China's Christian Future<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you haven't yet read Yu Jie First Things piece on \u201cChina's Christian Future,\u201d do it now. It's a first-rate piece of political-religious analysis, a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/07\/chinas-christian-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China's Christian Future\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you haven't yet read Yu Jie First Things piece on \u201cChina's Christian Future,\u201d do it now. 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{"id":18237,"date":"2016-07-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=13"},"modified":"2016-07-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T00:00:00","slug":"chinas-christian-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/07\/chinas-christian-future\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s Christian Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I<\/span>f you haven\u2019t yet read Yu Jie First Things piece<\/a> on \u201cChina\u2019s Christian Future,\u201d do it now. It\u2019s a first-rate piece of political-religious analysis, a moving story of faithful witness, a powerful brief for the Christian future of the world\u2019s most populous country, which will, by 2030, be the country with the largest Christian population.<\/p>\n

Among other things, the article offers concrete examples of how the church forms civil society and shapes politics. A few samples:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cto this day the Chinese have no real voting rights, but congregants can elect their own board members and administrative leaders. For those inexperienced with running and voting for office, churches are a seedbed of civic activity. Many of these churches are Presbyterian and Calvinist, the same tradition that played such a central role in the rise of democracy in the West.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cin the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, hundreds of churches quickly formed the China Christian Action Love volunteer association to provide relief, which many disaster victims praised as besting government efforts in both speed and constancy. In addition, some churches have established schools for members\u2019 children as an alternative to the statist curriculum of public schools. Through the churches, Chinese Christians are becoming active agents in society rather than passive subjects controlled by the government.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of his own Bible study group, he writes that it \u201cbecame an ark. As human rights lawyers, independent writers, journalists, and Tiananmen survivors joined us aboard our vessel, our community of faith also became a thorn in the regime\u2019s side. My dear friend Liu Xiaobo, the courageous human rights activist, was a friend of the church and expressed his support for us in writing when we were harassed by the administration.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

All of which illustrates that the church is most politically potent when she is the church<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(Photo by Peter Morgan.)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"