Jesus in China

I stumbled upon an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune today. The article can be found here.

 

The article speaks about the growth of Christianity in the last 20 years. One of the pastors of a Chinese church Rev. Jin Mingri who leads a church of over 350.

“Rev. Jin did not set out to be a religious pioneer.
The son of a secular ethnic-Korean family from China’s coal-choked industrial northeast, he was an earnest high school student who won a coveted place in the freshman class at elite Beijing University. Soon, like other strivers, he joined the Communist Party.

But it would take a turning point in China’s history to push Jin toward the church. In his junior year, China’s top leader ordered the People’s Liberation Army to end weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. The crackdown left hundreds dead, shaking the faith of young intellectuals like Jin who had placed their hopes in the state.

“It affected my generation of university students very deeply,” Jin said of the crackdown that is known in Chinese as “6-4,” for the date, June 4, 1989. “The university students in the ’80s were groomed by the country. Our fees and living expenses were paid for by the country. The 6-4 event left many students hurt. … Like all my other university peers, I felt an immense sense of hopelessness.”

It’s great to read some positive news about China and about Christianity in general.