The Face of a Religious China

"Grace means that a life is not assessed for its faults but by a love of God that overwhelms all those faults"  -- Rev. Verity A. Jones

Today, around the world many more are coming to the teaching of the Christ. Forming a community, a Church that stands for all people in solidarity with suffering humanity, and engages peoples of all cultures and religions, is the Church teaching of the Gospels (bible stories). She stands with principle. All peoples the world over, want something to believe in, regardless of their faith heritage, be its origins East or West.

Jesuit Father Myles Sheehan, member of the same Jesuit Christian community as Pope Francis, recounts the Jesuit community experiences since their recent arrival in China. He writes in US Catholic magazine that there were 200 persons attending at a recent prayer meeting; this scene is being repeated every day throughout the country. On Sundays throughout China it occurs in multiplicity. There are now thousands of churches in China, representing all Christian denominations alongside the native faiths of that land.

What is becoming clear is that the number of Christians in China is growing. With the incorporation of Hong Kong into China since 1997, including its free prevalence of all faiths, non-native faiths are now taking hold within the mainland. In fact says Sheehan, there are now more regular church attenders in China today than in all of Europe. China saw more than 20,000 Catholic Christian baptisms in 2011 according to the Church in China.The call to love your neighbor is taking hold.

There are also what Sheehan calls "cultural Christians," many young and educated persons who believe but do not belong. They are a growing group, in many ways coming to the forefront of bringing the Good News to all parts of China. They play a significant role in the future of their nation, carrying with them the ideas, values and philosophies of the Christ.

Their growing Church is a place which holds for her guiding principles, an all inclusive, all-encompassing view, without walls or buildings nor ideologies that omit the value of the dignity of a person. In this modern, industrializing world the Church forms a harbor, a counter-force for harmony, and a home.

This Church of China must stand for all; its aims must be lived, not merely proclaimed through work for charitable causes and advocacy for social justice. In other parts of Asia, this mission takes its fulfillment in solidarity with the Minjung of South Korea, the Dalit of India and the Burakumin of Japan, for example.

While the marginalized in Asia are not all Christians, the indigenous faiths of the region share same or similar deep concerns for Asia. As for the Church in Asia, she stands alongside others with a message of not just a church in Asia but the Church in Asia, uniquely representing her community. After all, building community is at the heart of relationships.

Dying For Apple

There are disturbing reports coming persistently now from China about the conditions of many Chinese workers, indeed workers from throughout the industrializing world, who make the products Americans are using every day without a thought. There are reports of workers dying, unsafe conditions, conditions of near immobilization as workers are restricted to their dormitories by policy and heavy workloads of more than 60 hours a week. We, in America, have long recognized that this treatment of workers is wrong; that workers have natural rights and that likewise child labor is inappropriate.

Yet as all these consumer goods are being made "out of sight, out of mind," so the consuming public remains largely ignorant of these egregious abuses to workers. As I sit here typing on an Apple computer, I am vexed and less pleased with my machine knowing now that Apple has gone abroad for some time now; just recently dust in Chinese factories has sparked explosions with many workers maimed or burned alive in the resulting fires. American industry has known for at least a century now how to prevent factory fires from dust: simple, adequate ventilation does the trick. And yet abroad they are dying by the hundreds so that millions here at home can have greater spending power, more consumption, and quite frankly cheaper goods. Meanwhile our national values about fair labor are eroding.

I don't feel any sense of social justice in continuing the status quo, nor the rightness that I should have a long, convenient life while young workers abroad are losing theirs for some savings to my pocketbook. There is a true cost to industrial safety that goes beyond the amount per hour paid in wages. It is a cost of ones' life and well being. There is now, I realize, a good reason why at least in sum, American goods cost more: the people who make them, for the most part, work in safe facilities and will very likely go home every night to their families. They will not be maimed or immolated while on the job. So now my reason for buying American, or at least from countries with strong worker safety records is clear. When I use something I bought, I can rest in the thought that not only my nation may benefit but also the individual who actually created the item on a far away assembly line who will likely be alive and well at the end of their work shift.

Join in a Simple life; make ethical choices about what and where you consume. Ask questions. Care about the environment and mankind in general. Advocate for worker safety world wide. Doing so will benefit you personally and the common good equally.