China overlooks religion in world development, says Christian pastor

VANCOUVER - A television documentary in China that features the historical accounts of how the world's nine greatest countries rose to prominence has raised the interest of some Chinese pastors overseas who are trying to compare the Christian worldview with atheist China's view of the world's history.

The TV series, "The Rise of the Nations," was recently released by China Central Television (CCTV), the official broadcaster of China, and investigates the key factors behind a country's emergence into the world's spotlight.

In response to the televised program, China Ministries International's Canada branch and the Vancouver Chinese Christian Short-Term Mission Training Center co-organised a research seminar in Vancouver last month, inviting prominent Chinese evangelical pastors to discuss on the topic.

The pastors included the Rev. Hong Yu-jian, the Rev. Chan Yiu-tong, and the Rev. Dr. Edwin Lee.

Although "The Rise of the Nations" was authorised for broadcast because it follows the foundation of China's one-party dictatorship policy and promotes China as a strong nation under such a system, Hong said he believes the program will enable Chinese to study the experience of all strong nations and help them to avoid making the same mistakes in the history.

The Canada church pastor also complimented "The Rise of the Nations" for objectively examining Western civilisation with an academic discussion method, thus exposing both the distortions made by former official propaganda and history textbooks when introducing Western civilisation.

Still, "The Rise of the Nations" has many external and internal limitations - especially since its content must be consistent with the present policy of the Communist Party.

"For example, it became ambiguous when referring to how certain policies must be improved so as to help the advancement of a country. Religious freedom, national constitution, universal suffrage, the separation of powers and representative democracy - all these policies have barely been mentioned at all," Hong noted.

The pastor also criticised Chinese intellectuals for not making a conscious effort to break away from their materialistic view of history. Furthermore, he noted, they overemphasised the effect of economic growth and productivity.

They have very little knowledge of the contributions of religion and spirituality to Western civilisation, Hong asserted. And they did not discuss the religious factors behind the economic and technological prosperity nor did they mention the fundamental reason for the achievement of establishing the advanced policies.

The Netherlands, for example, is a country that people seldom pay attention to but was actually the first country in the world to establish a constitutional democratic republic, Hong pointed out. And that republic was the product of reformed Calvinists trying to defy the authority of Spanish Catholicism, the pastor added.

Another example is the United States, which traces its heritage to more than 100 puritans escaping religious persecution in 1620. The voyagers who arrived in America on the Mayflower travelled with the hope of establishing a land with religious freedom, Hong recalled. The foundation of America also changed the history of many other powerful countries.

"What kind of road should today's China take? We should not only dream about the rising of our nation, as nationalism is not pleasing in God's eyes," Hong commented.

"As it is said in the Lord's Prayer, 'May Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'"

The real kingdom that should rise up is the Kingdom of God, the Canada pastor concluded. Hong hopes that Christianity in China will not be overtaken by the governmental regime, but only focus on establishing the Kingdom of God on earth.


Yanping Li in San Francisco contributed to this report.