Volume 2, Issue 1 January—February 2018
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Christian History & Biography
Issue 98: Christianity in China As for Me and My House The house-church movement survived persecution and created a surge of Christian growth across China. Tony Lambert On the eve of the Communist victory in 1949, there were around one million Protestants (of all denominations) in China. In 2007, even the most conservative official polls reported 40 million, and these do not take into account the millions of secret Christians in the Communist Party and the government. What accounts for this astounding growth? Many observers point to the role of Chinese house churches. The house-church movement began in the pre-1949 missionary era. New converts—especially in evangelical missions like the China Inland Mission and the Christian & Missionary Alliance—would often meet in homes. Also, the rapidly growing independent churches, such as the True Jesus Church, the Little Flock, and the Jesus Family, stressed lay ministry and evangelism. The Little Flock had no pastors, relying on every "brother" to lead ministry, and attracted many educated city people and students who were dissatisfied with the traditional foreign missions and denominations. The Jesus Family practiced communal living and attracted the rural poor. These independent churches were uniquely placed to survive, and eventually flourish, in the new, strictly-controlled environment. In the early 1950s, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement eliminated denominations and created a stifling political control over the dwindling churches. Many believers quietly began to pull out of this system. -
OCTOBER 2005 Home Office Science and Research Group
OCTOBER 2005 CHINA Home Office Science and Research Group COUNTRY OF ORIGIN INFORMATION SERVICE 1 OCTOBER 2005 CHINA Country of Origin Reports are produced by the Science & Research Group of the Home Office to provide caseworkers and others involved in processing asylum applications with accurate, balanced and up-to-date information about conditions in asylum seekers’ countries of origin. They contain general background information about the issues most commonly raised in asylum/human rights claims made in the UK. The reports are compiled from material produced by a wide range of recognised external information sources. They are not intended to be a detailed or comprehensive survey, nor do they contain Home Office opinion or policy. 2 Disclaimer: “This country of origin information report contains the most up-to-date publicly available information as at 31 August 2005. Older source material has been included where it contains relevant information not available in more recent documents.” OCTOBER 2005 CHINA Contents 1. Scope of document 1.1 2. Geography 2.1 Languages 2.5 Mandarin (Putonghua) 2.5 Pinyin translation system 2.6 Naming conventions 2.7 Tibetan names 2.8 Population 2.9 3. Economy 3.1 Shadow Banks 3.2 Poverty 3.4 The Environment 3.9 State owned enterprises (SOEs) 3.11 Unemployment 3.16 Currency 3.18 Corruption 3.20 Guanxi 3.26 Punishment of corrupt officials 3.28 4. History 4.1 1949-1976: The Mao Zedong era 4.1 1978-1989: Deng Xiaoping as paramount 4.3 leader Tiananmen Square protests (1989) 4.4 Post-Tiananmen Square 4.7 Jiang Zemin as core leader 4.9 Hu Jiantao: chairman of the board 4.10 5. -
Ebook Download
The Key of Immediate Enlightenment Questions & Answers 2 The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association Publishing Co., Ltd. .The Key of Immediate Enlightenment The Supreme Master Ching Hai Contents. Contents Walk the Way of Love.................................................. 10 Foreword ............................................................................ 14 1. Chapter A .......................................................................... 15 Ahimsa ................................................................... 16 Age & Spiritual Practice ................................................ 17 Alcoholism ............................................................... 19 Ancestor Worship .................................................... 22 Clearing the Atmosphere .......................................... 23 Attachments ............................................................ 24 2. Chapter B................................................................. 26 Blessed by the Living Master ..................................... 27 Blessing Power as Differentiated from Magical Power 28 Bodily Sensations in Samadhi ................................... 29 Bodily Illness Differentiated from Karmic Illness ........ 30 Bodily Movements during Meditation Practice .......... 31 3. Chapter C................................................................. 33 Chi Kung Practice ..................................................... 34 Illness in Children ..................................................... 35 Child Care -
2019 International Religious Freedom Report
CHINA (INCLUDES TIBET, XINJIANG, HONG KONG, AND MACAU) 2019 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT Executive Summary Reports on Hong Kong, Macau, Tibet, and Xinjiang are appended at the end of this report. The constitution, which cites the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, states that citizens have freedom of religious belief but limits protections for religious practice to “normal religious activities” and does not define “normal.” Despite Chairman Xi Jinping’s decree that all members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must be “unyielding Marxist atheists,” the government continued to exercise control over religion and restrict the activities and personal freedom of religious adherents that it perceived as threatening state or CCP interests, according to religious groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and international media reports. The government recognizes five official religions – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism. Only religious groups belonging to the five state- sanctioned “patriotic religious associations” representing these religions are permitted to register with the government and officially permitted to hold worship services. There continued to be reports of deaths in custody and that the government tortured, physically abused, arrested, detained, sentenced to prison, subjected to forced indoctrination in CCP ideology, or harassed adherents of both registered and unregistered religious groups for activities related to their religious beliefs and practices. There were several reports of individuals committing suicide in detention, or, according to sources, as a result of being threatened and surveilled. In December Pastor Wang Yi was tried in secret and sentenced to nine years in prison by a court in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, in connection to his peaceful advocacy for religious freedom. -
Religion in China BKGA 85 Religion Inchina and Bernhard Scheid Edited by Max Deeg Major Concepts and Minority Positions MAX DEEG, BERNHARD SCHEID (EDS.)
Religions of foreign origin have shaped Chinese cultural history much stronger than generally assumed and continue to have impact on Chinese society in varying regional degrees. The essays collected in the present volume put a special emphasis on these “foreign” and less familiar aspects of Chinese religion. Apart from an introductory article on Daoism (the BKGA 85 BKGA Religion in China prototypical autochthonous religion of China), the volume reflects China’s encounter with religions of the so-called Western Regions, starting from the adoption of Indian Buddhism to early settlements of religious minorities from the Near East (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) and the early modern debates between Confucians and Christian missionaries. Contemporary Major Concepts and religious minorities, their specific social problems, and their regional diversities are discussed in the cases of Abrahamitic traditions in China. The volume therefore contributes to our understanding of most recent and Minority Positions potentially violent religio-political phenomena such as, for instance, Islamist movements in the People’s Republic of China. Religion in China Religion ∙ Max DEEG is Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Cardiff. His research interests include in particular Buddhist narratives and their roles for the construction of identity in premodern Buddhist communities. Bernhard SCHEID is a senior research fellow at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the history of Japanese religions and the interaction of Buddhism with local religions, in particular with Japanese Shintō. Max Deeg, Bernhard Scheid (eds.) Deeg, Max Bernhard ISBN 978-3-7001-7759-3 Edited by Max Deeg and Bernhard Scheid Printed and bound in the EU SBph 862 MAX DEEG, BERNHARD SCHEID (EDS.) RELIGION IN CHINA: MAJOR CONCEPTS AND MINORITY POSITIONS ÖSTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN PHILOSOPHISCH-HISTORISCHE KLASSE SITZUNGSBERICHTE, 862. -
Deceived by the Lightning
CHRISTIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE PO Box 8500, Charlotte, NC 28271 News Article: JAL130 DECEIVED BY THE LIGHTNING This article first appeared in the News Watch column of the Christian Research Journal, volume 28, number 3 (2005). For further information or to subscribe to the Christian Research Journal go to: http://www.equip.org Christians in mainland China’s “underground” house churches have faced persecution from the country’s Communist government for years. They now face another threat from one of the mainland’s largest cults, which frequently uses deception and coercion to gain converts from among house churches. The cult calls itself “The Church of Almighty God.” The Chinese government refers to it as the “Real God” cult. Chinese Christians call it “Eastern Lightning.” Its followers believe that Jesus has returned in the form of a Chinese woman, like “lightning that comes from the east,” according to the description of His second coming in Matthew 24:27. Estimates of the group’s size vary. A November 2001 Time magazine article titled “Jesus is Back, and She’s Chinese” said followers numbered themselves at 300,000, although observers estimated only tens of thousands. A 2002 report produced by the Center for Religious Freedom, which contained copies of seven confidential documents from a Chinese government report on religious cults, said that the group had active organizations in more than 10 provinces and cities and was deceiving thousands. China For Jesus, a Christian mission organization, estimates that the cult has more than a million members in 20 provinces. Fear of government persecution has driven religious groups in China underground, making an accurate head count of any group’s followers virtually impossible. -
Islam Shawn Nelson
May 5 & 12, 2019 Answering World Religions – Islam Shawn Nelson 1. Overview • Islam is the world’s second largest religion o Christians 2.4 billion 31% world population1 o Muslims 1.8 billion 24% world population2 • There are 3.45 million Muslims in United States.3 1 Wikipedia, s.v. “Christian Population Growth,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_population_growth, 2015 study. Roughly 900 million of this number are Protestants. 2 Wikipedia, s.v. “Islam by Country,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country, 2015 study. 3 Basheer Mohamed, “New Estimates Show u.s. Muslim Population Continues to Grow,” January 3, 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/03/new-estimates-show-u-s-muslim-population- continues-to-grow/. 1 • Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion (by birth rate). Muslims will likely soon outnumber Christians. 2. Extremism BIG ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: Some people today are afraid of Muslims because they think all Muslims are terrorists who support holy war (jihad) against non-Muslims. • There are different kinds of Muslims (just like different kinds of Christians).4 • Only a very, very small % of the 1.8 billion Muslims are extremists:5 Name Area Strength Al-Qaeda Afghanistan/Pakistan 300–3,000 Hamas Gaza Strip 16,000+ Hezbollah Lebanon 1,000+ ISIS Syria 15,000–20,000 Taliban Northwest Pakistan 25,000 • There are also extreme Christian sects who carry out acts of violence (e.g., Christian Identity, Eastern Lightning, Lord’s Resistance Army, etc.) The first step to telling them about Jesus is that we can’t be afraid of them! 3. -
Falun Gong in the United States: an Ethnographic Study Noah Porter University of South Florida
University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 7-18-2003 Falun Gong in the United States: An Ethnographic Study Noah Porter University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Porter, Noah, "Falun Gong in the United States: An Ethnographic Study" (2003). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/1451 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FALUN GONG IN THE UNITED STATES: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY by NOAH PORTER A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: S. Elizabeth Bird, Ph.D. Michael Angrosino, Ph.D. Kevin Yelvington, Ph.D. Date of Approval: July 18, 2003 Keywords: falungong, human rights, media, religion, China © Copyright 2003, Noah Porter TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................................................iii LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................................... -
Gareth Breen the MINGLED SPIRIT of the BLENDED BODIES
UCL ANTHROPOLOGY Working Paper No. 15/2014 UCL Anthropology Working Papers Series Gareth Breen THE MINGLED SPIRIT OF THE BLENDED BODIES: NON-DUALISM AND “THE CHURCH IN NOTTINGHAM” Dissertation submitted in 2012 for the BSc Anthropology UCL Anthropology University College London, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW The Mingled Spirit of the Blended Bodies: Non-Dualism and “the Church in Nottingham” Gareth Breen Supervised by Rebecca Empson Word count: 10, 957 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 INTRODUCTION: Mingled Spirit, Blended Body 6 Fieldwork and Methodology 9 Chapters Outlined 14 CHAPTER ONE: Background, Founders and Seekers 17 Life and Knowledge 18 Christians and Christianity 32 CHAPTER TWO: The Otherness of the Body 38 The Body and Nondualistic Holism 38 Embodying the Body 43 CONCLUSION: Recursive Anthropology, Nondualism and Sameness 45 BIBLIOGRAPHY 48 APPENDIX 1: the Local Churches in Images 61 APPENDIX 2: the Local Churches in the Christian Media 63 APPENDIX 3: Local Church Diagrams 64 APPENDIX 4: Selected Interview Transcripts 65 2 FIGURES LIST Fig 1: The Tripartite Human Vessel 15 Fig 2: The Mingled Spirit 20 Fig 3: Processing the Triune God 22 Fig 4: The Tree of Life and the Ground of Oneness 37 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My greatest thanks go to my supervisor Rebecca Empson for her invaluable feedbacking and for persevering with my inarticulacy! Thank you to Charles Stewart and Susan Kuechler for their preliminary suggestions. I also thank Tobia, Timothy and Theo for their enlightening conversation, and my friends and family in the church for answering my questions and for re- accommodating me. 4 Abstract: In this dissertation I analyse the practices of a group of Christians living in Nottingham who cosmologically and pragmatically tie themselves in with an expanding worldwide Christian Group. -
Jiang Zemin and the Falun Gong Crackdown: a Bibliography Michael J
International Journal of Legal Information the Official Journal of the International Association of Law Libraries Volume 34 Article 9 Issue 3 Winter 2006 1-1-2006 A King Who Devours His People: Jiang Zemin and the Falun Gong Crackdown: A Bibliography Michael J. Greenlee University of Idaho College of Law Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/ijli The International Journal of Legal Information is produced by The nI ternational Association of Law Libraries. Recommended Citation Greenlee, Michael J. (2006) "A King Who Devours His People: Jiang Zemin and the Falun Gong Crackdown: A Bibliography," International Journal of Legal Information: Vol. 34: Iss. 3, Article 9. Available at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/ijli/vol34/iss3/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Journal of Legal Information by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A King Who Devours His People+: Jiang Zemin and the Falun Gong Crackdown: A Bibliography MICHAEL J. GREENLEE∗ Introduction In July 1999, the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began an official crackdown against the qigong cultivation1 group known as Falun Gong.2 Intended to quickly contain and eliminate what the PRC considers an evil or heretical cult (xiejiao), the suppression has instead created the longest sustained and, since the Tiananmen Square protests of June 1989, most widely known human rights protest conducted in the PRC. -
From Crisis to Peace the Organic Vegan Way Is the Answer
From Crisis to Peace The Organic Vegan Way Is the Answer The Supreme Master Ching Hai Due to all inhabitants of the world’s good karma, this beautiful planet was created. But if it’s all covered up by the new bad karma, then the planet and/or the inhabitants will perish. Make good karma: Be Loving Be Veg Be Green —Supreme Master Ching Hai V Table of Contents Foreword ..........................................................................................VII A Brief Biography of Supreme Master Ching Hai ...........................................................XI A Personal Plea From Supreme Master Ching Hai to World Leaders ....................XV A Note on the Second Edition ........................................................ XXI Letter of Appreciation ...................................................................XXIII 1. The Vegan Solution to Save the World I. A Planetary Emergency ...........................................................3 II. Our Food Choices are a Life-and-Death Issue ......................6 2. Warning Signs to Awaken Humanity I. It is Worse than the Worst-Case Scenario ...........................13 II. We are Running out of Time .................................................27 III. Tackle the Root Problem Now ..............................................29 3. Organic Veganism to Heal the Planet I. Cool the Planet and Restore the Environment ...................36 II. It is the Fastest and Greenest Solution .................................55 III. Give Life to Save Life ..............................................................59 -
China Table of Contents • Dozens Of
Table of Contents Dozens of Bitter Winter Reporters arrested Early Rain pastor accused of inciting subversion Special weekly FORB Newsletter, 21 December 2018 Woman dies after torture during interrogation by Chinese authorities Yu Baorong, a Christian from The Church of Almighty God brutally tortured by Chinese Communist Police Special weekly FORB newsletter, 14 December 2018 ‘I must denounce this wickedness openly’ – detained Chinese pastor Repression of Christian church intensifies China cracks down on Christians -- a new era of religious persecution has arrived Legislative landmark: US Congress passes Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act Yingye’er re-education camp managed like prison (video) 100 church attendees in custody, attacks ongoing Special Weekly FORB Newsletter, 7 December 2018 Government unleashes new round of religious persecution Woman tortured to death by Chinese police: the case of Huang Guorong Woman driven to suicide by the Chinese Communist Government’s long- term harassment: the case of Wang Hongli Special weekly FORB newsletter, 30 November 2018 Uyghurs in China: Position of EU High Representative/Vice-President Mogherini Monetary reward offered for Muslim man’s recapture CCP calls for crackdown against whistleblowers and media Xinjiang authorities sentence Uyghur philanthropist to death for unsanctioned Hajj House church raided twice for standing up to authorities CCTV cameras installed in washrooms at church Burial site forcibly excavated for being “unattractive” (videos) 130 Christians detained