Religious Freedom In China Questions

[rlinda_yuya]

I have been hearing mixed things about religious freedom in China. So I'll just ask here, I need to determine what's the do's and don'ts in China. I am a Christian. I look like Chinese (if that matters). I hope you can be kind enough to give insight about religious activity in China:

1. I know that there are government approved churches and government non approved house churches, why people are still attending the house churches?

2. Also I take it that ALL religious meeting done in anywhere OTHER than Government approved churches are illegal? Am I Correct?

3. Would giving money to the poor or taking care of the homeless or sick illegal in China? I take it that people don't normally care for others less fortunate there. Would doing so can result me in trouble?

4. Praying before meals is something that's my custom. I always pray before meals regardless of the surrounding. Will doing so attract unwanted attention from officials thus resulting me in trouble?

5. Any Christian related activities that I should stay away from? I know attending house churches is a big no (maybe), but is there anything else? Conducting a charity event?

Thanks in advance

[fanglu]

I'm no expert, but:

1. I know that there are government approved churches and government non approved house churches, why people are still attending the house churches?

It probably depends on the church, maybe some people want to do things the approved churches aren't allowed to (like actively try to convert members of other religions, or consider the pope as head of their church). For some it might be on principle, that they think there should be a seperation between church and state.

2. Also I take it that ALL religious meeting done in anywhere OTHER than Government approved churches are illegal? Am I Correct?

3. Would giving money to the poor or taking care of the homeless or sick illegal in China? I take it that people don't normally care for others less fortunate there. Would doing so can result me in trouble?

I suspect you'd be best to get guidance from an established religious organisation on these issues. I suspect you'd probably be ok on 2, provided its small, doesn't involve chinese people and isn't too obvious (ie isn't handing out leaflets about its existance).

I had friends at BLCU who were involved in religious groups that held meetings, fund-raising events and so on. I have no idea if they were approved.

4. Praying before meals is something that's my custom. I always pray before meals regardless of the surrounding. Will doing so attract unwanted attention from officials thus resulting me in trouble?

I've had dinner in restaurants with people who pray before meals and have never had any trouble. It's probably just a question of not making a scene. A 30 second prayer is no different from all the toasting that is constant at restaurants, 10 minutes 'speaking in tongues' will probably get you in trouble. Then again, it's all 鸟语, isn't it?

5. Any Christian related activities that I should stay away from? I know attending house churches is a big no (maybe), but is there anything else? Conducting a charity event?

I assume you mean attending, not conducting a charity event. In my view anything thats publicly organised should be fine - the worst that will happen is it will be closed down. The only thing that I've ever heard of foreigners getting in trouble for is proselytizing to Chinese. The government likes to keep foreign and chinese religious groups seperate I think, so if a group is mixed maybe it should raise questions about whether you should be there.

If you did mean organising I think you'd need to be careful. I'd be talking to people who have organised things like that before.

You can check out this group too - Beijing International Christian Fellowship - Zhongguancun, which some of my friends were involved in when they were in Beijing. They will probably have more specific advice.

[simonlaing]

I am not sure what your work is, but they also don't like you teaching too much religion in your English classes.

There are a bunch of missionaries who come to teach English in Nanjing. During the week they teach English. On the weekend they do Church and sometimes fellowship (bible study socializing one or two nights a week). (Some at one school convinced their school to use the bible as a reading text , that was strong) Every school will have at least one student keep a diary or note of what you teach, (probably called the class monitor). The school authorities seemed more sensitive about material in Elementary and Middle school than University .

We get all kinds of Christians, a bunch of Mormons but other denominations as well, baptist, Catholic etc..

The accepted Government churchs have to say the head of their religon is Hu Jintao and Beijing. (I.e. for catholics they should see Hu Jintao as the head of the Church , and for muslims Beijing as the capital not Mecca) . Also (I could be wrong here) but the government approves all mid-level and high ranking priest/clergy.

The rule of thumb in China is don't do anything too public. If you want to invite some curious students back to you apartment to talk about god, that is fine.

If you want to gather in a secluded hall or coffee job to do fellowship bible study, that's ok.

Standing on a soap box in the middle of the square or putting religion in your classes without permission could get you in trouble.

I have said grace at a dumpling restaurant with other western and Chinese christians. It was no big deal.

Also you'd be suprised how many party members are religious. We had one chinese friend who was a some what high rankin the army . He was told he shouldn't hang out so much with foreigners though doing religious stuff was fine. (The city I live in has a lot of military bases)

With all the other issues in China, the Chinese govenrment usually has bigger fish to fry, so don't worry about it.

Have fun,

SimoN:)

[muyongshi]

First I will preface this with everything changes and is different from place to place and day to day so my answer will be general and speak of the official versus they way it is in many places with a few specific examples.

The whole "approved" meeting place is really interesting. Technically the answer is meetings conducted anywhere other than the official three self are in fact illegal. But during the quake the non-profit I was helping out got contacted by the three self here and we did some stuff with them as well. Met the 3 main pastor's of the place and they were telling us that they actually have something like 3000-4000 people coming every sunday and there is no room. So they themselves actually established local meeting places 聚会点 and they are legal "house churches". He was also telling about the other "house churches" in the city and talked about them with no hint of anything else. They were in fact semi-supportive of those groups. They kind of expected their existence. Why do people still attend the house groups? Well, it was actually funny in meeting these three pastors, two of there beliefs were in the very opposite corners- one believed in the deity of Christ, one didn't. So that pretty much answers the why some people don't go to the approved places.

It's okay to give money to the poor, buy them a meal etc. But if you want to actually organize an event you had better have permission and better yet be an NGO. And do note that if you don't do it quickly and subtly you will have a HUGE crowd in no time around you. And that my friend is not good. Basically, just don't do anything that will draw attention in public places- to the officials this is a cause for concern. But on the other hand you saying grace for your meals with your head bowed and your hands folded {and if you do this} even crossing yourself won't be a big deal. It's your faith. {I was just trying to show the obviousness of your actions in a case like this are no big deal}.

What fanglu said in response to number 5 is right on.

Also, just in terms of classes etc, don't make a point to teach religion or even your personal faith. It's not the platform for it, it's not appropriate. If someone asks you in class you can answer their question but still don't make the whole class about it. Not telling you to be ashamed or hide anything but just be smart. It's actually in my mind an abuse of trust if you do it in that setting. They hired you to teach english and your time should be spent doing just that.

[Xiwang]

You can do most anything you want as long as you don't make a big deal about it. For example, you see Bibles for sale at book stands around Beijing. I even bought one on the campus of Beijing Normal University. No problem. On the other hand, the three Christians who unfurled a banner saying "Jesus Christ is King" and knelt down to pray in Tiananmen Square on the day before the start of the Olympics were deported.

You also get more latitude if it only involves foreigners. For that reason, BICF (mentioned above) is required to ask people to show their foreign passports in order to attend.

I'm sure that the leaders of the official churches are sincere people. (Hillary Clinton attended the Haidian Christian Church located a few blocks south of Peking University when she was here in February.) You should attend one to see if it provides you with what you need. The official ones often offer English-language services.

I attended an unregistered service located next to the BLCU campus. (It wasn't exactly a secret place since everyone in the apartment building could hear the singing.) There were people there who spoke English, including one German guy, but the service is in Chinese. There were 25+ people sitting/standing in a small room in an apartment so it isn't as comfortable as going to an official church. However, the fellowship is unmatched.

Charity work in China should be no problem. For example, here is a list of a few children-related charities, including at least one that is Christian-oriented:

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~care/orphanages.html

[rlinda_yuya]

First of all thank you for the replies. They are really helpful, please keep them coming.

No I won't be teaching anything, I'll be coming there to study.

@ fangliu: No, what good is it to speak in tongues in public place . I just want to say a short prayer silently giving thanks before a meal. Thanks for the link to that FB group.

@ simonlaing: that's astonishing :o. How come there aren't house mosques then, Mecca is a sacred place to Muslims, I can't believe that. That's almost equal in saying that Hu Jintai is savior . But I am surprised to hear that many party members are religious.

@muyongshi: I hear you on the giving meal to the poor issue. I can understand that buying them a meal would probably attract too much unwanted attention. Small cash would be best I guess for now. And yes, I hear you on the whole evangelical issue. Spreading the Gospel doesn't always mean handing leaflet and the whole sharing thing. Simply showing the love and grace in all things that I do are guaranteed to have few people interested. (that's very hard to do TBH).

@xiwang: There are people furling that banners in Tiananmen :o. Wow they are very brave. I'll check the gov't approved churches for sure. Curious . Thx for the link to charity.

[Xiwang]

If you're coming to study, you may find a support network of other Christians in your school. At the Peking University language program last semester, we had a Bible study group that was started by a European student.

The muslims and mosques have their own set of rules and restrictions set forth by the Chinese government.

Finally, as an aside, I was shocked a few minutes ago while watchng an informercial selling kid's in-line skates on the children's television channel, 哈哈少儿, here in Shanghai. As all the cute kids were skating around, the catchy background song (in English) was:

I am a C

I am a C-H

I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N

And I have C-H-R-I-S-T in my H-E-A-R-T

And I will L-I-V-E E-T-E-R-N-A-L-L-Y

Either we have a Christian skating store here in China or someone has to be more careful about what music he/she is bootlegging. For those of you with access to YouTube, here's the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrNM-B_gg4A

Edited October 3, 2009 at 05:39 AM by Xiwang

[leeyah]

China believes that it has developed a special kind of democracy, making plenty of room for things which Mao would have condemned as "degenerate bourgeois tendencies", so yes, it seems that apart from being allowed to get rich the Chinese are seemingly also allowed to dabble quite freely in religion these days. But we shouldn't forget that China has always been fertile ground for sects and secret societies, so I guess any kind if religious activity's got to be under some kind of surveillance, which Western media often interpret as "religious persecution". Personally, I tend to agree with those Chinese who claim that a huge country like China is not easy to control. If you've ever been in a situation of literally being trapped "inside" a sea-of-people (人海) then you know what I mean, and I'm sure you'd agree.

I was shocked a few minutes ago while watchng an informercial selling kid's in-line skates on the children's television channel,... someone has to be more careful about what music he/she is bootlegging

I'd rather not elaborate, but from what I've seen Christianity is more often than not grossly misunderstood in China, but so is much else coming from the West. Could this "spreading of Christianity" in China be a new fad, a status marker of the well-to-do, something like that $600000 mastiff, perhaps?

[imron]

or someone has to be more careful about what music he/she is bootlegging.

Definitely this one. I've lost count of the number of times I've been in a supermarket or walking by McDonalds and they've had rap music playing containing all sorts of foul language completely unsuitable for that environment.

[Scoobyqueen]

Try do read this story about the strange death of German student who was a devout catholic. Apparently his religious beliefs may be linked to his death.