Bartholomew's Notes

A few days ago, the World Evangelical Council has caused annoyance with an advert in the New York Times, entitled “The Gospel and the Jewish People – An Evangelical Statement”. The advert (text available here) is a gesture of “genuine friendship and love for the Jewish people”, but it also affirms that Jews need to accept Jesus:

We believe that it is only through Jesus that all people can receive eternal life. If Jesus is not the Messiah of the Jewish people, He cannot be the Savior of the World (Acts 4:12)… It is out of our profound respect for Jewish people that we seek to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them, and encourage others to do the same, for we believe that salvation is only found in Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the World.

There is also a defence of Messianic Judaism:

We deplore the use of deception or coercion in evangelism; however, we reject the notion that it is deceptive for followers of Jesus Christ who were born Jewish to continue to identify as Jews (Romans 11:1).

The statement has been signed by a number of prominent evangelical leaders, but it has also brought down the inevitable wrath of Abraham Foxman of the ADL:

The World Evangelical Alliance Statement defending the targeting of Jews for conversion is offensive and insulting to the Jewish people and brazenly dismisses Jewish self-definition. Instead of validating God’s irrevocable covenant with the Jewish people, and ongoing Jewish covenantal life, themes also found in their Scripture, this group of religious leaders does the opposite.

It is especially odious to defend the duplicitous proselytizing of Jews by groups such as Jews for Jesus and so-called “Messianic Jews.” 

The ADL said the statement also stands in contradiction to Rev. Billy Graham who said:  “I believe God has always had a special relationship with the Jewish people, as St. Paul suggests in the book of Romans. In my evangelistic efforts I have never felt called to single out the Jews as Jews…”  In 2000, Graham defended Jews during the Southern Baptist Convention’s major effort to proselytize Jews, saying, “I normally defend my denomination. I’m loyal to it. But I have never targeted Muslims. I have never targeted Jews.”

(Graham has also said a few other things about Jews…)

The traditional evangelical view is that Jews, like everyone else, need to accept Jesus, and this is reflected in the new statement. I recently read a 1974 popular paperback entitled Tramp for the Lord, by Corrie ten Boom, the famous Dutch Pentecostal who spent time in a concentration camp for hiding Jews from the Nazis. After the war she became an itinerant evangelist, and the book recounts various anecdotes from her travels. On one occasion she visited a hospital in Argentina (104-6):

…Then I came to a man on a rocking bed. He had a different kind of polio and instead of being in a lung he was on a bed that rocked up and down…The nurse told me he was Jewish.

‘Ah’, I said, ‘I am happy to meet one of God’s chosen people. My old father, my dear sister, and some others in my family died in concentration camps because we loved the Jews. I, too, was in prison for helping Jews. But tell me, do you know the Jew, Jesus, as your personal Messiah?’

The bed rocked up and down and he shook his head for he could not speak.

According to the story, the man indicated that he wanted to listen, and ten Boom explained that God had a plan for his life, and encouraged him to look on the bright side. Just before he finally expired he left an appreciative note. Ten Boom concludes:

What a miracle. He understood God did not want him to become a Gentile. Rather he would become a completed Jew.

There is no way that ten Boom could be called anti-Jewish, but I think that many evangelicals today would be rather hesitant to preach to Jews on their deathbeds, let alone to publicise the fact afterwards. However, the idea of getting a Jewish convert does seem to have a particular appeal; back in 2004 I noted a documentary being made by some California Charismatics which would show the impact of Mel Gibson’s Passion. The makers wanted to hear from people with stories such as

a marriage being rescued, an addict who was set free, a Jew who now accepts Jesus as Messiah, someone who experienced physical or emotional healing, and so on.

Aside from the question of bad taste, the theological problem with Christian exclusivity as regards Judaism is that if Judaism used to be the true religion, how can that not be the case now? This is what Foxman is getting at with his “irrevocable covenant” comment, and the idea of a “Dual Covenant” which validates Judaism and Christianity is one which some on the Jewish end of the Jewish-Evangelical alliance have sought to promote: a couple of years ago Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg tried to attribute such a position to Jerry Falwell, who forcefully denied the suggestion. Christian Zionist “prophecy expert” John Hagee has shown more sympathy for concept, and some of the rhetoric of the American right suggests a move towards a “Judeo-Christian” religion. On the one hand, this recent post by Ed Brayton questions the extent to which Christian right “Judeo-Christian” posturing is really serious about the “Judeo” part, but on the other hand the idea of a “Judeo-Christian” religiosity is implicit in American “civil religion”. Also, among Christian Zionists there is now trend towards appropriating Jewish culture: buying Jewish devotional products for their own use, affecting to write “G-d” rather than “God”, and in some cases affiliating with Messianic synagogues. I once met a Christian from Texas who was desperate to find a Jewish ancestor – he eventually converted to Judaism so that he could become a Messianic Jew. But if we have a Dual Covenant, where does that leave the idea of Jesus as the only way to God? And would a convert to Judaism also be saved, or only those practising Jews with “chosen people” DNA?

However, Foxman has problems too. He rails against Messianic Jews, but Judaism is about orthopraxy more than orthodoxy – Messianic services look quite Jewish, so why not see them, like the earliest form of Christianity, as a manifestation Jewish identity? And why should belief in Jesus be a bar to being Jewish, when another kind of Messianic Judaism has recently emerged, based around the belief that the late Menachem Schneerson is the Messiah?

I discussed these tensions further here.

(Footnote: Tramp for the Lord was ghosted by Jamie Buckingham, a neo-Pentecostal writer who was close to Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, who today runs the Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Eckstein’s enthusiasm for Buckingham and Charismatic Christianity has also been controversial, as I explored here. One person who has been keen to claim ten Boom’s mantle is Mike Evans, who founded the Corrie ten Boom Foundation in Holland. Evans is a best-selling Christian Zionist author, and he is currently pushing for an attack on Iran.)

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Meet Dong Yunhu:

With his striped Pierre Cardin shirt and his easy smile, Dong Yunhu doesn’t fit the stereotype of a tow-the-line Communist. Yet at just 37, he is a prime architect of China’s sensitive human rights policy.

…With a Ph.D in Western philosophy from a Chinese university, he cites Kant, Hegel and the U.S. Bill of Rights in his quest to develop “a concept of human rights appropriate for China’s reality,” which he freely acknowledges has non-Western priorities.

“The West stressed personal and individual rights; we stress the need for harmony between the individual and the collective,” he said, from his office in the Tibet Hotel. “The West stresses political liberties, and we stress the right to subsistence…”

…At first many balked, even blocking publication of his first book. But ultimately his view prevailed, which he views as a great personal triumph.

“This was a very big change for the ’90s — opening up human rights as a legitimate topic of study and concern,” he said. “Now we can talk about it with foreign governments.”

Although he admits that China still has problems, he maintains that it now supports many of the same rights as the West, even signing last year, though not ratifying, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights…The difference, he said, is how and where countries limit such freedoms in the interest of national development.

Dong is a vice-chairman of the China Association for Human Rights Stduies, and he edits its glossy English-language magazine, which features smiling members of non-Han ethnic minorities in traditional costume. The Association website carries Xinhua reports on human rights in China, and currently features a banner with the slogan: “Dalai Clique’s Separatist Activities Condemned”.

Dong gets to travel around the world telling audiences about the slow but sure advance of human rights in China.

Meet Hu Jia:

Hu Jia is an outspoken advocate for people with living with HIV/AIDS, especially in China’s poor rural areas. He is the co-founder of the Beijing Aizhibing Institute of Health Education.

…Hu Jia is also a veteran environmentalist, and was an active member of the Chinese environmental movement from 1995-2001. He was a leader of China’s Green Camp from 1996 to 1997, helping promote student participation in environmental conservation. Hu Jia offered tremendous support to the development of one of China’s best known environmental groups, Friends of Nature. He also helped to establish Greenpeace’s first Beijing office in 2000… He set up a Tibetan Antelope Information Center and ceaselessly raised awareness about antelope poaching on the Tibetan Plateau.

…Hu Jia has never hesitated to stand up against violations of human rights, particularly those of China’s most socially-vulnerable groups.

Hu gets to spend the next three-and-a-half years in a Chinese prison.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

No, not the absurd Rev. Robert West (see here), but another British ecclesiastic found to have aligned himself with the far right. Yesterday, the South Essex Echo reported:

A FORMER council chairman and church leader has quit the Lib Dems – to become an activist for the British National Party.

The Rev John Stanton, who was elected Lib Dem chairman of Rochford District Council in 1997, is now the far-right party’s organiser for the Rochford district.

…”I flirted with joining the UK Independence Party, but the BNP is the only one putting forward theories I agree with.”

…He said: “The BNP is very Christian-based and it gets very frustrated at the way Christianity is side-lined.

“If we can influence the main political parties with our views, then we have done enough.

“We are putting as many candidates across the country as we can and Rochford is one of the areas we are looking at.”

The BNP’s contribution to UK Christian life has been to set up a front group called the Christian Council of Britain and to display Christian symbols at a couple of protests (during which members sang “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”).

Today, however, Stanton has recanted:

A FORMER council chairman and church leader who joined the British National Party as a local organiser has dramatically turned his back on the far-right party.

The Rev John Stanton, who was Lib Dem chairman of Rochford District Council in 1997, admitted he was “stupid” for not knowing what the BNP really stood for when he signed up to the party about a year ago.

…He said: “I had no idea party leader Nick Griffin has been convicted of inciting racial hatred. I also discovered the party was anti-Semitic and homophobic.

“I was misled by what they said about themselves. The impression I got when they joined was that it was just a very British, Christian organisation. Now, I don’t really trust anything that they say.

“If a West African came here and adopted British values and customs, the impression I got was he would be welcome, but according to the BNP he wouldn’t be.”

Apparently appalled friends and tearful family members brought about the turnaround.

Stanton runs an obscure house church named Rock Dene Christian Fellowship, which does not appear to have a website. One site, however, describes it as a “Free Church”. Stanton involves himself local ecumenical activities; a Methodist site mentions that:

Last year John Stanton gathered together a set of all the elements that are used in the ritual of the Passover meal – a ritual that has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years. John used them as part of Rockdene’s preparation for Easter.

Now you can share a Passover meal and learn more about the meaning of Passover and its part in Jesus’s Crucifixion because John has been invited to repeat the evening on Tuesday March 26 at our church.

This hardly goes well with being an activist for a party whose leader once wrote a booklet called Who are the Mindbenders? (Answer: Jews) However, to be fair to Rev Stanton Griffin has in recent years made a strategic decision to downplay his own and his party’s anti-Semitism, in order to concentrate on demagogic campaigns against British Muslims (an aspect of the BNP which Stanton tellingly fails to comment on).

Stanton has also in the past given local Christians the benefit of his learning in a series of Lenten lectures:

If you haven’t had a chance to get along to the Lent Lectures, you’ve only got one more chance. The series has been on the history of the various denominations – how they started and how they developed…The last one (on Cults) is on Wednesday 5th April at 8pm…

Why someone who supposedly blundered into an authoritarian political organization for the best part of a year without noticing what it stands for should be an expert on “cults” is also rather baffling.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

“Rabbis and parents will not send their sons to an army that recruits women to mixed units”

Back in 2005 Christian Zionist writer and WorldNetDaily columnist Hal Lindsey heralded the establishment in Israel of a “Sanhedrin”:

Two remarkable developments took place recently that are extremely relevant to students of Bible prophecy.

For the first time in 1,600 years, the Israeli Sanhedrin was re-established. It occurred in Tiberius [sic], the site of the Sanhedrin’s last meeting in AD 425.

…On Feb. 9, just a few weeks after the Sanhedrin’s re-establishment, another enormously important development took place. The religious sages began to consider the rebuilding of the Temple and reinstitution of ancient animal sacrifices as prescribed in the Law of Moses.

Lindsey neglected to mention two rather important points: (1) The “Sanhedrin” is purely self-appointed and has no official standing whatsoever; (2) many members of the Sanhedrin are right-wing fundamentalist Kahanists who despise Israeli society – although a few slightly more moderate figures (most notably Israel Steinsaltz) have been drafted in to give an air of intellectual respectibility.

Not much has happened since, although in January 2007 the Sanhedrin’s leaders officially declared an Israeli Major General to be a traitor for obstructing some settlers – and although not spelt out, such “moshers” are traditionally deemed to deserve the fate that befell Yitzchak Rabin.

The “Sanhedrin” has now made a new pronuncement concerning the Israeli army:

The self-appointed Supreme Judicial Court of the Jewish People, also known as the Sanhedrin, passed down on Thursday a halachic ruling which calls to exempt women from army service and expel those who have already been recruited.

…The ruling stated that “rabbis and parents will not send their sons to an army that recruits women to mixed units. There is no place for any flexibility and compromise (in this matter).

Of course “rabbis and parents will not send” is different from saying they “should not send” or “must not send”, and so there is a bit of wriggle-room. However, I think we can see here the threat of a ruling against men participating in an IDF which has not been purged of women.

The problem is that the Israeli army is too soft, and women are responsible:

…The Sanhedrin’s ruling also mentions the IDF’s “failures in the battlefield”, stating that the establishment of mixed units has resulted in a “disruption of the conscience”.

“There seems to be a connection between the inability to make the distinction between the genders and the inability to make the distinction between friend and foe. Both of these characterize the post-Zionist army, which deems such distinctions racist,” the ruling stated.

Apparently, not kowtowing to the demands to a bunch of self-appointed religious dominionists is enough to make the IDF “post-Zionist” – a critique of a piece with an earlier Sanhedrin complaint that the Israeli Supreme Court is “anti-Jewish”. Given how much these people hate their fellow Israelis, one can hardly imagine the degree to which they must detest Palestinians.

(Hat tip: Failed Messiah)

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

The Kampala Monitor reports:

Dr [Rick] Warren said that homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus not a human right. “We shall not tolerate this aspect at all,” Dr Warren said.

Warren was speaking in support of Ugandan Anglicans who intend to boycott the forthcoming Lambeth Conference, and this harsh rejection of tolerance for gays and lesbians may have serious consequences in a country where homosexuals face harrassment and and the threat of imprisonment.

Warren’s comment is of a piece with his support for Martin Ssempa, the Ugandan evangelist who has been a keynote speaker at a Warren conference, and who has received US global AIDS prevention funds. As I wrote in August, Ssempa wants to ensure that homosexuality remains illegal and that gays and lesbians are identified in the public mind as sexual abusers. Ssempa calls for media censorship against opposing views and the dismissal of dissenting academics, and last summer he organised a rally with the theme “A Call for Action on Behalf of the Victims of Homosexuality”, at which he railed against “molestation and sodomy.”

Another past Warren conference delegate is Janet Museveni, wife of Uganda’s increasingly autocratic president. I discussed the dubious consequences of Mrs Museveni’s evangelical approach to HIV and AIDS on Talk to Action here; Esther Kaplan has explored the issue in further depth. Warren is just one American evangelist to enjoy links with the Musevenis; soon after President Museveni dispensed with term limits Morris Cerullo declared his leadership to be blessed by God.

Warren is also influential across the border in Rwanda, which Warren wants to be the world’s first “Purpose-Driven Nation“. I explored Warren’s links with President Paul Kagame here.

UPDATE: In December 2009, Warren claimed that the Monitor had misquoted him:

What I said in an interview in Uganda was that there is no civil right to gay marriage guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 19 Comments »

BBC Documentary explores Southern Gospel music

Last week the BBC broadcast White Gospel, a fascinating documentary exploring the American Southern Gospel musical genre. The programme began with nineteenth-century “Sacred Harp” singing in rural backwaters, and charted the development of various quartets and family groups up to the inevitably slick and big-money music industry of today. Along the way we meet some remarkable characters, perhaps the most impressive of whom was Dottie Rambo, who overcame childhood hardship and in 1968 was the first Southern Gospel performer to use black singers as part of her backing vocals. A woman of sincere Christian faith, Rambo recalled how she stood on stage in Jackson, Mississippi, and dared the KKK to carry out an assassination threat.

The programme also featured Jeff Steele, who in 1996 penned a dominionist anthem for the Christian Right: We Want America Back. This hit song, performed by his family group The Steeles, inspired flag-waving rallies in mega churches, during which Steele would deliver a Jeremaid on the state of the USA under Bill Clinton. The song’s lyrics are widely available on-line; here’s an extract:

Something is wrong. Television daily bombards the senses of our nation with the idea that wrong is right, that the abnormal is normal, that the abhorrent is acceptable, and that what God calls an abomination is nothing more than an alternate life-style.

…The only hope that America has is that Godly men and women will stand together as one might army and declare to the immoral, the impure, the obscene and the foul, “Your days of unlimited access to the minds of America are over. The army of God, that has been silent for too long, is taking America back!”

Steele recalled that the song “exploded”:

We played a week in Branson, we’d never been to Branson, didn’t know anything about it. And the mayor of Branson comes out in the middle of the stage, and presents me with the key to the city and an official proclamation, and begins to weep while he’s presenting me with the proclamation.

Now, however, Steele has had second thoughts:

I just finally came to the conclusion that that’s not preaching, that’s rabble-rousing. That’s not preaching, that’s bashing. And I never got into songwriting of the Christian sort to be a bully. If I were to write that song again today, I would probably say 98 or 99 per cent of the same things, but I would not write it or present it in what I would call such a mean-spirited or heavy-handed way.

We can only guess whether this is a real change of heart or simply a strategic reassessment; the programme featured Steele and his wife Sherry singing the song again, softly and to a piano accompaniment. Easier on the ear, perhaps, but still the same song of Christian dominion – just arranged more in tune with the mood of 2008.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

UK news from Earlswood, Surrey, via This is Surrey Today:

Cultures clashed on Easter Sunday when Muslims marched in the streets to celebrate the birth of their prophet Muhammad…Shouting “Allah is great” and “Long live the Prophet” while waving Islamic flags, worshippers from across the country joined Surrey’s first Mawlid procession.

But in Brighton Road, the 450-strong crowd were confronted by Union flags and banners held by two opposing packs of protesters.

The “opposing packs” were Christian Voice and the British People’s Party; to describe either of these outfits as representing “culture” is a bit of a poor joke:

Holding placards reading “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Our Lord’s Day”, four members of the right-wing British People’s Party stood watching the parade pass.

“Right-wing” an understatement; the BPP is in fact is an extremely fringe far-right group that venerates the late neo-Nazi John Tyndall and rails against “ZOG” as well as Muslims.

As for Christian Voice, Stephen Green (for it is he) “bellowed Bible verses from a megaphone” and complained that

“Jesus is our living saviour and for them to be marching on this holy day of the Christian year is disrespectful to say the least.

“I think it’s intimidating.”

I happened to be in Walthamstow in east London a few years ago when one of these processions took place; I recall smiling crowds and being offered a free bottle of Coca Cola.

This is not the first time that Green has found himself protesting alongside (albeit against his wishes) a far-right group; a couple of years ago the BNP front organisation the Christian Council of Britain tried to hijack his protests against Jerry Springer: The Opera – I blogged on that here.

And here’s a picture of the pious Christians of the BPP, defending white Christian culture:

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

From the Times of Zambia:

ROMAN Catholic Church (RCC) excommunicated Zambian prelate archbishop, Emmanuel Milingo, has said he is still committed to his ministry of healing and demon-exorcism.

…In response to a Press query, through an e-mail from South Korea where he is currently based, the 77-year-old Zambian cleric said the last renewal of the Church was definitely coming.

The reason why Milingo is based in South Korea, of course, is because he is now completely under the spell of Rev Sun Myung Moon. While the Catholic Church had sought to curb Milingo’s rather exuberant demon-battling antics by keeping him in Rome, the Unification Church restored his sense of importance and provided a wife. In return, Milingo is to help Moon create parallel churches in Africa in which priests will be able to marry. In Zambia, a Moon front organization called the “Peace Embassy” (linked to the Universal Peace Federation) recently facilitated the creation of the first of these, named the Catholic Apostolic National Church of Zambia.

Milingo explains:

“What I am doing is not completely understood by those whose understanding and vision of the Church is narrow.

“More is coming in the Church, not as it is, but as it will be and ought to be. It is the era of the last renewal of the Church,” Archbishop Milingo said.

“I need a platform to preach, to cast out devils and to heal the sick. No time for quibbles.I am coming in few months,” he said.

Curiously, the Times article makes no mention of Milingo’s Moon links, which I have blogged fairly extensively. In one of my earlier entries I quoted a book by John Cornwall (Powers of Darkness, Powers of Light, pp. 330-334) which contains an interview with Milingo when the Archbishop was best known for his beliefs about the demonic. Here it is again:

…The archbishop’s eyes stretched wide. ‘We are now in the last days of Satan’s reign, and he is working overtime through his agents to complete the takeover of the world. His agents are nothing less than the Freemasons who have penetrated to the very heart of Christ’s Church. It is the task of the Freemasons to lull Christians, especially priests, into believing that the Devil and his demons don’t exist. Satan plays with priests like toys when they don’t believe in him.

…’Now Satanism is at its strongest throughout the world. These are the years of the Devil. Black Masses, and blaspheming God, and Judas priests. Before he died Pope Paul VI knew what he had done [post-Vatican II]. He knew it! He had let Satan free within the Church. He said he could smell the stench of smoke around the sanctuary. He said the truth!

…’I was in Holland two weeks ago!’ The archbishop was now shouting and spitting again. ‘I was praying in Amsterdam from seven-in the morning to half-past two, and the priests were falling like corpses before me. The Devil congratulated me for calling him a liar. A witch came to me and said, “How dare you!” I received a letter from the Devil telling me that I should never dare to speak to the demons like that. It said the devils are more powerful than me and they’ll be watching for their chance. But this isn’t true, you see.’…

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

From Zimbabwe, a nice deal for the Apostolic Church of Africa:

Addressing hundreds of members of the Apostolic Faith Church of Africa in Lobengula Extension in Bulawayo, President Mugabe said there was need for indigenous influence to penetrate all facets of life, including the church.

…Earlier, the leadership of the church requested some assistance from the Government in the form of a farm and the tarring of the road that turns off Hyde Park Road to the church, an imposing monument in the suburb.

…Before President Mugabe’s address, Pastor Toni Tshuma gave a stirring sermon that generally centred on the need for the people to respect their political leadership and be self-reliant.

He read from Romans chapter 13 verses one to three, which says, inter alia, that all leaders are ordained by God. He also read from 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse one to four that calls for peace.

To that end, Pastor Tshuma said his church prayed for President Mugabe as the leader of the country. The church, he added also prayed for the political leadership from council level to ministers.

This blog has looked at Mugabe’s religious supporters a year ago. Tshuma is not the only pastor to receive worldly goods in return for offering Mugabe spiritual support; “His Disgrace” Bishop Nolbert Kunonga – who describes Mugabe as “more merciful than God” – also has a farm, which according to reports has been allowed to decay; despite severe food shortages, Kunonga wants to use the land for development.

(The above quote was taken from the Chronicle. A shorter and slightly rewritten version appears in the Herald)

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

Ye Xiaowen, China’s religious affairs minister, warns us of a Popish plot. AsiaNews reports:

“Cuba is administrated by them [by the Vatican]. Vietnam is administered by them. Among the socialist countries, only China has continued to ignore them”.

Ye also complains that the Vatican wants “the control and management of the Catholic Church in China”, which is supposedly unreasonable. This is of course related to ongoing dispute between the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which has government-appointed Bishops, and the actual Roman Catholic Church. Ye is particularly annoyed by canonisations that occurred in 2000, which he tells us honour “shameless libertines” and persons responsible for “horrendous crimes” (details of those canonised, the most prominent of whom is the martyr Augustine Zhao Rong, can be seen here).

Further:

“The Vatican”, Ye asserts, “recognises the illegitimate power of Taiwan, and does not recognise the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate government”. From this, he concludes that anyone who has “secret contact with the Vatican . . . lacks the sense of patriotism that a Chinese citizen should have.”

AsiaNews gives a bit of commentary on all this:

…this interview was published while in Vatican City a Chinese delegation was meeting with members of the secretariat of state to study – according to information leaked by the Vatican – the possible steps for restoring the diplomatic relations interrupted by Beijing in 1951, with the expulsion of the nuncio at the time.

The question that many are asking is this: Why in the world, with a delegation at the Vatican to speak about future diplomatic relations, would a member of the same government continue to express outworn, closed-off positions? Some observers think that there is division in the Chinese leadership, between those who want greater openness and freedom and those who remain bound to Maoist and Stalinist perspectives. Others think that Beijing is simply playing a double game, in keeping with Chinese tradition. In this case, the overtures of the Chinese delegation and Beijing’s desire to establish diplomatic relations would simply be a means of “pacifying” the Vatican while China comes into the spotlight with the Olympics.  An expert on China has even told AsiaNews: “Don’t worry; after the Olympics, everything will go back to the way it was”.

Ye has featured on this blog in the past before; I’ve noted his (unsurprising) denunciations of the Dalai Lama, and in 2006 Rev Bob Fu of the China Aid Association described him as “the top Communist Party religious persecutor” who “is directly responsible for hundreds of arrests of House church pastors and other persecution cases to independent religious groups.”

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »