Second opinion
In response to Carol Olson's question about religious freedom in China:
Great question about religious freedom in China. I've found reasons for hope -- there are at least two active Catholic churches in Zhuzhou City, which is quite a feat for a small town (by Chinese standards) in which less than .5% of residents identify themselves as "Christian." One of the churches, which I attend, is spanking new and atop the highest hill in the city.
The congregants at both churches are almost exclusively older folks, holdovers from pre-Communist days (ie pre-1949), when missionaries were allowed in and active in China. After 1949, missionaries were expelled or imprisoned, atheism was promoted as the official belief of China, and many, many churches were toppled. It's been just in the past decade, I think, that a modicum of religious freedom has returned to China, and public worship has again become part -- albeit a limited part -- of civic life.
There is no greater symbol of hope, in Zhuzhou, than the shining new church on the hill. It symbolizes renewed religious freedom which, inevitably, symbolizes new political freedom. Every aspect of life in China is political, especially religion, so a new feeling of religious freedom can only mean a new feeling of general freedom.
As Chinese history teaches all too clearly, though, that freedom can be quashed at any time by the all-powerful government. For now, though, it's spring all the time in people's minds. Thoughts and expressions of a new freedom are sprouting everywhere, and hope floats through the air as refreshingly as a spring breeze.
For more info, I'll suggest a new book, entitled "Jesus in Beijing." I've not read it, but I'd like to read it soon (an impossibility, of course, since such a book would never grace the shelves in China). In it, the author talks of a coming re-emergence of Christianity in China, on a massive scale. Again, who knows how the government will respond, but for now hopes sprout for a freer tomorrow.
