02-07-2007, 09:52 PM
<b>Religion & democracy</b>
<i>China may soon become a dangerous place.</i>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The poll showed a significant revitalization of traditional Chinese religions and <b>a big growth in the number of Christians, by twelve per cent, to forty million</b>. Nearly a quarter of those surveyed said that religion "showed the true path of life". Twenty-eight per cent said it "helps cure illness, avoid disasters and ensure that life is smooth".
While one of the pollsters, professor Liu, said, "This kind of feeling is especially common in rural areas," the survey points to another feature. <b>More young people have become religious. A majority of believers are in the sixteen-thirty-nine age group, while less than ten per cent are fifty-five or older</b>. "This," admitted Liu, "is markedly different from the previous decade, when most religious believers were in their forties or older."
.............
Which is bad news for the Chinese authorities. <b>East Europe went dogmatically Christian in the years leading up to the break up of the Soviet empire</b>. For good measure, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has invited the Orthodox Church to unite the faithful. The point is, will China travel the Soviet imperium's way of religiosity, collapse and more religiosity, or will we see the emergence of something like "Religion with Chinese characteristics"? What is the importance of the survey timing?
It is obvious as much to thinking Chinese as to the leadership that China lacks a national ideology today. Some dissident intellectuals who are Christian are using the faith. The Tibetan struggle, while non-Chinese, is largely located in the West and occasional embarrassments come for China from the Dalai Lama's asylum here. Laureate Desmond Tutu in his Gandhi Prize acceptance speech called for Tibet's independence<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<i>China may soon become a dangerous place.</i>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The poll showed a significant revitalization of traditional Chinese religions and <b>a big growth in the number of Christians, by twelve per cent, to forty million</b>. Nearly a quarter of those surveyed said that religion "showed the true path of life". Twenty-eight per cent said it "helps cure illness, avoid disasters and ensure that life is smooth".
While one of the pollsters, professor Liu, said, "This kind of feeling is especially common in rural areas," the survey points to another feature. <b>More young people have become religious. A majority of believers are in the sixteen-thirty-nine age group, while less than ten per cent are fifty-five or older</b>. "This," admitted Liu, "is markedly different from the previous decade, when most religious believers were in their forties or older."
.............
Which is bad news for the Chinese authorities. <b>East Europe went dogmatically Christian in the years leading up to the break up of the Soviet empire</b>. For good measure, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has invited the Orthodox Church to unite the faithful. The point is, will China travel the Soviet imperium's way of religiosity, collapse and more religiosity, or will we see the emergence of something like "Religion with Chinese characteristics"? What is the importance of the survey timing?
It is obvious as much to thinking Chinese as to the leadership that China lacks a national ideology today. Some dissident intellectuals who are Christian are using the faith. The Tibetan struggle, while non-Chinese, is largely located in the West and occasional embarrassments come for China from the Dalai Lama's asylum here. Laureate Desmond Tutu in his Gandhi Prize acceptance speech called for Tibet's independence<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->