TruthBook Religious News Blog

12/27/2008

WESTERVILLE, Ohio - The U.S. presidential election was the impetus for the nation's top religion stories of 2008, according to a survey of more than 100 religion journalists.

The top story was the controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, with Democratic outreach to faith communities and GOP vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin's selection as the second and third top stories, respectively.

Controversial sermons by Wright surfaced early this year, resulting in pressure on Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who eventually withdrew his membership in his church, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago.

Obama was named the top religion newsmaker of 2008.

An online poll of religion reporters was conducted Dec. 8 to 10.

The Religion Newswriters Association has conducted the poll since the 1970s.

The list of suggested top religion stories was compiled for the RNA with help from John W. Smith, religion columnist and retired religion editor of the Reading Eagle.

The other top 10 stories are:

4. The California Supreme Court rules gay marriage is legal.

5. Pope Benedict XVI makes his first U.S. visit

6. U.S. conservatives alienated from the Episcopal Church say they will ask Anglican Communion leaders for permission to create the Anglican Church in North America.

7. Terrorism believed motivated in part by religious fervor results in deaths of almost 200 people in a three-day siege in Mumbai, India.

8. China cracks down on Buddhists seeking Tibetan independence in a prelude to producing a peaceful Olympic games.

9. The crumbling economy and subsequent drop in contributions force many faith-based organizations to cut back on expenses.

10. Violence continues in Iraq as Sunnis and Shiites attack each other, and Christians also are targeted.

Labels: 2008 top stories, Barack Obama, China, gay marriage, Pope Benedict XVI, religion, Religion Newswriters Association, terrorism, the economy

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Saturday, August 02, 2008

The Catholic "destiny" in China

Many new Christians are a mix of old and new faiths while others are torn between themselves
by Francesco Sisci

BEIJING --

In China, it is now trendy to wear a cross, hanging from a small chain at the neck, fully exposed on the chest.[1] The crosses are made of wood, metal or, sometimes, silver, gold or precious stones. And it is not just about fashion: It may be jewelry, but it is also a religious statement.

Most of the time, when asked about the meaning of the cross, the bearer will answer proudly and clearly: Yes, I am a Christian. Yet, after that, everything becomes blurred. Most people don’t know the difference between being Christian (“jidujiao,” which in China refers to Protestants) and being Catholic (“tianzhujiao”, a totally different word). Nor are they familiar with the various branches of the Protestant faith. A Chinese government estimate puts the total number of “Christians” at 130 million—almost 10 percent of the population and at least five times the percentage of Christians (Protestants and Catholics) there was when the Communists took power in 1949. Even taking into account the population increase, the absolute numbers have grown immensely, up from the original 8 to 9 million.

However, if one takes a closer look at these numbers, little appears to have changed since 1949. The Catholics, even in the rosier estimates, are about 12 to 13 million, or 1 percent of China’s population, the same percentage as in 1949. The rest of the Christians are Protestant or something similar. I conducted a small survey and found that in Italy, where they are free to express themselves, many Chinese migrants are Jehovah’s Witnesses. They are mostly from the Wenzhou area in the Zhejiang province and converted while living in their villages. In one case, a wandering pastor stopped by a home and saved a sick relative through his prayers. In return, the family converted.

In the countryside, there are also many Mormons and Evangelicals. Most just follow whichever pastor they meet out of “yuanfen,”[2] or fate. Many of those pastors are self-taught, having read a translation of the Bible in Chinese. The translation may be not very accurate or done in a scholarly way. To this very weak Biblical background they add their own preaching, which is bound to draw more from the local Chinese lore (non-Christian) than from the Bible, simply because the Bible is not part of Chinese education or tradition. Many pastors mix Christianity with Taoism and Buddhism.

Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons are considered to be pseudo-Christians by Catholics. Thus they might be not very different theologically from Hong Xiuquan’s Taipings, the religious sect that almost toppled the Qing dynasty in the middle of the 19th century.

The leader of the rebellion, Hong Xiuquan, claimed to be Jesus Christ’s younger brother and said he had a vision after reading a partial translation of the Bible in Chinese. He organized a movement and a hierarchical Church, in which he was the top leader and his siblings and friends were senior officials. He also edited his own version of the Bible. At its peak, the Taiping was a tightly knit organization with many millions of converts. Some modern Chinese Christians might have sprung out of that old distorted Christian sensibility, while others might be heirs of the highly literate Protestant foreign missionaries who have flocked to China since the 19th century. In contrast to the past, modern Protestants are not organized in a single vertical Church. As far as we know, they do not plan on bringing down the government: They are not rebellious and do not want to establish a new order.

The government, mindful of the history of Taiping, might have been inclined to put down these new Christians. However, the emergence of Falun Gong in 1999 changed the order of priorities.

On April 25 1999, about 10,000 Falun Gong (a Taoist-Buddhist sect) followers surrounded Zhongnanhai, China’s White House, in a show of force to demand greater political clout. China's top leaders had no warning from their security apparatus and were caught completely by surprise. They later found out the protest was organized or abetted by senior security officials. There were suspicions that it might have been part of an attempted putsch supported by the most conservative, xenophobic wing of the Communist party and aimed at stopping the process of reforms.

The Falun Gong were opposed to modern science and medicine. In a line with old Chinese traditions, they claimed that diseases do not exist, that they were just manifestations of sins, and thus without sins, there would be no sickness. The Falun Gong have a very structured organization, modeled after the Communist party with cells, a central committee, and a politburo. They claimed to have 100 million supporters in 1999.

“The fact that so many people believed in this mumbo-jumbo changed the debate in the Party. It proved that it was not that reforms were going too fast; the problem was that reforms were going too slowly.”[3]

Furthermore, it proved that there was a “spiritual market” that was out of the Party’s reach. The Party had forsaken all claims to total “spiritual” answers after Mao’s demise. It had long stopped preaching “dialectic materialism” as some kind of religion, as it did during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). This had created a huge spiritual void, and in the early 1980s, China was rife with all kinds of breathing exercises, such as Qigong, with their roots in ancient Chinese tradition. They all assured better health, but many went as far as promising miracles and immortality. The Falun Gong was one of them. People who had now lost all faith in eternal communism and who saw traditional Confucian values shattered by decades of Maoism turned to Qigong. And after the crackdown on Falun Gong many former Qigong practitioners turned their religious interest to Christianity “with Chinese characteristics”—with the blessings of the officials who preferred Christianity to Falun Gong.

In sum, many of these new Chinese Christians are new converts to "modernity," which in China is largely tantamount to “Westernization”—or the American way of life. They pray to Jesus as they eat at MacDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken. But just as they can't eat hamburgers every day (and can't digest cheese and can't stand its smell), so they can't take the "pure" overeducated Christianity and even the "purely" American Presbyterians or Evangelicals are hard to swallow. In the same way they add soy sauce or rice vinegar to their food, to Evangelical faith they may add belief in feng shui ("wind and water," traditional Chinese geomancy) and the Yijing (an ancient soothsayers’ manual).

However, as with food, there are real “gourmands” of faith. A whole legion
of Chinese goes to seminaries and devoutly studies Latin to become good priests, Catholic or Protestant. These people take the old Chinese beliefs with a grain of salt: They do not believe in the metaphysical power of feng shui, but accept some of its more physical and "realistic" aspects: Do not reside near to polluted river because the air will be dirty; build your house with back to a high mountain so that it will be protected from cold winds and warmer in winter.

It is important to consider religion in two separate parts. There is the kernel belief in divinity, and there is the cultural wrapping that enables the delivery and acceptance of that belief. These differences are not absolute, and they can be reconciled once the different cultures are fully understood and “translated.” But this translation work has been lagging behind presently.

This is not a theoretical issue—it is critical since it trickles down to present Chinese Catholics, for whom there is a split between the official and underground churches, with lots of people caught in between. This is a political issue, but not only a political issue.

The official Catholics fear of losing their standing, direct contact with the leadership, control of the physical assets of the Church, and power over the hierarchy. The underground Catholics fear of being completely swept under the rug and sacrificed for the official Church. Both know that a time of total freedom has ended.

So far, both groups are de facto independent both from the Chinese government and the Vatican. The official Catholics can have great leeway with the Chinese government claiming they have to be loyal to the religious precepts of the Holy See, and Beijing does little to interfere in the internal life of official Catholics, fearing it could face international opposition for oppressing religious followers. Meanwhile the official Catholics can also keep religious interference from the Holy See at bay claiming they have to follow the government.

The underground Catholics do not obey to the government, as they hardly recognized it; and they were also quite independent of Rome, citing the distance, the particular conditions, and the official persecution.

Over the years, things have grown so confused and messy that there are cases of dioceses with three bishops—one official, one underground, and one “conciliatory”—all fighting with each other.

It is as if parts of the same separated body are all fighting with each other, knowing they will be sewn together again but not knowing how they will to live together.

At the moment, there are two possible solutions. The first is to reach a minimal agreement and then build slowly on successive revisions. This would require sending a nuncio to Beijing to manage all the existing threads. The second solution would be to first reach a comprehensive agreement, then have normalization, and finally send a nuncio to Beijing.

Some middle-ranking officials on both sides, concerned with the actual implementation of the agreement, would prefer the latter. Top leaders might go for the former, as they are interested in benefiting from the broad political fallout of the agreement or starting to sort out practically the local complications of the life of the Chinese Church.

Despite the larger friction, there is growing trust between the two sides. China and the Holy See reached a common agreement for the man who became bishop of Beijing last year, after the demise of Fu Tianshan. Fu had been appointed by the government but not recognized by Rome. Conversely, in 2007, through intense consultations, Beijing and Rome jointly picked young Li Shan (born in 1965) for the prestigious and symbolic position of Bishop of Beijing, virtually the head of the Chinese Catholic Church.

Furthermore, for the first time since the departure of the last nuncio in 1951, the Chinese government agreed to let four Catholic priests celebrate a mass per week during the Olympics. The masses will be in five foreign languages (Italian, Spanish, German, French, and Korean) at three central churches. English-language masses are already celebrated by Chinese priests. The masses are intended for the foreign community that will flock to Beijing during the Olympics and Paralympics period, which lasts until September 20, and thus their political impact can be minimized. However, it is a major political event as the government will concede about 50 occasions (about the total number of masses) to foreign, uncontrollable priests who will preach the Catholic creed in “communist” Beijing. It is clear proof of a new trust between China and the Holy See.

Yet, in the end, both sides are clear that the agreement cannot be just a political barter over small clauses on a piece of paper. Present China is the continuity of a millennial tradition, while Vatican represents the inheritance of only 30 centuries of Western civilization. All the way to the present, in agreement with or opposition to it, the Christian tradition has been largely defined by Rome.

If these two traditions manage to find common cultural grounds and a deeper dialogue, beyond the petty economic or political bartering, relations between China and Western world could be in place.

In the end, what also matters will be finding shared values that go beyond the issue of national integrity, something that was forced onto China by Western powers during colonial times. Before adapting to “modern Western concepts” of a nation-state, China was something close to the American melting pot: You could speak Chinese, you behaved like a Chinese person, and therefore you were Chinese—despite the color of your hair, the color of your skin, or even your accent.

Meanwhile, in the West: “In their rebellion against Christianity, the nations of Europe have exhausted and demoralized themselves. After the catastrophes of the past century, they are neither Christian nor nationalist.”[5]

In China, influential thinkers such as Zhao Tingyang, Huang Ping, Li Xiaoning, Qiao Liang, and Wang Xiangsui are striving to elaborate new doctrines that would go beyond the notion of nation as the post-Westphalian nation-state imposed on China since the 19th century. In this sense, their effort appears parallel to a similar elaboration going on in the USA. However, this is a separate subject that goes beyond the scope of the present article.

This new cultural project should be the real basis for the renewal of international organizations such as the UN, the IMF, et cetera, which are now becoming outdated.

Labels: Catholicism, China, Christianity, church, Falun Gong, Francesco Sisci, Hong Xiuquan, religion

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Friday, July 11, 2008

Dalai Lama tells us to 'reprioritize, revalue'

By Lloyd Steffen
July 9, 2008

Why is the Dalai Lama thought to be important? Fair question.

There have been many spiritual leaders, many different heads of state, even other exiled heads of state, and quite a few Nobel Peace Prize winners -- so why is this man, who describes himself always as ''a simple monk,'' important? Let me suggest three reasons.

First of all, the Dalai is an extraordinary teacher and a gifted communicator. His fame derives from his efforts to stay in constant communication. He is a New York Times best selling author many times over, able to reach wide audiences; he is a lecturer to hundreds of thousands of people across the globe -- a true global citizen; and he is the subject of many films and documentaries, including Martin Scorsese's bio-pic, ''Kundun.'' The Dalai Lama has succeeded in translating central ideas from his Buddhist tradition to people in a way -- and through all kinds of media -- that speaks to their common spiritual needs and longings, regardless of whether they are Buddhist or even religious at all. But he has also taught Buddhism along the way. Much of what many people know about Buddhism comes from their encounter with the Dalai Lama, who has connected with people as only great teachers can, embodying in his life and words a message that speaks to the great questions about life and its meaning.

Second, the Dalai Lama is important because of the specifics of his message. The Dalai Lama reminds us that we are all in the same boat, that suffering is our common condition. He humbly suggests that we are responsible for one another, and that geographic boundaries should be no impediment to our sense of responsibility. We are all connected. And we all want the same thing out of life -- we want happiness. His teaching, then, is designed to illuminate the pathways that might get us to happiness. Learn patience. Show tolerance. Seek wisdom. Forgive. Make love your aim as well as your mode of operation. Offer compassion and help those who are in need. Calm yourselves and seek peace within -- meditate. Bring peace to the world through a life of care and empathy. Shun violence and hatred. Channel anger and overcome fear. Build your life around these values, rejecting the excesses of materialism and the temptations to resolve conflict by resorting to violence. Make kindness your ethic. You cannot be too kind.

These are messages that can be found many places, including the religion of Christianity. What is unusual about the Dalai Lama as teacher is that he has extracted these messages from theological trappings and offered them as wise counsel and living directives to those seeking spiritual enlightenment. This is radical business and the kind of teaching that many Christians find difficult, since in many versions of Christianity the message about what is required to do is subordinated to requirements about belief. The Dalai Lama dissociates the two-- he focuses on the doing, on the requirements of peaceful living and wisdom seeking. He does not force his Tibetan beliefs on those outside his tradition -- when people tell him they don't accept reincarnation he laughs and says, ''How could you? How is that a part of your life?''

And this leads to a third consideration. The Dalai Lama is important because the challenge of his message is this: ''Stop doing business as usual.'' The idea that we can find peace through force of arms or happiness through acquisition is illusory. He urges people to rethink what they want and how to get what they want, and with so much misery and unhappiness in the world, the way to happiness will not come from doing things as we are used to doing them. Reprioritize and revalue, he seems to be saying. Emphasize dialogue, not confrontation. Think about cooperation rather than competition. Think about advancing the interests of others as much as you do advancing your own. Make every encounter with another person the greeting of a new friend. And when you are told this is impractical, remind your skeptic that if we do not reshift to an alternative set of values and refocus our concern to include all others, even the well-being of the planet itself, we imperil our very existence.

The Dalai Lama relates this message from his Buddhist sources -- it is not an alien message for me as a Christian. What I celebrate is that the Dalai Lama has found a way to make this message heard today, even if it is through massive media exposure and paper doll cut out books. The message goes to the hope for human happiness. The message is that business as usual is a well doomed to run dry, and alternative values, an alternative spirituality, will be required to energize peaceful and meaningful life in the days ahead. The Dalai Lama offers an alternative path away form the present unhappiness; he emphasizes a way of living that challenges what most of us value and how most of us live-and that, for me, is why the Dalai Lama stands in a long line of great spiritual teachers; that for me is why the Dalai Lama is so important.

Lloyd Steffen is professor of religion studies and chaplain at Lehigh University.

Labels: Buddhism, China, compassion, Dalai Lama, kindness, Lloyd Steffen, love, Tenzin Gyatso, Tibet

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Monday, April 07, 2008

The Dalai Lama's Appeal Transcends Religion, Politics

April 5, 2008

Star Power

By JANET I. TU
The Seattle Times

SEATTLE | On his first visit to Seattle 30 years ago, the Dalai Lama drew a couple of thousand people. On his second, the crowds totaled more than 10,000.

The Dalai Lama's popularity - here and worldwide - reflects his rise during the past half century from a relatively obscure spiritual and political leader to a prominent global figure with transcendent star power.

SPREADING FAME

The Dalai Lama's increased prominence in recent decades can be attributed to several factors - including the spread of Buddhism worldwide, his Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the many books written by or about him, movies and stories on Tibet, and his own charisma.

He draws people as an ethical leader, rather than strictly as a religious leader, said Paul Ingram, professor emeritus of the history of religion at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. "They see him as a very gentle spirit whose values don't contradict their own."

The current - 14th - Dalai Lama, named Tenzin Gyatso, was born in Tibet in 1935 and, according to Tibetan tradition, was recognized at age 2 as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama.

'ENLIGHTENED BEING'

He is considered to be a manifestation of the bodhisattva of compassion. A bodhisattva is an enlightened being who chooses to remain in this world to serve others.

For centuries, Tibet and China have had a complex relationship. Many times in history, Tibetans have acknowledged the Chinese emperor as a kind of overlord, while administering their own affairs with almost no interference, said Stevan Harrell, a University of Washington anthropology professor specializing in China and ethnic relations.

Their language, culture, religion and political systems were completely separate from those of China, Harrell said.

In 1950, Chinese Communist troops invaded Tibet and established direct control, but allowed the Dalai Lama to remain as spiritual leader.

In 1959, after an unsuccessful Tibetan revolt and subsequent crackdown by the Chinese government, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet with about 85,000 followers. They eventually established the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.

While the Chinese government has improved schooling, health care and infrastructure in Tibet, Harrell said, it has also placed enormous restrictions on the practice of religion, which is immensely important to most Tibetans.

CURRENT UPROAR

Perhaps causing the most resentment over the past decade, he said, is the Chinese government's requirement that monks undergo "political education," which includes renouncing the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama has characterized what is happening in Tibet as cultural genocide. But he did not call for the protests, Thurman said, and he remains open to talking with Chinese leaders.

Tenzin Wangyal, a lab assistant in Seattle who is Tibetan, says he disapproves of violent protests, and that the Dalai Lama's approach is noble. But "we're also tired of not seeing any results from this" - especially from the Chinese side, he said.

Labels: Buddhism, China, Dalai Lama, ethics, Janet I. Tu, Tibet

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Monday, January 28, 2008

Chinese government rethinks religion

Jan. 25, 2008, 5:56PM

Communist party now believes faith can restore social harmony

By Edward Cody
Washington Post

BEIJING — There was Hu Jintao, head of the Chinese Communist Party, warmly shaking hands at a party-sponsored New Year's tea party with one of the country's main Christian leaders. To make sure the message got through to China's 68 million party faithful, a large photograph of the moment was splashed across the front page of the official party newspaper, People's Daily.

Hu's display of holiday courtesy to Liu Bainian, general secretary of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, was one in a series of recent signals that China's rulers, despite the party's official atheism, are seeking to get along better with the increasing numbers of Chinese who find solace and inspiration in religion. The shift in tactics does not mean the Politburo has embraced religion, specialists cautioned, but it indicates a desire to incorporate believers into the party's quest for continued economic progress and more social harmony.

The move away from traditional Marxist attitudes evolved from Hu's campaign for what he calls "a harmonious socialist society." The concept, in effect an appeal for good behavior, was designed to replace the moral void left when the party long ago jettisoned historical Chinese values and, more recently, loosened the zipped-tight social strictures of communism under Mao Zedong. Religion, the party has decided, can also be useful in encouraging social harmony because it urges its followers to hew to a moral code.

Hu presided over a special Politburo study session last month on the expanding role of religion in China. Two of the party's religion specialists were called in to explain the phenomenon to China's 25 most powerful men, most of whom grew up with the Marxist idea that religion is a hostile force and, in China, foreign infiltration with ties to the colonial past.

In a speech to the group, Hu seemed to break with that tradition, suggesting the moral force of religion can be harnessed for the good of the party. "We must strive to closely unite religious figures and believers among the masses around the party and government," he said, according to the official account, "and struggle together with them to build an all-around moderately prosperous society while quickening the pace toward the modernization of socialism."

Liu, the Christian leader shown in the photo with Hu, noted that the president also for the first time included discussion of religion in the party's 17th National Congress in October. Religion should no longer be considered sabotage of the party's economic and social plans, Hu told fellow party members, but rather a positive force that can be enlisted to help put the plans into effect.

The number of religious believers in China has long been difficult to determine. Faced with the party's traditional hostility, many believers have kept their faith hidden. But a government-sponsored survey last year found the number may reach 300 million, nearly a quarter of the population.

Most of those professing belief said they identified with China's traditional religions, such as Buddhism, Taoism and Islam. But those identifying themselves as Christians accounted for as many as 40 million, the survey found, most of them Protestants. Specialists have estimated the number of Catholics at 12 million, divided between those in Liu's government-sponsored Patriotic Catholic Association and those in informal churches who look on the pope as their leader.

Anthony Lam of the Holy Spirit Study Center in Hong Kong, who has studied the church in China for two decades, warned that the current warming is a tactic that could easily be reversed. "For me, it's a good thing, but it doesn't mean very much," he said.

Over the years, he added, the party's treatment of believers has varied, but its overall attitude is that religion, particularly Christianity and Islam, is a portal through which foreign ideas and loyalties can make their way into Chinese society.

In the same vein, Ren Yanli, a religion specialist at the government-sponsored Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that the party's recent overtures were aimed at enlisting religious beliefs as a force for economic and social progress. Nowhere did the party acknowledge faith and religion as ideals to be pursued in their own right, he said.

Nonetheless, government controls over religious activity have loosened markedly in recent years. Political connotations, such as those attached to Buddhism in Tibet or Islam in the autonomous Xinjiang region of northwestern China, have become the major targets of police surveillance in most areas.

Despite the trend, China and the Vatican have been unable to renew diplomatic relations, with China holding firm to the power to name bishops. Hu himself led a special committee in 2005 to end the hostility; at that time, progress was so rapid that a bargain seemed within reach. Those hopes fell through, however, with the appointment of several bishops who did not have Vatican approval.

In recent months, the momentum toward friendly Vatican ties seems to have revived. Two bishops were ordained with papal approval last month, following the appointment of a Vatican-approved bishop for Beijing in September. Regular quiet contacts have been made between Vatican and Chinese diplomats.

But behind the scenes, Patriotic Catholic Association churches and local religious affairs bureaus have proved to be formidable obstacles, according to a knowledgeable religious source. Their positions — often including state salaries, apartments and prestige — would be endangered if the church fell under Rome's authority. Moreover, the source added, some local jurisdictions have been involved in land deals with compliant bishops in arrangements that might be disturbed by Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI displayed eagerness to mend the split soon after taking over the Vatican. But his zeal seems to have waned, Lam observed. Meanwhile, conservatives in the Chinese party leadership, backed by local bureaus, have prevented a final deal because they are hesitant to abandon the doctrine that the Vatican is a foreign power that should have no authority in China.

Only a strong Chinese leader willing to take a bold initiative could shake the situation loose, Lam predicted, and Hu has never been noted for that kind of leadership.

The handshake in the tea-party photo, he noted, was with a leader of the government-run patriotic church, not a Vatican-approved bishop.

Labels: Catholic, China, Christian, Edward Cody, Patriotic Catholic Association, religion, Vatican

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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Are young intellectuals 'possessed'?

Monday, November 12, 2007
By Joe Hung, Special to The China Post

Page 1 of 2 - click on "external source" for complete article

Let me first define who Chinese intellectuals are. In imperial China, they were -- for lack of a better English equivalent -- literati, most of them serving as government officials at one time or another. There were others who never passed the civil service examination and couldn't join the civil service. But they were all educated and intelligent because they learned much from Confucian books. They were the elite. Nowadays, people who have college degrees are considered intellectuals. Therefore, it follows that college students are young intellectuals.

Confucianism is an existentialistic and activist religion, albeit many prefer to call it a philosophy or a way of life, with most monotheist Western scholars convinced that it isn't a religion. Chinese literati were activist when they were young. As they grew older, they almost invariably turned to Taoism -- usually not religious Taoism -- for they came to know that their desire to put society in good order wasn't easily fulfilled, or they gave it up altogether to let everything taking its natural course. When they were nearing death, they took to Buddhism, hoping to reach enlightenment (or achieve "satori," in Japanese Zen Buddhist thought). Incidentally, neo-Confucianism after the Sung period (960-1278) had Buddhism superimposed on it. But one thing was certain: Literati never got depressed.

That's why I was shocked to learn that in Taiwan at least one out of every four university students, or young intellectuals who should belong to the class of literati in imperial China, is "depressed enough to benefit from assistance" of one kind or the other. That information was found, among other things, by a John Tung Foundation survey conducted between last May and June. An even more shocking finding was that the kinds of assistance these depressed young intellectuals are seeking include "divination" and "exorcism."

The survey shows at least 1.8 percent and a slightly lower 1.7 percent of the 6,960 respondents rely on divination and exorcism, respectively, for help in dealing with depression. Those who wish to seek counseling from school counselors account for a mere 2.3 percent, much fewer than another 3.3 percent of the students chanting sutras and/or praying for divine help. Still another 2.8 percent believe their folklore religion -- animism, or more often than not, outright superstition -- can cure their depression. Altogether, 11.9 percent of Taiwan's young intellectuals want supernatural powers to get rid of their psychiatric disorder.

These statistics indicate more than one tenth of young intellectuals in Taiwan are sick, not of depression but of superstitious fantasy. For divination, one has to see a Taoist priest, a geomancer, or even a fortune teller or palm reader. Divination, however, can't cure disease or maladies.

Labels: China, Confucianism, divination, intellectuals, Joe Hung, John Tung Foundation, religion, supernatural

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Sunday, August 19, 2007

Olympic City in Midst of Revival?

By George Thomas
CBN News
August 18, 2007

CBNNews.com - BEIJING - Seven days a week, the machines at the Nanjing Amity Printing Company churn out copies of what some claim is one of China's best-selling books - the Bible.

Forty-three million Bibles have been printed legally in Communist China since 1987. Once a banned book, today some 3 million copies are printed and distributed each year across the country.

And this year, Chinese Christian leaders are hoping to print a special edition of the Bible to make available to the hundreds of thousands of athletes and visitors expected to attend next year's Olympic Games.

Dr. Cao Shengjie of China Christian council oversees the printing of Bibles in China. He said, "And so for this very important occasion, we hope we can print a special edition, maybe the four Gospels in English and Chinese, bilingual."

Lui Bainian, a top leader of China's officially sanctioned Catholic organization, wants to take it a step further and place these Bibles in some of the major hotels in Beijing.

"I want our visitors to know that we have religious freedom here and this is a small step to meet their religious needs during the Olympic," Bainian said.

The Chinese capital has hundreds of hotels. One of the biggest in town, the Minzu hotel, is entertaining the idea of making the Bibles available to Olympic guests.

"We are doing our preparations and once we know where our guests are coming from, we will be ready to meet their spiritual needs," Minzu Hotel General Manager Chen Guoyao said.

The Beijing Olympic Committee is also getting religious. It plans to provide Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim services.

CHINA CONNECTION:
China's Great Bible Debate

"I think the needs of various religious groups will be taken into consideration and as a matter of fact, for example, inside the Olympic Village, we are going to set up a religious service center," Sun Weide, deputy director of communications for the Beijing Olympic committee said.

Shengjie says it is important for people outside of China, especially Christians, to know the real situation of Christianity in China.

And what they will see is a China that's experiencing unprecedented religious fervor. When athletes and visitors arrive in Beijing next year for the Olympic Games, they will find a city and a nation in the middle of what some are calling a spiritual awakening.

Despite the government's official doctrine of atheism, millions of Chinese are turning to religion.

"People now feel more freer, more open to express their religious convictions," said Tong Shijun, professor of philosophy at East China Normal University.

Tong Shijun teaches at a prominent university in Shanghai. He's just completed the first major survey on religious beliefs in China. And according to his findings, 31.4 percent of those surveyed said they were religious - putting the number of believers in China at about 300 million.

Christianity is also growing fast. Twelve percent, or 40 million people, described themselves in the poll as followers of Christianity, much higher than official figures given by the Chinese government.

What is fueling these conversions? Chinese experts say that a growing number of people are turning to religion to better cope with the country's rapid social and economic changes.

He Hong is an economics student in Shanghai who recently spent an afternoon at a local Christian bookstore.

"Today in our country, more and more people, especially the young people have a yearning for spirituality" Hong, a Shanghai university student, explained. "So many of my friends feel empty in their hearts. We feel so much pressure to get a job, have a better education."

According to Shengjie, so many of them are turning up at church looking for answers.

"People can easily think that to have a better living and to earn more money is the goal of life but the church, we will tell people that the man does not live by bread alone, we need the Word of God," Shengjie said.

Buddhism, Taoism, and other religions are also experiencing growth. Shijun believes that the government is starting to recognize the role religion could play in society.

"In the last couple of decades the situation is that religious life is recognized to have a positive role in society, generally speaking, as long as these religious groups abide by the national and local laws," he said.

Strict limitations on religion remain, however. For example, China only recognizes government registered churches and considers unregistered house churches illegal.

Still Chinese Christian leaders hope next year's Olympic Games will be an opportunity to showcase China's diverse and growing religious tapestry.

"Our expectation is to have more friendship and fellowship," Shengjie said.

Labels: Bible, China, Christian, George Thomas, Olympic Games, religion, Tong Shijun

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Saturday, August 11, 2007

Repression of Freedom of Religion in Tibet Continues Unabated

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Amanda Abrams

Washington, D.C.August 10, 2007

Efforts by the Chinese government to limit the succession of Tibetan spiritual leaders, part of a comprehensive campaign to control the Tibetan people, is a fundamental violation of freedom of religion and belief, Freedom House said today.

Last week, China's State Administration for Religious Affairs posted a new set of regulations on its website declaring that reincarnations of “living Buddhas”—Tibetan monks of the highest order—must first seek approval from Chinese authorities. In an apparent effort to target the current Dalai Lama, who is living in exile in northern India, the rules prohibit any Buddhist monk living outside of China from recognizing a “living Buddha.” The new regulations take effect September 1.

“The new rules issued by the Chinese government are both deeply offensive and in violation of basic religious freedom principles,” said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House. “The selection of spiritual leadership should remain solely in the hands of the religion’s own hierarchy and outside the purview of the state.”

The Chinese government has long insisted that it must have the final say over the appointment of the most senior Tibetan monks. In 1995, the Dalai Lama and Chinese authorities chose rival reincarnations of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989. After the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama is the most important figure in Tibetan spiritual hierarchy, and will identify the next Dalai Lama, when the current one, now 72 years old, dies. As a result, Beijing could control the eventual selection of the fifteenth Dalai Lama.

“China’s repression of Tibetans, like that of its own people, is extremely strategic,” said Paula Schriefer, director of advocacy at Freedom House. “Chinese authorities are keenly interested in the selection of Tibetan spiritual figures due to the tremendous reverence with which they are held by their followers.”

Religious freedom in Tibet is strictly limited by the Chinese government. While some religious practices are tolerated, officials forcibly suppress activities viewed as vehicles for political dissent or advocacy of Tibetan independence. Possession of pictures of the Dalai Lama can lead to imprisonment, and Religious Affairs Bureaus continue to control who can study religion in Tibet. Only boys who sign a declaration rejecting Tibetan independence, expressing loyalty to the Chinese government, and denouncing the Dalai Lama are allowed by Chinese officials to become monks.

Freedom House has long advocated for Tibetans’ freedom. In 1979, at a time when U.S. officials had refused a formal relationship with the Dalai Lama for fear of annoying Chin, Freedom House arranged his first visit to the U.S. In 1991, on another visit to the U.S., the Dalai Lama accepted Freedom House’s Freedom Award.

Tibet ranks as Not Free in the 2007 edition of Freedom in the World, Freedom House’s annual survey of political rights and civil liberties. The country received a rating of 7 (on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 as the lowest) for political rights and a 7 for civil liberties.

Freedom House, an independent non-governmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world, has monitored political rights and civil liberties around the world since 1972.

Labels: Amanda Abrams, China, Freedom House, religious freedom, Tibet