Three Self Patriotic Movement Churches (Part 2)
Missions
At a symposium held in Chengdu in April 1985, there was an evaluation of Christian missions. There were three main lines of thinking. According to the first, foreign missionaries were to be identified with imperialist agents. According to the second, Protestants were to be preferred to Catholics because of their contribution to social and natural sciences. According to the third, most were devout religious adherents, consciously or unconsciously working for Western colonialists. It was acknowledged that they had done many good things for China.
This shows the ambivalent attitude toward foreign missions which China has had since 1949. In an era when all kinds of foreign domination were being thrown off, it is not surprising that there should be a repudiation of missionaries and their motives. Hudson Taylor, in one text book, was accused of having his eye on China
