The Asian Mind/The Western Mind

[aron]

Originally Posted by aron

Probably the biggest challenge facing the Chinese Christian church in the early decades of the 20th century was not sin, or God, or faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; it was affiliation with the Western barbarians.

Remember that the Boxer Rebellion was put down by a European/American multinational coalition. Think about it: if Chinese troops were marching through your town, shooting people, how popular would a religious group be, that was overtly affiliated with those occupiers? Not very. It would be problematic to recruit new members, and to promote the religious ideology. Watchman Nee found a solution to this problem, and a way out, in the "localism" of Brethren teachings, and he used it to remove himself and many others from under the thumb of Western Christianity, both Protestant and Catholic, and present an unfettered Christian church to the Chinese people.

Ultimately, however, his teachings were revealed to contain new fetters. I think his subsequent centralization "Jerusalem" program made that quite clear: "get in line" and "hand everything over" and "obey without question" became the new watchwords. Asian Church Organization 101.

Meet the new boss...