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China invests in confident Christians Top Stories

By Christopher Landau Final call to halt 'climate
BBC News, China
catastrophe'
A new study calls for fundamental changes
24 August 2010 Share "in all aspects of society" to limit climate
warming.
5 hours ago
Three decades ago, China's
Cultural Revolution saw some of Your US mid-terms daily digest
the most dramatic restrictions on 5 hours ago
the practice of religion ever seen in
the modern world. Newlyweds among 20 dead in US
limo crash
But today's communist rulers have 13 minutes ago
radically altered their views about
religion and have granted substantial The National Catholic Seminary in Beijing
freedom to Christians prepared to prepares many for the priesthood
worship within state-sanctioned
churches.

Within these boundaries, Christianity is growing in China as never before - and

doing so supported by millions of dollars of government funding.

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 The BBC has been given unprecedented access to China's state-sanctioned ADVERTISEMENT
Protestant and Catholic churches, to examine why the government seems so keen
to invest in religion.

State funding
On the outskirts of Nanjing, a building site illustrates the scale of the communist
state's commitment to supporting the development of Christianity.

Local officials say that the building under construction will become China's largest
state-sanctioned church - with space for 5,000 worshippers.

The land - and 20% of the building costs - are being provided not by local Christians,
but by the municipal government.

It represents state financial support worth millions of dollars - just one example of the
strategy to encourage the development of religion in China.

The Communist Party's senior official

with responsibility for this policy is the
director general of the State
Administration for Religious Affairs,
Wang Zuo An. Features
In a rare interview, he told me that
there are now at least 20m Protestant
Christians in China worshipping in the
state-sanctioned church. Mr Wang says Christianity is growing faster
than ever
"Such growth is unprecedented in the
history of Christianity in China.
A deepening crisis on the streets
Christianity is enjoying its best period of growth in China," he said.
of America
And he explained why the Chinese state is investing in religious faith - support
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 which has included funding the construction of national Protestant and Catholic
seminaries educating hundreds of future Christian leaders each year.

"Our goal in supporting these religions in developing religious education is that we

hope they can train qualified clergy members so that their religions can enjoy better
development."

But there is no small irony in the party's new-found enthusiasm for supporting the Taylor Swift breaks political silence
development of religion in China, given Communism's commitment to atheism.

"On the question of whether there is God, the Chinese

Communist Party believes there is no God in the
world," said Mr Wang.
I think this nation will
"The Communist Party believes that it should respect change, and I think God is
doing great things in
and protect religious belief. The members of the party
China
must respect religious followers and not infringe their Jesse, Chinese student Brazil election front-runner: Trump
interests."
of the Tropics?
He insists that there is no contradiction between the Communist Party insisting that
its own members are non-religious, and the communist government's commitment to
investing in religious development.

"We are making laws and regulations to better guarantee religious belief in China,"
he says.

Social role Four things to know for the week

ahead
At the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a professor who specialises in the
study of Christianity believes that there are various factors contributing to its growth.

Professor Xhuo Xinping says that there is a spiritual appeal, and a potential
association with economic prosperity.

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 But he says Christianity will finally shake off imperialist associations if churches are
prepared to act as a servant to Chinese society.

"Many Christians pay special attention

to social work and social service. I
think this is the correct way for
Christianity to develop," he said.
'Sleepwalking' with India's
One Catholic priest who has guerrillas
pioneered such work in China is the
Rev John Zhang - whose Jinde
charities receive support from
Father John Zhang interprets the church
Catholics around the world. mission as social work and service

I visited the old people's home he runs

in Shijiazhuang City, where he told me
why he thinks the government welcomes the church's contribution. 
'It's my body and I'll do what I want'
"Homes for the aged are urgent. We need more and more. The government realised
that."

"Some officials say, you have done for Chinese society what we cannot do. Without
any political involvement, the church is doing a good job, and we from government
appreciate it," said Father Zhang.

The enthusiasm of the communist authorities for his church-run initiative is such that
even the Communist Youth League used the old people's home as a base for a
charitable project. The UK firm hoping to take on
Google’s driverless cars

Confident Christians
But there is still a question about whether as China's Christians grow in confidence
they will be prepared to continue to accept the limitations on their freedom.

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 At Beijing's Haidian Church, the Senior Pastor Wu Weiqing is candid about the
problems he faces, but also enthusiastic about the level of religious liberty he enjoys.

"We do have problems, struggling with

some kind of regulations, I have to be
true to you. But because we are
registered, because we obey the 
regulations and laws, we enjoy more Four brothers, all models... and
freedom. Muslim

"I'm very happy, I enjoy my service as

a pastor. I sometimes encourage
More and more Chinese are beginning to
people who work for the so-called practise the Christian faith
house churches to come to this kind of
church to worship," said Pastor Wu.

Those house churches - the unregistered, or underground churches, which were the 
only place to worship during the repression of the Cultural Revolution - remain a Still a refugee, 70 years on
significant part of the Chinese Christian landscape.

But both the Catholic and Protestant churches sanctioned by the state are now also
seeing levels of growth that few predicted in the 1980s.
Elsewhere on the BBC
Two students I met at an evening service of prayer and praise at Haidian church Football phrases
summed up the optimism felt by growing numbers of young Chinese Christians.
15 sayings from around
the world
"We truly hope [that in] our country there will be more Christians, and God's word will
spread everywhere in our country", said Daniel.

His fellow student Jesse added, "I think this nation will change, and I think God is Most Read
doing great things in China."

There is no doubting the confidence of these Christians.

Final call to save the world from 1
'climate catastrophe'
But there is also no guarantee about the sort of future the communist government
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 will allow the churches it is currently keen to support.
Strictly Come Dancing: Who's 2
To hear more about state-sanctioned Christianity in China, tune in to this week's been hit by the curse?
Heart and Soul on the BBC World Service at 1230 GMT on Wednesday 25 August.
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Heart and Soul

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