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From March to December 2014, various Wenzhou churches were affected by the unprecedented destruction wrought during the initial execution of the cross-demolition campaign. Subsequently, this campaign extended from Wenzhou to cities like Ningbo, Taizhou, Lishui, and Hangzhou before returning to Wenzhou in July 2015. This article centers on Wenzhou, where authorities removed at least four hundred crosses from churches. It investigates whether the reasons offered for demolishing illegal buildings justify cross demolition, examines the role of the religious factor in the overall campaign, and determines whether the Zhejiang provincial leader attempted to tackle religion-related problems under the guise of demolishing illegal buildings. This article places the cross-demolition campaign in the context of church-state relations and analyzes it from a religio-political perspective.
Abstract
The relationship between religion and social movements is an important topic in the study of religion and society. This paper uses various textual and online sources to examine the role of Christianity in the anti-extradition bill movement that took place in Hong Kong from April to September 2019. The anti-extradition bill movement, which later evolved into a much wider movement against totalitarianism, has caused churches to grapple with church-state relations in the post-handover era. This paper employs the notion of “public religion” as an analytical framework to examine the process of the “deprivatization” of Christianity in Hong Kong. How does the ongoing contestation, both within and outside the church, reflect the challenges faced by Christianity when entering the public sphere? By answering the above questions, we will be able to explicate the religio-political significance of the protest movement in Hong Kong.
This study examines whether and to what extent Protestant churches contribute to the building of civic communities within China. Four types of Protestant churches in Beijing (the Three-Self, Migrant Workers, Wenzhou Businesspeople, and Urban Professionals churches) are compared in terms of their organizational structures, believer participation, missions, and conflict resolution methods. This empirical study proposes that Shouwang Church, as a representative of the Urban Professionals Church, exhibits the character of civic community in many ways. Meanwhile, the Migrant Workers, Wenzhou Businesspeople, and Three-Self churches, constrained as they are by various factors, are relatively removed from civic community in different respects. The roles that Christian churches could play in the building of civil society in China deserve a great deal of attention.