Foreign Missionaries Defy Ban during Olympics, Evangelize

annelisan »

Sun Aug 24, 2008 5:47 pm Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

Thanks, tamna, for your comment! What I mean is that "hating the goverment, loving the persecuted" is one approach, but we can be more creative than that - government officials are human beings who need salvation as well! If all they ever get from Christians is a slap on their face, how can they believe that God is love and his grace is meant for them, too? I believe some of us are called to go into "palaces", some of us to the streets. Franklin Graham and Luis Palau have used to "media value" to open a dialogue with the government without denying who is the supreme authority in their lives.

"art groups" refers to the contents of the news article under which this discussion is taking place.

As for "tentmaking" in China: Christian witness is allowed in private while organising Christian gatherings is not (in principle).

Foreign Missionaries Defy Ban during Olympics, Evangelize

annelisan »

Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:22 am Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

There are quite a lot of organisations and missionaries who wish to stay in China on legal terms and establish long term relationships both with the government and with churches - without being pro-government or pro-communist! There are different ways of doing things and unfortunately, short term activities may be more harmful than beneficial to the general situation in the country. I wonder how many art groups will be denied access to China after the Olympic games because of all these outreaches which are publicly advertised on the pages of an international newspaper? How many of us missionaries who have worked in China for years without making a lot of noise about it will be granted long term visas after these short-term enterprises?

What is right and works in the west does not necessarily work in a totally different political and cultural setting. God gave us capacity to think and to judge what is good, and He allows many things to happen and as long as He does so, we can only pray that mistakes will be turned into victories.

Do you really have the courage to imply that Franklin Graham is not a man of God if he promotes a different policy from yours?