CHRISTIANITY FEVER?

In 1949 there were about one million Chinese Protestants, who worshipped in some twenty thousand churches and chapels, and in countless home meetings. By 1958, after nine years of communist rule, almost all churches had been closed. Strict controls were also in force against Christian meetings held in homes. In August 1966 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) issued a directive which marked the start of the Cultural Revolution. A campaign was launched against old ideas, culture, customs and habits. Historic buildings, libraries, and works of art were wrecked and thousands of individuals persecuted. Religious institutions were closed, often with violence against personnel and vandalism of contents. For the next decade it seemed that religions, including Christianity, disappeared from China. Their total destruction was an ideal promoted by Jiang Qing, Mao's wife and a leading figure in the Cultural Revolution, who confidently announced that religion was dead. This suppression of institutional religion has few parallels in history, perhaps only the governments of Albania and North Korea having been equally thorough. In some areas the persecution was particularly systematic: for example the county of Pingyang in Zhejiang province was targeted as a ‘model atheist district’ in which all religion was to be eliminated. Christians continued to meet in secret during this period. Evangelical groups in Hong Kong reported that small prayer meetings were being held in private homes, that by 1974 several hundred people were attending large services in Fuzhou, and that in Wenzhou there were Bible study classes and training sessions.