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Letters | How Xi Jinping’s China is making the Christian faith stronger

  • Christianity in China is thriving even as attacks on the faith intensify under Xi Jinping

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A worn Bible is seen at the new government-sanctioned Catholic cathedral in Xincun, Henan province on August 12, 2018. Photo: AFP

A new “translation” of the Bible is underway in China. In its campaign to “sinicise” Christianity (under a government work plan for “promoting Chinese Christianity” whose goal is “thought reform”), the Communist Party has adopted a plan “for ‘retranslating and annotating’ the Bible to find commonalities with socialism and establish a ‘correct understanding’ of the text”, according to The Guardian.

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The revision of the Bible is the latest in Beijing’s intensifying campaign against Christianity, after crackdowns on churches, the jailing of pastors and some authorities banning Christmas festive decorations and related retail sales. But is it reasonable to believe that the party’s ill-conceived modus operandi will be successful?
Thus far, Beijing’s anti-church campaign has been an abysmal failure. Christianity in China is thriving under persecution.

Perhaps President Xi Jinping should think twice about rewriting the Holy Scripture. Under his leadership, the party is actually propagating the faith it has sought so vigorously to destroy.

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Brian Stuckey, Denver

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