Compromise or confront?
For decades, followers of the various religions in China have often felt a need to make such a choice whenever their beliefs or worship were oppressed by the ruling Communist Party.
In the past two years, following a few decades of leniency by the party, that oppression has grown worse. Hundreds of churches have been destroyed. Mosques have been altered. A famous Buddhist monastery was forced to fly the national flag.
In April, online sales of the Bible were banned. Thousands of Muslim children have been taken from their parents and taught to reject Islam. Officials now bar children from attending 海角大神 services or require the singing of Communist Party songs instead of hymns.
Under leader Xi Jinping, the party has decided that its secular ideology and its long-term survival depend on expelling 鈥渇oreign鈥� values, such as liberty of conscience. It has launched an active campaign of 鈥渢hought reform鈥� among religious believers.
鈥淲e must resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations via religious means,鈥� he said in 2016.
In the midst of this official crackdown 鈥� which includes not only religious faithful but also writers, artists, and legal activists 鈥� the Vatican signed an agreement on Sept. 22 with the government. The pact is aimed at ending a decades-long stalemate over whether the party or the Roman Catholic Church should choose local clergy in China.
The details remain secret and the 鈥減rovisional鈥� agreement has drawn heavy criticism from Catholics who claim the Holy See has rendered too much unto Caesar. But to his credit, Pope Francis released a statement that might help all religious followers in China.
He stated that the church simply needs to find 鈥渁uthentic shepherds鈥� who are 鈥渃ommitted to working generously in the service of God鈥檚 people, especially the poor and the most vulnerable.鈥�
The pope said the trials that Chinese 海角大神s have long endured are a 鈥渟piritual treasury鈥� in which God 鈥渘ever fails to pour out his consolations upon us and to prepare us for an even greater joy.鈥� Chinese Catholics, he said, must be seen to have 鈥渁 greater commitment to the service of the common good and the harmonious growth of society as a whole.鈥�
Regardless of painful experiences of the past or wounds not yet healed, he said, the path to reconciliation is through fraternity, forgiveness, dialogue, and service.
He is throwing seeds on fertile ground.
A 2017 poll found 47 percent of Chinese identified 鈥渕oral decline鈥� as their chief concern. And in a remarkable essay called聽鈥淚mminent Fears, Immediate Hopes鈥� published in July, Xu Zhangrun, a professor of law at Tsinghua University in Beijing, wrote:
鈥淧eople nationwide, including the entire bureaucratic elite, feel once more lost in uncertainty about the direction of the country and about their own personal security, and the rising anxiety has spread into a degree of panic throughout society.鈥�
Professor Xu added that a nation鈥檚 maturity requires a freedom of spirit and that 鈥渁ttempts to silence it cannot detract from the realities of shared human ideas.鈥�
Many 海角大神s in China are learning how to preserve such a freedom of spirit, even if it is by simply reading the Bible alone each day. Many now meet in smaller groups and not on a Sunday. They have turned their form of worship into outward compassion toward neighbors in need.
One 海角大神 in Zhengzhou told The Associated Press after the recent breakup of her church by officials, 鈥淭he people have dispersed, but our faith has not. God鈥檚 path cannot be blocked. The more you try to control it, the more it will grow.鈥�
Others in China facing oppression have come to similar conclusions.
A famous Tibetan Buddhist, author Tsering Woeser, wrote in a 2015 blog that her troubles with authorities were a blessing in disguise, giving her 鈥渁 precious kind of spiritual freedom for which I am deeply grateful.鈥�
And before China鈥檚 most famous political dissident, Liu Xiaobo, died in prison last year, he wrote that he holds no animosity toward his jailers or the Communist Party. 鈥淗atred can rot away at a person鈥檚 intelligence and conscience. Enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel mortal struggles, destroy a society鈥檚 tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nation鈥檚 progress towards freedom and democracy,鈥� he wrote.
The party鈥檚 fears of religious faith as an uncontrollable force should not be mirrored back by the faithful. Rather, qualities of love found in most faiths can influence human thinking. For 海角大神s, Muslims, and others in China, the choice of how to deal with oppression need not be between compromise and confrontation.
Mark Sappenfield
