Sacralism, Smartphone Technology, and a PBS Report on Chinese Underground Christians

https://www.pbs.org/video/crackdown-on-christians-1761415813/

Sadly this reporting reveals a direct correlation between American geopolitical and economic pressure on China and Xi's decision to persecute Christians.

Christians are (right or wrong) associated with the United States and it is assumed they represent a kind of fifth column within Chinese society. As such, they are not only despised but feared. Beijing fears social and civil unrest as well as these groups functioning as a conduit for Western (and specifically American) funds that could be used to stir up strife. It's been done before and so Xi has some justification for his concern.

Christians in China should labour assiduously to distance themselves from the US and its policies. The churches which refuse to hang banners, install cameras, and register are right in doing so. The ones that insist on building large edifices outside the law are wrong - not only in their ecclesiology (to start with) but in their determination to express what I would call a form of sacralist defiance. Large buildings with steeples are not expressions of the gospel but a deviation from the theology of the New Testament and given the geopolitics of the present - the very architecture as well as the extra-legal defiance is overtly political.

China represents a warning to the world - a society that has become largely cashless and one in which smartphones must be registered with the state. It is becoming more and more difficult to travel or move about in China without one. The smartphone has in almost every way become a bestial tool. It's not hard to imagine a similar regime in the UK and in the United States should another 9/11 event take place.

Otherwise the US will more or less succumb to this kind of order by means of a consumerist-corporate road in which companies will effectively operate as the regulators while the state can tap into the data. We are already on the cusp of a new era in which something like social credit scores will determine in many cases what we can access and what we have to pay. The rich will quite literally be able to pay for everything from prime parking, to maybe (at some point) street access, to tables at restaurants. Some of these things already exist in certain locales by means of tip/bribe cash payoffs. But what I see coming is something institutionalised, something far more pervasive and crushing.

Building codes, occupancy laws, and other similar legislation is going to make it difficult for congregations that don't play ball (as they say). We're a ways off from what's happening in China, but there is cause for concern.

Contrary to many Right-wing voices, I do not actually believe the Covid episode was a trial run or an attempt that was thwarted by anti-Covid/anti-mitigation resistance. Covid was real and the attempts by the state to curtail it were genuine if poorly managed and communicated.

But that doesn't mean that lessons won't be learned from that episode and the way that many responded to it. And for those who think the Trump/MAGA movement will hinder such authoritarian and corporate-wed developments, they misunderstand its nature. Those who can pay will be exempt or be granted special privilege. Those who cannot or who fall afoul of the administration will feel the weight of law enforcement's boot on their neck.

Returning to the question of China - the fact that Bob Fu and others work alongside the US government and that so many Chinese Christians escape to the United States doesn't help the cause of those in China. I've repeatedly touched on these points over recent years and sadly some pastors (such as the currently incarcerated Wang Yi) have done great harm by their actions which additionally demonstrate real confusion about the Church's role and identity vis-à-vis the world. It is to be lamented that these teachings tend to emanate from the United States.

I was additionally sorry to see the pastor featured in the PBS piece has an American son-in-law associated with The Hudson Institute - a Right-wing think-tank that is associated with anti-Chinese militarism and has openly worked with China's enemies. Again, this harms the Church in China.

We must pray for these believers in every aspect.

And also we would do well to remember and call out the hypocrisy of American corporations that speak of values, freedom, and such things even while they do business with this regime in order to maximise profits. Though it would prove difficult, we should eschew such companies in every way possible. At the very least Christians should not invest in such companies. The dividends may be tempting but they need to made to understand that such payouts are at the expense of others - even their brethren within China.

See also:

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2023/03/a-new-app-in-china.html

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-fool-wang-yi-and-dark-side-of.html

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2020/01/wang-yi-isnt-being-persecuted-hes-being.html

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2018/09/american-evangelicalism-china-and-all.html

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2019/10/chinese-evangelicals-and-ned.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2018/05/confusion-in-reporting-on-christianity.html

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2017/12/considering-panopticon-beast.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2016/04/chinas-tspm-political-christianity.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2017/05/asian-perspectives-south-koreas.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2016/12/underground-catholics-in-china.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-schemes-of-chinese-christo.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2020/05/beijing-continues-to-persecute.html