Not content with the so-called “re-education” programme––

which they’re current inflicting upon the Uyghur minority––

the Chinese government…

via the state security police…

are increasingly detaining Christians… 

and subjecting them to beatings, verbal abuse, and “mental torture”…

in an effort to “re-educate” them.

A nationwide policy of “Sinicising” the church has been implemented…

as the Chinese Communist Party tries to limit anything that it perceives as a threat to its ideology and power.

Churches that refuse to join the state-backed religious associations have been closed…

and many church buildings have been demolished.

In some regions, children under the age of eighteen are not permitted to attend––

in an effort to snuff out future growth.

An underground Protestant seminary was recently shut down…

and all of its faculty arrested.

The sale of Bibles online has been banned;

and there are reports that there are plans to release a “contextualised Bible––

one that is more “culturally acceptable”.

 

Ironically, in this country…

the “Religious Discrimination Bill” is firmly back on the agenda.

Conservative Christian groups here… 

who are unhappy that their right to persecute LGBTI people isn’t enshrined in law––

and are determined to make it an election issue––

have been lobbying the government demanding “some protection for religious freedom”.

Because, as we know, we don’t have any, do we?

Sure, we’re free to believe whatever we like––

regardless of how strange or even repugnant it might be.

We’re free to pray privately… 

and the government isn’t limiting our access to Bibles…

let alone editing them.

We’re free to gather together for worship without the fear of being arrested.

We’re free to take our children to church… 

and send them to a religious-based school if we wish––

a school which the government helps to fund very generously… 

and without any real interference.

We’re free to make lifestyle and moral choices based on our religious beliefs––

or engage in any religious practices that we deem necessary––

provided that doesn’t impinge upon someone else’s freedom of religion…

or their other rights.

Of course, there are some issues that are more complicated at the level of organisations.

But getting the balance right and expecting that my religious freedom––

and that of the organised religion to which I belong–– 

doesn’t impinge on anyone else’s rights or freedom…

is important.

That is not an assault on religious freedom.

And it’s certainly not religious persecution––

despite the way that some conservative Christians carry on about it.

In reality, what they are decrying is a lack of political power and influence…

not freedom.

Indeed, too many of them seem to think that “religious freedom” means “religious privilege”.

Interestingly, a new paper by a couple of sociologists of religion argues that…

in countries like the United States–– 

and Australia––

the reputation of Christianity is damaged and it only adds to its decline…

when it seeks to “achieve political dominance” rather than “embrace pluralism”.

 

Of course, the situation in China could not be more different than here.

Not only does the Christian church there have no real power…

its beliefs and practices are perceived to be a direct challenge and threat to the state ideology.

But, generally, that’s not the case here;

unless it’s groups like the Australian Christian Lobby…

or the Catholic Church or Sydney Anglicans…

trying to impose their beliefs about gender and sexuality on everyone else…

or dictating what women do with their bodies…

or end-of-life issues.

 

But the question is “why not?”

Why aren’t Christian beliefs perceived as more of a threat?

 

After all, the Gospel enshrines a set of priorities and values…

that is very different from that of our culture, our society, and our world;

a set of priorities and values that threatens so much that is taken for granted.

The Gospel envisions a world that doesn’t respect national boundaries;

a culture that doesn’t care about colour, or gender, or race, or sexual identity;

a society that doesn’t erect walls and barriers…

calling other people names…

and declaring them inferior, or illegal, or worthless, or sinful.

As Christians, should we be regarded as defenders of tradition…

and the pillars of society;

or as radical ratbags trying to shake it all up?

 

In our reading this morning from the Second Letter to the Corinthians…

Paul goes to some length in explaining and trying to justify his ministry.

You see, sometime after he left Corinth…

a group of visiting preachers arrived who were everything that Paul was not.

They were well-to-do and well-connected;

they were educated and eloquent;

and, in a sense, they told the Corinthians just what they wanted to hear.

They offered a very palatable Gospel––

stripped of all the seemingly sharp edges of Paul’s version––

and they were making considerable headway.

And, as a result…

Paul’s reputation, and his influence in the Corinthian church, was waning.

Here, in our reading, then, Paul is… 

in a sense…

offering his résumé.

And what he offers is quite surprising.

There’s no talk, here, of his education or formal credentials;

no mention of his background;

no mention of his considerable successes––

of all the churches that he had helped to establish.

In fact, quite the opposite!

What he offers by way of justification––

justification for the legitimacy and integrity of his ministry––

is a catalogue of woes:

“afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger”…

being dishonoured and held in ill-repute…

treated as an imposter…

a nobody…

as poor riff-raff.

In so doing…

of course…

the sub-text is that, in experiencing these things––

in being treated this way––

he was only experiencing what Jesus, himself, had experienced.

For Paul, in a sense, the fact that he was suffering––

enduring trials and tribulations…

being treated with dishonour and social stigma…

and encountering violence––

was simply evidence that he was, genuinely, living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ…

manifesting its values…

and holding up a mirror to society…

and, indeed, to others in the church…

who chose simply to adopt or acquiesce to their society’s values.

 

In one of his more strident sermons, Martin Luther King jr once suggested that…

“The church…has often served to crystallize, conserve, and even bless the patterns of majority opinion…

Called to be the moral guardian of the community, the church at times has preserved that which is immoral and unethical.

Called to combat social evils, it has remained silent behind stained-glass windows”…

while its ministers… 

“have also been tempted by the enticing cult of conformity”…

preaching “comforting sermons” and avoiding

“saying anything from our pulpits which might disturb the respectable views of the comfortable members of our congregations”.

 

Thankfully, we don’t experience what the Chinese Christians do.

And we don’t expect to.

As Church-goers in Australia, we don’t expect to encounter violence…

let alone hatred…

or persecution…

or even strident opposition.

But perhaps we need to ask if, therein, lies the problem.

If we were truly living and manifesting the Gospel…

then maybe we should.