They are at it again!
The Great Powers of the world, after spreading their aggressive culture and way of thinking around the world via Colonialism, are pulling up the drawbridge to prevent their citizens being contaminated by the ‘free-thought’ virus. The US . and the UK . define their cultural heritage as Christian and based on human rights and the respect for the law. They fiercely protect their borders and they now fiercely protect their heritage, their culture albeit one rather sullied by bloodshed.
When someone learns English – a most useful and powerful language – along with it comes a whole baggage of Christian concepts made into words that are just not there in more human-friendly, or benign cultures. Immigrants to these countries are required to sit and pass certain proficiency tests before being awarded legal status. This defensive barrier seems to be official policy – but has now come into the open. My activities of promoting Buddhism and criticizing their present culture of “everyone for himself and devil take the hindmost” has drawn their ire. I have been warned that from now on, all my e-mails passing through my ISP are being copied to a certain police department in the USA . The Chinese-American Christian activist who arranged it all, kindly told me so and, due to certain phone calls and messages I have received, I now believe her.
US Christians think that Buddhism (and Atheism) falls into the category of threatening their culture! So much for the expression of free speech on the internet! – and the US just happens to supervise and manage its operations. CHINA: But what is sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander, as they say.
The recent e-mail issued by the BBC on Christian activity in China describes something falling well inside the category of threatening Chinese historical culture. This BBC email showed how determinedly Christian Chinese are converted the (ex- Communist) Chinese.
Quote: “I need to spread Christianity and I need to print the Bible and distribute it to fellow Christians” says Cao Zhuohua a leader in China ‘s Catholic underground movement.
Soon there will be more Christians than the Communist Party! says another! From the BBC: Underground Christians make the Chinese Communist Party nervous. The party is wary of any organisation that does not pledge its loyalty to the state.
Every day the firm, Amity, prints off around 9,000 bibles. But the factory is only allowed to supply bibles to the official state-approved church – not to the underground church.
A Donkey for Jesus (Quotation from Far Eastern Economic Review June 6, 1996):
Quote: It’s not easy being a “donkey for Jesus.” But for those devout, usually American, Christians who do take up the task of carrying bagfuls of Bibles from Hong Kong to China , the experience can be rewarding. “There have been times,” one so-called donkey reported, “when I have felt such power from the Lord that I just walk straight through the enemy’s camp [Customs] with great confidence in He who has sent me. But what a joy it is when I get across with those books!” Those are the words of 20 yr old Joanna from California, quoted in a pamphlet printed by the Hong Kong Revival Christian Church, which organizes many of the trips.
The pamphlet is aimed at raising money (from Norway ?) for the Church’s mission in China , a principle part is the smuggling of Bibles and other religious material into China . By its own reckoning 60 or 70 of its donkeys cross the border every day from (~ 60%(?) Catholic) Hong Kong and 288,000 Bibles were smuggled into China in 1996 along with several million gospel tracts. Amity printers concedes that local shortages exist, particularly in remote rural areas.
One of the numerical figures that stand out from the rest in the Hong Kong Revival Christian Church report; its assertion that about 8% of China ‘s population – are Christian (1996). Editor of the Hong Kong “Bridge” (Bridge to cross over) – Zhao Ming of the Christian Study Centre on Chinese Culture and Religion says that figures are often pitched too low for fear of provoking the wrath of the Government. But for their financial backers numbers are pitched higher to impress them. One powerful group is the Cardinal Kung Foundation. This group is dedicated to the promotion of Catholicism in China . (Search for it on the Web)
The poor, innocent Chinese in remote places are being burdened with a belief system from the past and which has been the cause of countless conflicts and wars, with millions dead. No-one is there with a counterbalancing explanation to Christianity, nor with a better philosophy. This is a massive destruction of Chinese culture but the authorities take no steps to control them or prohibit them.
“All it Takes for Buddhism to Disappear – is for Buddhist to do Nothing”