14 August 2008

Hong Kong, 14 August (ENI)—Some Chinese Christian leaders have criticised U.S. President George W. Bush for attending a Sunday service at a government-sanctioned church when he visited Beijing for the Olympics Game.

“I oppose President Bush attending a service at a government-sanctioned church. Such an act gave the wrong message, and it had a negative effect on religious freedom in China,” said Yu Jie, a dissident Christian in Beijing, who met Bush in Washington in 2006. “Mr Bush should have joined a house church here. It would have been much more meaningful for him to do so.”

Bush attended the worship at Kuanjie Protestant Church on 10 August during his visit to Beijing for the Olympic Games. Tight security was imposed at the building. A Christian activist who is a house church leader, Hua Huiqi, was prevented from joining the service, and worshippers without entry permits were asked to leave the area. The U.S. president first attended a government-sanctioned church when he visited China in 2005.

“If it was difficult for him to visit a house church, he should also have refrained from visiting a government-sanctioned church,” Yu told Ecumenical News International in an email on 13 August.
Meanwhile, an exiled Chinese Christian leader in Texas said that Bush attending a government sanctioned church would legitimise the action of the Chinese government in suppressing house churches.

“It is the second time for President Bush to visit a registered church in China,” noted the Rev. Bob Fu of the China Aid Association during a telephone interview with ENI. “I think that it will legitimise the repression policy of the Chinese government.”

Fu said he recognised Bush’s efforts to press for wider religious freedom in China. He said, however, China’s religious atmosphere had worsened during the Olympics, with most house churches leaders being told not to worship during the Games period. In addition some house church leaders had been arrrested. Fu said, “Members of the house churches have needed to limit their religious activities and only a few house churches continue their gatherings.”

The Communist government initiated the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) in the 1950s, asking Christians to collaborate with the party. It cut off their foreign ties and requested church communities to register with the government.

Christians who did not want to go along with the TSPM gathered at non-registered venues, many of them being the houses of the faithful, and they formed the “house churches” for their religious activities. However, some Christian leaders said that the TSPM reflected the indigenous nature of the church, and helped keep the Church alive during a period of political turmoil in China.

In Washington D.C. the director of Religious Liberty Programs for the Institute of Religion and Democracy, Faith J.H. McDonnell, likened the way religion is handled in China to the “revelation of the lip-synching young girl” at the opening ceremonies who was used instead of another young woman who was not considered the right person to perform. “It should be no surprise to those familiar with the Chinese government’s attempts to cover its repression of Christians and control of the churches by ‘lip-synching’ Christianity,” said McDonnell. “Religious freedom in China is as much of a show as the Olympic opening ceremony has turned out to be.”

McDonnell noted in a statement, “Last year the official church-affiliated printing company produced 6.7 million Bibles. The paradox is that if you are willing to submit to government control in a state-sanctioned church, you are free to have a Bible. If you are a house church Christian, your Bible is contraband.”

The official Protestant churches in China are officially recognised by the government and in 2007 marked the 200th anniversary of Protestant missionary work in the country. They have about 20 million believers and 50 000 churches. Members of house churches are said by many religion analysts to far outnumber those belonging to officially sanctioned churches, but accurate statistics are hard to come by.

余杰 Yu Jie