gabalski

Since my wife is still a christian, she has my daughters attend vacation bible school during the summer. I recently went to their end of the week program which turned out to be a big mistake, as by the time it was over I was absolutely disgusted and sick to my stomach. But that's a topic for a different thread. What I really wanted to bring up was their mission trip to China that they wouldn't stop talking about.

In between each song they would talk to the crowd, especially the children, about their upcoming trip to china. They made several points about why it is so important for christians to go to China to spread the word, and I wanted your opinion on the validity of some of them.

1. China has the largest percentage of non-christians in the world.

2. China has the highest percentage of atheists in the world.

3. It is illegal to make and sell bibles in China.

4. It is illegal to preach christianity in China.

5. Public schools in China teach that there is no god.

1 and 2 seem pretty believable to me, but 3, 4, and 5 seem like typical christian exagerations and flat out lies, but I can't say for sure. Does anybody have any insights to share? I would like to talk to my daughters about the truth, even if it's, "Those are all true, but that doesn't mean it's alright to go preaching your views to someone that doesn't care to hear them".

Thanks,
Mike

sakrilege

Wish I could help since my sister lived in China for 5 years, unfortunately she is fundamentalist and will repeat the same 'beliefs'. One of her letters to me from China both lamented the lack of Christianity but also stated how safe she felt there compared to New York. Duh!

Susan

[ August 16, 2002: Message edited by: sak ]</p>

beoba

Tell me when its up, I'm already curious about what happened

Vorkosigan

1. China has the largest percentage of non-christians in the world.

2. China has the highest percentage of atheists in the world.

3. It is illegal to make and sell bibles in China.

4. It is illegal to preach christianity in China.

5. Public schools in China teach that there is no god.

Except for (5), which is AFAIK true, all of the above are wrong.

<a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=000683&p=3" target="_blank">This thread here</a>, starting on the the third page, offers a long, long, look at atheism in China.

China has registered Churches. It is legal to preach Christianity in China.

China actually has MORE people practicing religion than the US. According to Chinese government figures found in <a href="http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/irf_china.html" target="_blank">State Department Report</a>:

According to an official government white paper, there are over 200 million religious adherents, representing a great variety of beliefs and practices. Official figures from late 1997 indicate that there are at least 3,000 religious organizations, 300,000 clergy, and 74 religious schools and colleges. There are also more than 85,000 approved venues for religious activities. Most religious adherents profess Eastern faiths, but tens of millions adhere to Christianity. According to estimates, 75 percent of the population practices some form of traditional folk religion (worship of local gods, heroes, and ancestors). Approximately 8 percent of the population are Buddhist, approximately 1.4 percent are Muslim, an estimated 0.4 percent belong to the official Catholic Church, an estimated 0.4 to 0.8 percent belong to the unofficial Vatican-affiliated Catholic Church, an estimated 0.08 percent to 1.2 percent are registered Protestants, and perhaps 2.4 to 6.5 percent worship in house churches that are independent of government control. There are no available estimates of the number of Taoists. However, according to a 1997 government publication, there are over 10,000 Taoist monks and nuns and over 1,000 Taoist temples.

Sum the numbers. About 90% of the population appears to subscribe to some sort of theism (Chinese folk religion is theistic in appearance).

As for the Bible, according to a Chinese government white paper I read, it is the number one selling book in China. Here's another <a href="http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/7129.html" target="_blank">Chinese Embassy publication on the issue</a>:

Since the 1980s, approximately 600 Protestant churches have been reopened or rebuilt each year in China. By the end of 1996 more than 18 million copies of the Bible had been printed, with special tax exemption treatment speeding their publication. In addition, more than eight million copies of a hymn book published by the China Christian Council in 1983 have been distributed. From 1958 to 1995, a total of 126 Catholic bishops were selected and ordained by the Chinese Catholic church itself. In the past dozen years more than 900 young Catholic priests have been trained or consecrated by Chinese Catholicism. More than 3,000 Protestants attend the Sunday service at Chongwenmen church in Beijing each week. The Beijing Nantang Catholic Cathedral observes Mass four times each week with an attendance of more than 2,000.

Of course, they've left out that they persecute non-controlled Churches, etc.

Hope this helps.

Vorkosigan

Vorkosigan

Your sister is quite ignorant of what is going on, then. China is much less safe, in every aspect, from environment, food, crime, transportation, than anyplace in the US. Does she speak good Chinese?