Religious institutions are in a very odd place these days.
They are on the front lines, in terms of contact with the weakest, poorest and most troubled members of society. They attract people who are suffering.
The growth and existence and passionate defense of religious institutions, despite all our advances, signal society isn't providing alternatives that perform the same function that contribute to well being and community.
The more religion gets attacked the less is focus on providing those alternatives. And those alternatives will come only with a deep understanding of what religion got right in dealing with human suffering.
Do you have any sources to back that up? I can't imagine what (beside altruistic) benefits would be received by donating time, energy, and money for the benefit of people who don't have it?
If the Chinese authorities do rewrite the Bible, I would hope they would add in the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It's only fair to present both sides of the story.
So happy to see this happening. Victims of delusion spreading cults, currently have no chance at suing for permanent psychological damage they suffer or suffered as a result of the negative variables instilled into a mind when on the topic of a deity. Specifically how victims are indoctrinated at an early age and where if they happen to be LGBT it’s an early life sentence of being in Hell. May even end in suicide for the victims like some individuals I’ve known. The charade built by charlatans need to have some deterrents to fear like the other monsters in society.
“So happy to see this happening. Victims of delusion spreading cults, currently have no chance at suing for permanent psychological damage they suffer or suffered as a result of the negative variables instilled into a mind when on the topic of a deity. Specifically how victims are indoctrinated at an early age and where if they happen to be LGBT it’s an early life sentence of being in Hell. May even end in suicide for the victims like some individuals I’ve known. The charade built by charlatans need to have some deterrents to fear like the other monsters in society.” Good point
> The plan calls for “retranslating and annotating” the Bible, to find commonalities with socialism and establish a “correct understanding” of the text.
With the age of the Internet I’d be surprised if a tactic like this would have any affect. There will be so many websites pointing out where things were changed. The Chinese government can try to block all of these sites and access to the original content but information is hard to contain.
> “What really makes the government nervous is Christianity’s claim to universal rights and values.”
That this wouldn’t be a common truth sounds radical as someone who has lived in the US my whole life and takes this world view for granted.
Everything printed since WW II has been vetted and censored, after heroic efforts first by Cisco and more recently by Huawei the Internet's past (search) and future (the Great Firewall) is under full control too.
Religion is so popular in China in part because of the great ideological changes in the country. Over the last century or so it has gone from Confucianism to Sun Yet Sen's Christian social democracy to Maoism to Deng Xiaoping's moderate capitalist socialism to Xi Jin Ping's new authoritarianism. The result of all these swerves is that a large part of the population has lost any ideological belief in the government, and looks for meaning and guidance elsewhere.
And when it comes to this Christianity presents a particular threat to the government. Besides being associated with the West, it is universalistic, as the article says. All people are children of the one God, so they all have rights and the right to criticize the government, and the Chinese government also has no right to try to imperialistically dominate the world.
You know, when a government engages in this sort of suppression, it likes to say it is because it is so strong, but actually it usually means it is in a panic over lack of support by the population.
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[ 0.27 ms ] story [ 39.1 ms ] threadThey are on the front lines, in terms of contact with the weakest, poorest and most troubled members of society. They attract people who are suffering.
The growth and existence and passionate defense of religious institutions, despite all our advances, signal society isn't providing alternatives that perform the same function that contribute to well being and community.
The more religion gets attacked the less is focus on providing those alternatives. And those alternatives will come only with a deep understanding of what religion got right in dealing with human suffering.
Indeed, and in many cases, exploiting them for their own benefits.
With the age of the Internet I’d be surprised if a tactic like this would have any affect. There will be so many websites pointing out where things were changed. The Chinese government can try to block all of these sites and access to the original content but information is hard to contain.
> “What really makes the government nervous is Christianity’s claim to universal rights and values.”
That this wouldn’t be a common truth sounds radical as someone who has lived in the US my whole life and takes this world view for granted.
Everything printed since WW II has been vetted and censored, after heroic efforts first by Cisco and more recently by Huawei the Internet's past (search) and future (the Great Firewall) is under full control too.
It's a good time to crack down on older works.
And when it comes to this Christianity presents a particular threat to the government. Besides being associated with the West, it is universalistic, as the article says. All people are children of the one God, so they all have rights and the right to criticize the government, and the Chinese government also has no right to try to imperialistically dominate the world.
You know, when a government engages in this sort of suppression, it likes to say it is because it is so strong, but actually it usually means it is in a panic over lack of support by the population.