China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is razed

[Julian]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Historians now estimate 50 million demographic loss if you include indirect deaths and those who were not born due to the wartime conditions. Sadly China is becoming increasingly Christian but mark my words: just like Taiwan, the Chinese will milk the Korean and western missionaries for money and benefit and will ditch Christianity within a generation or two.

You chinese have an ideology which can befool others but not me. To put it shortly, China has a dual layer- one being outer one to fool rest of world and large number of Chinese who hate totalitarian ways. This layer has not been monolith , it was confucianism in Han era, Buddhism in Sui Tang era and Neo confucianism in rest of medieval Chinese history. This gives a humanitarian look to Chinese culture in a way.
The other layer has always been monolith- Han legalism resulting in outright tyranny where an emperor surrounded by highly trained Officials controls fate of all Hans. The great thing about Chinese is that they have had always these two layers one being core and giving an inner strength which means that outright break up of China does not become even a remote possibility, on the other , the next layer being outer which attracts non suspecting individuals( both chinese and non chinese) and that layer allows China to be in touch with recent geocultural movements all the while retaining inner cohesion.
So China might adopt Christianity and in case it does not ditch it, it may emerge as next centre of it, with Christianity being a great political tool for primitive parts like Africa and Central America because the inner cohesion provided by han legalism is strongest force in world. This is the reason why US is not that concerned about Christianity in China.
Chinese have always treated all religions including great Confucian tradition in a superficial manner, so Christianity may not escape that fate.

 

[jon88]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Religion and culture go hand in hand. A hindu temple built in USA even by white converts would follow traditional Nagar and Dravidian styles rather than Gothic European or Roman styles as latter are inextricably linked with Christianity for centuries.

A Buddhist temple in East Asia do not look anything like those in South Asia.

Given you suggested rule, Christian churches should look likea building in the ancient middle eastern architecture.

 

[Julian]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

A Buddhist temple in East Asia do not look anything like those in South Asia

Apples and oranges. Buddhism has been in east Asia since last 2000 years so it would get localized. Compared to Catholics and Protestants, Syrian Christians have much closeness to Indian rituals because of their long stay.
Chinese pagoda style is derived from India however.

 

[jon88]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

It was"younger brother of Jesus" doing that. Also, toll seems to be higher than 20 millions, some sources say it was 30 million. Chinese Communist party also owes its existence to pockets of Christianity in East Asia.

Still, that is still called ideological/religious extremism

 

[Julian]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

A Buddhist temple in East Asia do not look anything like those in South Asia.

Given you suggested rule, Christian churches should look likea building in the ancient middle eastern architecture.

Christianity in Europe has had history of 2000 years and stop this crap of christianity being middle eastern, this is nonsense by some christians to show that white race has nothing to do with origin of Christianity. There is nothing mid east about many christian rituals, art, Biblical studies, Latin and Greek being sacred languages for thousands of years. Bible was written in Greek not Aramaic or Hebrew. Christianity is less middle eastern than Buddhism is Indian.
A mythical character is located in middle east and that is all .

 

[jon88]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Apples and oranges. Buddhism has been in east Asia since last 2000 years so it would get localized. Compared to Catholics and Protestants, Syrian Christians have much closeness to Indian rituals because of their long stay.
Chinese pagoda style is derived from India however.

Exactly what I pointed, you need to localised it to make it popular. Macdonalds cannot make it in India selling only beef burgers.

 

[Julian]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Still, that is still called ideological/religious extremism

That I agree, christian fanaticism spread among Taiping rebels so much so that they thought bullets would not work and so armed with ideology to send Manchus into hell, they started bloody attacks.Communism in NKorea and China emerged from pockets where there was significant christian influence, so in a way China is still paying for Christian fanaticism implanted in it by western powers .

 

[Julian]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Exactly what I pointed, you need to localised it to make it popular. Macdonalds cannot make it in India selling only beef burgers.

Finally we agree.

 

[jon88]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Christianity in Europe has had history of 2000 years and stop this crap of christianity being middle eastern, this is nonsense by some christians to show that white race has nothing to do with origin of Christianity. There is nothing mid east about many christian rituals, art, Biblical studies, Latin and Greek being sacred rituals. Bible was written in Greek not Aramaic or Hebrew. Christianity is less middle eastern than Buddhism is Indian.
A mythical character is located in middle east and that is all .

Basically, for Christianity to do well in China or even India, it has to loose it's European face

 

[Julian]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Basically, for Christianity to do well in China or even India, it has to loose it's European face

In India they have done that in most of things.

 

[Satanist]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

That I agree, christian fanaticism spread among Taiping rebels so much so that they thought bullets would not work and so armed with ideology to send Manchus into hell, they started bloody attacks.Communism in NKorea and China emerged from pockets where there was significant christian influence, so in a way China is still paying for Christian fanaticism implanted in it by western powers .

Not to mention the US lackey South Korea which is heavily fanatical christian.

 

[Julian]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Not to mention the US lackey South Korea which is heavily fanatical christian.

The smart Christians are now employing Koreans in North East India so that first a sense of "racial solidarity" is built up. How Chinese perceive SKoreans?
I agree that they are quite fanatic and are busy destroying great buddhist past of Korea.

 

[Satanist]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

The smart Christians are now employing Koreans in North East India so that first a sense of "racial solidarity" is built up. How Chinese perceive SKoreans?
I agree that they are quite fanatic and are busy destroying great buddhist past of Korea.

Koreans are not liked much in general but Korean pop culture is everywhere.

 

[Julian]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Koreans are not liked much in general but Korean pop culture is everywhere.

It is very heavy in NE India and in states like Manipur, young ones do not watch Indian films but rather prefer Korean ones. Is there any chance of China adopting Buddhism after decades of suppression?

 

[Ray]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Just an observation... Why do they have to build a church with Western architecture? The problem here is that Christianity is almost always promoted with an European face.

If the Roman Catholic Church allowed Alessandro Valignano in the 14th century to adopt local customs into Christianity in China, just like Buddhism with Chinese customs and folklore, the results would be so different.

In China they have this fetish to build thing in the Western style.

Why China loves to build copycat towns
China is well known for its pirated DVDs and fake iPhones, but this "copycat culture" extends to architecture too - with whole towns sometimes replicated.

There's even a statue of Winston Churchill, and a medieval meeting hall that advertises chicken wings and beer in Chinese characters.

Hallstatt #1 in Austria (l), and the replica of the village in China (r)

BBC News - Why China loves to build copycat towns

In India, in the Raj days, we had western type architecture for Churches.

Today the trend is different.

A church being built at St. Theresa's Hospital with some features of Hindu and Jain temple architecture.

Its architecture style is not Gothic or Corinthian or Roman with a colonnade as is the case with many churches. Capturing the present trend to Indianise the church, in line with Vatican II, its every part is native.

Four domes resembling 'gopurams' of a Jain temple, are provided over the church along with two steeples on either side in the front made for elevation.

A big statue of Christ will be installed on the top. Indian art depicting the 'padmam' (lotus) and creepers dot the interiors and columned porticos. Exterior angular portions are ornamented with intricate art of Kakatiya thoranams.

A church with Indian architecture - The Hindu

 

[Ray]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

It is incorrect to feel that Christianity follows Western ways.

In India, most are familiar with the Roman Catholics, Protestants and western variation.

However, there are other Churches i,e, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and so on.

Here is the St Basil Church in Red Square.

St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow

Does the onion domes in anyway resemble the western architecture?

In fact, it definitely looks Middle Eastern.

 

[Ray]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Egypt's Coptic Christian Pope

Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Benedict XVI exchange greetings during a visit to Holy Spirit Cathedral in Istanbul, Turkey, Dec. 1, 2006.

 

[jon88]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

Matteo Ricci. That is what I call adaptation to local customs and traditions.

 

[jon88]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

If the church is built this way, the reaction would have been very different.
And if joss sticks replaces the candles. Lighting joss sticks should not dilute the Christian religion since lighting candles are not even mentioned in the bible. Lighting candles in prayers was a European Pagan prayer rite.

Just look at this ancient Chinese church. The religion of Christianity should be promoted this way without invoking a perception of threat to the Chinese culture, custom and traditions.

The Hui people which are Han Muslims, even observe the "Ching Ming" festival along with their non-Muslim Hans by visiting the tombs of ancestors without diluting their Muslim faith. They perform their Muslim prayers and rites during that festival.

Bottom line is, introduction of a new religion should not be at the expense of abandoning thousands of years of indigenous tradition.

 

[tarunraju]

Re: China denies declaring war on Christians after mega-church is raze

I've been to Po Lin Buddhist Monestary in HK several times now, and each time I find new infrastructure complementing it, even if it's just new plants. I guess there's no harm in upgrading infrastructure, even if it means breaking down something old.