Bush in China
Yesterday, the President attended the state-sanctioned Gangwashi Church: Bush Attends Beijing Church, Promoting Religious Freedom*.
Yet, the day before, Red China was up to its usual tricks, as this article linked to by Seattle Catholic shows: China detains Catholic priest: group.
When I visited China in 1998, when I was still a Protestant, I went to an intenational church housed at a Japanese commercial center in Beijing. The authorities checked passports at the door, to make sure that Chinese nationals were denied entry. [I went with some Korean students I had met. The pastor was Australian and a group of African students performed the music for the service.] A week later, I stumbled into a venerable old Chinese Methodist church in Shanghai. It was as if the whole congregation turned to look at the strange visitor. An usher led me to a pew and a Chinese women shared her hymnal with me, a very kind but futile gesture, since I knew only a few Chinese characters. From what I've heard, Shanghai is much more liberal when it comes to matters of Faith, including the underground Catholic Church.
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Yesterday, the President attended the state-sanctioned Gangwashi Church: Bush Attends Beijing Church, Promoting Religious Freedom*.
Yet, the day before, Red China was up to its usual tricks, as this article linked to by Seattle Catholic shows: China detains Catholic priest: group.
When I visited China in 1998, when I was still a Protestant, I went to an intenational church housed at a Japanese commercial center in Beijing. The authorities checked passports at the door, to make sure that Chinese nationals were denied entry. [I went with some Korean students I had met. The pastor was Australian and a group of African students performed the music for the service.] A week later, I stumbled into a venerable old Chinese Methodist church in Shanghai. It was as if the whole congregation turned to look at the strange visitor. An usher led me to a pew and a Chinese women shared her hymnal with me, a very kind but futile gesture, since I knew only a few Chinese characters. From what I've heard, Shanghai is much more liberal when it comes to matters of Faith, including the underground Catholic Church.
*Use BugMeNot.com to bypass registration.
Redeemed by Our Savior, I work out my salvation with fear and trembling in Pohang, South Korea, where I live with my wife, daughter, and son and teach English at a science and technology university. Baptized a Methodist and raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran in Buffalo, NY, I spent six years as a guest of the Anglican Communion before being received by the Grace of God into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church on the Feast of Saint Andrew, my patron, anno domini 2002.
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