in Tibet, you'd find that you can enter and exit a temple, talk to any monks, learn the ways of Tibetan Buddhism, etc etc... so long as you don't bring up the Dalai Lama.

To me, it's a fear of losing the power grip. Chinese Kings have always hailed themselves as Gods, and they've always been fearful of other gods... or other features of Power.

6/10/2008 5:42 AM

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