My, my...that Olympic spirit really can waft in and change everything, can't it? Why for proof, just read through this oh-so-sweet Reuters news account of how China has suddenly become religion-friendly. They are training local believers to provide religious services for foreign guests; they've made plans for translators to help with prayer services; they're even thinking of putting Bibles in hotel rooms.As reporter Guo Shipeng insists, "China is keen to use the international attention on the Beijing Olympics to promote its economic and social successes and growing openness, including in religion."
Guo Shipeng adds later, "The Communist Party used to attack home-grown religions as superstition and foreign ones as subversive, but it has recently said it wants religion to play a positive role in promoting social harmony."
Uh huh.
Pay no attention to those hundreds of religious believers just recently arrested. Forget the forced labor camps, the brutality of the one-child policy, the torture of prisoners, the numerous actions of military and industrial espionage directed at the U.S. and other Western nations, the shoddy merchandise, the constant threats to Taiwan, the repression of political dissent, the menacing militarization, and, of course, the official stance of the government that China is still very much an atheistic country.
No, instead just hold a good thought and believe the reporter's criminally naive line -- "The Communist Party used to attack home-grown religions."
As my brother Ric out in Denver (who alerted me to the story) paraphrased the old Pete Seeger/Byrds song, "To everything -- spin, spin, spin."
It's much better to deal with the truth so here's a few Vital Signs posts just from the last few months with the real story of China's ongoing human rights abuses: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Calls on China, Cuba for New Human Rights Standards; China: Preparing for the Olympics By Increasing Persecution of Christians; Communist China (Our Gracious Olympic Hosts) Caught in 2 New Espionage Cases; China Cracks Down (Yet Again) On the "Crime" of Parenthood; Is This the Olympic Spirit? 270 Pastors Arrested in China; Any Port in a Storm? Communist China Refuses American Ships; China Shuts Down Australian Company & Seizes Millions of Dollars -- Claims Company Was "Christian."
Sadly, I could go on.
