书城外语ChristianityinChina
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第28章 The Establishment and Perfection......(2)

The detailed contents of running churches well by adheringto the three-self principle included: upholding the principle ofacting independently and relying on ourselves, encouraging lovefor Christianity and the country, trying to promote unity andvigorously putting the "three-good‘ policy into effect, etc.

Upholding the principle of acting independently and relyingon ourselves. China"s constitution defined that "religious groupsand affairs allow no domination by the foreign forces‘。 The threeselfpatriotic movement launched in 1950 had severed theconnections between the Chinese Churches and imperialist countries, removed the Foreign Missions‘ rein over them, andachieved self-rule, self-reliance and self-development. In a timewhen the policy of reform and opening up to the outside world isbeing implemented, the constitution should still be observed andthe three-self principle should still be upheld, so as to fight againstthe infiltration of overseas anti-China forces, just like what BishopDing Guangxun said: "The routine affairs and the missionary workin the Chinese Churches are matters of our own. Withoutauthorization of the Chinese Churches, no foreigner is allowedto carry out missionary activities in any form in the country.‘However, emphasizing independence does not mean totalisolation. Friendly exchanges between the Chinese and foreignchurches will continue to develop. What the Chinese churchesprotest against are activities of some foreign churches to splitthe Chinese churches and regain control over them in the nameof spreading evangelism.‘Encouraging love for Christianity and the country. One ofthe greatest achievements of the three-self patriotic movementis that Chinese Christianity was turned into a religiousundertaking operated solely by the Chinese Christiansthemselves. Loving Christianity and the country has become afaith and a conduct pursued by the masses of Chinese Christians.

China is a socialist country andmost of the people do not believein Christianity, but China is alsoa country advocating freedom ofreligious belief. The principle ofthe CPC in dealing with issuesrelated to religion is: "thechurches shall be politicallyunited and co-operative andrespect each other in faith‘。

Christianity should put lessemphasis on the differencesbetween "believe and not believe‘or between "theism and atheism‘,and break through the illiberalthinking of only caring for oneself. The churches should also carry forward the Christianvirtues and the tradition of serving society, and devote themselvesto the construction of the socialist spiritual civilization.

Trying to promote unity. The three-self patriotic movementeliminated the past phenomenon that the Chinese Churches weredivided into different factions and the different factions attacked each other. In 1958, the "united Christian service‘ was achieved,and China"s Christian Churches entered the "post-factionalismage‘。 To further promote unity, we advocated the followingconcepts to operate the churches well through joint efforts:seeking common ground while maintaining differences,respecting each other, and the majority caring more about theminority while the minority considering more about the overallsituation. The three-self patriotic movement also insisted onproperly handling the relations between the Christians and non-

Christians as well as the relations among different Christianfactions, treating compatriots with love and strengthening unityamong all people.

Vigorously putting the "three-good‘ policy into effect. Thethree-good policy, namely doing a good job in self-rule, doing agood job in self-reliance and doing a good job in selfdevelopment,is a further advancement and deepening of thethree-self policy. Directed against the current problems in theChurches, this policy raised different requirements in terms ofdifferent aspects. As for self-rule, it required the perfection ofand earnest obedience to the management system, and thestrengthening of democracy and supervision. As for self-reliance,considering China was still economically underdeveloped, the policy advocated the Churches to be thrifty and do what theirstrength allowed, and reminded them not to expect too muchfrom foreign Church "support‘。 Churches in rich areas should helpthose in poor areas on the basis that the latter must work arduouslyto try to live on their own. As for self-development, the policyencouraged the churches to disseminate purified evangelism,deepen their knowledge and understanding of Christianity, standout against heresies, and ponder theological problems in the lightof the current situation of China, so as to integrate Christianitywith Chinese culture, society and times.