According to a report in the UK Telegraph and supported by Pew research, although officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country, it's changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.
Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution and with a mix of approved churches many of them evangelical and the underground church, Christians are taking the nation by storm.
Likewise it has been reported many times that Chinese authorities seek business people who are Christians as they follow the rules, abide by the local regulations and don't tell lies. A remarkable testimony of grass roots Christian witness in the Chinese corporate and business world.
With China poised to end up being the world's number one economy (due to its mammoth population all wanting to become like the American dream), now it seems it will also become the most numerous Christian nation.
According to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life, China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa.
In this space I wrote of the 30 million Chinese men without wives and some of the processes whereby this critical anomaly might be addressed. The final comment was this now recognised growth of Christianity within China and a mass of Chinese men missionaries travelling to the four corners of the earth. Allowing nature to take its course, they might marry and settle.
Happened before
This is not as strange as it might as the previous generation saw this precisely happen with Korean missionary men and this writer personally knows of numerous such situations in the South Pacific, New Zealand and Australia.
The prediction is that by 2030, China's total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world.
In spite of all this, there remains some worry as to the political landscape, as to the possible impact on the Communist Party's grip on power, despite the clause in the country's 1982 constitution that guarantees citizens the right to engage in "normal religious activities".
As a result, a close watch is still kept on churchgoers, and preachers are routinely monitored to ensure their sermons do not diverge from what the Party considers acceptable and the Telegraph article cites examples.
One the issues is that the Communist Party was uncertain if Christianity would become an opposition political force and moreover be used by Western forces to overthrow the Communist political system. Central American history of the 70's and 80's saw this 'political fear' take a horrible turn when church leaders were murdered and treated shamefully.
The prayer of the Christians in China is that the present path of co-operative co-existence will continue. The great missionaries to China of old, citing just two, Hudson Taylor and Olympic Gold Medallist Eric Liddell will reveal a uncountable harvest.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html
