Persistence of Christianity in Post communist china Research Paper

Persistence of Christianity in Post communist china - Research Paper Example However, despite the hostility against Christianity, the religion evolved and was practiced underground in order to survive. Therefore, the revolution did not result in any shift in Christianity, but the religion persisted even after this revolution. As early as 17th century, Christian missionaries of the Roman Catholics belonging to the Jesuit order had been actively involved in China while the protestant missionary arrived in the 19th century.4 Conversion of the Chinese to Christianity was difficult in that it was linked to western imperialism. Approximately 3 to 4 million Chinese had been converted to Christianity by 1949, less than 1% of the entire population; after the collapse of the monarchial rule, fights erupted largely fueled by a need to determine the next form of governance different from the Monarchs, and in which Christians were heavily involved.5 Monarchs used religion to control their territories and neglected its moral teachings. The rise of Communism acted as a barr ier to the spread of Christianity stating religion as â€Å"opium of the people† from Max philosophy Before the 1949 revolution, Christians were estimated to be about 700,000 in China.6 In the 1940s, many Chinese Christians were behind calls to rid China off foreign influence, with a selected group of Chinese Church leaders preparing a document that was later to be known as â€Å"Christian Manifesto.†7 For example, because of their steadfast loyalty to the pope, Catholics faced great persecution from the early 1950s and 1960s, with all foreign missions being expelled from China.8 The number of Catholics in 1949 was estimated to be about 4 million in China. The severe persecution of Catholicism led to cold relationship between Vatican and the Communist country. In fact, the relations are still shaky as the Chinese Catholic church continued to ordain a bishop without Papal approval as the communist regime still requires the native Catholics to choose between devotion to the pope, and obedience to the communist authorities.9 Religion was viewed as a strong factor of change that could have threatened the status quo as introduced by the communist regime; it was mainly viewed as a liberal force in China after the 1949 revolution. Though contributing only a small portion, Christianity was particularly indentified as a big risk that could cause problems to the communist regime. Christianity was particularly introduced in China from the Western and European regions, and was thus seen as a perpetuation of western ideologies in the communist country. Having been introduced by foreigners with strong establishments in European countries and offering education, medicine, and food to the locals, it earned much hate and suspicion from the communist rulers. Clarke offers a concise differentiation of what constitutes public and private realm. Such a distinction has to rely on the dichotomous distinction between the private and public.10 Therefore, in terms of reli gion in China, private realm would constitute