Religion 2 Flashcards
Why were the Protestant and Catholic Churches targeted?
Communists believed that Christianity was representative of Western imperialist ideas.
What were the “Patriotic Church” movements?
IN PROPAGANDA terms: these new movements created to organise religion for the benefit of the Chinese people.
IN REALITY: a way of imposing control over the Churches,
totally controlled by the communist government.
How did the Communist Party attack Christianity?
- they hung portraits of Mao in their churches (Patriotic Church movements)
- Schools and hospitals set up and run by the Churches were taken over by the government
- Missionaries were forced out, imprisoned
Were the Patriotic Churches successful?
Congregations were low
Many clergy still organised secret Christian services, often in the homes of the congregations
How did the communists portray the Catholic Church? damned
Communist propaganda DAMNED the Catholic Church:
- CATHOLIC HOSPITALS using patients as “human guinea pigs” to test our new medicines
- CATHOLIC SCHOOLS attacked for helping the US during the Korean War
- CATHOLIC CHILDREN’S HOMES accused of starving and torturing children.
What did the Anti-Christian repression spark?
A major confrontation with the Roma Catholic Church.
They protested the repression of catholics, refused to accept the Patriotic Churches as genuinely Catholic
The pope threatened to excommunicate any clergy who co-operated with the Communist regime
Were the Communists successful in eliminating Christianity?
January 1951– 3,222 Catholic missionaries in China
By 1953– just 364
Didn’t mean Christianity destroyed, however: clergy continued to meet, in secret, in family homes
So ish.
Why were Muslims also targeted by the Communists?
(Most lived in the north-western provinces of Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai)
Islam represented a rival belief system to communist ideology
Communists resented the power of the mullahs (had great influence in their societies)
A barrier to the imposition of communism
How did the communists attempt to wipe out Islam?
• Mosque SCHOOLS were closed down:
- Government schools teaching Marxism set up.
- The traditional Muslim teaching of theology, ritual, poetry and ethics ended.
•LAND taken from mosques, redistributed. Resisted? Imprisoned in the Laogai.
• encouraged the inward MIGRATION of Han Chinese to dilute the ethnic homogeneity of Muslim communities, especially in Xinjiang;
- PLA helped to build roads into Xinjiang: speed this ethnic dilution
What was the immediate Muslim target for the Communist?
Predominantly Muslin Xinjiang province was an immediate target: the PLA invaded in October 1949 as part of the reunification campaigns.
What did the Chinese government fear in relation to Islam?
That other Islamic countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan night encourage demands for independence from the PRC
What happened to Islam during the Cultural Revolution?
- mosques were shut down, turned into barracks/stables
* religious leaders tortured or given humiliating jobs (eg. cleaning sewers)
Why were the Muslim provinces particularly targeted during the Cultural Revolution?
They bordered the Islamic republics of the Soviet Union:
Beijing worried that the Soviets
(keen to get hold of their rich reserves of oil and gas)
would encourage separatist movements
to demand union with them instead
Was the Communist government successful in eliminating Islam?
Islamic communities resisted the imposition of Communist control (in some cases through military force)
Government forced to be more respectful of Islamic culture.
Why did religion contradict Mao’s beliefs?
Superstition.
Old thinking that held China back.
Pacifism didn’t fit with building military strength, a focus of the regime.
Christian beliefs meant loyalty to an alternative leader.
Christian missionaries represented Western interference.
Traditional beliefs encouraged subservience to family, ancestors, elders, clergy, a clear contradiction to the beliefs of Mao.
