wfn.org | History of the church in China is a long and difficult one

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2000-216b

History of the church in China is a long and difficult one

by Elyn and Peter MacInnis

     The history of how Protestants in China formed their own church over the 
last two centuries is a long and at times difficult one.

     Although Christianity was introduced to China by Roman Catholic missionaries 
earlier, Protestant missionaries didn't arrive until the beginning of the 19th 
century. The founding of the London Missionary Society in 1795 and the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1810 launched a century and a half 
of intense missionary activity in China, unmatched in history.

     At first the missionary presence grew slowly, largely because China was 
still an imperial state whose Confucian gentry resisted the implication that the 
West had anything to give to China. Missionaries often stirred local opposition. 
Then, in 1842, the Treaty of Nanjing ending the first Opium War, providing, among 
other things, new protections and access for foreign missionaries. A succession 
of treaties increasingly opened China to foreign interests, including missionary 
activity.

     By 1869, there were 400 missionaries from more than 30 denominations in 
China. By 1900 there were 2,800 missionaries. The number peaked at 8,235 in 1926. 
Despite the impressive number, missionaries had a difficult time. Local 
opposition flared into violence and destruction. It took a combined Western 
military force of 20,000, followed by a second German expeditionary force, to put 
down the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, specifically directed at Chinese Christian 
converts and missionaries.

Profound impact

     In spite of opposition, missionaries had a profound impact on China. They 
brought Western-style education and were the first to pioneer in the education of 
women and to establish Western medical hospitals. Single women missionaries 
proved to be radical role models for Chinese women. And the missionaries conveyed 
Western thinking and attitudes to the Chinese people.

     From 1900 to 1950, China was rocked by internal upheavals that are difficult 
for us to imagine. Sun Yatsen's republican revolution of 1911 ended more than 
2,000 years of imperial rule, but his inability to consolidate the country under 
the new Guomindang government led to a period dominated by local warlords. An 
internal split between left and right broke out into civil war in 1927, hardening 
into a contest between Chiang Kai Shek and the Chinese Communist Party under Mao 
Zedong that raged until 1949. The Japanese invaded China in 1937, fighting both 
sides, until the end of World War II in 1945.

     Missionaries continued their work during this period, but most were forced 
out in 1949, closing the curtain on the single greatest missionary effort in 
history.

Building a new China

     Victory left the Chinese Communist Party in control of a decimated country, 
desperately in need of unification and rebuilding.

     Initially the West took a neutral position towards the new China. President 
Harry Truman said that the United States would not take sides in the civil 
conflict and would not provide military aid or advice to Chinese who had moved to 
Taiwan. The new government was prepared to enter the United Nations as the 
rightful representative of the Chinese people--but China ended up solidly in the 
Soviet camp as a result of the Korean War, while the U.S. and its Western allies 
ringed China from South Korea to Indochina with military bases.

     The church in China faced a number of difficult problems during this era. 
First, it had to learn to live with the new government. Second, because they were 
the product of Western missionary activity--some of it deeply resented--they had 
to cope with the stigma of being viewed as disloyal to China. This alienation 
became only worse as international relations hardened into a Cold War. Finally, 
Chinese Christians were not a single church, but reflected the work of 
missionaries from many different denominations and countries.

The Three Self Movement

     Protestant churches launched a movement in 1950 calling on Chinese 
Christians to be "self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating." This was 
the beginning of the Three Self-Movement, later the Three Self Patriotic Movement 
(TSPM). It was also a declaration of support for the efforts of the new 
government to unify and rebuild China. Soon Chinese Christian leaders voted to 
sever ties with foreign missions. 

     At the first National Conference of Chinese Christians in 1954, one of the 
TSPM's first moves was to end denominational divisions in the church. Continued 
efforts to push for unity were interrupted by the outbreak of the Cultural 
Revolution in 1966.

     Chinese today often refer to the Cultural Revolution as "ten years of 
anarchy," a profound political upheaval that sought to purge society of all "non-
revolutionary" influences and elements, triggering chaotic power struggles at all 
levels of society.

     Religious believers of all kinds became targets. Bibles, hymnals and other 
religious literature disappeared. Churches and seminaries were turned into 
factories as believers became victims of public humiliation campaigns and were 
often locked up, sometimes for years. Many died in prison. Some were even 
convinced that Christianity in China was finished.

     The death of Mao in 1976 marked the end of the Cultural Revolution, but 
Christians recovered slowly, beginning to emerge only in 1980.

Rebuilding the church

     In 1980 the TSPM met again in national conference and began the work of 
rebuilding a devastated church. Denominational differences were swept aside by 
the persecution of the Cultural Revolution. The church formed the China Christian 
Council (CCC) to work directly with clergy and lay leaders to reestablish 
churches, reclaim properties, training new leadership, printing Bibles and 
religious materials.

     Recovery was slow. Many believers were afraid to go to the newly opened 
churches. Bible printing had begun on a small scale in the early 1980s, but was 
inadequate to replace what had been destroyed or to meet increasing demand. In 
1987 the CCC, cooperating with the United Bible Societies, opened Amity Printing 
Company.

     By the time the church met again in conference in 1992, reports were more 
encouraging. There were an estimated 10 million baptized Christians, and many 
more believers and seekers who had not yet been baptized. There were 7,000 
churches, with a new one opening every two days.

     Yet there were other groups of Christians not affiliated with the CCC or 
registered with the government--strongly independent, indigenous expressions of 
faith that emerged in China during the missionary era. These groups have been 
almost militantly independent, taking no help or direction from foreign mission 
societies. Many practiced the three-self principles long before the formal 
movement was ever conceived. They are strongly evangelical and have always been 
among the most vital and authentic elements among the Chinese churches. They are 
not overtly anti-government, except when their convictions bring them into 
conflict with authorities.

     There are also individual Christians who meet in private and who have never 
worshiped publicly despite the end of the Cultural Revolution. They are 
suspicious of the authorities and anyone who cooperates with them.

     Chinese Christians have always been divided among themselves--divisions 
growing out of denominationalism, or a strong sense of separateness, or the 
memory of suffering or a fear of renewed persecution. Many of those divisions 
have been overcome or are diminishing, but others remain and are a part of the 
continuing struggle. Reconciliation will come with time, many Chinese are 
convinced, as trust grows gradually.

Dealing with stereotypes

     Some Christians outside of China continue to promote a simplistic picture of 
a polarized "suffering underground church" versus a "government church." Reacting 
to sensational news stories, they believe Chinese Christians continue to live 
under Cultural Revolution conditions.

     China's government believes religion will eventually wither away, although 
its policies toward religion are more tolerant than Christians outside China 
might imagine. As with all government policies, implementation is not uniform, 
especially in more rural and impoverished areas. The Chinese Constitution 
guarantees the right to "freedom of religious belief," but does not allow religion 
to be taught to anyone under 19, nor does it allow any of the religions to evangelize.

     The rapid spread of Christianity has created some problems of its own. 
Where enthusiasm for Christianity spreads faster than correct Christian teaching, 
heresies and strange amalgams of vague Christian ideas are mixed with ages-old 
local beliefs. Those who persist in spreading heresies are subject to arrest, as are 
any who promote themselves as the focus of a religious cult, because superstition 
is illegal. Attempts to control such activities are sometimes regarded by outsiders 
not familiar with the situation as a systematic policy to suppress Christianity.

     The Religious Affairs Bureau is responsible for implementing policy and 
legislation governing religious activities, reporting to the government's United 
Front and ultimately to the People's Congress. Churches at the local level have 
access to higher levels to resolve conflicts.

     Since 1980 the basic rights and needs of Christians to believe and worship 
have been respected, a major factor of the phenomenal growth of the Christian 
church.

--The Rev. Elyn MacInnis is an Episcopalian from the Diocese of Rochester 
who has been living and working in China for 12 years, serving a small English-
language parish in Beijing and helping those who seek to adopt Russian children. 
Her husband Peter, who is ordained in the United Church of Christ, was first 
managing director of Amity Press and now works for an international corporation.