Religion in China is complicated for those trying to practice it - and complicated to explain, too.
Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country but only because the Chinese Communist Government is an atheist institution.
Chairman Mao, whose revolution brought the Communists to power in 1949, described religion as "poison".
Attempts were made through his Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s to eradicate all religions.
China as a country, though, has an ancient tradition of religion of all types: Buddhists, Christians, Taoists, Muslims and more. Historically, religion and China are deeply entwined.
The Chinese Communist Party is a master of survival. It survives by sensing tensions in society and then either adapting its regulations or clamping down – whichever it thinks will be most effective.
With religion, the government has done a bit of both. Religious groups who are happy to answer to the Communist leadership in Beijing are allowed to exist. Those who do not are driven underground.
Chinese government figures put the number of Christian Protestants in China at about 18 million and Catholics at about six million.
That's thought to be a massive underestimation, though.
Part of the confusion is because they count only the officially sanctioned churches in China.
The illegal underground churches, which are unregistered, do not form part of their tally.
The six million Catholics answer not to The Pope in The Vatican but to the Communist Government in Beijing.
The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association appoints its own bishops.
It is banned from having any dealings with the Vatican who in turn support the underground Chinese Catholics. It is a subject of continued tension between The Vatican and Beijing.
At this year's Government-run National Chinese Christian Congress, figures were published showing the growing popularity of Christianity in China.
It said that 2.4 million Protestant Christian followers were baptised during the five years to the end of 2012.
In that time, 5,195 churches had been newly built or renovated and 1,057 pastors, 482 curates and 1,443 elders ordained.
These are all government-sanctioned churches which must, in the words of Jiang Jianyong, deputy director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, "shoulder their social responsibilities and play a positive role when the society is undergoing dramatic changes".
That hints at where many of the tensions spring from. Churches globally tend to attract those who are less privileged or persecuted in some way. In China that usually means they are at loggerheads with the Government about a social or human rights issue. If Churches support them and get too powerful, they present a threat to the Communist Government.
Increasingly there are signs of Christian congregations pitted against corrupt local government officials, and that’s when the trouble starts.
Equally, though, there are suggestions of a growing willingness by the Chinese Government to allow, tentatively, more religious freedom, a development welcomed by Christian Rights organisations.
The religious tensions go well beyond Christianity.
In Tibet, there are now police stationed in almost every monastery. In China’s Xinjiang Province in the far west, the Uygur Muslim population claim its religious freedoms and culture is being quickly eroded by the encroachment of Han Chinese from the rest of China.
The Christian Underground In 'Atheist' China
China should encourage Buddhism before it is too late....
Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country but only because the Chinese Communist Government is an atheist institution.
Chairman Mao, whose revolution brought the Communists to power in 1949, described religion as "poison".
Attempts were made through his Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s to eradicate all religions.
China as a country, though, has an ancient tradition of religion of all types: Buddhists, Christians, Taoists, Muslims and more. Historically, religion and China are deeply entwined.
The Chinese Communist Party is a master of survival. It survives by sensing tensions in society and then either adapting its regulations or clamping down – whichever it thinks will be most effective.
With religion, the government has done a bit of both. Religious groups who are happy to answer to the Communist leadership in Beijing are allowed to exist. Those who do not are driven underground.
Chinese government figures put the number of Christian Protestants in China at about 18 million and Catholics at about six million.
That's thought to be a massive underestimation, though.
Part of the confusion is because they count only the officially sanctioned churches in China.
The illegal underground churches, which are unregistered, do not form part of their tally.
The six million Catholics answer not to The Pope in The Vatican but to the Communist Government in Beijing.
The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association appoints its own bishops.
It is banned from having any dealings with the Vatican who in turn support the underground Chinese Catholics. It is a subject of continued tension between The Vatican and Beijing.
At this year's Government-run National Chinese Christian Congress, figures were published showing the growing popularity of Christianity in China.
It said that 2.4 million Protestant Christian followers were baptised during the five years to the end of 2012.
In that time, 5,195 churches had been newly built or renovated and 1,057 pastors, 482 curates and 1,443 elders ordained.
These are all government-sanctioned churches which must, in the words of Jiang Jianyong, deputy director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, "shoulder their social responsibilities and play a positive role when the society is undergoing dramatic changes".
That hints at where many of the tensions spring from. Churches globally tend to attract those who are less privileged or persecuted in some way. In China that usually means they are at loggerheads with the Government about a social or human rights issue. If Churches support them and get too powerful, they present a threat to the Communist Government.
Increasingly there are signs of Christian congregations pitted against corrupt local government officials, and that’s when the trouble starts.
Equally, though, there are suggestions of a growing willingness by the Chinese Government to allow, tentatively, more religious freedom, a development welcomed by Christian Rights organisations.
The religious tensions go well beyond Christianity.
In Tibet, there are now police stationed in almost every monastery. In China’s Xinjiang Province in the far west, the Uygur Muslim population claim its religious freedoms and culture is being quickly eroded by the encroachment of Han Chinese from the rest of China.
The Christian Underground In 'Atheist' China
China should encourage Buddhism before it is too late....
