Bartholomew's Notes

Pat Robertson’s comments about casualties in Iraq continue to rouse interest: first CNN, then Pete at The Dark Window, and now the AP. Pat has once again proven his psychic (sorry, spiritual) powers by pronouncing a prophecy about the conflict. According to Pat:

“I mean, the Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy,” Robertson said. “I warned him [President Bush] about casualties… I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings.”

Not sure how B is distinct from A…The context makes clear that Pat/God is talking about US military, not Iraqi, casualties, since Bush allegedly told him (just Pat) that there would be none (an allegation Robertson had also made on Hardball on June 22 [link snagged from Jesus’ General])

So, how prophetic is Pat really? In Februrary 2003, Pat expressed “concerns” on CNN (link from Jesus’ General, emphasis added):

ROBERTSON: Connie, I have, over the last year or so, been quite concerned about entering into this war. We should have gone in after him in the Gulf War I. This thing is fraught with danger. And I think we need to understand that. I told the president that just recently, that we have got to prepare the American people for civilian casualties, for possibly our casualties, for gassing, for various chemical weapons against them…

CHUNG: So are you saying to the president, go ahead, but warn… 

ROBERTSON: I think that’s it. We’re too far along the way to stop back now. And you have no choice but to go forward, so be resolute, but please tell the American people to expect trouble and don’t think it’s going to be a cakewalk.

This is still less than a prophesised “disaster”, and Pat’s main worry is the WMDs. Pat’s supernatural powers are also underwhelming during this exchange on CBN with UPI Moon-minion Arnaud de Borchgrave the following March 19, just hours before the invasion began. Here Pat does at least use the term “messy”:

PAT ROBERTSON: There’s no question that this is going to be a messy war, it’s going to be very painful. Undoubtedly Saddam is going to hide his military installations behind civilian targets.

de Borchgrave concurs that there will be civilian casualties, caused by Saddam using his WMDs in a scorched-earth policy. Overall, however, Robertson seems cautiously optimistic, although prepared for US deaths (emphasis added):

ROBERTSON: We will win, but it will be very bloody?

de BORCHGRAVE: Well, the casualties estimated by some contacts of mine, who are generals at the Pentagon, vary between 100 KIA and 1,500 U.S. KIA.

ROBERTSON: I hate to say that’s modest, by certain standards of war, if that’s all it is. What about civilians?

de BORCHGRAVE: Well, civilians always — we’ve known this for a long time now. I was in the Blitz in London in 1940, and I’m sure you remember how many thousands of civilians were killed versus hardly any military, and that’s what happens in war, unfortunately.

ROBERTSON: Arnaud de Borchgrave, thank you for being with us for these insights. We appreciate it.

de BORCHGRAVE: You’re welcome.

It’s a bit worrying when you have less of a “reality based” view of the world than Pat Robertson and Arnaud de Borchgrave, even if Robertson has now over-egged his supposed pre-war divine revelation of “disaster”.

Despite his disageement with Bush, Pat weirdly invoked Confucianism to show his continuing support for him:

“And you remember, I think the Chinese used to say, you know, it’s the blessing of heaven on the emperor. And I think the blessing of heaven is on Bush. It’s just the way it is.”

Perhaps Pat might like to look at World History.com:

The idea [of the Mandate of Heaven] was different from the European notion of Divine Right of Kings in that it legitimized the overthrow of a dynasty and it also put some limits on the behavior of the emperor. If the emperor ruled unwisely or failed to perform the proper rituals, the emperor could lose the Mandate of Heaven and be overthrown. On the other hand, it also promoted “might is right” ideas, since any successful dynastic founder was considered to have the Mandate by virtue of his success, and any failed ruler was considered to have lost it, no matter how great his personal virtue.

Remember that if Kerry wins. However, Pat may have been thinking of this other aspect of the doctrine:

It also encouraged both Chinese unity and a disdainful attitude towards the outside world, since there was only one Mandate, and so only one true ruler of humankind—the Emperor of China.

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Forget Sinclair and Stolen Honor. Check out the latest from Charisma News Service (emphases added):

International evangelist Morris Cerullo is taking his prayer initiative for the United States to the small screen just days before the Nov. 2 elections. As part of his Save America Now (SAN) campaign (www.save-america-now.com), Cerullo will host a one-hour, primetime TV special that will air from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 on nearly 200 stations nationwide, including CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox affiliates and Christian stations.

“Our nation is at a major crossroad,” Cerullo said. “It is time for God’s people to unite together in prayer as never before as we go to the polling booths on Nov. 2. The Save America Now television special will call the nation to strategic prayer for God’s will in the election of our next president. It is time to cry out, ‘God, turn America back to you!'”

Christian leaders and musicians who are scheduled to appear on the program include Jerry Falwell, Ted Haggard, Kenneth Copeland, Cindy Jacobs, Keith Butler, Charles Stanley, Tommy Tenney, Jack Van Impe, Judy Jacobs, Eddie and Alice Smith, and Sandi Patty.

In other words, unless Charisma is making something up, primetime television in the USA is going to be saturated by the Religious Right (and I use the term advisedly – this is not plain “evangelicalism”) in the evenings before the election. Now, I’m a Brit living in Japan, but, please…is this legal? Cerullo’s website doesn’t actually endorse Bush explicitly, but the message is pretty clear:

2004 is an election year, during which the enemies of America will attempt to influence the election by increasing terrorism, thereby portraying the current administration as weak and ineffective. Don’t be fooled! The Enemy does not want us to continue on with the anti-terrorism crusade because that would unite America together for a common cause. If America is riddled with inner conflict and problems, then we cannot focus our attention on the true purpose — spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ! If America falls into decay and turns its attention from the world, then the Enemy is free to infect the other nations of the world and no amount of outcry from watery Christians will be able to stop him!

Plus there’s this kitschy icon’s presence:

As for the other figures mentioned by Charisma, well: Jerry Falwell needs no introduction; Kenneth Copeland and Jack Van Impe are Christian Zionists in the Hal Lindsey mould; Ted Haggard has spent his time as head of the National Association of Evangelicals promoting C Peter Wagner’s “spiritual warfare” ideas, ideas that are shared by Cindy Jacobs; Charles Stanley’s In Touch Ministries promotes “America is a Christian Nation” theocracy; Keith Butler (like Copeland) is a Prosperity Gospel preacher; Tommy Tenney is a popular Charismatic pastor; and Eddie and Alice Smith run the US Prayer Center and are authors of Spiritual House Cleaning (“8 Steps to Purifying Your Home–Protect Your Home and Family from Spiritual Pollution”), among other books. Sandi Patty is a Christian singer. And, of course, Morris Cerullo himself is a faith healer of the Benny Hinn variety. He’s also a prophet, who was told by God last year that 2004 would be the most dangerous for the USA:

…Now, God has spoken again. He said, “Please mobilize my people. Mobilize the body of Christ. Because next year will be the most problematic year of the United States of America.”

…Next year we are going to begin to see the hand of the Enemy come into this nation as never before, and it will spread from America to the other nations of the world.

Next year is an election year and the Enemy is going to stir up the people in this country against God’s forces as never before. The Enemy is angry and mad, because we’ve got people in political areas of the world that are claiming to know Jesus Christ and are trying to serve him in prayer.

We’re going to see upheavals like never before! Terrorists acts will increase to try and cause distruption [sic], to turn us away from what our country was founded on!

But, of course, he’s not necessarily saying you shouldn’t vote for Kerry, so that’s all fair and balanced, and a message well-deserving of the nation’s prime-time attention.

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The BBC World Service has a new documentary series on exorcism. The first 15-minute episode was an informative introduction, although running time obviously limited the analysis. The programme begins with a Charismatic deliverance service, and then introduces us to Benedict Heron, London-based Benedictine and “unofficial” Catholic exorcist. Heron’s book I Saw Satan Fall is available on-line; the programme failed to identify him as a Charismatic Catholic, which makes him a bit different from the norm.

The presenter, Richard Johnson, also tells us that the Catholic Church is the only Church to have an official exorcism handbook, recently updated from the 1614 edition. Actually, the Church of England does have a kind of handbook, the booklet Exorcism: The Findings of the Commission convened by the Bishop of Exeter, albeit long out of print since publication in the 1970s (although I have a copy). It might also be worth noting that the new Anglican Common Worship liturgy includes the Christaraksha, an Indian prayer that mentions “the assaults of evil spirits.”

A bit of historical context is provided by Dr. Marion Gibson, and we also hear about Jim Peasboro, a Savannah-based preacher who supposedly believes that any computer built after 1985 has the capacity to become possessed. Alas, it looks like Rev Peasboro, and his book The Devil in the Machine, is an urban legend.

UPDATE (7 November): I’ve checked out some of the other figures featured in the later programmes.

The second programme concentrates on Ghana. We meet Matthew Addai Mensah (or Matthew Addae-Mensah) of the Gospel Light Church, who burns down witches’ shrines and claims to have raised the dead. Back in March the Ghanaian Chronicle (via Ghanaweb) reported that this Pentecostal Bishop is in a spot of bother:

The General Overseer of Gospel Light International Church, Bishop Addai-Mensah who has been accused of committing adultery with a female pastor of the Church, has described the allegation as a fabrication…the charge [is] by a member of the church choir and husband of the female pastor, Mr. Kwamena Ofori.

…The Chronicle’s information was that Bishop Addai-Mensah had been seen several times with the lady pastor in her bedroom at odd hours under the guise of conducting deliverance.

The programme also features a Dr Opoku, who believes that he can diagnose a woman as being demonised if she wears trousers…However, there is also serious analysis of the attractions of deliverance in Ghanaian society, and what can happen to a woman when she has been denounced as a witch.

The next programme features Trevor Newport, who runs Life Changing Ministries in Stoke-on-Trent. Newport practises Charismatic deliverance, and seems to be a bit of a favourite for BBC journalists – more about him can be found here. His church’s website appears to be down, but looking at an archived site identifies him as a Prosperity Gospel “Word of Faith” preacher with links to Kenneth Copeland.

In the last episode, which considers exorcism in relation to mental illness and what can go wrong, two mainline figures are introduced: Granville Gibson, a former Archdeacon in north-east England; and Canon William Lendrum. Lendrum is a Church of Ireland minister based in Belfast, and has been a media subject before. According to the Belfast Telegraph (via Religion News Blog), Lendrum apparently only became interested in the subject during his career:

As a minister in the early 70s he began “to feel a kind of perverse plan working against me. Things kept going wrong just when they’d cause most damage, like before I ran a mission. The edge would be taken off my sword, if you like

“I began to have an open mind about what was the cause of it.”

In swift succession he was loaned a book, Spiritual Warfare – “something I’d never thought about before” – and then met a young woman in an alcoholic hospital where he was chaplain. He refers to her by the pseudonym ‘Alice’ and what he witnessed chilled him to the core…”Alice started being argumentative and truculent. She talked about herself in the third person. Then it dawned on me that someone else was using Alice’s lips to speak to me about Alice. It was an evil spirit talking, it was in control of her life…Eventually I prised out details of how she’d been initiated into something called the satanic Ulster Assassination Cult in a blood-letting ritual.

I can’t find any other reference for this supposed group. The transcript of a BBC phone-in with Lendrum can be read here.

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Crosswalk reports on the recent “Mayday For Marriage” rally against gay marriage in Washington DC:

On Oct. 15, an estimated 200,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in response to a call to protect the endangered institution of marriage from what U.S. Ambassador Alan Keyes called “the arrogant elite.”

In addition to Keyes, Christian leaders such as Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Charles Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Dr. Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church spoke at the rally.

However, the ungodly at the New York Times dispute the figure:

Organizers put the attendance at the rally, called Mayday for Marriage, at close to 200,000, but others said it appeared to be far less than half that. In any case, it fell short of organizers’ projections, which ranged from a million last month to about 400,000 earlier this week.

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the event was conceived by Hutcherson, who is a protégé of Tim LaHaye and Howard Hendricks. According to Crosswalk, Dobson made an anguished call for someone to “please think of the children”, and the Times notes that he also gave an explicit endorsement of Bush, warning that people who watch “propaganda” on MTV are also being encouraged to vote by the music channel. Charles “Watergate into Wine” Colson added:

[Same-sex ‘marriage’] separates parenthood from marriage. It says that it doesn’t matter if you’re married to raise children, but it does matter because those children need a male and a female – a mother and a father.”

Not only do homosexuals want to raise children, they want to raise them within the context of being married! How has America sunk so low? But there’s more, from the hellhole that is Scandinavia:

Colson warned that if we fail to protect marriage in the United States, the nation could end up like Norway and Holland – where marriage is so diminished that few, regardless of rights, bother to marry anymore.

This bizarre non-sequiter, that gay people wanting to get married causes less people overall to want to marry, has its origins with conservative anthropologist Stanley Kurtz, writing in the Weekly Standard in February. Kurtz was debunked by M.V. Lee Badgett in Slate in May:

The main evidence Kurtz points to is the increase in cohabitation rates among unmarried heterosexual couples and the increase in births to unmarried mothers. Roughly half of all children in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are now born to unmarried parents. In Denmark, the number of cohabiting couples with children rose by 25 percent in the 1990s. From these statistics Kurtz concludes that “… married parenthood has become a minority phenomenon,” and—surprise—he blames gay marriage.

But Kurtz’s interpretation of the statistics is incorrect. Parenthood within marriage is still the norm—most cohabitating couples marry after they start having children. In Sweden, for instance, 70 percent of cohabiters wed after their first child is born. Indeed, in Scandinavia the majority of families with children are headed by married parents. In Denmark and Norway, roughly four out of five couples with children were married in 2003. In the Netherlands, a bit south of Scandinavia, 90 percent of heterosexual couples with kids are married.

Kurtz is also mistaken in maintaining that gay unions are to blame for changes in heterosexual marriage patterns. In truth, the shift occurred in the opposite direction: Changes in heterosexual marriage made the recognition of gay couples more likely. In my own recent study conducted in the Netherlands, I found that the nine countries with partnership laws had higher rates of unmarried cohabitation than other European and North American countries before passage of the partner-registration laws. In other words, high cohabitation rates came first, gay partnership laws followed.

Also at the rally were Dennis Rainey of FamilyLife, speaking against divorce, and Alan Chambers of Exodus International. Crosswalk failed to note the presence of Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who heads up Toward Tradition, and Gary Bauer.

And, according to the Seattle Post, it all cost only $4 million!

(Some links snagged from Christianity Today and The Revealer)

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Way back in March, I blogged on up-coming American NBC mini-series Revelations, starring Bull Pulman and Natascha McElhone and scripted by David “The Omen” Seltzer. Sources such as Variety informed us that the show was supposed to appear after the Olympics, at the end of August.

But now (well, since July actually, but I didn’t notice) the entertainment sites are saying that the show is “tentatively set to premiere in January 2005”. NBC’s website lists it as “upcoming”, and links to a preview. SCI FI Wire (a site owned by NBC Universal) adds:

Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Universal Television Group, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming midseason supernatural series Revelations will be an action-adventure series in the style of Indiana Jones. “It’s really…more about…the search for whether or not the prophecies in the Book of Revelation are coming true,” Zucker said in an interview at NBC’s fall press preview in Los Angeles. “That’s really what it’s about. It’s more Raiders of the Lost Ark in that respect and a thriller than it is about trying to stop the end of the world.”

But why the change in schedule? Was it too contentious? I’m actually sceptical (like commentators at The Revealer) of the idea that Bush is an apocalyptically-minded President, but perhaps broadcasting such a programme just before the election might have put the issue on the agenda in ways not necessarily to his advantage…

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Following Ryan’s example, I have just bought a packet of Peace Cereal, from a shop in Japan. The cereal company is connected to Yogi Bhajan (Harbhajan Singh), who, as it happens, died just the other day. According to a source quoted in an obituary, he was “the Pope of new age Sikhism”:

Yogi Bhajan was a master of the ancient science of Kundalini Yoga, which he began teaching publicly. He offered a cure for addiction that was a mix of yoga, meditation, yogic philosophy and loving acceptance. He called it the “3HO” (healthy, happy, holy) way of life.

Ryan feels bad about his purchase:

If I’m going to snicker at new religious movements, the least I could do is not purchase products from them, right?

Well, if I took that attitude I wouldn’t have a big heap of conservative Christian paperbacks. And anyway, whenever I eat a bowl of Cornflakes, I think of John Harvey Kellogg and his anti-masturbation Seventh Day Adventist philosophy.

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A couple columnists are having an easy time of this week, uncritically re-hashing the Institute on Religion and Democracy’s report that accuses mainstream churches of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism for criticising Israel and the USA (I critiqued the report’s failings and biases here). Rod Dreher, in the Dallas Morning News:

Last month, the Institute released the disturbing results of a four-year study of human rights criticism issued by four mainline churches…This period of time also took in the Palestinian “second intifada,” in which Palestinian groups, some with the support of the Palestinian Authority, undertook suicide bombing and other terrorist actions against innocent Israelis. The teaching of bloodthirsty anti-Jewish hatred by Palestinian schools to children has been well documented. How often did these mainliners express dismay over Palestinian human rights abuses? Never.

Do the mainliners think Jews are exceptionally wicked? Absent latent anti-Semitism, it’s hard to figure why these churches heap such wildly disproportionate opprobrium upon the Jewish state, while giving much worse offenders – including Israel’s very neighbors – a pass.

How about, a) because mainline American Christians do not feel as responsible for the behaviour of the Arab dictatorships as they do for the US’s ally Israel? b) because they have to counter Christian Zionists telling everyone that Israeli expansionism is the will of God? and c) because they actually listen to some other, dissenting, voices in Israeli Jewish society, as well as to Palestinian Christians?

Plus, actually, the “teaching of bloodthirsty anti-Jewish hatred by Palestinian schools to children” has in fact been found to be greatly exaggerated, as Nathan Brown’s study Democracy, History, and the Contest over the Palestinian Curriculum has shown. But I suppose expecting Dreher to look at something which hasn’t been shoved under his nose by ideological bedfellows is a bit much, what with him being a professional journalist…

Next up, John Leo, writing in U.S. News and World Report, and syndicated across the conservative web world:

The latest disgrace is the Presbyterian Church’s plan for selective divestment in Israel–ending the church’s investment in multinational companies that the church believes bear particular responsibility for the sufferings of the Palestinian people. For example, the Presbyterians say they may divest themselves of Caterpillar stock, because bulldozers made by that company are used to level Palestinian homes in Israel’s antiterrorism campaign. Of course, these bulldozers can also be used to move debris after Palestinian suicide bombers have finished blowing up another round of women, children, and other civilian bystanders in Israel.

Or they can be used to kill an unarmed protestor.

UPDATE (16 Oct): The National Council of Churches has responded to Leo’s article:

No one at the National Council of Churches was asked, in advance of publication or since, to confirm, clarify or refute any of the statements or statistics quoted as fact,” [National Council of Churches General Secretary Bob] Edgar said, adding that the column “employs the smear tactics of McCarthy-era propaganda, and contributes to the abuse of religious belief as a tool of partisan politics.

…The column had claimed that 37 per cent of the churches’ human rights resolutions (and 80 percent of the NCC’s) were aimed at Israel. Yet, Edgar noted, in the entire 54-year history of the National Council of Churches, only two policy statements have referred to Israel and Palestine. And out of 650 resolutions adopted during that time, fewer than 40 have dealt with the Middle East, many of those concerned such matters as Christians in Egypt, hostages in Iran and Lebanon, and war in Kuwait and Iraq. Only five NCC statements about Israel were issued during the period of the IRD’s survey, and several of those also criticized Palestinian leaders.

The NCC News Service also links to a news release from the Episcopal Church, which I missed at the time it came out:

In order to make a fair study of the church’s resolutions, one would have to look at the full body of resolutions based by the church…Resolutions passed at General Convention or in Executive Council continue to be in effect unless subsequently overturned. There is no record of a human rights resolution being overturned. In addition, by ignoring statements and letters from the Presiding Bishop and other church officials, as well as the advocacy work of Peace and Justice Ministries and the Government Relations Office, the so-called study examines only one part…

A General Convention Resolution from 1991 notes that a distinction exists between the propriety of legitimate criticism of Israeli governmental policy and action and the impropriety of anti-Jewish prejudice…The church has also criticized violence on the part of both Palestinians and Israelis. It is unconscionable for IRD to suggest that these concerns constitute “anti-Jewish animus.”

Unconscionable, I would say, but not surprising.

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As the election approaches, some religious figures seek to control their trembling congregrants and followers by invoking a wrathful deity or a triumphant Satan should their flocks dissent from their leaders’ political views.

That’s the USA. Meanwhile, the Sierra Leone-based Concord Times reports from Ghana:

In the months and days leading to the general elections on December 7 this year the business of the prophets and other spiritualists are on the ascendancy more than ever…In some instances, there are partisan politics among even the prophets and other spiritualists, each prophesying different political parties programmes in spiritually negative or positive terms. Such tantalizing enterprise by the prophets and other spiritualists has even swayed leading newspapers that are expected to aid in rationalizing issues. The Accra-based The Ghanaian Chronicle, perhaps Ghana’s leading independent newspaper, reports that one “Mr. Moses Growther, a prophet, has stated that the former President, Flt…Lt. (rtd.) Jerry John Rawlings, was a man sent by God to punish us Ghanaians for our iniquities and disobedience to Him, hence the serious economic suffering visited on the nation. According to him, Ghanaians became indolent, after inheriting a curse from the leadership of the first President of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah that any government who toed the line of his ideological principle would worsen the nation’s economic situation.” Since Rawlings, who has been the subject of all kinds of prophecies in the Ghanaian political game ever since he ascended into the Ghanaian political scene in 1979 in a military coup detat, is the founder of the main opposition National Democratic Congress, the above prophecy cast his party as ‘dark,’ evil and disliked by God so much so that no matter what they do God has ordained them to fail and so should not be voted for. In the same vein the prophecy cast President Kuffour’s ruling National Patriotic Party as the party of God which can bring favourable economic development to Ghana, and, therefore, worth voting for in the impending general elections

…Ghana is awash in prophets, juju-marabou mediums (who work more behind the scene and do not public pronouncements) and other spiritualists these days, and the public is swallowing it up.

Now, why do I suddenly think of Hal Lindsey, Jack Kinsella, Joseph Swank, Jerry Falwell, Doug Giles, and so on…?

(Growther is also on record as having said that the very name “Ghana” is cursed, and is “associated with evil spirits”.)

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We must try to know more, to take time and hold onto our freedom so as to begin to think this first effect of the so-called event: From where does this menacing injunction itself come to us? How is it being forced upon us? Who or what gives us this threatening order (others would already say this terrorizing if not terrorist imperative): name, repeat, rename “September 11,” “le 11 septembre,” even when you do not yet know what you are saying and are not yet thinking what you refer to in this way. I agree with you: without any doubt, this “thing,” “September 11,” “gave us the impression of being a major event.” But what is an impression in this case? And an event? And especially “a major event”?

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For many years, the publishing firm of Zondervan was known for its anti-Communist crusading. Way back in 1935 there was John and Betty Stam: Martyrs, an account of two missionaries killed by Communists in China. That was followed by The Fifth Column in Our Schools. Most famously, 1970 brought Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth, which assured us that Soviet atheism would lead to Armageddon, and in 1976 the firm published Jesse Helms’ When Free men Shall Stand. In Zondervan’s 1981 company history, the authors remark that “the great Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek” (pass the sick bag: “gangster and fascist” would be nearer the mark) had been buried with a translation of a Zondervan title, Streams in the Desert.

However, after years of growing academic respectability and a move into the mainstream under Rupert Murdoch as a HarperCollins imprint (back in 1992 Doug LeBlanc reported that Zondervan President James Buick had tried to buy the firm out to “return the direction and control of the company into the Christian community.” Instead, Zondervan got the Dirty Digger.), it now transpires that Zondervan is drawing on Chinese labour. Agape Press reports:

(AgapePress) – A major U.S. publisher of Bibles is coming under fire for having some of its Bibles printed in China, where Christians are being tortured and even killed for their faith. The move is being criticized by a human-rights organization that is skeptical of the company’s safeguards against employee abuse…

“The reason we originally went there is obvious: you can get things done at a price that you can’t get things done in the States,” [Al] Kerkstra [senior vice president for support operations at Zondervan] explains. “Now, we believe that doing business in China gives us an opportunity to improve the living conditions and the human-rights conditions for the people and the companies we do business with.”… Tyndale House Publishers has confirmed that it also prints some Bibles in China, but a company representative refused to comment on the inquiry.

The report quotes Steve Mosher, “president of the Population Research Institute” as being especially dismayed at this turn of events. Mosher, a conservative Catholic convert, alleges that he was expelled from a PhD program at Stanford for revealing the truth about Chinese population control methods, although there do not appear to be any sources about this online that have not emanated from him. However, he has an interesting point here:

“It is an absolute travesty to have Bibles printed simply because it’s cheaper than having them printed elsewhere,” Mosher exclaims. “We should be shipping Bibles into China, a country that imprisons and tortures and kills Christians for practicing their faith.”

On the other hand, back in 2000 Christianity Today made the argument that there was little point in restricting business with China:

For example, the [U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom] objects to an “unconditional grant” of normal trade relations because China’s communists will misinterpret improvements in trade relations as “American indifference to religious freedom.” But for years China’s leadership has recognized American protests about human-rights abuses; China spurns those complaints as self-righteous meddling by foreigners…Trade policy may never be the most potent means to stop a sovereign nation’s repression of its people. Normal trade should help that reform by increasing China’s interaction with the rest of the world…Embargoes, trade sanctions, and boycotts usually do not succeed against a small nation such as Iraq, much less for China.

One wonders if any of the Dalai Lama’s Harper Perennial titles are also printed in China…

Paper Refs:

Doug LeBlanc, “Zondervan, Word Look for New Owners”, in Christianity Today, 22 June 1992.

James E. Ruark and Ted W. Engstrom, The House of Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1981, p. 115.

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