Christianity in China
基督教在中国
Sons of heaven
Oct 2nd 2008 | BEIJING AND SHANGHAI
From The Economist print edition
天父之子
2008年10月02日 北京和上海
Inside China’s fastest-growing non-governmental organisation 1 000 000
中国快速增多的非政府组织
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342509
ZHAO XIAO, a former Communist Party official and convert to Christianity, smiles over a cup of tea and says he thinks there are up to 130m Christians in China. This is far larger than previous estimates. The government says there are 21m (16m Protestants, 5m Catholics). Unofficial figures, such as one given by the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity in Massachusetts, put the number at about 70m. But Mr Zhao is not alone in his reckoning. A study of China by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, an American think-tank, says indirect survey evidence suggests many unaffiliated Christians are not in the official figures. And according to China Aid Association (CAA), a Texas-based lobby group, the director of the government body which supervises all religions in China said privately that the figure was indeed as much as 130m in early 2008.
赵晓（音译），以前是一名共产党官员，现在转信了基督，越过面前的茶杯，笑着说道：他觉得中国现在有多达一亿三千万基督徒。这个数目远远超过先前的估计。官方说有两千一百万（一千六百万新教教徒，五百万天主教教徒）。非官方的数字，如位于马萨诸塞的“全球基督教研究中心”所给的数目，约七千万。但有赵先生这样估计的不是只有赵先生一个人。美国智囊机构“宗教和公共生活论坛”关于中国的一份研究称，间接调查证据表明官方数据没有包括很多没有登记的基督徒。此外，据位于德克萨斯的游说组织“中国援助协会（CAA)”称，处理宗教事务的中国官方机构负责人曾私下说到2008年初信徒数目确实高达一亿三千万。
If so, it would mean China contains more Christians than Communists (party membership is 74m) and there may be more active Christians in China than in any other country. In 1949, when the Communists took power, less than 1% of the population had been baptised, most of them Catholics. Now the largest, fastest-growing number of Christians belong to Protestant “house churches”.
如果真是这样，那就意味着中国基督徒数量超过了共产党员数量（党员数量为七千四百万），同时也意味着中国活跃的基督徒的数量可能比其他任何国家的都要多。在1949年，中共夺取政权的当年，不到1%的人曾浸过礼，大多是天主教信徒。目前，数量最大同时也是增长最快的基督徒属于“家庭教会”形式。
In a suburb of Shanghai, off Haining Road, neighbours peer warily across the hallway as visitors file into a living room, bringing the number to 25, the maximum gathering allowed by law without official permission. Inside, young urban professionals sit on sofas and folding chairs. A young woman in a Che Guevara T-shirt blesses the group and a man projects material downloaded from the internet from his laptop onto the wall. Heads turn towards the display and sing along: “Glory, Glory Glory; Holy, Holy, Holy; God is near to each one of us.” It is Sunday morning, and worship is beginning in one of thousands of house churches across China.
在上海的城郊海宁路（音译）旁，通过大厅走道邻居们谨慎地观察着，来客们成群结队的进入大厅，最终人数达25人，此数目是没有官方许可情况下聚会的最多人数。里面，年轻的城市职业人员坐在沙发上和折叠椅上。一位身穿Che Guevara体恤衫的年轻女士祈祷赐福，一位男士用笔记本把从网上下载的资料投影到墙上。所有人的眼睛都转向放映并一起唱起：“荣光，荣光，荣光；圣灵，圣灵，圣灵；上帝与我们同在。”时间是周日上午，礼拜就在这个家庭教会开始了，同时同样的事情也在遍布中国大江南北的成千上万的家庭教会里进行着。
House churches are small congregations who meet privately—usually in apartments—to worship away from the gaze of the Communist Party. In the 1950s, the Catholic and main Protestant churches were turned into branches of the religious-affairs administration. House churches have an unclear status, neither banned nor fully approved of. As long as they avoid neighbourly confrontation and keep their congregations below a certain size (usually about 25), the Protestant ones are mostly tolerated, grudgingly. Catholic ones are kept under closer scrutiny, reflecting China’s tense relationship with the Vatican.
家庭教会是些小型教徒聚会，教徒们私下相聚——一般在家里——做礼拜以逃避中共的视线。在20世纪50年代，天主教教堂和主要的新教教堂被改为了宗教事务管理机构。家庭教会地位是不明确的，没有被禁止，也没有被完全准许。只要他们不打扰到邻居同时把聚会人数保持在一定的数量（通常约25人），信徒们的聚会都会被容许，尽管有可能有点不情愿。天主教信徒们的聚会却被严密监视，这也反映了中国与梵蒂冈的紧张关系。
Private meetings in the houses of the faithful were features of the early Christian church, then seeking to escape Roman imperial persecution. Paradoxically, the need to keep congregations small helped spread the faith. That happens in China now. The party, worried about the spread of a rival ideology, faces a difficult choice: by keeping house churches small, it ensures that no one church is large enough to threaten the local party chief. But the price is that the number of churches is increasing.
在信徒家里私下聚会是早期新教教会的特征，那时主要是逃避罗马教廷的迫害。出人意料的是，为了保持小的聚会规模却帮助了信仰的传播。所有这一切也在当下的中国发生着。由于担心敌对意识体系的广泛传播，中共面临一个艰难选择：保持小型家庭教会以保证教会不会大到对当地党首构成威胁。但是这样做的代价却是教会数量的增长。
The church in Shanghai is barely two years old but already has two offspring, one for workers in a multinational company, the other for migrant labourers. As well as spreading the Word, the proliferation of churches provides a measure of defence against intimidation. One pastor told the Far Eastern Economic Review last year that if the head of one house church was arrested, “the congregation would just split up and might break into five, six or even ten new house churches.”
上海的那家教会成立只有两年，但已经促生了两个新的，一个其中的成员是跨国公司职员，一个其中的成员是流动民工。教会的散播传播了福音，同时也给自己提供了防御威胁的力量。去年一位牧师曾对《远东经济评论》说如果一个家庭教会的带头人被逮捕了，“那个教会就会分散开来，这样有可能成立五个、六个甚至更多新的家庭教会。”
Abundant church-creation is a blessing and a curse for the house-church movement, too. The smiling Mr Zhao says finance is no problem. “We don’t have salaries to pay or churches to build.” But “management quality” is hard to maintain. Churches can get hold of Bibles or download hymn books from the internet. They cannot so easily find experienced pastors. “In China”, says one, “the two-year-old Christian teaches the one-year-old.”
教会的大量形成是一种福音，同时也给家庭教会运动带来了难处。赵先生微笑着说资金不成问题。“我们不需要支付工资，也不需要建造教堂。”但是“管理质量”很难保证。教会可以得到《圣经》，也可以从网上下载赞美诗书籍。但是他们却不能那么容易地找到有经验的牧师。“在中国”，一个信徒说，“教龄两年的信徒就开始带领教龄一年的信徒。”
Because most Protestant house churches are non-denominational (that is, not affiliated with Lutherans, Methodists and so on), they have no fixed liturgy or tradition. Their services are like Bible-study classes. This puts a heavy burden on the pastor. One of the Shanghai congregation who has visited a lot of house churches sighs with relief that “this pastor knows what he is talking about.”
因为多数新教家庭教会都没有明确的教派属性（意思是，与路德会、卫理公会等没有联系），它们没有固定的礼拜仪式或惯例。它们的聚会像是圣经学习班。这给牧师们带来了沉重的负担。一位曾参加过很多家庭教会的上海信徒叹着气有点欣慰地说“这位牧师知道他在讲什么。”
Still, the teething troubles of the church are minor compared with the vast rise in the number of Christians. After the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 many disenchanted democrats turned to Christianity: six of the 30 or so student leaders of the protests became Christians. China’s new house churches have the zeal of converts: many members bring their families and co-workers. One Confucian Chinese says with a rueful smile that most of the pretty girls at university were Christians–and would date only other Christians.
尽管如此，和基督徒数量大范围的增长比起来，教会的那些问题都不算是问题。1989年天安门广场惨剧后，很多失去理想的民主人士转信基督教：参加抗议的约30个学生领导中有六个成为了基督徒。中国家庭教会有着巨大的能量：很多信徒都会带上家人或者同事。一个信奉儒教的中国人满脸悔恨地说很多大学漂亮女孩都是基督徒，而且准备只与基督徒约会。
Holier and trendier than thou
比“公谊（会）”更圣灵、更有人气
Christianity also follows Chinese migration. Many Christians studied in America, converted there and brought their new faith home. Several of the congregation of the Shanghai house church studied abroad, as did Mr Zhao. In 2000, says one Beijing writer and convert, most believers were in the countryside. After 2000 they brought their faith into the cities, spreading Christianity among intellectuals.
基督福音也伴随着中国的流动人口。很多基督徒曾经在美国学习过，在那里转变了信仰并把新的信仰带了回来。上海家庭教会的好几个信徒都曾在国外学习过，赵先生便是其中之一。一位也转变信仰的北京作家说2000年大多信徒是农村人。2000年之后，他们把他们的信仰带进了城市，并在知识阶层传播了开来。
All this amounts to something that Europeans, at least, may find surprising. In much of Christianity’s former heartland, religion is associated with tradition and ritual. In China, it is associated with modernity, business and science. “We are first-generation Christians and first-generation businessmen,” says one house-church pastor. In a widely debated article in 2006, Mr Zhao wrote that “the market economy discourages idleness. [But] it cannot discourage people from lying or causing harm. A strong faith discourages dishonesty and injury.” Christianity and the market economy, in his view, go hand in hand.
所有这些可能会让欧洲人至少吃惊。在基督教的前中心地带，宗教是与传统和仪式联系着的。而在中国，它却是与现代、商业及科学联系着的。“我们是第一代基督徒，也是第一代商人，”一位家庭教会牧师说。赵先生在一篇于2006年被广泛讨论的文章中写到“市场经济可以使人不再懒散。（但）它不能使人不再说谎或不再制造伤害。坚定的信仰可以使人远离欺诈和伤害。”在他看来，基督信仰和市场经济可以并肩而行 。
So far, Christianity’s spread has been largely a private matter for individual believers. The big question is whether it can remain private. The extent of its growth and the number of its adherents would suggest not. But at the moment, both Christians and Communists seem willing to let a certain ambiguity linger a while longer.
到目前为止，基督信仰的传播绝大程度上还只是信仰者的私事。但问题是它是否能一直私下去。信仰者增长的广泛程度以及数量意味着不会。但就当下来看，基督徒们和中共人员双方都有意让这种模糊再继续一段时间。
“Christians are willing to stay within the system,” says Mr Zhao. “Christianity is also the basis for good citizenship in China.” Most Christians say that theirs is not a political organisation and they are not seeking to challenge the party. But they also say clashes with public policy are inevitable: no Christian, one argues, should accept the one-child policy, for example.
“基督徒们乐意呆在体制内，”赵先生说。“信仰基督也是做好中国公民的一个基础。”多数基督徒说他们的组织不具有政治性而且也不会和共产党作对。但他们也说与有些公共政策的摩擦是避免不了的：如一个信徒说基督徒们不应该接受“一个孩子”的政策。
Formally, the Communist Party forbids members to hold a religious belief, and the churches say they suffer official harassment. The president of the Beijing house-church alliance, Zhang Mingxuan, was thrown out of the capital before the Olympic games and told he was unwelcome when he returned. In early June, the state government of Henan arrested half a dozen house-church members on charges of illegally sending charitable donations to Sichuan earthquake victims. CAA claims harassment of house churches is rising.
正式场合，中共禁止党员们有宗教信仰。教会也说它们也遭受过官方的骚扰。北京家庭教会联盟主席张明轩（音译）在奥运前夕被逐出了首都，返回时并被告知他是不受欢迎的。六月份早些时候，河南省政府逮捕了十多个家庭教会成员的一半，罪名是非法向四川灾民赠送慈善物资。CAA称对家庭教会的骚扰在增多。
In fact, the state’s attitude seems ambivalent. In December 2007, President Hu Jintao held a meeting with religious leaders and told them that “the knowledge of religious people must be harnessed to build a prosperous society.” The truth is that Christians and Communists are circling each other warily. But it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Christianity will have a political impact one day. “If you want to know what China will be like in the future,” concludes Mr Zhao, “you have to consider the future of Christianity in China.”
实际上，政权当局的态度看来是矛盾的。2007年12月份，胡锦涛主席与宗教领袖们召开了一次会议并告诉他们“宗教人士的知识必须用于建立繁荣社会。”而事实是基督徒们和中共人士双方正谨慎地和对方周旋着。但基督信仰会有政治影响的那天不会到来的结论是很难做到的。赵先生断定，“如果你想知道将来的中国是个什么样，你必须考虑到未来的中国基督信仰。”
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本帖最后由 saltfish 于 2009-2-10 01:54 PM 编辑 ]
