July, 2009

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Between a Rock and a Gao Place….

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

I’m kind of tired of sitting here at my desk looking at my computer screen. You see, I’ve been trying for a couple of weeks to make headway on our next China Resource Journal. If you’re a fan of our CRJ, you know that we’ve gone to some lengths to bring to the West some of the amazing changes that have been happening in China. Slow but steady improvements in the legal structure, the greater personal freedoms of Chinese and especially of those Chinese Christians, and the marked interest by government officials about Christianity and its potential for improved governance all mark some of the positive changes that have happened in China. But as I sit here at my computer, searching the internet for clues and probing those Chinese who are affiliated with our organization, I must say that the case of Gao Zhisheng is a case that is certainly confounds me and others who I trust as evenhanded and knowledgeable China observers. Everything that I read about Gao just doesn’t add up……

Without spoiling the analysis of our upcoming CRJ, let me recap the situation. Gao Zhisheng is a self-taught human-rights lawyer in Beijing, who has recently taken cases of unregistered house-church Christians and Falun Gong adherents. A Christian himself, he has felt led by God to take on cases that dealt with human rights. In 2001, he was lauded as one of China’s ‘Top 10 lawyers’ by China’s Ministry of Justice and has been involved in many high profile

Gao Zhisheng

Gao Zhisheng

cases. On February 9th, 2009, he went missing and has not been heard from since. He is assumed to be held by Chinese Public Security forces, but we don’t even really know where he is or who has held him. It has also been assumed that he is being tortured, but I don’t believe we know that for sure either. Click here to read more about Gao, according to your level of interest.

So here’s my conundrum: We know for a fact that Chinese governmental change in the last 20 years has been huge. We know that they’ve rewritten or at the very least, revised many of the statues on Criminal Law and religious freedom. As I’ve written, almost ad nauseam, both in the CRJ and my book that Chinese government is very interested in Christianity and especially Christian Ethics, as a way to improve governance. If you really study these changes and analyize them from a historical and social structure perspective, it is quite stunning. I hear from Chinese friends in China all the time how these changes have improved their lives. How they are able to use the court system in a positive way and how they are finding public security officials approaching them with a different and more helpful spirit. Taking all that information, this Gao Zhisheng situation just doesn’t add up. Why would public security officials take him away? Why did they suspend his licence to practice law? After all, this is a ‘rising star’ of Chinese lawyers!

In my current analysis, I’m left with two possible answers to my questions. Number One, in his investigation of abuses of Falun Gong and subsequent letters to top Chinese governmental officials, he found out something that indicted the wrong official. If this is the case, we are now seeing in the case of Gao Zhisheng a major flaw and/or weakness of what’s left to reform in Chinese politics. This is exposing the raw underbelly of what’s left to fix in China: There are still some people who are above the law and in fact, who are the law. The second possibility, which I’ve seen before, is that Gao has actually broken the law in a way that we’re not hearing about from Western sources and was arrested for a legitimate crime. The most famous of these types of cases is South China Church leader Gong Shengliang.

Gong, who was the 2006 poster-boy for Chinese governmental persecution of Christians, whose arrest triggered massive protests of Chinese governmental officials. Some months after his arrest, he wrote a letter to the China Aid Association, admitting that he seduced and molested several female members of his church network and use excessive force against those who said negative comments against South China Church. His confession certainly brought out the need for restraint on the part of the Western church, looking in on a situation where they didn’t have all of the facts.

So what’s the story with Gao Zhisheng? For now, we don’t know but I’m confident that over time we’ll find out. Information will continue to come in about his situation. And when it does, I’ll be sure to bring you the truth about Gao Zhisheng.

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The Bible in China

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Based on some of the comments I’ve been getting to the ‘Illegal’ product posts I’ve written, I think this would be a good time to write a little bit about The Bible in China. It is a topic that I’ve had a deep interest in for many years and as I’ve learned about the situation, I’ve developed a series of three questions that I think we need to ask ourselves as we look at The Bible in China. As you watch this You Tube video where I detail my three questions, remember my perspective on China in general, and The Bible in China in particular. It’s easy to focus on what is not happening in China, but please try to focus on what is happening in China. There is a Printing Press in China that is printing 700,000 Chinese Bibles every month. These Bibles are available for sale to any Chinese person who wants one. If the need for more Bibles increases, they have the capacity to print more. Bibles are available and they are available at a low cost, making them affordable for most Chinese.

Posted in Busting China Myths | No Responses »

Update to ‘Illegal’ Products Post

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Well I finally got a response from Todd Nettleton. I thought I would give you his response, then my response to his email:

‘Thanks for your note!  The t-shirt was designed by an outside company that has cooperated with VOM on developing some products. China is not listed on the shirt, though it is included in our list of restricted nations and on the banner (which says “This Message is illegal). The shirts are designed to help people to have conversations about restricted nations where governments or radical groups seek to limit or control the spread of the gospel message, Bibles, Christian broadcasts, and other Christian activities. Hopefully it will help people tell others about persecuted Christians.

Would you be arrested for wearing the shirt in China? I doubt it. But is Christian activity controlled and harassed by the government? Absolutely. Is Bible distribution controlled? Yes. So while the shirt is not illegal, the message it represents often is.

I forwarded your note on to some of our marketing team; if they have other comments I will pass them along.’

And now my response to his email:

‘Thank you for your response. A quick thought for you this morning: I have an issue, of course, with the use of the word illegal. Taking your points about China, Christianity is monitored and controlled, but certainly you would agree with me that none of it is illegal. They’re printing 700,000 Chinese Bibles a month at Amity Printing Company, so certainly the Bible is not illegal. Millions of Chinese worship the same God you and I do openly and without restrictions and far less than 1% of all Christian activity in 2008 saw any kind of harassment or persecution….. So the message of the Gospel is not illegal. And I would contend that the message of the shirt is not illegal. Looking up the definition of the word illegal may help us here: ‘not according to or authorized by the law.’ Please show me a law in China today that makes the message of the shirt illegal. Does the Chinese government still have a ways to go when it comes to evenly administering those laws that deal with religious freedom? Absolutely. But I think what they need from us right now is our encouragement in areas where they are improving and our help, which comes through engagement, in areas where they still have a way to go. My call to VOM is to take China off the list on the banner because none of what the ‘illegal’ product line purports to be illegal in China is actually illegal. The message isn’t illegal, the shirt isn’t illegal and the book isn’t illegal.’

I’m praying that VOM will tell the truth about China………


Posted in Busting China Myths | 7 Responses »

This T-Shirt is Illegal in 52 countries?

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Last Wednesday morning, I received an interesting email from Voice of the Martyrs. The email, titled ‘VOM’s Most Popular T-shirt and Bible Cover,’ was advertising their ‘Best Selling’ T-shirt and a whole line of ‘Illegal’ products. The T-Shirt, with the tag line of ‘This shirt is illegal in 52 countries,” caught my eye because I’m always one who likes messages that really stand out and are a little bit ‘in your face.’ The T-Shirt has a big, red cross on it and the Scripture verse Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” This has been a long time favorite verse of mine, having first memorized it many years ago. The e-mail indicated that VOM also offers two other products with the same ‘Illegal’ theme: Bible covers and posters. I liked what I saw of the ‘Illegal’ products until I looked more closely at the poster since it listed China has one of the 52 countries. Which led me to wonder, “VOM doesn’t really think that this T-shirt is illegal in China, do they?” Of course, you all know me….. I wasn’t just going to wonder about that for very long, so I put in an email to Todd Nettleton, VOM’s Director of Media Development to ask him about this. Todd and I have gotten to know each other through a healthy dialogue about the state of persecution of Christians in China. Well, 5 days later and still no email response from Todd.

VOM's 'Illegal' T-Shirt

VOM's 'Illegal' T-Shirt

My guess is that my challenge to their Illegal line of products poses quite a problem for them. For one thing, it is their best selling line of products and admitting that they are not honest puts them in a pickle. Secondly, it would be hard to change the statement on the line of products, both from a production and graphic design perspective. But really……. I have to take issue with this line of products! The Bible Cover, for example, states “This book is illegal in 52 Countries.” The implication is that the Bible you put inside of the Bible cover is illegal in 52 countries, China being one of the 52. That is particularly odd since they are printing Bibles in large numbers in China! In 2008, Amity Printing Company printed 6 million Chinese Bibles. Obviously, the Bible is not illegal in China!

Here’s the bottom line: The ‘Illegal’ T-shirt isn’t illegal in China, the ‘Illegal’ book cover is not illegal in China, nor is the ‘Illegal’ poster illegal in China. I am calling on Voice of the Martyrs to tell the truth about China! Change the logo of the ‘Illegal’ products to read 51 countries, instead of 52. And I have no idea whether or not they are telling the truth about the situation about the other 51 countries, but if I were a betting man, I would bet not. If you care at all about truth, about telling the truth, and about being people who value the truth, you’ll rectify the situation immediately. And for all those reading this blog, I implore you to contact my friend Todd Nettleton at Voice of the Martyrs and ask him to tell the truth about China. His email address is tnettleton@vom-usa.org. As I’ve said time and time again, it’s time for us in the West to see China as it is and not make up information about China just to fund raise or to sell T-Shirts. God cares about the Truth and by skirting it we do not uphold the One we purport to serve.

Posted in Busting China Myths | 5 Responses »
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