NEWS STORY: Southern Baptists reject Chinese criticism of `clandestine’ missionaries

c. 1997 Religion News Service RICHMOND, Va. _ China’s state-recognized Protestant church agency has sharply criticized the Southern Baptist Convention for sending”clandestine”missionaries into the country under the guise of”professional workers”and threatened to cut ties with the church’s foreign mission agency. But the International Mission Board of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination flatly rejected the criticism […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

RICHMOND, Va. _ China’s state-recognized Protestant church agency has sharply criticized the Southern Baptist Convention for sending”clandestine”missionaries into the country under the guise of”professional workers”and threatened to cut ties with the church’s foreign mission agency.

But the International Mission Board of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination flatly rejected the criticism Friday (Nov. 7) and said it will not change its”multi-channel”mission approach to China.”Southern Baptists love the people of China, and the International Mission Board wants to facilitate Christians responding to requests for teachers, consultants and other personnel through any open opportunity to do so,”said Jerry Rankin, president of the IMB, in a statement released Friday.


The face-off comes at a time when conservative Christians and human rights activists in the United States are pressing efforts to punish China because of its perceived repression of religion and other human rights.

On Thursday, the House voted overwhelmingly to deny visas to Chinese officials deemed responsible for supporting religious persecution.

The dispute between the SBC and the China Christian Council, the official agency representing about 10 million Protestants in the communist nation, was prompted by a CCC request that the U.S. church stop sending secret missionaries to the country.

Chinese government policy permits Christianity within certain limits but those limits include a ban on foreign missionaries engaging in proselytizing. It allows professionals such as teachers, engineers and medical personnel to work with and through Chinese churches.

The CCC is concerned the presence of foreign missionaries engaged in converting others could endanger its relationships with the government.

In a letter sent earlier this week to supporters around the globe, Wenzao Han, the CCC’s president, said the SBC’s approach in China has changed from cooperation with the CCC to embrace a “clandestine track.””Ever since the Three-Self Movement and the China Christian Council came into being, we have followed the principle that all church work and Christian activity in China should be open, honest and above board, and thus consistent with the teachings of the Bible,” Wenzao said.”While not giving up its `partnership’ with the (CCC) as the `open’ track, it (IMB) will try to give major attention to a clandestine track, through church workers from abroad are secretly sent to China to carry out `missionary’ work as dictated by the IMB,”Wenzao charged.”These persons do not intend to make their indentities or their relationship to the IMB known, either to the CCC or to the Chinese government.”We cannot see how this can be justified on Christian terms,”Wenzao said.

Baptist officials said the approach criticized by Wenzao is not new.”There has been no change or recent development in what we are doing as implied by the publicized letter,”Rankin said.”While we do not work exclusively with the CCC, we have been grateful for the opportunity to provide personnel and resources for ministries and projects”through the CCC’s Amity Foundation.”We would not consider other things we are doing as secretive, deceptive or clandestine, simply because it is not channeled through the China Christian Council,”Rankin said.


The IMB’s Cooperative Services International arm _ a”multi-channel”approach to mission _ was begun under the old SBC Foreign Mission Board. It sent professional workers to parts of the globe where missionaries were not allowed. The nations included China and Islamic nations that prohibit Christian proselytism by outsiders.”All personnel (in China) sponsored by the IMB are serving legally, with the full knowledge and approval of entities of the Chinese government,”said Avery Willis, the IMB’s senior vice president for overseas operations.”We feel it is appropriate to encourage and even sponsor Christians to fill positions open to Americans.”

MJP END BRIGSS

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