Missing missionary: Ma Daqin, Auxiliary Bishop of Shanghai, has not been seen since he declared he was leaving the officially approved Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association
While church attendance continues to fall in the West and Christians are being driven out of the Middle East under Islamist pressure, China is moving in the opposite direction. In 2011 the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based think-tank, estimated that there were 67 million Chinese Christians, about 5 per cent of the total population. Of these, 58 million were Protestant and nine million Catholic. Their number exceeds that of members of the Communist Party (CCP)…
via The Middle Kingdom’s Problem with Religion | Standpoint. h/t Real World Politics
And those are just the official numbers. There are many many “underground” Christians who do not readily identify themselves to be counted. The sad truth is that if you are counted as a Christian in China, you will be persecuted and you must also attend a dumbed-down neutered church with official government sanction and pew-watchers in every service. Don’t get too enthusiastic about your faith; it might be bad for your health, custody of your child, and your employment status. So, most committed Christians belong to an underground church. I’ve met some of them who have come to our university to study.
Oh, to have the sort of faith that they have!
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