Union is based on the following: 377 of the 691 groups in the 1993 ary Coordinating Council to All Western Missionary Organizations Directory work there, plus 148 (or approximately half of the 296 Interested in Spreading the Gospel in the Former Soviet Union:' groupsidentified since 1993), plus36SouthKorean groups (9church March 23, 1993, RM. and 27 parachurch), 12. Mark Elliott, "The Protestant Missionary Presence in the Former 3. Grigori Komendant, "Certainly: ' East-West Church and Ministry Soviet Union:' Religion, State,and Society 25, no. 4 (forthcoming). Report 4, no . I (Winter 1996): 2. 13. Anatoli Pchelintsev, interview by Anita Deyneka, July 1993, RM. 4. AlexanderSorokin."A RussianPerspectiveon the MissionaryMove­ 14. PaulSemenchuk, "WesternChristians Working in the CIS:Are They ment," East-West Church and Ministry Report 4, no. 1 (Winter 1996): in Tune with Russian Evangelical Nationals?" (paper prepared for 16. Trans World Radio, November 1994), p. 4. 5. E-mail from Brother Seraphim, December 1, 1996, Russian Minis­ 15. Grigori Komedant, interview by Peter Deyneka, October 1996, RM. tries files, Wheaton, Illinoi s (hereafter RM). 16. Semenchuk, "Western Christians Working in the CIS:' p. 2. 6. Michael Bourdeaux, ed., The Politics of Religion in Russiaand the New 17. Manfred Kohl, "Filling the Leadership Void in the Post Communist States of Euroasia (London: M. E. Sharpe, 1995), p. 117. Church," Contact 23, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 4-5. 7. Quoted in Miroslav Volf, "Fishing in the Neighbor's Pond: Mission 18. Anita Deyneka, "Freedom for All," Frontier, September-october and Proselytism in Eastern Europe:' International BulletinofMission­ 1996, p. 11. ary Research 20, no. 1 (January 1996): 26. 19. Mark Elliott and Kent Hill, "Are Evangelicals Interlopers?" East­ 8. Pythia Peay, "Who's Really on the Fringe Here?" Religious News West Church and Ministry Report1, no. 3 (Summer 1993): 3. Service, July 2,1996. 20. E-mail from John Bernbaum, July 13, 1996, p. 3, RM. 9. LarryUzzell, "Yeltsin Statement DefendsReligious Freedom:' Keston 21. Working in Centraland Eastern Europe:Guidelines for Christians, Pre­ News Service, e-mail, November 12, 1996. pared fortheEurope GroupoftheEvangelical Missionary Alliance (1994), 10. Larry Uzzell, "Religious Freedom Losing Ground in Russia's Prov­ pp.3-5. inces:' Keston News Service, e-mail, November 21,1996. 22. Alexei Melnichuk, "We Asked . .. :' Pulse, September 23,1994, p. 3. 11. Otonas Balchunas (Shaulai, Lithuania), Semen Borodin (Krasnodar, 23. Peter Deyneka and George Law, interview by Anita Deyneka, Russia), Andrei Bondarenko (Elgava, Latvia), Anatoly Bogatov February 5,1997, RM. (Saransk, Moldova), Vassily Davidyuk (Kiev , Ukraine), Piotr 24. E-mail from George J. Law, "Summary of Afternoon Gathering Lunichkin (Vladikavkaz.Ossetia), Pavel Pogodin(Nalchik, Kavkaz), Sessions:' February 15, 1995, RM. Franz Tissen (Saran, Kazakstan), Henri Fot (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan), 25. Johannes Reimer, "Mission in Post -Perestroika Russia:' Missionalia and Victor Shiva (Almaty, Kazakstan), "Open Letter of the Mission­ 24, no. 1 (April 1996): 34.

Building the Protestant Church in , Norman H. Cliff

he Chinese have a saying, "He who holds Shandong advantage of the concessions wrung from the Chinese in the T grips China by the throat."! The story of the growth of a Treaties of Tientsin and Peking in 1858 and 1860. Some of these virile Protestant church in this province includes periods of Protestant missionaries had already worked in Shanghai and, political struggle between Chinese, Germans, and Japanese for after experiencing ill health, had been advised to go to the control of Shandong's economic resources, and ultimately be­ invigorating climate on the coast of Shandong. Within a few tween Kuomintang and Communist forces. More important, in years some died in a widespread cholera epidemic. the religious sphere there were fervent evangelistic efforts by The missionaries came into Shandong via three routes (see Catholics, mainline Protestants, and sect-type revivalist move­ map). In the early 1860s three missions, which later had the ments striving to recover the pristine simplicity of the early largestwork in the province, came via the treaty portof Chefoo­ church. the Southern Baptists (1860), the American Presbyterians (1861), At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Jesuit mission­ and the British Baptists (1862). In the late 1860s and early 1870s aries moved south from Peking to evangelize Shandong. Half a three missions came via the northwest border from Tientsin and century later they handed over the work in the province to Peking in response to invitations by Chinese peasants to bring Franciscans. In the 1880s an order from Germany-theSociety of the Gospel to their villages-the British Methodists (1866), the the DivineWord (SVD)-tookoveran area in southeastShandong. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1867), When the early Protestant pioneers arrived in 1860, there were and the (American) Methodist Episcopal Church (1874). Then, some 20,000 Catholic Christians. three more missions entered via Chefoo: the (Anglican) Society Protestant work in China had been carried on for two de­ for the Propagation of the Gospel (1874), the China Inland cades when the first missionaries came to Chefoo (), taking Mission (1880), and the Christian (Plymouth) Brethren (1888). Lastly, in the 1890s, three Continental societies entered via Qingdao and [iaozhou Bay, where the German influence was Norman H. Cliffspent thefirst twenty years ofhis lifein Shandong,first at the Chefoo Schools for the children of missionaries, and then in in a strong-the Swedish Baptists (1892), the Berlin Mission (1898), Japaneseprisoncamp. His parentsand maternal grandparents were missionar­and the Weimar Mission (1898). Other groups came later, so that ies in China with the China InlandMission. His great-grandfather Benjamin by 1920 there were eighteen societies at work in the province, as Broomhall wasthesecretary ofthemission in London from 1875 to1895. Hehas well as some indigenous independent groups. All these repre­ pastored churches in South Africaand Zimbabwe and is now in retirement in sented the whole spectrum of Western denominations and sects. Harold Wood, Essex, England. Shandong was the "sacred province" in which Confucius

62 INTERN ATIO NAL B ULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH

- - -- ~ . __ ... - -~----...... ~~-- and Mencius had left a strong influence, and the Bohai SouthernBaptists 1860 (Gulf of Chihli) Amer. Presbyterians 1861 pioneers had to take account of this in their British Baptists 1862 Anglicans-S.P.G. 1874 evangelistic efforts. While they opposed foot­ China Inland Mission 1880 binding, concubinage, and the selling of daughters ChristianBrethren 1888 and were critical of manyaspects of Chineseculture, N theseearlyarrivals learned to have a deep respectfor the teachings of the great Sage. John Nevius of the T 60 Presbyterian mission said of Confucius, "The sys­ , tem of ethics and morality which he taught is the Miles purestwhichhas everoriginated in the history of the 1892 world, independent of the divine revelation in the 1898 Bible,andhe hasexerted a greaterinfluencefor good 1898 upon our race than any other uninspired sage of antiquity."? The strategy of John Nevius and Hunter Map names in modern ; Corbett, both of the Presbyterian mission, and Brit­ Wade-Giles ortraditional forms in parenthesis ish Baptist was to quote from Societies entering Shandong via Chefoo, The Northwest, and Qingdao. Confucius as a springboard from which to lead the hearers on to the deeper teachings of Christ and the British Baptist Timothy Richard aimed at reaching the lite­ dynamics of his power. rati through intellectual discussions and the publishing of aca­ demic writings, believing that the common people would follow Early Opposition if their leaders, whom they held in high respect, accepted the Christian religion. This approach, while creating goodwill be­ The gentry and populace, however, opposed the teachings of the tween the missionaries and community leaders, brought little new religion. Open-air services and the distribution of tracts, tangible results. The strategy of Arthur Smith of the American methods used in young mission fields throughout the world, Board was the opposite. He argued that Christ always started broughtlittle response here. Thus, in orderto gaina basichearing with the disadvantaged and the poor and worked upward.' for the Gospel, many missionaries turned to the running of Calvin Mateer, with a genius for making gadgets and con­ primary schools and small hospitals and clinics, much to the ducting laboratory experiments, gave scientific demonstrations dismay of the home boards, who charged that donations for to groupsofinterestedstudents,regardinghis method as preparatio evangelism were being misused. evangelica. His major strategy can be seen in the way that he and This change of approach brought a little more response. his wife, Julia, ran the Tengchow College. Having no children of Then in 1877/78 a devastating famine over an extensive area of the province involved the missionaries in large-scale reliefwork. Timothy Richard of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) ob­ Timothy Richard aimed at tained from the foreign communities in Chefoo and Shanghai large sums of money for the thousands of peasants dying of the literati. Arthur Smith hunger. He and John Nevius, and later other Protestant mission­ argued that Christ always aries, carefully distributed the funds to those in need. This proved to be a smallbreakthrough,for the authorities recognized started with the poor and that the foreign missionaries could be trusted to handle and worked upward. distribute large sums of money equitably. Many children orphaned by the famine were rescued by the American Presbyterians and British Baptists and brought up in their own, they gave loving, close, and intensive training to their mission orphanages in a Christian environment, later to become students. Some of the early converts of the Presbyterian mission workers and preachers in the churches. But still the number of had been struck off the membership rolls for moral lapses and adult converts were few, and the Chinese community in general dishonesty. Mateer maintained, following the Christian nurture remained disinterested in the Christianmessage. ThusShandong theology of Horace Bushnell, that by close and careful supervi­ became a laboratory of missiological experimentation as to what sion, as well as by personal example, young converts could be method of evangelism could achieve a breakthrough. molded into becoming stable and reliable Christians. The Tengchow College gave the early Shandong church some of its Theories of Mission in Shandong most successful and influential Christian leaders. One such was [ia Yuming, who, after graduating from John Nevius took long journeys by cart or horseback across Tengchow, pastored a church in Linyi and then helped in the central Shandong, establishing small groups of believers, to Tengxian Seminary, becoming its vice president. In 1930 [ia whom he gave more and more advanced instruction with each became president of the Jining Women's Theological Seminary successive visit. A chain of small churches was established. in , later to found an independent Spiritual Light Col­ took similar journeys to the eastern region of lege. He was one of China's best Bible expositors. Some of his Shandong. Nevius, basing his conclusions on a careful study of hymns are in the presentChinese hymnbook." Anotherwas Ding the missionary journeys in the Book of Acts, came to advocate Limei, who,afterleavingTengchow, pastoreda churchin Laizhou, directevangelism,free fromthe "institutionalbaggage" ofschools and in the Boxer Rising suffered beatings, imprisonment, and and hospitals. The "Nevius Method" became widely known and torture. Therewas a revival whenDingaddressed studentsat the followed in other fields, especially Korea, as a result of a visit various Presbyteriancolleges. When preaching, he was quietand there by Nevius in 1890.3 unemotional. When counseling after his meetings, he appealed

April 1998 63 to students to enter the Christian ministry. He worked as travel­ upwardly mobile and successful. Some of the children and ing secretary for the ChineseStudentVolunteerMovement, from grandchildren of the orphans of the late nineteenth-century which he was released for a few years to do missionary work in famines rescued by Nevius and Richard, as well as those of the Yunnan Province." "seeker" converts won from the secret societies (both groups Timothy Richard was discouraged because his open-air originally outcasts of traditional Chinese society), went through preaching and giving out of tracts had borne little fruit. In the village primary school on to the regional high school, and in reading a sermon given by Edward Irving half a century earlier many cases on to to become graduates in at a London Missionary Society annual meeting, Richard felt he medicine, theology, and education. They took either important had found the answer. Irving pointed out that when Christ sent posts in the various missionary institutions or executive appoint­ out the Twelve in Matthew 10, he instructed them to seek out the ments in provincial and national government. worthy, those who were searching for God, as converts to the But Cheeloo was not a complete success story. A group of faith.iWhenRichard moved inland from Chefooto , he Presbyterians led by Dr. Watson Hayes doubted the wisdom of found that there were thousands of members of secret societies the project. They (1) asserted that the university would produce who were seekers after truth. Several hundred of them came into pastors unsuited to village work (most pastorates fell into this the churches. category), for the graduates would be reluctant to accept the hardships of rural life, and they would preach over the heads of the peasantry; (2) they worried that Chinese Christians would Richard found thousands not have sufficient say in the running of the theological college, and this at a time when they were demanding an increasing role of members of secret in the decisions of church life; and (3), most important of all, they societies who were seekers feared that a union seminaryin would move awayfrom the evangelical faith, as had many such seminaries in the United after truth. Several hundred States." came into the churches. A group of Presbyterian theological students followed Watson Hayes out of Cheeloo. They formed the Tengxian Semi­ nary, which grew and attracted students from other provinces The various strategies advocated by Nevius, Mateer, and and became the largest and strongest evangelical theological Richard succeeded moderately well, tending to reflect their seminary in China. advocate's personality and background. On the eve of the Boxer As the twentieth century proceeded, the focal point in mis­ Rising, after forty years of work, there were 13,500 church sionary strategymoved from the question of howto winconverts members in the churches of nine mission societies, including to the Christianfaith-there was now a core of second-and third­ 5,500 in the American Presbyterian congregations and 4,000 in generation Christians-to how to implement the three-self for­ those of the BMS. mula, or the widely accepted goal of establishing self-governing, In 1900 the Yi He Chuan ("righteous harmony fists"­ self-propagating,and self-supporting churches. Theories formu­ teenage boys wearing red sashes and believing they were invul­ lated in the home offices of the (British) Church Missionary nerable to bullets and shells) killed 250 Chinese Christians and Society and the American Board by Henry Venn and Rufus one missionary in Shandong and burned down the homes of Anderson, while neat and useful, were not entirely practicablein several thousand Christians and many chapels. The young, faraway Shandong, with its ever-recurring floods, famines, struggling Protestant church in the province received a serious warlordism, and civil unrest. setback. Missionaries and their families fled to Japan, Qingdao, It was difficult, perhaps impossible, to build stable churches Weihai, and Chefoo for safety. amid such turmoil and to produce leaders of suitable caliber where most of the populace were illiterate and lacking regular An Important Development employment. This problem applied particularly in northwest Shandong, where the American Board and British Methodists Among those who evacuated to Chefoo were American Presby­ operated. Both missions had to reduce their stations and cut their terians and British Baptists, who met informally to discuss how budgets to keep the work viable. to turn this tragedy into good by planning for a better future pattern of work. Though of different church traditions and New Challenges cultures, the two societies made a far-reaching decision that was to alter the structure of missions in Shandong. They agreed to Missionary policy on other matters had to be flexible with pool their resources in personnel, buildings, and funds to set up changing times. In the first two decades of the century, therewere high-quality training to produce pastors, doctors, and teachers. many applications for church membership, some of which were Initially they used their existing plant and buildings, but by based on the idea that a Western education required a Christian 1915 Cheeloo University had been established in Tsinan, the profession of faith. It was difficult for the missionaries to know capital. The Baptists received generous financial help from the whohadbecomegenuineChristians,andthus manywerebrought Arthington Trust, as did the Presbyterians from the Rockefeller into membership who later fell away in the pressures of the anti­ Foundation. By 1924a dozenmissions, the main groups working Christian movement. in Shandong, were supporting the project. Richard, Mateer, and others had combined with their Chris­ In an indirect way the Cheeloo scheme achieved Richard's tian teaching an emphasis on the achievements of Western vision of winning the gentry and upper classes to the church. In governments, which they saw as the fruits of Christianity. This fact, few of this group ever joined, but the forming of a Christian strategy backfired when the Chinese Labor Corps returned to university had the effect of building an alternative social hierar­ Shandong after service in France in World War 1.There they had chy. Sociologists recognize that religious minorities tend to be been shockedby the destruction and crueltyof Western wars and

64 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH E . STAN LE Y J O N E S SC HOOL OF W ORL D MI S SI O N AN D E VANG E L IS M

Is This Effective

GELISM?

We Don't Think So. After All, Sharing the Gospel Shouldn't Endanger Your Neighbor's Dental Work.

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------the behavior of Allied troops. The laborers' experience of trench ers at home. They therefore closed down their educational work. warfare must have cast doubts as to whether the European The American Presbyterians, in contrast, maintained that Chris­ religion of Christianity was really a faith of "peace and love," as tian teachers could still witness to Christ by their lives and the missionaries had proclaimed. Many of the labor force turned personal contact with the students. They had the largest number to socialism and Communism. From now on, the missionaries of schools and continued to run them. The Southern Baptists, had to dissociate themselves from the activities of their home British Baptists, and others who closed their schools later regret­ governments. ted it, for applications for the ministry dropped as a result. Furthermore, the missionaries were confronted with the rise Chinese Christians were crying out for an end to denomina­ of nationalism and antiforeignism. The Chinese youth charged tional labels and doctrinal differences. They hoped that the that missionary teachers were making the students into captive formation of the National Council of Churches in 1923 and of the congregations to propagate Christianity. The authorities re­ Church of Christ in China in 1927 would bring these divisions to sponded by requiring schools and colleges to be registered with an end. In Shandong the American Board, British Methodists, the government and Christian teaching to be voluntary and and (American) Methodist Episcopal Church planned to achieve outside school hours. The stance of the Southern Baptists was unity in their own denominational groupings before joining a that their educational work was carried on solely as a means of larger union. Other missions such as the Mennonites, Southern evangelism. To exclude Christian teaching was to remove the Baptists, and Christian Brethren remained outside the union on real purpose of their schools and break faith with their support­ theological grounds. The only ones to join were the four associa- Readers' Response

To the Editor: To the Editor:

The article by Willi Henkel, "German Centers of Mission Paul Marshall's article "Persecution of Christians in the Con­ Research" (July 1997),has familiar tones (I am German myself) temporary World" (January 1998) makes astonishing claims and is a good treatment of the subject. I would like to add, that call for closer examination regarding both their factuality though, thatthe authorseems to take "Protestant" and "Catho­ and their motivation. Persecution of believers is hardly new lic" as covering the whole field and thus overlooks the evan­ and has been recurrent since biblical times. In the New Testa­ gelical contribution in Germany to the teaching of missiology ment, suffering for Christ is depicted as a blessing (Matt. 5:10­ and to missiological research. This contribution is not large, 11), a cause of rejoicing (1 Pet. 4:13),and a historical fact (Rev. but it is growing; it is not opposed to Protestantmissiologybut 7). The Church Fathers exalted martyrdom, while church does have an (undemarcated) identity of its own. I think it historians pointed to the innocent suffering of believers in pre­ deserves a few lines. Constantinian times as a key factor in the spread of Christian­ In the 1970s evangelical German-speaking missions be­ ity. InternationalChristianorganizations have regularly called gan to formulate a missiology of their own, with the Freie attentionto religious persecution. Marshallis careful to qualify Hochschule fur Mission in Korntal near Stuttgart (founded in his statements about types of persecution and the identity of 1978as Seminar fur missionarische Fortbildung, Monbachtal, persecutors, which, sadly, include Christian groups. Even so, with George W. Peters the first director) as its first point of the figure of 200 million contemporary Christians suffering crystallization. This school, with its missiological research persecution and an additional 400 million living in situations institute, now trains both missionaries on furlough and mis­ of discriminationand repression (nearlyone-fifth of the world­ sion candidates, offering an M.A. in missiology through Co­ wide Christian population) seems so inflated as to call for lumbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina. independent verification. More disturbing, however, are a To further evangelical missiology, the Arbeitskreis fur questionable motive underlying these and similar claims and evangelikale Missiologie (Association of German-speaking the uses to which Marshall's statistics are being put. evangelicalmissiology) was founded in 1984,with Evangelikale Marshall's statistics are cited by persons who support the Missiologie as its quarterly journal (since 1985)and editionafem Wolf-Specter congressional bill to pass the Freedom from as its publishing arm (fifteen books since 1993). Religious Persecution Act (see "Washington Discovers Reli­ Over the same period the teaching of missiology in evan­ gious Persecution," New York Times Magazine, December 21, gelical schools of theology has gained in importance, for 1997), which would establish a U.S. government office to example at the Free Theological Academy in Giessen. In the monitor religious persecution and impose sanctions on coun­ Seventh-day Adventist Kirchliche Hochschule at Friedensau tries that allow or condone it. Though Marshall stops short of there is also now a chair of missiology. I think it is worth endorsing this bill, his own recommendations include ap­ mentioning these new developments to make the picture pointment of consular religious attaches, intervention by the complete. attorney general and INS officers, and termination of nonhumanitarian assistance to offending countries. These Klaus Fiedler steps would go far toward politicizing religious persecution ThewriterisAssociate Professor in theDepartmentof Theology and and making it a governmental concern at the highest level. Religious Studies at the University of Malawi, wherehe has been What makes recommendations like these particularly dubi­ seconded since 1992 by Evangelisches Missionswerk in Hamburg, ous is the fact that the world's largest mission-sending nation Germany. would then become the leading international enforcer of reli­

66 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH tions of the (British) Baptist Union and three of the nine preached. These meetings produced a revival that brought re­ presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church. Together they formed newal to the churches as well as deep division on account of the Shandong Synod with seven districts. There were far more excessive emotionalism and extravagantbehavior. The response Christians outside the union than in it. of the missionaries was to give systematic teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit as a corrective to this branch of the revival and The Shandong Revival to invite some of China's best Bible teachers to hold conventions in the main centers. Thus John Sung, Watchman Nee, and Wang Another challenge to missionary leaders was the impact of the Mingdao addressed large congregations, seeking to consolidate Shandong Revival from 1927 to 1937.9 There were two distinct the fruits of the revival and warning against emotional forms of and separate movements. The first was led by a Lutheran mis­ worship. In spite of these addresses, an unstructured Spiritual sionary, , who addressed the missionaries who Gifts Movement outside the mission churches developed, the had evacuated from the interior to Chefoo on account of the influence of which can still be felt in Shandong today after fifty antiforeign uprising. When the missionaries returned to their years of Communist rule. stations, Monsen visited them there and ministered to both A sense of urgency gripped the missions as the war with workers and Chinese Christians. The second revival movement Japan threatened to spread to Shandong. Great strides were was an indigenous one that began in 1928 in Feixian and spread made in self-government. Chinese Christians held the leading northward when a Chinese preacher from Nanjing, Mr. Ma, positions in most missionsandwereinvolved in decision making

gious freedom, imposing punitive measures on violators. they and their members can also die. This has happened in Students of mission history know all too well the disastrous Japan, China, Turkey, central Asia, and North Africa. consequencesofthe "missionprotectorate" imposedby France Concerning missionary protectorates and crusades, I on China under the unequal treaties of 1860for the extraterri­ agree, and I've said as much. Incidentally, missionaries are torial protection of Roman Catholic missionaries and their irrelevant here; indigenous Christians outnumber them Chinese converts. Intervention by France and other colonial 20,000:1. powers in cases involving local converts in China and else­ "Politicize" it? It's been political a long time. where caused incalculable harm and resulted in long-term I take "intervention by the attorney general and INS" to cultural alienation of converts from their societies. refer to granting asylum to people fleeing persecution. Is Undoubtedly member states of the United Nations, in­ Professor Scherer opposed to this? cluding the , should continue to press for obser­ The "Wolf-Specter bill" does not impose "sanctions on vance of convenants on religious practice in the United Na­ countries," only on persecuting agencies. It simply requires tions Universal Declaration of Human Rights and elsewhere. that U.S. taxpayers' money not be given to complicit regimes. But the United States should not become the world's police­ Does Professor Scherer want us to give them money? man of religious freedom, nor should it launch a new global His allusions to "motives" and the "religious right" seem Christian crusade against Communism or Islam. To the extent to reveal his real worry. In Their Blood Cries Out I called on the that religious persecution abroad is likely to be exploited as a "religious right" (and left) to be aware and act on this issue. foreign policy issue by the religious right in future elections, it They have-slowly following Catholics and Jews. Since they should be unequivocally rejected as a flawed and counterpro­ have, will their critics quit the field? Professor Scherer seems ductive strategy. less worried about people dying than with being allied to people he apparently resents. Americans would do well to put James A. Scherer aside their prejudices in common solidarity with those who Oak Park, Illinois are suffering.

The writer is Emeritus Professor of World Mission and Church Paul Marshall Historyat the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. Thewriterisa Senior Fellow ofFreedom House, Washington, D.C., Author's Reply and General Editor of its Survey on Religious Freedom.

For "independent" confirmation ("independent" of what?), see the 1997 State Department Report on Religious Persecu­ tion and the 1997 Country Reports. The New Testament does not depict suffering as a bless­ ing; it says God blesses us when we suffer. Professor Scherer seems contradictory about this, since he also presses for reli­ gious human rights. Will he tell a Sudanese mother that neither she nor we should try to redeem her child from slavery? Yes, churches can grow under persecution, and do. But

April 1998 67 Back in the mid-1920s there had been a measure of collabo­ Growth in the Membership of Protestant Churches in ration between the Communists and the Chinese Nationalists, Shandong from 1860 to 1986 but in 1927 Chiang Kai-shek had broken with the Communists. 1860 1920 42,438 For a decadeChinaenjoyed a periodof relativestability.Chiang's marriage to Sung Melling, a Methodist Christian, and his bap­ 1881 2,239 1937 76,866 tism in 1930into the Christianchurchencouraged the missionary 1890 5,316 1949 79,946 community and brought him the support of both Protestant and 1899 14,187 1986 c.250,000 Catholic missionaries. But now, after the war, the missionaries 1910 22,251 had to bow to the inevitable. The Communists were offering an attractive alternative to the muddled policy of the Kuomintang. The Shandong Churches under Communism and the control of funds. Great progress was also made in self­ propagation. The American Presbyterians, Southern Baptists, On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Re­ and Anglicans (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) had public of China.Mostsocieties workingin Shandongat this point their own home missionary societies through which Chinese had a few missionaries remaining in the province to protect their Christians went to work in unevangelized areas in other prov­ interests. The Shandong Synod contained twelve districts, as the inces, notably Hebei, Shanxi, and Manchuria. But the achieving remainingpresbyteries had joined.This synod now requested all of self-support continued to prove elusive . missionaries in its bounds to leave. At the time of their departure The British Baptists were the most successful in this sphere. thereweresome80,000Christians in the province.They left amid From the days of Timothy Richard and A. G. Jones, every accusation meetings that charged them with crimes and activi­ preaching station was developed along the lines of self-support. ties of which they were largely innocent. The Chinese churches were responsible for pastors' salaries, Once again the church had to review and adapt its strategy. church buildings, and village schools, leaving the BMS to sup­ Evangelism was now impossible, and Sunday worship was port the training of pastors, teachers, and doctors.The American forbidden in most centers. Many pastors and evangelists were Presbyterians aimed at achieving self-support, but they allowed arrested, imprisoned, and tortured. The church was told that if it humanitarian considerations to modify this principle, insisting was to continue, it must be of service to the community. The that pastors should receive a living salary. Where Nevius had Shandong Synod responded to this new situation by organizing advocated churches being self-supporting from the start, South­ the teaching of useful trades to its church members, such as the ern Baptists tried to phase out their financial supportfor teachers spinning of woollen yarn and beekeeping. and pastors over a twenty-year period. As in other parts of China, the Shandongchurch experienced The final adjustmentin missionarystrategycameafter World remarkable growth during the dark days of the Cultural Revolu­ War II, and wa s a political one. Following the Pearl Harbor raid, tion, from 1966 to 1976. In 1986 Bishop Stephen Wang (Wang missionaries had either been interned in China or repatriated to Shenying) reported that there were 250,000Protestant Christians their home countries. When they returned to Shandong, they in Shandong.'?This number excludes thousands of independent expected to resume their work in the province and to continue for Pentecostal believers who have stayed outside the three-self many years. But they soon faced the unwelcome fact that life in patriotic movement and whose origins go back to the spiritual the Kuomintang-controlled areas was badly affected by soaring gifts movement of the 1930s. It also excludes the Jesus Family, inflation and heavy taxation, that there were inescapable signs of which is at present suffering cruel persecution at the hands of the incompetenceand corruption in high places,and, most serious of Chinese government. The writer has visited Shandong four all, that the Nationalist government had done little to protect the times in the past sixteen years and can testify to the large peasants from exploitation by landlords and usurers. Reports congregations and virile witness of the churches in this province. from Communist-controlled areas spoke of the excellent disci­ Jesus Chri st has many followers here. "He who holds Shandong pline of the Communist soldiers and their exemplary behavior. grips China by the throat."

Notes------­ 1. and , China, Her Life and People 6. Henry Payne,"AChineseChristian:PastorDing," MissionaryHerald (London: Univ. of London Press, 1957), p. 129. (London), July 1910, pp. 212-13. 2. Quoted in A. J. Brown, One Hundred Years (New York: Fleming 7. Edward Irving,Missionaries AftertheApostolicSchool (Tientsin,1887), Revell, 1936), p. 258. pp.36,37. 3. JohnL. Nevius, ThePlanting and Development ofMissiona ry Churches 8. Dr. Watson Hayes to Presbyterian Home Board,July4,1921. (New York: ForeignMission Library, 1899). 9. Paul Abbott, "Indigenous Revivalin Shantung," Chinese Recorder, 4. Arthur H.Smith, "The BestMethod of Presenting the Gospelto the December 1931, pp. 767-72. Chinese," Chinese Recorder (Shanghai),SeptemberI October 1883, p. 10. BobWhyte, Unfinished Encounter-China and Christianity (London: 400. Collins, 1988), p. 428. .. 5. BishopStephenWang(WangShenying)totheauthor,September15, 1991.

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