China Converts to Christianity

It’s not a story that leads in The New York Times. It’s not an issue that you’d expect to furrow the brow of Katie Couric on NBC’s Today Show. But China is converting to Christianity. How much? How fast? According to Richard Spencer

State-sanctioned Protestant and Catholic churches in China count up to 35 million followers, making Christianity the third most practiced religion in the country after Buddhism and Taoism. Islam ranks fourth.

Even more significant is a steadily growing network of underground or “house” churches, which are said to have up to 100 million members.

That is considerably higher than the numbers estimated in David Aikman’s book Jesus in Beijing, published in 2003, which estimated 70 million in the “house” churches, with estimated growth at seven percent per year.

Here at Road to the Middle Class we count the worldwide explosion of Christianity as a marker. Whenever you see people making the transition from the life of the sun to the life of the clock, from the life as a fatalistic peasant to life as a purposeful citizen you will find enthusiastic Christianity: in the favelas of Latin America, in the burgeoning shanty towns of Africa, in the exploding economy of China. Read all about it in Chapter 15: The Worldwide Explosion of Pentecostalism.

Life must have a purpose, especially life in the self-governing global world market, whatever the liberals say.