Criticizing the Christians.
Today while walking past the school’s Thursday English corner (which I never take part in), I saw something that looked suspicious. I walked over, and sure enough, there were these two white guys proselytizing to some Chinese girls. I asked what they were doing, and reminded them that they were breaking the law. Actually, proselytizing isn’t forbidden, just proselytizing by foreigners. The guys claimed that they weren’t preaching, that the girls just ASKED them about their religion. Conveniently, though, the guys just HAPPENED to have a copy of the New Testament in Chinese. I gave them a bit of a hard time, before handing back their Bible, which I actually snatched from them — it looked like the guy was going to hide away what he was holding when I came over to them, so I nabbed it to take a look at it.
I never liked these people who come to China under false pretenses to preach to people. I also don’t like people who use fear to convert others (although I don’t know if this is what they were doing). I also don’t like it when these people urge Chinese to break the law for religion’s sake — that’s really easy when the worst that could happen to you is you get deported, while the Chinese person could end up in a lot more trouble.
In a way I felt guilty for giving the guys a hard time, though. Maybe I should just let them do their thing? Also, maybe my scolding them could make what they are doing seem MORE interesting to people who they are talking to, who might just forget about it otherwise. Maybe they’re just giving people what would end up being a good innoculation against religion? I don’t know.
April 6th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
I have some vivid memories of seeing some ‘missionaries’ at work in Albania and Bulgaria several years ago. There is something disturbing about seeing these outsiders come in and try to change the locals when you have the sense that the ones trying to do the changing don’t have any appreciation or understanding for the local people’s culture or personal histories.
One restaurant scene in Bulgaria really haunts me. A young strapping Bulgarian man was the dinner guest of two southern American proselytizer-wannabes. The young man was trying to explain that his father wouldn’t approve of the son making a change in religion, and was trying to provide some background on his family and its views about such things, including the fact that dad was, apparently, not the nicest guy around. The Americans seemed to hardly process what they were being told, and to simple tell the young man that they wanted to meet with the father, too. I thought to myself that I wouldn’t want to witness that meeting.
April 8th, 2007 at 1:01 am
i NEVER met a missionary(I mean foreign ones) personally. But where I live there’re quite a few chinese old ladies who seem to be keen about the christianity and they are rightfully suspected of engaging in some secret proselytizations.my mom told me that one day an old woman accosted her while murmuring someting and then handed her a flyer with christianity doctrines on it,apparently trying to convert her,who is a pious buddhist.She all but fled,citing belief conflict.
I wonder if those old ladies had broken the law?And who asked them to do the proselytizing thing? Are there any quotas for each of them?
April 8th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
As I understand it, only foreigners are forbidden to proselytize. I think it’s a reaction against Western imperialism — missionaries were seen as part and parcel of it. Does the government here care so much if, for instance, Koreans try to convert people? I wonder.
April 13th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Just as an update, I spoke to a woman in the international students’ office about this, and she did confirm that foreigners, includings students, are forbidden to preach. I told her what happened. I’m not sure what’s going to happen next. They might send someone to the English corner to have a look, or they might have someone come around to the foreign students’ classrooms to give them a reminder.