Recently, the media hyped the religious activities taking place in rural areas due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Shijiazhuang. The self-created media articles were extremely biased, but they were not groundless because those writers did regard religious issues from a professional perspective. Yet, as a researcher who has been focusing on rural religious issues for many years, I feel it is necessary to share my views in order to clarify many issues.
Many media placed the responsibility of the Hebei outbreak on Catholicism. Online rumors claim that a religious gathering took place in the Catholic Xiaoguozhuang Village in Gaocheng some time ago. Many European priests attended the gathering without any precautionary measures. It was believed that these missionaries brought the European virus here…
As of January 10, China saw 95 new local COVID-19 infections and 18 new imported positive cases, 82 reported in Hebei, according to the National Health Commission.
On the day when rumors were spread (January 7th), Shijiazhuang Catholic Patriotic Association and Shijiazhuang Catholic Diocese denounced the rumors, clarifying that Xiaoguozhuang Village and three others mentioned were not Catholic villages. Up to the day of dispelling the rumors, only one of the confirmed cases in Shijiazhuang was a Catholic believer. After checking with two priests, they said that there had been no foreign visitors since this past winter.
However, public opinion of "underground illegal missionary activities" did not stop the rumors. So, on China's Twitter WeChat and Zhihu, a Chinese question-and-answer website there was an increase in stories of people's impressions of Christianity resulting in articles such as "Never Imagined Before: Religious Activities in Xiaoguozhuang Village in Shijiazhuang Led to the Fall of the Whole Village to the Pandemic", which shifted the responsibility of the pandemic to the local religion and believers.
What religion do Shijiazhuang farmers believe in?
As I had expected in advance, the rumors that the Shijiazhuang Catholic Patriotic Association acted against were not true. The media and netizens were not professional enough to distinguish Protestantism from Catholicism. Bishops in parishes around the world are usually appointed by the Holy See of the Vatican, but the situation of Catholicism in China is a bit special. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, many bishops in parishes in China were foreigners. In 1951, these foreign bishops were deported, so many parishes lost their bishops for a while. Catholicism in Chinese also cut off contact with foreign countries at that time and tried self-propagating, self-supporting and self-managing. At that time, Christianity established the "Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee" and Catholicism established the "Catholic Patriotic Association". Because Catholicism has "subtle" Vatican factors, Chinese Catholicism has been thought to be "underground".
Below I’ll talk about how I concluded in advance that Xiaoguozhuang Village was a Protestant village but not Catholic as rumored.
First of all, since China’s reform and opening up, Christianity has made great progress in China while Catholicism has basically not grown. According to the statistics, in the early days of the People's Republic of China, there were less than 3 million Catholics and 700,000 Protestants in China. In recent years, according to the official data released by China, there are 6 million Catholics and 38 million Protestants. I think one of the reasons for the relatively rapid growth of Protestantism is that Christians are more active in evangelizing than Catholics.
In the past 70 years, the newly-added Catholics have mainly been family members. Usually, if you are born in a Catholic family, you are naturally a Catholic, which is similar to Islam. The change in the population of believers is directly proportional to the change of the population of families with relevant religious backgrounds.
Based on the above knowledge and by evaluating the two gatherings in the village of Xiaoguo on weekdays, I believe that the infected villagers in Xiaoguo Village are Protestants.
Is the Christian gathering in Xiaoguo Village legal?
I don't think "illegal religious activities in rural areas" is an important reason for the spread of the pandemic.
Let's talk about religious gatherings held in believers' homes. A home is not a religious place, but elderly believers aren’t mobile, so they are allowed to have a gathering in their own home in China. One of the modes of Christian management in China is "the church oversees gathering points", that is, meeting points belong to a nearby legal church, and these churches have legal places for religious activities - the Christian churches. So these meeting points nominally belong to a church and they can organize small-scale religious activities without obtaining permission from the places for religious activities.
In addition, let's talk about the "anti-pandemic" training of the elderly Christians in Xiaoguo Village. According to the information of confirmed cases that have been exposed so far, there were five people attending the gathering in Xiaoguozhuang. The actual number of people attending the gathering is unknown. According to the usual scale of this kind of gathering, if there are about 10 people, it is just the number of people for a family dinner. We should know that the keynote of mainstream media coverage in the past half year was: the situation here is uniquely better and the society is running in an orderly way. Hebei, as a non-important pandemic area, had a gathering of 10 people, which is an acceptable number. Even if there were more people at the gathering, the number of people participating in the activities was far less than that of the local people participating in recent weddings and funerals. Therefore, it was even more impossible to label the elderly as "unreliable". With the low educational level of the elderly, it is wrong to assume that they are of low quality and cause trouble in society.
Public discourse on persons living in rural areas and on Christianity, in general, is naturally biased.
In fact, rural people have long faced the prejudice of urban people, and because they have no right to speak, there is no way to refute them. In addition to the rural churches, the Christian beliefs of many people at the bottom of society are often trampled by the words created by social elites. For example, in these words with obvious hegemony, they also actively participate in religious activities. When describing rural believer groups, they refer to them as fanatics, but when describing cities and intellectual groups, they are called pious. The same prayer is understood as "utilitarian" when describing peasant believers, and "spiritual" when describing urban believers. It is also concerned about the surrounding social problems, and the peasant believers are either ignored or labeled as impacting the grassroots governance order. The same behavior, which occurs between urban believers and intellectuals, is often interpreted as having a sense of social responsibility and representing the development direction of civil society. The bottom layer represented by peasants is often one end of dualistic values and represents one end of ignorance.
In addition to Buddhism, Taoism, and traditional beliefs of various ethnic groups, Christianity and Islam are often targeted by anonymous netizens. Moreover, some low-level academics frequently put forward policy propositions that obviously violate the principle of religious freedom that is a part of the Constitution, causing confusion in the thinking of the administrative staff of local departments. Finally, it incited the contradiction between religious people and non-religious people, which led some local authorities to interfere with the normal religious practices by improper administrative means.
Thankfully, since the recent outbreak of the pandemic in Hebei Province, the specific statements of the relevant departments of Hebei Province and the notification of pandemic prevention and control in Beijing have been fair and rigorous, showing a high professional level.
As a religious scholar, I hope that through the popularization of knowledge and the sharing of personal views in this paper, we can alleviate some misunderstandings in society and promote the development of society in a harmonious and rational direction.
(The first draft was written on January 9, 2021, revised on the 10th and the 13th. The original text was published in the "Pickup of the Field" in an official WeChat account.)
- Translated by Charlie Li
学者观点 |石家庄疫情下的“农村宗教非法活动”流言咋回事？读了秒懂
近日因为石家庄疫情的爆发，很多自媒体挑起了农村宗教的话题。这些自媒体文章偏颇极大，但又并非空穴来风，并考虑宗教问题是个专业性极强的领域，因为，作为一个多年来专注农村宗教问题的研究人员，我觉得很有必要分享一下我的看法，以便澄清很多问题。
很多自媒体将河北疫情爆发的责任往天主教上引。最早的谣言是说，“藁城小果庄是个天主教村，二十天前进行宗教活动，有多位欧美神父赶来参加，却没有采取任何防范措施，现在看就是这些传教士把欧洲病毒带来的。”当时就断定这是谣言，因为破绽太多。首先，在目前的疫情防控措施下，入境人员未经隔离就不可能径直抵达中国的农村；其次，中国的某些部门盯宗教和外来人员都很紧，宗教人士不会轻易地来，当地宗教组织也没有这方面的需求。
很快，在谣言传播的当日（1月7日），石家庄天主教爱国会和天主教石家庄教区就及时出来辟谣了。称小果村等三村不是天主教村，截至辟谣当日，石家庄市确诊病例中，只有一人是天主教友。且经与两位神父核实，今冬以来没有外籍访客。
不过针对“地下非法传教活动”的舆情并没有随着辟谣而停止。并且有越来越多的捕风捉影，拼凑朋友圈、微信群和“知乎”文章中人们对基督宗教的印象，攒成《万万没想到，石家庄小果庄村的宗教活动竟导致全村疫情沦陷》等文章，将疫情的责任推给当地宗教和信教群众。
石家庄农民们信的究竟是什么教？
与笔者事先判断的一样，石家庄天主教爱国会的“辟谣”属实。自媒体和广大网友专业性不够，分不清基督教和天主教。世界各地教区的主教通常由梵蒂冈的圣座任命，而中国的天主教情况有点特殊，建国之初中国很多教区的主教是外国人，1951年这些外国主教被驱逐出境，于是很多教区一时没了主教，中国大陆地区的天主教在当时也与国外断绝了来往，尝试自传、自养、自治。当时基督教成立了“三自爱国运动委员会”，天主教成立了“天主教爱国会”。由于天主教有微妙的梵蒂冈因素，所以中国天主教有“地下”一说。
下边再说说，我是如何能事先断定小果庄是基督教而并不是谣传的天主教呢？
首先，改革开放以来，基督教在中国有长足发展，天主教则基本没有增长。据建国初期的统计，中国有天主教徒不到300万，基督徒70万。近年来中国官方公布的数据中，天主教徒为600万，基督徒3800万。我认为基督教相对增长快的原因之一是对传福音的态度基督徒比天主教徒更积极。
70年来，新增的天主教徒主要靠家庭传承。通常，你出生在天主教家庭，自然就是天主教徒了，这一点和伊斯兰教比较像，信徒人口的变化与有相关信仰背景的家庭的人口变化成正比。
基于上述知识，再看到小果村平日的两次聚会，我就能推测出小果村感染的村民信仰的是基督教。
小果村的基督教聚会合法吗？
我不认为“农村非法宗教活动”是疫情扩散的重要原因。
先说在信徒家里搞的宗教聚会吧。虽然家庭不是宗教场所，但是老年信徒腿脚不方便，就近在自己家里搞聚会在中国本就是允许的。中国基督教管理的模式之一是“以堂带点”，即一些聚会点隶属于附近的合法教会认可，这些教会有合法宗教活动场所——基督教教堂，那么这些聚会点名义上隶属这个教会，就无须取得宗教活动场所的许可，便可以组织小规模的宗教活动。
另外，再说下小果村老年基督徒们的“抗疫”素养问题。就目前已经曝光的确诊病例信息，小果庄参与聚会的有5人，实际聚会人数不详。按通常这种聚会的规模来说，10个人左右的话不过就是一次家庭聚餐的人数。要知道，这大半年以来主流媒体的报道基调是：中国这边风景独好，社会也有序运行。河北作为非重要的疫区，有个10来人的聚会并不能算风险意识太差。即便聚会的人数再多，参与活动的人数也远不如当地近期的参与红白事的人多。于是，就更不能就此给老年人扣“不靠谱”的帽子。凭借老年人文化程度低，就预设他们素质低、给社会添麻烦当然也是错误的。
对农村人和对基督教的话语霸权
农村人其实长期遭遇城市人的偏见，并且由于他们没有话语权，无从反驳。除了农村教会，很多社会底层人群的基督教信仰，也常常被精英制造的话语踩在地下摩擦。比如在这些霸权主义色彩明显的话语中，同样是积极参加宗教活动，形容农村信徒团体时就叫狂热，形容城市和知识分子群体则叫虔诚；一样的祷告，形容农民信徒时被理解为“功利”，形容城市信徒则叫“属灵”；同样是关怀周边的社会问题，来自农民信徒群体则要么被漠视，要么被扣上冲击基层治理秩序的帽子；而同样的行为，发生在城市信徒和知识分子信徒群体中间，则常被解释为有社会责任感、代表了公民社会的发展方向等。以农民为代表的底层，常常是二元化的价值观的一端，代表愚昧的一端。
除了佛教、道教和各民族的传统信仰，基督教、伊斯兰教常常成为无名网友们攻击的对象。并且有一些素质不高的学者，频频提出明显违反《宪法》中的宗教自由原则的政策主张，造成了地方相关部门行政人员的思想混乱。最终煽动了信教群众与非信教群众的矛盾，导致一些地方部门以不当的行政手段干预了正常的宗教秩。
值得欣慰的是，最近河北省疫情爆发以来，在对农村宗教问题的应对上，无论是河北省有关部门，还是北京市疫情防控通报的具体表述都比较公允和严谨，表现出了较高的专业水准。从
作为一个宗教学者，我希望通过本文的知识普及和个人观点的分享缓解社会上不应该有的误解，促进社会向和谐理性的方向发展。
作者：孔德继
初稿写于2021年1月9日，10日改毕，13日修订
原文登载于公众号“田野拾遗”。
学者观点 |石家庄疫情下的“农村宗教非法活动”流言咋回事？读了秒懂
Recently, the media hyped the religious activities taking place in rural areas due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Shijiazhuang. The self-created media articles were extremely biased, but they were not groundless because those writers did regard religious issues from a professional perspective. Yet, as a researcher who has been focusing on rural religious issues for many years, I feel it is necessary to share my views in order to clarify many issues.
Many media placed the responsibility of the Hebei outbreak on Catholicism. Online rumors claim that a religious gathering took place in the Catholic Xiaoguozhuang Village in Gaocheng some time ago. Many European priests attended the gathering without any precautionary measures. It was believed that these missionaries brought the European virus here…
As of January 10, China saw 95 new local COVID-19 infections and 18 new imported positive cases, 82 reported in Hebei, according to the National Health Commission.
On the day when rumors were spread (January 7th), Shijiazhuang Catholic Patriotic Association and Shijiazhuang Catholic Diocese denounced the rumors, clarifying that Xiaoguozhuang Village and three others mentioned were not Catholic villages. Up to the day of dispelling the rumors, only one of the confirmed cases in Shijiazhuang was a Catholic believer. After checking with two priests, they said that there had been no foreign visitors since this past winter.
However, public opinion of "underground illegal missionary activities" did not stop the rumors. So, on China's Twitter WeChat and Zhihu, a Chinese question-and-answer website there was an increase in stories of people's impressions of Christianity resulting in articles such as "Never Imagined Before: Religious Activities in Xiaoguozhuang Village in Shijiazhuang Led to the Fall of the Whole Village to the Pandemic", which shifted the responsibility of the pandemic to the local religion and believers.
What religion do Shijiazhuang farmers believe in?
As I had expected in advance, the rumors that the Shijiazhuang Catholic Patriotic Association acted against were not true. The media and netizens were not professional enough to distinguish Protestantism from Catholicism. Bishops in parishes around the world are usually appointed by the Holy See of the Vatican, but the situation of Catholicism in China is a bit special. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, many bishops in parishes in China were foreigners. In 1951, these foreign bishops were deported, so many parishes lost their bishops for a while. Catholicism in Chinese also cut off contact with foreign countries at that time and tried self-propagating, self-supporting and self-managing. At that time, Christianity established the "Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee" and Catholicism established the "Catholic Patriotic Association". Because Catholicism has "subtle" Vatican factors, Chinese Catholicism has been thought to be "underground".
Below I’ll talk about how I concluded in advance that Xiaoguozhuang Village was a Protestant village but not Catholic as rumored.
First of all, since China’s reform and opening up, Christianity has made great progress in China while Catholicism has basically not grown. According to the statistics, in the early days of the People's Republic of China, there were less than 3 million Catholics and 700,000 Protestants in China. In recent years, according to the official data released by China, there are 6 million Catholics and 38 million Protestants. I think one of the reasons for the relatively rapid growth of Protestantism is that Christians are more active in evangelizing than Catholics.
In the past 70 years, the newly-added Catholics have mainly been family members. Usually, if you are born in a Catholic family, you are naturally a Catholic, which is similar to Islam. The change in the population of believers is directly proportional to the change of the population of families with relevant religious backgrounds.
Based on the above knowledge and by evaluating the two gatherings in the village of Xiaoguo on weekdays, I believe that the infected villagers in Xiaoguo Village are Protestants.
Is the Christian gathering in Xiaoguo Village legal?
I don't think "illegal religious activities in rural areas" is an important reason for the spread of the pandemic.
Let's talk about religious gatherings held in believers' homes. A home is not a religious place, but elderly believers aren’t mobile, so they are allowed to have a gathering in their own home in China. One of the modes of Christian management in China is "the church oversees gathering points", that is, meeting points belong to a nearby legal church, and these churches have legal places for religious activities - the Christian churches. So these meeting points nominally belong to a church and they can organize small-scale religious activities without obtaining permission from the places for religious activities.
In addition, let's talk about the "anti-pandemic" training of the elderly Christians in Xiaoguo Village. According to the information of confirmed cases that have been exposed so far, there were five people attending the gathering in Xiaoguozhuang. The actual number of people attending the gathering is unknown. According to the usual scale of this kind of gathering, if there are about 10 people, it is just the number of people for a family dinner. We should know that the keynote of mainstream media coverage in the past half year was: the situation here is uniquely better and the society is running in an orderly way. Hebei, as a non-important pandemic area, had a gathering of 10 people, which is an acceptable number. Even if there were more people at the gathering, the number of people participating in the activities was far less than that of the local people participating in recent weddings and funerals. Therefore, it was even more impossible to label the elderly as "unreliable". With the low educational level of the elderly, it is wrong to assume that they are of low quality and cause trouble in society.
Public discourse on persons living in rural areas and on Christianity, in general, is naturally biased.
In fact, rural people have long faced the prejudice of urban people, and because they have no right to speak, there is no way to refute them. In addition to the rural churches, the Christian beliefs of many people at the bottom of society are often trampled by the words created by social elites. For example, in these words with obvious hegemony, they also actively participate in religious activities. When describing rural believer groups, they refer to them as fanatics, but when describing cities and intellectual groups, they are called pious. The same prayer is understood as "utilitarian" when describing peasant believers, and "spiritual" when describing urban believers. It is also concerned about the surrounding social problems, and the peasant believers are either ignored or labeled as impacting the grassroots governance order. The same behavior, which occurs between urban believers and intellectuals, is often interpreted as having a sense of social responsibility and representing the development direction of civil society. The bottom layer represented by peasants is often one end of dualistic values and represents one end of ignorance.
In addition to Buddhism, Taoism, and traditional beliefs of various ethnic groups, Christianity and Islam are often targeted by anonymous netizens. Moreover, some low-level academics frequently put forward policy propositions that obviously violate the principle of religious freedom that is a part of the Constitution, causing confusion in the thinking of the administrative staff of local departments. Finally, it incited the contradiction between religious people and non-religious people, which led some local authorities to interfere with the normal religious practices by improper administrative means.
Thankfully, since the recent outbreak of the pandemic in Hebei Province, the specific statements of the relevant departments of Hebei Province and the notification of pandemic prevention and control in Beijing have been fair and rigorous, showing a high professional level.
As a religious scholar, I hope that through the popularization of knowledge and the sharing of personal views in this paper, we can alleviate some misunderstandings in society and promote the development of society in a harmonious and rational direction.
(The first draft was written on January 9, 2021, revised on the 10th and the 13th. The original text was published in the "Pickup of the Field" in an official WeChat account.)
- Translated by Charlie Li
Scholar: Truth Behind Rumors of 'Illegal Religious Activities in Rural Areas' under Shijiazhuang’s Outbreak
