Pattern for Disaster

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     John Dewey, the philosopher, said, "He who fears new truths does not walk the earth freely, for he is obsessed by the need of protecting some private possession of belief and taste." The same may be said of the man who fears to read or interpret history lest he find his position or views in a predicament. We must admit that Christianity will be interpreted by those who dwell in non-Christian regions, in the light of the conduct of those who claim to represent it. The history of those who make the profession is not one to be read with pleasure or pride. For many centuries the Christian way has not appeared upon the world stage in the role of a benevolent conqueror, by love subjecting mankind to a willing captivity by the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, it has often been harassed and driven forth, forced to surrender territory once held, to those enemies who have moved in to dispel it.

     What has happened to the vibrant power and glowing vitality of the faith which entered an alien world, transformed it, and toppled the mighty Caesars from their thrones? Perhaps there is no easy answer. Certainly there is no single factor which can be assessed as wholly responsible. But an answer must be sought, and it must be found! The civilization of western man is interlaced with the principles of the Christian religion. It is indisputable that our culture is an outgrowth of the concepts exemplified in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Today that civilization is challenged as never before in history. Will it survive? Whether it does so or not, depends not so much upon winning an armaments race, as upon a moral re-armament, and this starts with repentance, which is always preceded, if it be genuine, by remorse over our tragic mistakes and abject failures.

     It is difficult to stand off and look at ourselves objectively. We have been conditioned by education, environment and training, to rationalize favorably in our own behalf. It is easier to see a speck of dust in the eye of another than to behold a log in our own eye. What is true of an individual is also true of a nation, or of a body of believers in any system. Our faults are projected on a unified scale as well as our virtues. But we must probe our failures, and we must do so relentlessly and unsparingly. If we seek to protect ourselves from pain incurred by our diagnostic thrusts, we may seal our doom by infection, or cancer, in the future. If we shield ourselves it may lead to brutal exposure thereafter. Let us be candid, open, fair and honest.

     Fortunately, there exists today a window display in which is portrayed a demonstration of the failure of the Christian concept of life to change and revolutionize a mighty nation of people. I say fortunately, because if we dare look at this display without shirking or cring-

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ing, it may provide for us an opportunity to remould our thinking before the sands run out of the upper glass. It provides an excellent opportunity for our research, because it has undergone a tragic alteration in our own generation. Too, where Christianity failed to gain a substantial foothold, atheistic Communism now holds complete dominance and sway. Yet Christianity had a priority as to time. It was on the ground for several centuries in advance of the enemy. The result is one of such startling consequence as to shake us out of our state of apathy and blind indifference.

     The mists of antiquity shroud the beginnings of China. The Chinese personally claim a history reaching back more than fifty centuries, and Confucius begins his record with the career of an emperor who flourished in the days when Abraham was still a resident of Ur of the Chaldees. The problem of piercing the veil is made greater when we consider that in the third century before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the emperor of the Chin dynasty (which gave China its name) destroyed all available literature of the past, and slaughtered hundreds of learned men. This was done to make it appear that his reign marked the beginning of the empire. However, we may be fairly certain of the inception of the Chow dynasty, about the time of the Biblical account of the marriage of Ruth and Boaz, and it was at this time the people changed from a nomadic existence to become tillers of the soil, and a feudal system was introduced which was to shape the future of the country for generations to come, even as did our own feudal system in the days of slavery in America.

     It is the considered view of many philosophers that every civilization passes through certain definite stages in its progress from tribal existence to national solidarity, and that these always occur in the same sequence. This being true, China passed through the phase in which we now find ourselves, before the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. A failure to recognize this, coupled with an insupportable theory of racial superiority, has always hindered our approach to other peoples. This is as true in the religious, as in any other field. It is impossible for a people to exist for centuries with such a culture as the people of China developed, without creation of a philosophy upon which to build that culture. To assume that such people have discovered no truth, or to ignore the truth that has been discovered is the height of folly. Yet, it was upon that basis that the Christian concept was introduced to China. Instead of acknowledging the truths taught by Confucius, it was considered detrimental to Christianity to admit that some of the principles enunciated by Jesus had previously been inculcated in the minds of those regarded as pagan or heathen.

     Confucius lived about the time that Socrates lived in Greece. He had no intention of founding a religion, and actually did not do so. He was a masterful instructor in ethics and an exponent of political idealism. Bereft of his father at the age of three, he was reared with a deep sense of love for learning by his affectionate, but poverty-stricken mother. He testifies that by the time he was fifteen he had a consuming passion for knowledge, and mastered the recorded wisdom of the sages and wise men of centuries long gone, knowing it was the guidance of these teachers which had made the Chinese a wise and benevolent people. But, beholding the abuses and oppression so prevalent in his day, he began to plead for restoration of the faith and practices of those ancients whose wisdom was being abandoned to the confusion of the nation and the immorality of the people.

     He was very poor, but asked no compensation for his teaching. His was a life of utter simplicity and frugality. He rejected the idea that happiness could be obtained from the mere possession of material things, and said, "The scholar who is bent on studying the principles of virtue, yet is ashamed of bad clothes and coarse food, is not yet fit to receive instruction. With coarse food to eat, water to drink, and the bended arm as a pillow, happiness may still exist." It can be seen

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that he exalted wisdom above earthly possessions, acquisition of knowledge above worldly ease, and virtue above luxury.

     His prescription for good government was to have an interested, enlightened and concerned populace, composed of those who put public welfare ahead of any personal consideration, and who would, therefore, select as officials only those who had proven themselves to have a genuine knowledge of public affairs, and were above the taking of bribes and corruption. So diligently did he teach that the true public servant was one who regarded responsibility as of prime importance, and salary as being secondary, that a revolution of thought took place, and a wise and judicious administration lifted the mighty nation to an exalted moral role.

     Like many other reformers, Confucius was not appreciated until after his death. He was once given a high governmental position, and so outstanding was his example and so enlightening his rule, that his province excited the wonder and admiration of all who heard about it. The jealousy of a neighboring governor was provoked and Confucius was dismissed, but instead of bearing malice or ill-will, he regarded the event as an opportunity to demonstrate that the human spirit cannot be crushed by adversity and physical rebuff. The ultimate ideal held before the people was one of universal justice and freedom. Confucius expressed it thus, "Within the four seas all are brethren.

     Confucius regarded life as being worthwhile only when disciplined. He would have agreed with the assertion of the Puritan, John Milton, that, "The flourishmg and decaying of all civil societies, all the movements and turrnings of human occasions are moved to and fro upon the axis of discipline." And he regarded the basic laws of life as being four in number. They were respect for parents, study, learning, and love for mankind. An application of these produced a glorious civilization of patriarchal simplicity, in which public service was the most honored of the professions, for it provided the opportunity to serve the greatest number, and the state exists only to minister to, educate and elevate the people. The state was not a queen but a handmaiden of the people.

     After centuries of discussion and absorption of this philosophy, which lacked much because it could not deal realistically with the problem of sin and the relation of man to the Creator, the time came to introduce to the Chinese people, the Son of God, whose mission to earth was in behalf of all men. The Roman Church, aggressively missionary in past centuries, impelled by edicts of the popes to extend their sovereignty as the "vicars of Christ," made the first onslaught. And the initial attempt was made by the Jesuits, the shock troops of the pontiff, members of the order established by the military leader, Ignatius Loyola. A contemporary philosopher has traced the results when other monastic orders moved in, fell out with their predecessors, and gave an exhibition of how professed followers of the Lord Jesus can carve each other to bits before the startled gaze of those whom they came to "save."

     "The second and final blow fell when the Jesuit monopoly was broken and Franciscans and Dominicans settled in Fukien and Chekiang. Bitter quarrels soon started between the various orders and the Chinese began to lose patience. Emperor K'ang Hsi had remarked sarcastically to the missionaries that 'you go to a great deal of trouble, coming from afar to preach contradictory opinions about which you seem anxious to slit each other's throats.' The Catholic missions were now slowly collapsing under their own dogmatic weight, torn by inner strife and dissension..."{1}

     It is upon the mission fields, without doubt, that the enormity of the sin of sectarian division is portrayed most graphically. Here are the millions who are alienated from God, in need of the knowledge of a Saviour who died to unite all men in one body or fellowship.

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Driven by the party spirit, anxious to win laurels for their sects, impelled by the necessity of making reports which will appeal to the mission boards thousands of miles away, the bearers of the "glad tidings" must resort to the same political maneuvering as at home. Creedal interpretations are insisted upon to the utter confusion of simple minds. The tragedy is even greater when such schismatics so disgust a people as to prepare the ground for acceptance by them of an ideology which will turn them into foes of Christianity, and enlist them under the banner of antichrist. Never was this more in evidence than in the case of China.

     "Christian missions were to attempt to convert China for another century...But it was a hopeless struggle. Torn between their various Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholics, they presented no united front. Catholics and Protestants could not even agree on the accurate translation of the word...God And all this was not mere squabble over semantics; the very substance of the Christian message was mortally seared through and through by such superficial conflicting translations. If the missionaries were listened to at all, it was largely because they had the financial means which enabled them to be in China in the first place--and because they were, somehow, mysteriously connected with the awesome power of Western technology."{2}

     For generations another grave mistake has been made by religious representatives of our western world. They have seemingly been unable to distinguish between Christianity in its purity, and what is called Christianity in our day, but which has been moulded, shaped and adapted by our own environment and mode of thought. There is ever the tendency to equate the church of which one is a member with the one planted by the chosen ambassadors of the King in Palestine, twenty centuries ago. Not only do we regard what we now have as an exact reproduction of what was then given, but we regard the rest of the world as a laboratory for reproduction of what we are politically, socially and culturally. Thus, we expect the people in Mongolia, China, Japan, Ethiopia and Gwana, to conform to our patterns and standards. Western man is honest in this. He generally regards his civilization as the only one extant, in which he is gravely mistaken; and he has rationalized that being in a "Christian" nation, his way of life is Christian, and in this, he is even more gravely in error.

     But, with such a fallacious idea, the work of the missionary has too often been not an attempt to plant the gospel, but to transplant a little bit of his own familiar way of life to alien soil, and to make the mission compound a recognizable minute portion of Britain or America. This requires the ignoring of the native culture and philosophy, and utter disregard for the forces which have worked through generations to bring a people to the point where they will even tolerate a foreigner in their midst. So the religion of Jesus, instead of being integrated with life itself, is looked upon as a foreign way of life to be adopted. The humble native may conclude that God began loving him the day the missionary stepped off the ship with his pile of converting tools; and that it was not so much the coming of Jesus to the world, but the arrival of the white man on his soil, that really counted.

     "The dramatic struggle underlining this whole Jesuit epic was the attempt of Western missionaries to impose not Christianity as such, but the Westernized version of Christ's teachings with all its

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symbolism and psychological twists suited to the West only and to no other civilization in the world."{3}

     These are days of rapid transportation. The world has shrunken in point of the time required to go from one place to another. Remote regions are accessible at once through the air which would require decades to open up to surface travel. An Eskimo may be familiar with planes who never saw a train. A native may be transported from the depths of a South American jungle to a modern hospital, who never before looked upon an automobile. This freedom and rapidity of travel will make it ever more difficult for the missionary from the Western world. The native peoples think of America as a Christian nation filled with such love for those unseen as to want to share with them that which is good. The missionary paints a glowing picture of the church which sends and sustains him. But when some of the people from faraway lands come and behold the bickering, cavilling, prejudice and littleness which characterize the American churches, they are quick to detect that contributions to missions are too often made to salve the conscience of the giver, and that many will give a hundred dollars to preach the gospel to a Negro in Africa, who would not allow one to sit in the same meeting-house with them in America, and would close down their schools before they would allow their children to sit with a colored child in the same auditorium. The cant and hypocrisy of professed Christians eats like a deadly cancer at the very heart of our Western civilization. "This people draweth nigh unto me with their lips, and honoreth me with their mouth, but their heart is far from me."

     "But worse still, when the leading Chinese went to Europe and America, they saw that many Westerners had nothing but scorn for this same Christian faith which was being exported to them; they listened to the philosophic arguments against the Bible and against Catholic dogmas generously provided by the Westerners themselves. Was it any wonder that the missionary effort ended in complete failure? And that by the middle of the twentieth century, barely one per cent of the Chinese population was converted, most of it made up of 'rice Christians' anyway? The failure was tragically evident. Western Christian proselytism failed to reach the vital centers of Chinese thought and emotion, never really touched the nervous system of China at all."{4}

PRESENT STATUS OF CHINA

     China is now under Communist domination. The Christian way of life has been rejected. Every part of the country is regimented and organized into militarized communes. These are super collectives composed of about twenty thousand families each. All of these have been shorn of property, livestock and all personal possessions. Family life has been broken up. The children, separated from their parents, are reared as government wards. Men and women alike live in barracks in a centralized work pool. Each day they are assigned tasks by work leaders. Those who demonstrate a sense of independence are placed in labor categories where they are worn down until the last shred of dignity disappears.

     The goal is the complete industrialization of China. In its achievement spiritual values count for nothing. In this great modern experiment all human, animal and material resources are combined and pooled in the interest of the state. A man, like a mule, is worth only what he can produce. By clever propaganda methods, human beings are brainwashed until their reasoning power is warped and twisted. All day long loud speakers blare forth the party line. The unfortunate victims work, rest, eat and sleep under the subtle influence of this thought infiltration process.

      Mao Tse-Tung, who was president of Red China, resigned his post to devote his time and efforts to organizing the communes more completely. This means that the will to rebel will be crushed, and swift death will overtake those who revolt. Under these circumstances the last vestiges of the Christian viewpoint are

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being eliminated. No missionaries now proclaim the story of God's love, no congregations meet to worship in the name of the crucified Saviour. Before our very eyes we have seen the spread of ruthless power and the loss of a great people to the Christian way.

REASONS FOR FAILURE

     Those who revere God cannot be indifferent to the factors which operated to render Christian propaganda ineffective in China. We must learn from our errors, or we shall continue to stagger blindly along, eventually losing upon all fronts. No simple answer can be given, of course, but this writer would like to gaze into the show window and portray what he personally recognizes as contributory to the unfolding drama. In this presentation the term "Christianity is not used as the dogma of any sect or segment of the divided religious world, but as the way of life based upon acceptance that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and our Lord, which truth shines through all of the obscurations of sectism. It is not that a particular religious organization has been banned from China, or that a specific denomination has failed to reach the Chinese mind. The abundant life which Jesus came to give, and which transcends all partisan barriers, has been rejected in favor of atheistic communism. Why?

1. We emphasize once more that Christianity was taken to the Orient as an Occidental import. We forget that the Christian religion was first revealed in the Near East, and was proclaimed in Asia long before it was received in Europe. It was not Anglo-Saxons who made Christianity powerful, but the acceptance of the principles of Christianity which has made western civilization so great. It is not a "white man's religion" to be shared with others; it is a universal religion in which white men are allowed to share--not because they are white, but because they are men! The patronizing air ill becomes the missionary. He takes to others not what is his, but what is theirs. God knows no superior race!
   
   
2. It is difficult to separate what is vital to Christianity from the Graeco-Western pattern of thought in which Christianity has thrived. The Chinese philosophy of life is profoundly different than that of Western man, influenced by the Hellenistic heritage. It is sometimes a question as to whether our logic has been formulated by Christianity, or if Christianity has been modified and adapted by the influence upon it of our logic. In our struggle for liberty, we have come to lay great stress upon the rights of the individual, arguing from abstract principles to sustain our views. This viewpoint is utterly alien to the Chinese mind, trained in an atmosphere which, for centuries, had stressed social conformity as the ideal, and where personal salvation was not the goal, but attainment to a place among the honored sages and ancestors was the purpose of all life.
        Two hundred years before the birth of our Lord, a great ethical culture had developed in China, shut off from the rest of the world by towering mountains and rolling oceans. It left unsolved many problems as do all human philosophies, but by perception and reason, it had uncovered and discovered many truths of human existence. As centuries passed the civilization of China petrified, as all civilizations seem to do in time. In this state the West descended with full impact, smashing honored beliefs and customs, in the mad scramble to gain profits from trade with this teeming anthill of the earth.
        Under these circumstances, Christianity was introduced, but, unlike the great missionary to the Gentiles who became all things unto all men, if by any means he might win some, the missionaries to China sought to impose a way of life which was based to a large extent upon Western ideas and logic. They never really understood the Chinese, and the Chinese people never really understood them. One wonders now what the result would have been if those who proclaimed Jesus had understood the philosophy of the Chinese and used any truth found

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   therein as a foundation stone, and demonstrated that Christ was but the completion of the pattern and the meaning of human history, the thing for which they had been seeking for centuries. What would it be like today, if the Jew from the Near East who took the good news to Athens, and integrated his message with the unknown factors of their superstitions, had been the first Christian proclaimer to visit the Far East?
   
   
3. We must face squarely up to the fact that Christianity failed in China because of sectarianism and schismatic manifestations of those who took the message. The price of such division should make us shudder and tremble. At a time when the fatal blow of Western impact shattered all the Chinese had thought, believed, and practiced for several millenniums, they turned eagerly toward that which made Western civilization great in the earth. They craved that which would unify, strengthen and give them real purpose in life. They sought the answer of history to the problem of human existence. They asked for bread, and we gave them a stone; for fish, and we gave them a serpent. Our philosophers who went to their schools to lecture threw them infidel bones to gnaw on; our business men exploited them with untempered avarice; our statesmen deceived and deluded them; and the missionaries transplanted to their soil the strife and contentions which had torn and rent the Christian fabric through centuries of bickering, hatred and animosity. They requested unity and we gave them discord; they asked for hope and we furnished them despair.

     What has it cost to maintain the party spirit in the Christian realm? Let us look at the cost in China. Thousands of men and women have been shot or beheaded in one of the most tragic blood purges in all history. Human gore has rushed like a mountain torrent down the gutters of some village streets. Almost one-fifth of mankind for whom Jesus died, are enslaved in conditions indescribable even as I sit at my desk writing these words. A deep, abiding and fomenting hatred toward the West, seethes within the Chinese heart today. Indeed, this is the unity we have bequeathed to them, a unity of smouldering hatred, which, we pray God, will never be fanned into flame by the whispering breeze of destiny. It is a recognition of these things which should cause us to re-evaluate our religious divisions and divergencies, and seek to find the solution to them. Time is running out! While we fiddle, the world is aflame and burning. We may not find the answer in our generation, but the fruit of peace can never be gathered while we sow division. If we sow the seeds of peace, our children's children may know better days. This is our only hope. It is not a quick panacea. It is not an easy road to travel. It will be fraught with tears and sorrow and heartache, because of the misconception of purpose and the crucifixion of those whose ideals cause them not to mind earthly things. But someone must start. "And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace."

LESSONS FROM THE ENEMY

     By what means did Communism succeed in China, where Christian propaganda failed? What were the points of attack and what were the methods employed? Where should we strengthen our wall of defence? Obviously no one can assess all of the factors involved in a complex revolution. We need to guard against over-simplification. But let us suggest a few things.

1. Our greatest enemy today is indifference. Our people belong to the cult of the unconcerned. Like the ancient Hebrews who rejected the testimony of their prophets, these also "put far off the evil day." There is an underlying conviction that it cannot happen unto us. There is a feeling that we are a chosen people, that God cannot get along without us, so we need not be too worried about getting along without God. We are spiritually weakened by "luxury's vile contagion." Crime increases, lust intensifies, while the moral tissue is consumed by cancer. True, there is a revival of church attendance, but much of the membership

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   is nominal, and the transforming power of the indwelling Spirit is not often felt or exhibited.
   
   
2. The first bold attack of Communism in China was against the closely knit family life which was proverbial among the people. The appeal was made to the young, and the seeds of irreverence for parents and ancestors were planted and nurtured. Mere children were taught the State was supreme, and relationship to it transcended every other. They were urged to report their own parents and grandparents who sought to teach them the old principles of equity and justice, although the children knew that such reports would mean exile or death for the parents. Young people who made such reports were granted medals in public demonstrations and made to appear heroic. Thus, the family ties were dissolved in an aura of suspicion, distrust and hate. We should take note of this and strengthen the family bonds, already so seriously loosened in our modern age.
   
   
3. The next point of attack was against landlords and employers. These were made to appear as enemies of the people, and exploiters of their strength and labor for private gain. Under the feudal system there had been many abuses. The common people had been kept in ignorance and degradation, so it was not difficult to fan the spark of hatred in the breast of the peasant. Class consciousness was created. One group was arrayed against the other. It was made to appear that by ridding themselves of the landlords a golden day would dawn in which all of the resources would be used for the good of all. Mao Tse-Tung, Chou En-Lai, and Chu-Teh played a full symphony upon the chords of primitive emotions, with their oft-repeated dictum, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Like so many high sounding slogans for public consumption, this was not administered as ideally as it sounded, being regulated by a rule of force and compulsion. We need to learn to cement our national unity and resist those forces which erode it.

CONCLUSION

     The writer can lay no claim to being a philosopher or political analyst. As a very humble follower of the Nazarene he has watched the gathering storm clouds and sought to know their portent. More eagerly, a solution has been sought. It is a deep personal conviction that Christianity is again on trial in our modern world. We do not doubt the final triumph of righteousness, nor the ultimate achievement of God's purpose. We are, however, deeply concerned about that purpose for this generation, and of our part in it. Will Western civilization go down before the onslaught of barbaric and primitive forces unleashed upon the earth? If not, what is to prevent such a catastrophe? If it is true that Christianity is the last hope of our survival, how can it be applied? With whom does the answer lie?

     The Roman Catholic Church, content in its belief that it is the one true church of Christ on earth, presents itself as the only hope of salvation, and invites the remainder of the Christian world to return to its fold and unite against a common enemy. Is this claim valid? If not, where shall we turn? To the World Council of Churches, representing the strongest bulwark of Protestantism? Or, to the churches which grew out of the Restoration Movement of the preceding century? If to these, to which one, or ones? Which faction or segment provides the hope which mankind seeks to find? The conservative Christian Churches? The anti-instrument churches? If these latter, which faction among the more than two dozen splinter groups? We are committed to a relentless probing and investigation, regardless of consequences. We are aware of the price one must pay for searching analysis and non-partisan investigation. We think we are willing to pay that price. If we know our hearts, we feel only an urge for discovery of truth and the courage to state it. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

    {1} The Soul of China by Amaury de Riencourt. Published with the Foreign Policy Research Institute of the University of Pennsylvania. by Coward-McCann, Inc.. New York. Copyright 1958. All quotations by special permission of publishers. Page 144.
    {2} Ibid., page 152.
    {3} Ibid., page 145.
    {4} Ibid., page 152.