- I know this happened two days ago, but I’ve been wondering if I should say just a bit about it:
- President George W. Bush visited a state-sponsored Christian church this morning to nudge China on religious freedom — the first stop on a whirlwind visit where he is likely to face difficulty getting his hosts to change their ways on fair trade or human rights.
- A bit farther down in the article we have this:
- The church itself is one of five officially recognized Protestant churches in Beijing. There are Catholic churches as well, although the Chinese bar them from having close ties to the Vatican.
What does it take to be a church officially recognized by the Communist government of China? What are the practical and theological implications of being state-sponsored? And how many unregistered (ie, underground and persecuted) churches are there?
I suppose I could Google for an answer, but I haven’t yet.