Constantine’s Example for China
The success of Christianity in China may be the least reported, most important story of our time. When communist rule opened with the expulsion of foreign missionaries, the confiscation of church properties and the persecution of Christian leaders, China’s approximately 3.4 million Christians composed less than 1% of the country’s 540 million citizens. After 77 years of intervals of tolerance alternating with intervals of repression, official statistics acknowledge 44 million registered Christians. These numbers are clearly too low. Independent estimates vary but range between 100 million and 130 million, or between 7% and 9% of the population. By comparison, the Communist Party claims a membership of about 101 million. Observers close to the house-church movement estimate that another 8% to 10% of the population would soon affiliate with Christian churches if government opposition to the religion ended.
Those numbers compare to the percentage of Christians in the Roman Empire when the Emperor Constantine ended Rome’s persecution of the new faith and offered freedom to all religions. Rome’s shift from persecuting Christians to forming partnerships with them helped stabilize a weakened political order and opened a new era in the empire’s history.
That raises an interesting question for China. As the legitimacy of the communist system frays, will an aspirant for China’s leadership someday follow Constantine’s example and seek Christian support? Both from patriotism and a concern for social stability, many Chinese Christians would be ready to meet a Chinese Constantine halfway.
