Church and State: A Tale of Two Nations

During this corona virus pandemic my little church has received a few directives from our Governor. The first was to limit gatherings to no more than ten people. Later, the number was reduced to three. Many churches went online with virtual church services, and some offered drive-in church. 

In Greenville Mississippi, one drive-in church was raided by police for violating their Governor's orders and the congregants were fined along with the pastor while the nearby Sonic drivein restaurant got a pass.

"He also pointed out to the newspaper that his church has been penalized for doing exactly the same thing as a nearby Sonic Drive-In, where people drive around — and park — freely.'There’s 25 cars 200 yards away all in the same place at the Sonic Drive-In,” he said. 'What we’re doing endangers nobody.'”

Meanwhile, in China the government is banning even virtual church gatherings,

"Several members of China’s heavily persecuted Early Rain Covenant Church were arrested by communist authorities for participating in an online Easter worship service on Zoom and ordered to cease all religious activity."

 The coronavirus was not to blame for that one. Chinese churches must be government approved or they will be shut down and even torn down. China is engaged in a "sinicization" campaign to change religions into communst party programs.

"It requires religious leaders and institutions demonstrably to embrace State Socialism and the leadership of the CCP.
Ideological, legal, and bureaucratic, Xi’s ‘sinicization’ campaign is one part of a pervasive ideological re-education and remoulding campaign that recalls the campaigns of the 1950s and 1960s to anchor Chinese national identity firmly within the ideology and rule of the CCP. Among religious groups where the primacy of that identity is resisted, ‘sinicization’ has even entailed the imprisonment of vast numbers of Uighur, Kazakh, and Hui Muslims as well as intractable Christian leaders. Accordingly, ‘sinicization’ is no mere slogan, but a religious policy to enforce three key priorities of the CCP:

1. to streamline the bureaucracy for efficient oversight and control of all non-Party spheres and institutions;
2. to revive the sway of Party ideology over all aspects of life in China; and
3. to remove any ‘contradiction’ that might challenge Party ideology and rule.

  ...Replacements of paintings of Jesus with portraits of a benevolent ‘Uncle Xi’ in churches are a signal that worship of State and Party is now in order. The call for new translations of the Bible and the removal or revision of verses that challenge the ultimate hegemony of the state highlight the lengths to which the Party is going to bring the burgeoning Christian movement in China to heel."

The three examples I gave above show various degrees of control the State might impose on the Church. I am reassured that the Church, which survived the Roman persecutions, will survive these current threats because the Church presents a universal truth that no government can squelch. The truth we know to be that God incarnate loves us enough to die at the hands of the State, and that He rose from the dead, changing the lives of his disciples and others, and this power to transform lives continues to this day and will continue no matter what the State throws at us.