Editorial reflection and analysis on issues shaping Chinese Christianity.
Last week we posted part 1 of a proposal to resolve the status of house churches in China. In part 2, Professor Liu gets more specific as to how a house church documentation system could be set up and what would be gained by doing so.
In his book, China Airborne, James Fallows takes a look at modern China through the lens of the country’s growing aviation industry. He writes in the introduction about what he calls “the many countries of China,” (p. 6) explaining the diversity and complexity of a country that we tend to (wrongly) view as a monolith.
The latest issue of ChinaSource Quarterly takes an in-depth look at the pressures facing young Christian families in urban China.
In March, the WeChat Public account called 《宗教法治》(Religious Law) published a proposal by Professor Liu Peng, head of the Pushi Institute for Social Sciences on steps the government can take to solve the problem of house churches in China. We have translated the post and are presenting it in two parts. In this first part Professor Liu spells out why solving the problem is important and what he considers the foundation of a solution.
In a recent Christianity Today article on the wave of laws hitting foreign NGOs globally, Morgan Lee refers specifically to China when she writes, “Nearly 20 percent of the world’s population could lose access to the ministry efforts of Western Christians next year.”
Last week the World Economic Forum posted a short video titled “Where are the Largest Chinese Populations Outside of China?” Spoiler: Indonesia tops the list.
If you’re with a non-profit organization that has activities in China, the new law applies to you, regardless of whether you are actually located in China.
As urban churches in China face significant changes in the 21st century, will they effectively engage their own culture and reach out with the gospel cross-culturally?
Does the Christian church require a sympathetic national government to thrive?
In March China introduced its first-ever comprehensive domestic violence law. While celebrated as an important step toward the protection of women and children (and, occasionally men experiencing abuse) the law also raises a number of questions within the Christian community. Here lawyer and Christ-follower Cheng Pangzhi wrestles through these issues, ultimately offering hope for reconciliation of families and a call to make use of the new law in order to protect victims of violence.
A few years back I was talking with a Chinese scholar friend of mine about Islam in China. In what has to be one of the clearest examples of pragmatic religiosity I’ve encountered, he told me, “Islam has no future here because Han Chinese will never give up eating pork.”
The traditional roles of foreign Christians in China are changing.