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>Wong is open about his Christian faith and how it catalyzed his activism against Beijing’s tightening control over Hong Kong. Christianity's role in Chinese s

by rtpg 9y ago

>Wong is open about his Christian faith and how it catalyzed his activism against Beijing’s tightening control over Hong Kong. Christianity's role in Chinese society is interesting. There are something like 100 million christians in China, and based off of stories from friends, a lot of cults in that space as well. A lot of organizations play off of that. For example multi-level marketing stuff talk a lot about being children of God in their sessions in China. Considering how Christianity affects decision-making in the west, I wonder if this will in fact drive major change politically in China as well.

fiblye 9y ago
100 million isn't anywhere close to what I've seen reports of before, and I can't imagine it being true. Do you have any non-religiously motivated sources for that claim?
- etse 9y ago
  I'm not sure where the 100 million estimate comes from, either, but on the other hand, I have no idea what your reports have stated. I'm not clear on how religious motivation should exaggerate their data. Does it help to intentionally overreport and claim that religious people are underrepresented? Is it better to intentionally underreport and go for the angle of persecuted minority group, so that the greater international community, and perhaps even the general populace would have sympathy? Maybe both, depending on the situation. Are there studies on the difference in accounting of the number of self-professing religious believers in a population as reported by religious and nonreligious sources?
- ajdlinux 9y ago
  Pew Forum estimates 67 million in 2011. http://www.pewforum.org/files/2011/12/ChristianityAppendixC.pdf http://www.pewforum.org/files/2011/12/ChristianityAppendixC....
imron 9y ago
> I wonder if this will in fact drive major change politically in China as well. It will change 0 politically in China. Firstly, 100 million would be close to 1 in 15 people being Christian, and Christianity is nowhere near that popular in China. That aside, even if it did get so popular that it started to become a threat (in terms of wielding political influence), Beijing would simply shut it down. See for example Falungong, which was estimated to have upwards of 70 million practitioners and was allowed (and even encouraged) for a time, but as their influence and their unwillingness to submit in anyway to government interference grew, so did tensions between the two groups, culminating in Falungong supporters staging a protest surrounding the entire central government compound of Zhongnanhai with > 10,000 supporters. The government began work to suppress and dismantle Falungong almost overnight.
khuey 9y ago
The Taiping Rebellion resulted in 20-30 million deaths so I think it's fair to say that Christianity has already caused major political change in China.

by rtpg 9y ago

fiblye 9y ago

100 million isn't anywhere close to what I've seen reports of before, and I can't imagine it being true. Do you have any non-religiously motivated sources for that claim?

etse 9y ago
I'm not sure where the 100 million estimate comes from, either, but on the other hand, I have no idea what your reports have stated. I'm not clear on how religious motivation should exaggerate their data. Does it help to intentionally overreport and claim that religious people are underrepresented? Is it better to intentionally underreport and go for the angle of persecuted minority group, so that the greater international community, and perhaps even the general populace would have sympathy? Maybe both, depending on the situation. Are there studies on the difference in accounting of the number of self-professing religious believers in a population as reported by religious and nonreligious sources?
ajdlinux 9y ago
Pew Forum estimates 67 million in 2011. http://www.pewforum.org/files/2011/12/ChristianityAppendixC.pdf http://www.pewforum.org/files/2011/12/ChristianityAppendixC....

imron 9y ago

> I wonder if this will in fact drive major change politically in China as well. It will change 0 politically in China. Firstly, 100 million would be close to 1 in 15 people being Christian, and Christianity is nowhere near that popular in China. That aside, even if it did get so popular that it started to become a threat (in terms of wielding political influence), Beijing would simply shut it down. See for example Falungong, which was estimated to have upwards of 70 million practitioners and was allowed (and even encouraged) for a time, but as their influence and their unwillingness to submit in anyway to government interference grew, so did tensions between the two groups, culminating in Falungong supporters staging a protest surrounding the entire central government compound of Zhongnanhai with > 10,000 supporters. The government began work to suppress and dismantle Falungong almost overnight.

khuey 9y ago

The Taiping Rebellion resulted in 20-30 million deaths so I think it's fair to say that Christianity has already caused major political change in China.