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1 Gifts from above
Christianity and social engagement in China
This particular Qiang ethnic community lived in the innermost mountainous area in Sichuan. Surrounded by pristine mountains, the area they lived was inaccessible by road to outsiders. The Qiang were proud of their heritage, and claimed that one of their ancestors was an emperor of China. Donned in brightly coloured costumes, the women generally wore dresses in bright crimson embroidered flowers and carried purses of similar brightly embroidered flowers. They lived in houses with flat square roofs which had small piles of white stones at each corner of the square roof. The small piles of stones were religious in meaning and symbolised the horns of goats which they worshipped. In their town stood a tall tower in which was also a significant site of their religious worship. Much of their livelihood was agricultural. They grew crops and reared goats. Surrounded by the tall mountains, much of their cultural tradition seemed shielded from outside influences. It was hard to imagine that anything in the world would disrupt the life that the Qiang lived in this ethnic autonomous region by the Mianyang river. However, in this afternoon, a calamitous event would change their life forever.
The children were soundly asleep in the warm afternoon. Zhang Mo (pseudonym), the head prefect of the school, was doing his usual round of walking down the passageway of the classrooms to ensure that the children were safe. Zhang Mo was in the graduating senior high class. He had contemplated about his future and desired to study medicine in a university in the city. He was anxious that his chances would be slim, knowing the stiff competition for the limited places for medicine for a city university. His entry level to the course would be determined by both his performance in the state examinations and ranking of his school. Being an ethnic minority school, it was extremely hard for the school to compete in ranking with schools in the cities which enjoyed more resources such as better teaching materials, equipment, better trained teachers, and even foreign teachers who taught English language to boost the studentsâ English proficiency. English was a big factor that influenced the ranking of the schools, as China was in the midst of improving its standard of English in order to be recognised globally.
As Zhang Mo reached the second level of the school, he felt a tremor. Suddenly, he realised it could be an earthquake since the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture was located on major fault lines.
Zhang Mo quickly woke all the children in the classrooms. Kuai, kuai tao! dizhen jiu yao fasheng le! âQuickly, escape quickly! An earthquake is going to happen!â The children dashed out of their classrooms, out of the school building into the open square. As the children ran with all their might, the tremor grew stronger. The roof of the ceiling came clashing down and eventually, the second floor buckled and clashed to the ground.
This was the devastating earthquake that happened in Sichuan in 2008. At that time, one of us had been involved in voluntary work in the GMV (pseudonym), a foreign Christian NGO. She received a telephone call from the GMV office to help recruit doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, and counsellors to go to the earthquake-affected area in Sichuan for trauma therapy work. In the weeks that ensued, she visited churches, gave presentations on the carnage of the earthquake, and recruited several medical personnel for the earthquake relief work. The trauma doctors performed orthopaedic surgeries on the victims; the physiotherapists conducted rehabilitation to help the victims with the use of their arms and legs again, and the counsellors conducted therapy on post-traumatic stress disorder. Exactly one year from the time of the earthquake, in June 2009, one of us went to the school described above to conduct an intensive summer English course for the children.
Recently, while commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the China Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the leader of the China Christian Council, Chan Baoping, highlights the imperative to âSiniciseâ Christianity and prevent âforeign forcesâ from influencing the religion in China. He also emphasises that Chinese Christianity, instead of seeking to transform society, should now take serving society as its main task. A Sinicised Christianity should also support the nation building agenda of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chanâs underlying message implies this: if Christians aimed to transform society, they might mobilise and challenge the status quo, including existing political structures and the authority of the Communist Party over the Church. This book addresses two important questions regarding Christianity in China: First, how does Christianity continue to experience growth in an ever-increasingly authoritarian political system that enforces strict regulations on religion? Second, how are ordinary Christians affected by social and political changes in the country, and how do they make the influence of their faith felt in the wider society? By focusing on the Chinese Christiansâ experiences as a case study, this book will contribute to the broader scholarship on religious social engagement, especially in authoritarian socialist regimes like China that practise some forms of atheist secularism.
An outline of Christianity and social change1
In this book, we explore the community development work of the GMV and Chinese Christiansâ engagement with social media. We also investigate their views on work and the workplace from a Christian perspective. These themes elucidate the questions of how Chinese Christians view their society and their role in transforming their society through what they view as positive attitudes and behaviour, as well as charitable acts, in society. These themes are embodied in the overarching concept of Christianity and social change. That Christians in China and elsewhere may wish to transform society is nothing new. Throughout the history of Christianity, we can discern clear theological and practical emphases on the role of the church in social change. The Church has always played an active role âin the life of humankind, in making of nationhood, building of culture, structuring of society with its functions and institutions and in shaping the form and quality of political systemsâ (Pillay 2017: 1). The role that Christianity plays in social change can be initially viewed from a close examination of Jesusâ teachings. Jesusâ teachings are located within a socio-economic and political context. Hence, socio-economic and political factors have a large influence on his teachings. Jesus, in his teachings in the Bible, emphasised the importance for his followers to care for the poor and marginalised. He defended the poor and marginalised before the Pharisees and Sadducees, and, in turn, criticised the self-indulgence and greed of the latter (Matthew 23: 25â33). The Pharisees and Sadducees were known for their exploitation and oppression of the poor and marginalised. In Jesusâ teachings, it was noticeably clear that he was on the side of the weak and poor in society. He taught that the Kingdom of God belongs to these marginalised in society (Luke 6: 20â26), and the harlots and tax-collectors would gain entry to the Kingdom of God before those who were religious and respected in society (Matthew 21: 31â32). Thus, from the early days of the founding of Christianity, the mission of the church has always been to transform the individual and community. Therefore, these teachings form the source of motivation of Christiansâ charitable acts in society and their concept of social change, which differ significantly from the general thinking about social change.
The early Christians did not intentionally restructure society by confronting socio-economic justice. Rather, they helped the poor and marginalised out of love and compassion as taught in scriptures. In this sense, efforts to address and eradicate social inequality was not an extra function of the church, which is separate from its main function, but is very much the central focus of the churchâs role in society. However, even though the church drew up guidelines for helping the poor, often it allowed the rich to remain comfortable. In this, Pillay (2017) argues, the early church only tackled the consequences of poverty and did not deal with the structural and institutional roots of poverty. Instead, it allowed the poor to continue to be dependent on the rich. In comparison, the overarching goal of the GMV, a faith-based organisation (FBO) that we will be discussing later, is to eradicate poverty in the communities it works in by empowering the poor with skills that they need to mobilise themselves socially and economically up the social ladder. GMV holds the position that the Chinese rural poor should not be perpetually dependent on them, but should be trained in skills so that they can be self-sufficient and contribute ultimately to the development of their own communities.
There are three shifts that need to happen in the church for its aim to transform the individual and community to be accomplished. First, the church needs to look outwards, beyond its four walls, and not focus only on its internal affairs. Second, the church needs to move from a focus on programme to an emphasis on people development. Third, it needs to move from being focused on the church to being kingdom focused, namely, to have a global perspective of the influence of Christianity (Pillay 2017). Arguably, these three shifts of the church can be discerned in some of the most significant Christian theological and social movements (both Protestant and Catholic) which are sweeping the globe in recent decades (Jenkins 2011). In terms of Christianityâs cultural impact and social engagement, one of the most notable phenomena in Asian Christianity in recent years is the rise of Pentecostalism and Charismatic movements that mirrors the development of global Christianity. In Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish, David Martin (2002) has charted the tremendous growth of Pentecostalism around the world and noted how this singular event has exerted powerful impacts on areas such as politics, sociocultural change, economic development, and geopolitical alliances. Meanwhile, the more traditional Christian denominations have also evolved in response to the rise of Pentecostalism and charismatic movements. These movements incorporate new ways of worship and initiate programmes for institutional reforms. In China and the rest of Asia, increasing numbers of Pentecostals and charismatics are advocating a pragmatic and contextual gospel that motivate them to participate actively in social movements that push for cultural change and preservation; political reforms; social equality; healing and spirituality; the pursuit of success and prosperity, etc. (Anderson 2014: 169). In short, Christianity has historically been a powerful force for social change in Asia (Bautista and Lim 2009).
Christian social engagement in China: an historical review
Studies on the arrival of Christianity in China have demonstrated how the religion has been profoundly impactful on Chinese society and culture (Lin 1993; Charbonnier 2007; Bays 2012). One of the earliest efforts by Catholic missionaries to change China was to introduce ânew knowledgeâ to the imperial court. The main purpose was to illustrate both the superiority of Western knowledge and its associated religion, namely, Christianity. For the Jesuits who were very active in the Ming and Qing courts, the imperative was to first convert the Emperor and his inner circles of relatives and court officials. The missiological principle was based on the Jesuitsâ conviction that the conversion of the highest echelon of societyâs elite would result in the subsequent conversion of the whole society.
In order to understand the history of Christian social engagement in China, it is necessary to discuss the rise of missionary societies in the West.2 At the end of the 18th century, new missionary societies proliferated in all Protestant countries such as Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Scandinavian countries, and the United States (Bosch 2007). In 1880s, with the start of the high imperial era, there was a second wave of new societies forming, with the United States taking the lead in terms of the highest number of missionaries being sent overseas. The end of World War II saw another surge of passion and new missionary societies forming. In the period of 40 years, between 1900 and 1939, 147 new missionary societies were formed. In the next 40 years, 1940 to 1949, 83 societies sprung up, followed by 395 new agencies in the period of 1950 to 1979.
A few factors were probably responsible for this wave of enthusiasm. It is undeniable that the spirit of enterprise and initiative sparked the formation and proliferation of the missionary societies. Before this, the formation of âvoluntary societiesâ (Bosch 2007: 328) next to the institutional church was unheard of. The institutional church remained the nexus of control and sending agency of missionaries. At the end of the 17th century, however, a new attitude emerged. The Reformation belief of the right of private interpretation of Scripture led to the thinking that a group of people could unite to promote a common cause. This led to a superfluity of new societies. They promoted a variety of religious and societal concerns such as âantislavery, prison reform, temperance, sabbath observanceâ (Bosch 2007: 328) and other charitable concerns. Many of these new societies ventured overseas and promoted the cause of foreign missions. Many of the missionaries who travelled abroad were women and these societies were all organised around the principle of volunteerism, totally dependent on the membersâ time, energy, and money. These societies were based on the social and political egalitarianism of democracy that was rising at that time. There was a central office that received donations from auxiliary associations and sent information to these branches. People of average incomes many thousand miles away contributed both money and prayer support. The Enlightenmentâs optimistic perspective of the world and humanity led to the peopleâs belief that they could do something about their circumstances and those of others. The believers formed goal-oriented communities and held a firm belief that they were Godâs co-workers in ushering in the Kingdom of God.
Fifty years after the Independenc...
