Jesus seems to be making a comeback in the PRC. Since the introduction of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox missionaries to China, many of them to Shanghai, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Christianity has been a popular minority religion. While practice abated during Mao’s hay day, China has experienced a resurgence in past years. Just two weeks ago, we reported that Orthodox priests were allowed to lead a service in Shanghai for the first time in over four decades. An article by the Chicago Tribune shows this incident may be indicative of a larger trend of successful Christian advocacy, some of which may challenge the Chinese government’s role as supreme authority over its citizens:
As China's Christian population has climbed to an estimated 70 million, a growing number of lawyers and scholars have converted to Christianity and turned their skills to the issue of religious freedom. They are teaming up with churches to challenge the government in court, suing for the rights they believe are guaranteed under China's constitution.
They take inspiration from the American civil rights movement and the ideals symbolized by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. And they hope that holding the country to account for its pledges of religious freedom will nudge China toward greater respect for its citizens' other rights as well.
The power wielded by the new and growing network of reform groups is significant. In the words of secular reform advocate Li Fan, “Christianity has probably become China’s largest non-governmental organization.”
In other religious news:
- The Christian boom is not just spiritual, but economic. The Nanjing Bible factory we told you about earlier has been featured in the LA Times. It now produces 12 million copies of the holy book in 75 languages each year both for domestic use and for export.
- The Christian movement may be largely independent from the Communist Party, but the government has recently stepped in to aid the cause, announcing plans to rebuild a 100-year-old Catholic seminary destroyed by the Sichuan Province. The building is one of hundreds of places of worship in the area that were toppled in the disaster.
- As the government looks to restore one religious site, it may be haunted by its decision to tear down another. The World Uyghur Congress reported Monday that Chinese authorities in Xinjiang had demolished a mosque in the province for refusing to publicly support the Olympics, one of several recent examples of Muslim-majority tension.
- The Israeli consulate is undertaking the task of documenting the experience of Jews in Shanghai, a community that swelled during WWII with the 20,000 European refugees who fled to the city. While that number has since fallen to 3,000, the two remaining synagogues are references to the Shanghai’s surprisingly rich Jewish history.
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译文:
万世巨星（和其他宗教新闻）
现在看起来耶稣在中国复苏了。明清时期许多天主教，基督教新教和东正教的传教士来到中国，他们中的许多人也到达了上海。从那时起，基督教就成为比较流行的少数民族教派。虽然在毛泽东时期其传播有所减弱，但是在过去几年又重新恢复了活动。两周前，我们曾报道四十多年来中国政府第一次允许东正教的牧师在上海举行礼拜活动。芝加哥论坛报的一篇文章指出，这一事件预示着基督教在中国的宣传是非常成功的。对许多教徒来说，基督教的一些宣传甚至会超越中国政府成为最高权威。
随着中国教徒增长到七千万左右，越来越多的律师和学者开始信仰基督教并且利用自身才能为争取宗教自由而努力。他们同教会联合起来，在法庭上向政府提出异议，诉求他们坚信的受中国宪法保护的权利。
他们从美国民权运动和牧师马丁路德金代表的理想中获取灵感。同时还希望国家能够兑现其实行宗教自由的承诺，进而推动中国政府更加尊重人民的其他权利。
现在一些新兴的快速发展的改革组织拥有巨大的力量。就像世俗化改革推动者李凡（音译）说得那样：“基督教有可能成为中国最大的非政府组织”。
其他宗教新闻
基督教不仅仅在精神上迅速发展，也在经济上取得长足进步。我们之前提到的南京圣经制造厂曾在洛杉矶时报上亮过相。其每年都要生产1200万册75种语言版本的宗教书籍，不仅在国内市场上销售，还出口到国外市场。
基督教运动多是独立于中国共产党，但是最近中国政府开始出面干预一些宗教活动，制定计划恢复在四川地震中被毁坏的有100多年历史的天主教神学院。这所建筑是众多在灾难中被摧毁的礼拜场所之一。
既然政府希望重建一处宗教场所，那么就得拆毁一处其他的建筑。世界维吾尔代表大会在本周一报道称新疆的一些权利组织已经拆毁一处清真寺来拒绝公开支持奥运会，这是穆斯林占多数的一些组织的活动之一。
以色列领事馆的任务之一就是整理记录犹太教信徒在上海的各种经历，这一群体是在二战时期迅速壮大起来的，其中有2万多名逃亡至此的欧洲难民。虽然这一数字已经缩小至3000，但存留下来的两个犹太教堂依旧惊人地保持着丰富的犹太教历史。
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