Fighting back
The people vs. their governments
Last month marked three years in prison for Chinese pastor Wang Yi following a government crackdown on unregistered church activity that saw more than 100 leaders of his Early Rain church, plus many others, taken into custody. Most of the others were released. Wang was sentenced to nine years for subversion. He won’t see his wife, son, and aging parents for close to a decade, notes Hannah Nation, co-editor of a new collection of the pastor’s writings. But the history of China’s jiating or house churches, along with Wang Yi’s writings, hold needed perspective as restless agitation against authorities persists in all quarters of the globe.
Should the church need to disobey the government as a matter of conscience, wrote Wang Yi, “the goal of [civil] disobedience is not to change the world, but to testify about another world.”
Happy New Year, and welcome to this Jan. 13 edition of Globe Trot.
An argument is unfolding on the internet in China over the reversal of the government’s strict pandemic policies and the massive Covid surge that’s followed. Evidence of mounting deaths are challenging the ruling Communist Party under Xi Jinping. Said Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College:
The party now needs to contain Covid infections, rescue an economy dragged down by its “zero Covid” policy, and repair the damage to its image caused by the chaotic reopening.
China’s church goers are long acquainted with Communist Party repression and misdirection. Wang Yi, a lawyer and educator as well as a pastor, is more than an emblem of persecution, writes Brent Fulton. “We must acknowledge his concurrent role in the time-honored tradition, dating back to Confucius, of Chinese intellectuals as the 'conscience of the nation,' remonstrating with the state and paying a tragic price for their efforts."
But his writings go beyond a testimony to tragedy, writes Fulton, to provide the Western church much-needed perspective on witness in the face of opposition. Also, writes Nation, they show that “our shared experience with the global church isn’t simply owing to globalization. It’s rooted in God’s very nature.” Read both pieces.
Brazil: Authorities asked a federal court to block $1.3 million in assets belonging to 52 people and seven companies alleged to have helped fund the buses that carried supporters of defeated former president Jair Bolsonaro to the riot in the capital on Sunday. The move came as over 1,800 rioters have been detained and a Supreme Court judge ordered the arrests of two top security officials.
Peru: Despite curfews and roadblocks, anti-government protests are spreading in Cusco and other parts of southern Peru. Residents angered by the December impeachment of President Pedro Castillo are further agitated by the announcement his successor, President Dina Boluarte, will serve out his term until 2026 rather than call for new elections.
Haiti: Haitians marked the Jan. 12 anniversary of a 2010 earthquake that killed 300,000 amid a continuing crisis of violence, chaos, and cholera. Some aid organizations continue to fill important gaps, reports RNS, but international action is needed.
Czech Republic: A billionaire agricultural magnate has a slim lead for the presidency as the first round of voting starts today. Andrej Babis, 68, is facing corruption charges related to more than $2 million in European Union subsidies he allegedly steered to a Prague construction project. It’s part of a wide-ranging scheme including conflict of interest charges and other scandals, all related to Agrofert, the conglomerate he built that’s one of Czech Republic’s largest employers. On Monday, a Prague court acquitted him of the corruption charges, but prosecutors may appeal.
Besides gauging whether voters will go for a tarnished billionaire, the election could be a referendum on the pro-Russia and pro-China elements among his supporters. The country hosts nearly half a million refugees from Ukraine.
“The actual political fights in democracy take place during elections,” said Prime Minister Petr Fiala. “Let’s come to the polls and let’s solve our future.”
Prague, the Czech capital famous for its majestic churches, has witnessed a drastic decline in religious affiliation stemming from its communist past. But journalism students with The Media Project found signs of renewing faith, covered in their seven-part series for Religion Unplugged.
Ukraine: Living conditions in Bakhmut are beyond imagining as Russian forces have destroyed the city in their months’ long effort to take it.
Iran: Many of us cut our teeth on world affairs decades ago during the Iran hostage crisis with demonstrators shouting “Death to America” as they stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Now an unthinkable reversal has taken hold: Protesters chanting “Death to Khamenei, death to the dictator.”
Protests enter a fifth month following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini—and despite harsh crackdowns and sentencing.
The latest: two men publicly hanged Jan. 7 for protest activity, one a karate champion and the other a children’s coach. The New York Times profiles those executed and sentenced to death. Most received verdicts in hasty trials behind closed doors with regime-appointed lawyers—what amounts to “state sanctioned killing,” according to a UN panel.
Pope Francis on Monday denounced the executions in his first public comment on the protests since they began last September.
Jordan: In a year-end interview, King Abdullah II warned of the danger of diminishing the Christian presence in the Middle East. “Emptying the region of the Christian presence would be disastrous for everyone, as Christians are part of the past and present of the East, and they must be part of its future as well.”
For those new to Globe Trot, I wrote a book on the subject.
Austria: Vienna tops the list of the world’s most liveable cities.
Weekend long read: I resist macro prognosticating or predictions at the start of a new year—but former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton has a piece on isolationism that’s good history, plus balanced.
I’m reading… besides Faithful Disobedience, Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees.
Update: Thank you for comments and prayers for my husband Nat’s cancer. December brought him a hospital stay to relieve a blockage, more chemo treatments, and a visit to a surgeon. Yet he finished the chemo this week, a feat in itself, and will have scans and major surgery in coming weeks. Here he is with Lisa, a nurse who represents for us the cheerful bounty of care we’ve experienced everywhere—nurses on call, the neighbor who takes our trash and walks our dog, family visitors, friends who bring meals (three this week!), encouraging texts, and prayers. Keep it up.
Be healed in Jesus' name, Nat!
Thanks for sharing. Best wishes to you both.