A good article about the persecution of Christians in China
Christianity in its purest and original form is the creed of the underdog. In the Roman era it was the consoling faith of slaves, women and other human chattels, and of the oppressed in general.
The essential principle of Christianity is that every human being is known to God, valuable, special and has been born for a purpose. It was a trail-blazing concept: almost 2,000 years before we were all equal before the law, Christianity taught that we were all equal before God.
Those who appropriated the religion did all they could to undermine that message because it did not fit with social mores, the law or their own desire for power.
Yet the reason Christianity is feared by absolutist rulers is precisely because of that single principle that every human being has value and autonomy.
They fear that Christianity – with its creed of autonomy, free will and human value – will become the focal point for rebellion against oppression. The reason that Christians are persecuted, therefore, is not because of their religion in and of itself, but because of what their religion teaches, which is in direct conflict with totalitarianism.
Muslims are not persecuted in China, which has one of the world’s oldest Muslim communities, in the city of Xi’An.
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http://www.tempi.it/cina-cristiani-difendono-la-croce-della-chiesa-dalla-demolizione-500-poliziotti-li-massacrano-di-botte-noi-pronti-a-morire-per-la-fede
Imagine bishops ordained by the state who have to answer to the regime.
China refuses to acknowledge what you described perfectly well: Christianity’s original claim to universality. Ergo anything coming out of the Vatican is by default subversive.
The Pope then, is considered another Dalai Lama, negative influence on the people – that there be no inspiration to challenge any authority.
This one, however, may be a tad tougher than they think. Even because he’s pretty much a radical leftist.
Unfortunately, although Muslims in China are not persecuted for their faith, there are a fair number of Muslims being persecuted for political reasons in China – one has only to read a bit about the life circumstances of Muslims in Xinjiang to know this.
With regard to the persecution of Christians as Christians, this would be an example of one thing that our government (and the EU in general) could and should do more to highlight. The European Union and China usually hold two annual human rights dialogues with the Chinese authorities, but for a number of reasons, no dialogues have been held since May 2012.
There was no dialogue at that infamous bilateral meeting involving Muscat, eirher.
You managed, in a few lines, to explain what Christianity is all about.
[Daphne – And I’ll tell you that it most certainly wasn’t because of 12 years of compulsory RC lessons at a convent school.]
http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/articles/xinjiang-procedure_610145.html
You summed that up pretty neatly.
Basic human rights and Christianity share the same common principles. One of the compulsory text books for philosophy of law is/was John Finnis’ “Natural Law and Natural Rights”.
Daphne’s summary can be extended further to explain that Christianity became the dominant religion in Europe, and hence the origins of European values as we know them, and why Europe leads the way on fundamental human rights.
All the values you attribute to Christianity were already an integral part of Judaism even before the emergence of Christianity. Perhaps you would have done better to write about Judeo-Christianity.
Many Christians are blissfully ignorant of the values of Judaism and still harbour serious anti-Semitic misconceptions, the most widespread of which is that Judaism promotes revenge through the maxim “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” when this is, in actual fact, a restriction of revenge or a limitation of the lex talionis: an eye for an eye, not a life for an eye — the principle of proportionality.
As stated in the Mishnah: “whosoever saves one life, saves the whole world or all mankind” — a clear indication that in Judaism the value of human life is inestimable.
In the “Roman era”, as you put it rather imprecisely, not only slaves, the poor and the oppressed were Christian — this may have been true in the earliest times — though Acts already mentions well-to-do individuals who were Christian — but after the Edict of Milan the highest public offices were allotted to Christians. Thenceforward, oppression often came from the direction of the Christians rather than the other way round.
Incidentally, Judaism arrived in China around the 8th or 9th century, before Christianity.
Perhaps in this country where all is misinterpreted or politically twisted, I should hasten to add that:-
All of the above, needless to say, is not written to detract anything from the heroic resistance of Chinese Christians or to justify in any way whatsoever the despotism of the Chinese government.
And I was under the impression that the essence of CHRISTianity was the Incarnation, through which Christ was able to “satisfy Divine Justice” and reconcile us to God. silly me.
[Daphne – That’s Roman Catholicism, Reuben, not actual Christianity. Roman Catholicism post-dates the original Christianity by centuries. Christ’s essential message was most certainly not about his own death. It was this: “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples.” – John 13:34-35 ]
Which “branch” of Christianity are we talking about? I assumed (Roman) Catholicism.
It’s in the title.
Reuben, don’t assume. Daphne was speaking about “Christianity in its purest and original form,” and not about a branch of it.
Where is faut[e]demieux? I’m waiting for him to tell us about the purcissjoni bil-vara organised by the Maltese community in Beijing.