In 1947, Carl F. H. Henry’s book The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism was out with triumph. With its profound insights, the book made the American church at that time realize that the church had only paid attention to its own affairs and ignored social justice for too long. It was time the church changed itself and tackled Fundamentalism.
With a radical attitude, the American evangelical Christian theologian criticized the American church, which lost much influence and credibility at that time. He wrote that Fundamentalism had generated modern Pharisees and Levites, making a detour for the suffering people. He bluntly pointed out that when looking at the performance of fundamentalists, you would think that humanitarianism had lost from Christianity.
Dr. Harold John Ockenga, the pastor of Park Street Church in Boston, made a rousing call on the introduction page, "If the Bible-believing Christian is on the wrong side of social problems such as war, race, class, labor, liquor, imperialism, etc., it is time to get over the fence to the right side. The church needs a progressive Fundamentalism with a social message... It is impossible to shut the Jesus of pity, healing, service, and human interest from a Biblical theology. The higher morality of redemption does not invalidate moral consistency. "
In the spring of 2022, the incident of a Christian mother of eight chained outside in winter in Fengxian county, Jiangsu Province aroused public attention, indignation, and outcry. It was precisely because of the efforts of countless netizens who chose not to “forget, abandon, and give up” that the local authorities had to issue new notices which contradicted to the previous ones again and again.
The Xuzhou mother incident is of milestone significance. Its significance should not only be limited to society. Although the reversal of the incident has been driven by the conscience and goodwill of countless unknown ordinary people, including the participation of many Christian groups, on the whole, we Christian groups may have to admit: maybe we have just been concerned about our own affairs for too long and ignored social justice, and it is like a thorn which makes it necessary for us to revisit the heartfelt call of the Uneasy Conscience Of Modern Fundamentalism.
May the deep Xuzhou mother incident become a watershed to wake up today’s Chinese church’s “uneasy conscience”.
The Christian community’s reaction to the chained mother incident
Although the local authorities have issued multiple notices, the incident has not been finalized. Because there are still many questions that have not been answered, such as where is the real Li Ying?
Compared with the fourth edition of notice, in which three parties were punished, netizens ask how to change and stop similar phenomena. Most people who are silent often find it difficult to speak out their own voice, but countless netizens are forwarding the movie Blind Mountain which centers on the issue of selling women for marriage over and over again to express an attitude: because this is not just a place in Xuzhou, it is not just a matter of eight children and one woman who was locked in chains, and those who are “humiliated and insulted” deserve basic justice and humanitarianism.
Thankfully, there are many Christians involved in the incident. There are 70-80% Christians in my WeChat account. From the end of January to the present, almost every day from morning till night, the content accounts for 70-80%. Not only that, but I also saw dozens of Christians’ WeChat official accounts constantly questioning and appealing in the corner of their own weak self-media platform, and some Christians continued to discuss and question in the WeChat group.
Needless to say, many Christians don’t know or care about this matter. A Christian writer with whom I have been familiar with, said that no one in his WeChat circle of friends and his WeChat group discussed this matter.
At the same time, there are many frictions and quarrels between those who care about this matter and those who don’t. The differences are obvious: one side thinks that the church should not shield itself from caring for social justice. The side argues, “Imagine if these people are your brothers and sisters, can you still be so heartless and indifferent?” The other side thinks that these human tragedies are bound to happen in the fallen world, and we can only pray for this. In the end, they claim, “God is in charge of everything, just read the scriptures and practice spiritually. Let the outsiders do it in this fallen world!”
This time, a percentage of pastors and Christians also ask directly: Where are local Christians and churches and what are they doing in the face of these decades-long evils? I did not investigate the situation of Christians and churches in Fengxian County, but I do not know the details, and I do not dare to judge. However, Xuzhou has never been a weak area of Christianity. Recently, I also heard two Christians say that they, from Xuzhou, were ashamed of this. “This is what happened in Xuzhou, shame,” they added. Indeed, if Christians have done nothing in this matter, it will become a reality that makes us ashamed.
Some scholars have analyzed the tragedy of the chained mother in Fengxian and other places. The reasons behind this tragedy and the declining concept of feudalism are closely related to family forces: clan interests, face, family inheritance are greater than justice, law, and human conscience.
If local Christians and churches do not face, shout, or watch ahead like prophets, it will naturally damage the social image of the church. Of course, this is not only faced by local churches and Christians in Fengxian or Xuzhou alone, but our whole body of Christ needs reflection and repentance: our absence and indifference - blaming ourselves for sin, justice, and judgment.
What reflection should we have today?
So far, the mother of eight incident has caused many arguments and reflections among Christians.
Some Christians said, “This matter may not only be a question of justice, but I find that it is a social problem, not just an individual phenomenon, but is widespread everywhere. Not only in the remote and poor northwest but also in the relatively developed eastern coastal areas. Therefore, this is a persistent disease in a society. This includes polarization between the rich and the poor, extreme values, vulgarization of morality, and complete degradation of human nature. At present, the dilemma facing China is similar to the situation that Western missionaries had to make an overall assessment of China’s situation before they entered China. The problem to be solved must not only be regarded as a social problem, but also the spiritual problem of the whole ethnic group including a social problem. Today, the church often emphasizes foreign missionary work, but rarely looks at missionary work from the perspective of how to face the spirituality of an ethnic group and how to face life and death.”
Some Christians trace back to the changes brought about by the second wave of Catholicism and Protestantism coming into China from the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368 A.D. - 1644 A.D.).
They stated, “Oh! The 'firsts' created by missionaries in China were too numerous to mention. When they left this missionary workshop in China, the total number of them was no more than 10,000, and the total number of Christians in China was no more than 1 million. However, what great and wonderful work the missionaries did! They not only passed the gospel on to the Chinese people struggling with accumulated bad habits and customs but also showed the unparalleled power of the gospel wherever it went, bringing grace, release, healing, and renewal of civilization.
“Now, there are at least tens of millions of Christians in China ..... However, in the face of the first created by missionaries and the renewal of Chinese civilization brought by missionaries, today’s churches and believers should be ashamed. Although we didn’t put down the torch of the gospel, we narrowed the gospel to personal salvation, only cared about personal salvation, and neglected the broad dimension of the gospel renewal, thus separating the relationship between the gospel and society and culture. Therefore, Chinese churches can’t give out the light they deserve and become tasteless salt.”
May the mother of eight incident become a watershed to stimulate the Chinese Christian community to participate in social justice. May all kinds of goodwill and repentance inspired by it become a small mustard seed, and let the church and Christian groups wake up again and realize that we can’t avoid and evade participation in social justice.
Carl Henry finished the book with this, “The evangelical task primarily is the preaching of the Gospel, in the interest of individual regeneration by the supernatural grace of God, in such a way that divine redemption can be recognized as the best solution of our problems, individual and social. This produces within history, through the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit, a divine society that transcends national and international lines. The corporate testimony of believers, in their purity of life, should provide for the world an example of the divine dynamic to overcome evils in every realm. The social problems of our fay are much more complex than in apostolic times, but they do not on that account differ in principle. When the twentieth century church begins to “outlive” its environment as the first century church outreached its pagan neighbors, the modern mind, too, will stop casting about for other solutions. The great contemporary problems are moral and spiritual. They demand more than a formula. The evangelicals have a conviction of absoluteness concerning their message, and not to proclaim it, in the assault on social evils, is sheer inconsistency. But the modern mood is far more likely to react first on the level of Christianity as a life view, than at the level of Christianity as a world view. Obviously, from the evangelical viewpoint, the two cannot be divorced. But from the non-evangelical viewpoint, a baptism of Pentecostal fire resulting in a world missionary program and a divinely-empowered Christian community would turn the uneasy conscience of modern evangelicalism into a new reformation – this time with ecumenical significance.”
- Translated by Charlie Li
1947年，卡尔·亨利的一本小书《现代基要主义不安的良心》横空出世，其声音深具洞察力，扎心地让当时的美国教会意识到：教会太长时间只是关注自己事务、漠视社会公义；到了教会不得不变革自己、给基要主义“动手术”的时候了。
他以一种激进的态度对当时丧失了许多影响力和公信力的美国教会批判说：“基要主义反成了现代的祭司和利未人，对受苦的人绕道而行。”并直言不讳地指出：看基要派的表现，会认为人道主义已经从基督教中失落。
一位基督教领袖哈罗德-奥肯嘉为此书撰写的前言振聋发聩：“如果笃信圣经的基督徒在战争、种族、阶级、劳工、酗酒、帝国主义等社会问题上站错了立场，那么，现在是翻越篱笆站到正确立场上的时候了。教会需要一种对社会问题与时俱进的基要主义....合乎圣经的神学不可能把耶稣的怜悯、医治、服侍以及人的福祉拒之门外。救赎作为更高的道德境界，不可能违背道德本身。”
一位基督教领袖哈罗德-奥肯嘉为此书撰写的前言振聋发聩：“如果笃信圣经的基督徒在战争、种族、阶级、劳工、酗酒、帝国主义等社会问题上站错了立场，那么，现在是翻越篱笆站到正确立场上的时候了。教会需要一种对社会问题与时俱进的基要主义....合乎圣经的神学不可能把耶稣的怜悯、医治、服侍以及人的福祉拒之门外。救赎作为更高的道德境界，不可能违背道德本身。”
2022年开春，丰县八孩女事件引起了普通人的关注、愤慨和疾呼，正是在无数网友“不忘记、不抛弃、不放弃”的努力下，当地主管部门不得不一次次发出新的通告打脸之前的通告。
八孩女事件具有里程碑的意义。它的意义不应只是止于社会——虽然此次八孩女事件的逆转是无数默默无闻普通人的良心和善意推动带来的，其中也有不少基督徒群体的参与——但整体而言，我们基督徒群体或许不得不承认：也许我们太长时间只是关注自己事务、漠视社会公义了，它就像一根刺一样，让我们需有必要重温“现代基要主义不安的良心”的扎心呼声。
深愿八孩女事件能够成为叫醒今天中国教会“现代基要主义不安的良心”一个分水岭。
八孩女事件中基督徒群体的反应
虽然当地有关部门发出了多版通告，但事件还未最后落终。因为仍有很多问题没有水落石出，比如真实的李莹到底在哪里？
比起第四版通告中有三个当事人得到刑罚，网友们追问的是类似现象该如何改变和终止？沉默的大多数常常很难说出自己的声音，但无数网友一遍遍转发电影《盲山》就是在表达着一种态度：因为这并非只是徐州一地，被铁链锁住的也不止八孩女一人的事情，那些“被侮辱和被损害的”应当获得基本的公义和人道主义。
欣慰地是，在八孩女事件中也有不少基督徒的参与。笔者的微信朋友圈有70-80%的基督徒，自1月底至今，几乎天天从早到晚都是有关此事的刷屏，内容占到了70-80%；不仅如此，笔者也看到数十个基督徒的公众号在个人微弱的自媒体平台一角持续在质问和呼吁，也有一些基督徒持续在微信群里讨论和追问。
毋庸讳言，也有不少基督徒对此事不知道或不关心。笔者一位熟悉的基督徒作家说，他的微信朋友圈以及所的微信群无人讨论此事。
与此同时，关心和不关心此事的双方在此过程中产生不少摩擦和争吵，分歧明显：一方觉得教会不该把自己屏蔽在关心社会公义之外，“试想这些人如果是你的弟兄姐妹，你还能如此无情漠视吗？”另一方觉得堕落的世界必然会发生这些人间惨剧，我们只能为此祷告，最终还是“上帝掌管万事，自己好好读经好好灵修就可以了，这堕落的世界就让外邦人去搞吧！”
此次，也有牧者和基督徒直接问到：面对这些几十年如一日的罪恶，当地的基督徒和教会在哪里，在做什么？丰县的基督徒和教会的情况，笔者没有调查，具体不得而知，也不敢妄评。不过，徐州历来并非是基督教的弱少地区，笔者最近也见到两位基督徒说到自己就是徐州当地的，发生此事感到惭愧，“这事就是我们徐州发生的，惭愧。”——的确，若基督徒在此事上曾无任何作为，这会成为让我们自己羞愧的现实。
有学者已经分析到在丰县等这些地方发生八孩女的悲剧，其背后原因和封建没落的宗族观念与家族势力脱不了干系：宗族利益、脸面、传宗接代大于公义、法律和人性良知。
而若当地有基督徒和教会没有像先知一样提前直面、疾呼和守望，自然会让教会的社会形象受损。当然，这并非只是丰县或徐州当地的教会和基督徒所单独面对的，而是我们整个基督的身体需要反省和悔改的：因为我们的缺席和冷漠——为罪、为义、为审判自己责备自己。
今天的我们该有怎样的反思？
迄今为止，八孩女事件在基督徒群体中引起不少争论和反思。
有基督徒说：“这件事情可能并不仅仅是公义的问题，我发现这是一个社会性的问题，不仅仅是个别现象，而是在各地普遍存在的。不仅仅是那些边远贫困的西北，即使在相对发达的东部沿海地区也同样存在......因此这是一个社会中始终存在的顽疾。这包括贫富两极化，价值观极端化，道德粗鄙化和人性的完全堕落化。中国目前面对的困境，跟当年西方宣教士进入中国之前所要对中国状况进行总体评估的情况类似。所要解决的绝不能仅仅看作是一个社会问题，而是包括一个社会问题在内的整个族群的灵性问题......今天教会常常强调对外宣教，但是却很少站在如何面对一个族群的灵性如何面对生死存留这样的角度看待宣教问题。”
也有基督徒回溯从明末开始的天主教、新教二次福音入华带来的改变说到：“哦！宣教士在中国所创造的“第一”不胜枚举。到他们离开中国这片宣教工场时，当时他们的总人数也不超过一万人，中国全部基督徒不超过100万人，但是，宣教士们做了何等伟大与美好的工作！他们不但将福音传给在累积的陋习恶俗中艰难挣扎的中国人民，而且，凡福音所到之地，都彰显了福音无与伦比的大能，带来了恩典，释放，医治，与文明的更新。
“现在，中国的基督徒......至少也有几千万，但是，面对宣教士们所创造的第一，面对宣教士们带给中国文明的更新，今天的教会与信徒应该感到惭愧。虽然我们没有放下福音的火把，但是，我们却将福音窄化为只是个人的救恩，只是在乎个人的得救，而忽略了福音更新万有的广阔向度，并因此将福音与社会与文化的关系割裂，因此，中国教会发不出光应有的光来，也成了失味的盐。”
愿八孩女事件成为刺激当下的中国基督徒群体参与社会公义一个分水岭。愿它所激发的各种善意和悔改都能成为一个小小的芥菜种，让教会和基督徒群体再次警醒意识到：我们不能回避、逃避对社会公义的参与。
诚如卡尔亨利在《现代基要主义不安的良心》结尾所说：“福音派的首要任务是宣讲福音，关心在超自然恩典下的个人重生。正因为如此，上帝的救赎可以看作是对个人或社会问题的最好解决方案。它透过圣灵的重生工作，在历史中塑造了超越国家和世界限制的合神心意的群体。信徒圣洁生活的集体见证，他们在生活的各个领域以上帝的大能攻克罪恶，将为世界提供很好的榜样。比起使徒时代，我们时代的社会问题更为复杂，但在本质上没有什么不同....当代的重大问题都是道德和灵性层面上的问题，它们需要的不只是一个方案.....五旬节之火的洗礼带来了世界宣教的进程，以及充满上帝权能的基督教群体，它将把现代福音派不安的良心引向新型的改革——这次的改革对于整个基督教世界都是举足轻重的。
角声|丰县八孩女事件对教会的扎心提醒：重温《现代基要主义不安的良心》的必要性
In 1947, Carl F. H. Henry’s book The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism was out with triumph. With its profound insights, the book made the American church at that time realize that the church had only paid attention to its own affairs and ignored social justice for too long. It was time the church changed itself and tackled Fundamentalism.
With a radical attitude, the American evangelical Christian theologian criticized the American church, which lost much influence and credibility at that time. He wrote that Fundamentalism had generated modern Pharisees and Levites, making a detour for the suffering people. He bluntly pointed out that when looking at the performance of fundamentalists, you would think that humanitarianism had lost from Christianity.
Dr. Harold John Ockenga, the pastor of Park Street Church in Boston, made a rousing call on the introduction page, "If the Bible-believing Christian is on the wrong side of social problems such as war, race, class, labor, liquor, imperialism, etc., it is time to get over the fence to the right side. The church needs a progressive Fundamentalism with a social message... It is impossible to shut the Jesus of pity, healing, service, and human interest from a Biblical theology. The higher morality of redemption does not invalidate moral consistency. "
In the spring of 2022, the incident of a Christian mother of eight chained outside in winter in Fengxian county, Jiangsu Province aroused public attention, indignation, and outcry. It was precisely because of the efforts of countless netizens who chose not to “forget, abandon, and give up” that the local authorities had to issue new notices which contradicted to the previous ones again and again.
The Xuzhou mother incident is of milestone significance. Its significance should not only be limited to society. Although the reversal of the incident has been driven by the conscience and goodwill of countless unknown ordinary people, including the participation of many Christian groups, on the whole, we Christian groups may have to admit: maybe we have just been concerned about our own affairs for too long and ignored social justice, and it is like a thorn which makes it necessary for us to revisit the heartfelt call of the Uneasy Conscience Of Modern Fundamentalism.
May the deep Xuzhou mother incident become a watershed to wake up today’s Chinese church’s “uneasy conscience”.
The Christian community’s reaction to the chained mother incident
Although the local authorities have issued multiple notices, the incident has not been finalized. Because there are still many questions that have not been answered, such as where is the real Li Ying?
Compared with the fourth edition of notice, in which three parties were punished, netizens ask how to change and stop similar phenomena. Most people who are silent often find it difficult to speak out their own voice, but countless netizens are forwarding the movie Blind Mountain which centers on the issue of selling women for marriage over and over again to express an attitude: because this is not just a place in Xuzhou, it is not just a matter of eight children and one woman who was locked in chains, and those who are “humiliated and insulted” deserve basic justice and humanitarianism.
Thankfully, there are many Christians involved in the incident. There are 70-80% Christians in my WeChat account. From the end of January to the present, almost every day from morning till night, the content accounts for 70-80%. Not only that, but I also saw dozens of Christians’ WeChat official accounts constantly questioning and appealing in the corner of their own weak self-media platform, and some Christians continued to discuss and question in the WeChat group.
Needless to say, many Christians don’t know or care about this matter. A Christian writer with whom I have been familiar with, said that no one in his WeChat circle of friends and his WeChat group discussed this matter.
At the same time, there are many frictions and quarrels between those who care about this matter and those who don’t. The differences are obvious: one side thinks that the church should not shield itself from caring for social justice. The side argues, “Imagine if these people are your brothers and sisters, can you still be so heartless and indifferent?” The other side thinks that these human tragedies are bound to happen in the fallen world, and we can only pray for this. In the end, they claim, “God is in charge of everything, just read the scriptures and practice spiritually. Let the outsiders do it in this fallen world!”
This time, a percentage of pastors and Christians also ask directly: Where are local Christians and churches and what are they doing in the face of these decades-long evils? I did not investigate the situation of Christians and churches in Fengxian County, but I do not know the details, and I do not dare to judge. However, Xuzhou has never been a weak area of Christianity. Recently, I also heard two Christians say that they, from Xuzhou, were ashamed of this. “This is what happened in Xuzhou, shame,” they added. Indeed, if Christians have done nothing in this matter, it will become a reality that makes us ashamed.
Some scholars have analyzed the tragedy of the chained mother in Fengxian and other places. The reasons behind this tragedy and the declining concept of feudalism are closely related to family forces: clan interests, face, family inheritance are greater than justice, law, and human conscience.
If local Christians and churches do not face, shout, or watch ahead like prophets, it will naturally damage the social image of the church. Of course, this is not only faced by local churches and Christians in Fengxian or Xuzhou alone, but our whole body of Christ needs reflection and repentance: our absence and indifference - blaming ourselves for sin, justice, and judgment.
What reflection should we have today?
So far, the mother of eight incident has caused many arguments and reflections among Christians.
Some Christians said, “This matter may not only be a question of justice, but I find that it is a social problem, not just an individual phenomenon, but is widespread everywhere. Not only in the remote and poor northwest but also in the relatively developed eastern coastal areas. Therefore, this is a persistent disease in a society. This includes polarization between the rich and the poor, extreme values, vulgarization of morality, and complete degradation of human nature. At present, the dilemma facing China is similar to the situation that Western missionaries had to make an overall assessment of China’s situation before they entered China. The problem to be solved must not only be regarded as a social problem, but also the spiritual problem of the whole ethnic group including a social problem. Today, the church often emphasizes foreign missionary work, but rarely looks at missionary work from the perspective of how to face the spirituality of an ethnic group and how to face life and death.”
Some Christians trace back to the changes brought about by the second wave of Catholicism and Protestantism coming into China from the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368 A.D. - 1644 A.D.).
They stated, “Oh! The 'firsts' created by missionaries in China were too numerous to mention. When they left this missionary workshop in China, the total number of them was no more than 10,000, and the total number of Christians in China was no more than 1 million. However, what great and wonderful work the missionaries did! They not only passed the gospel on to the Chinese people struggling with accumulated bad habits and customs but also showed the unparalleled power of the gospel wherever it went, bringing grace, release, healing, and renewal of civilization.
“Now, there are at least tens of millions of Christians in China ..... However, in the face of the first created by missionaries and the renewal of Chinese civilization brought by missionaries, today’s churches and believers should be ashamed. Although we didn’t put down the torch of the gospel, we narrowed the gospel to personal salvation, only cared about personal salvation, and neglected the broad dimension of the gospel renewal, thus separating the relationship between the gospel and society and culture. Therefore, Chinese churches can’t give out the light they deserve and become tasteless salt.”
May the mother of eight incident become a watershed to stimulate the Chinese Christian community to participate in social justice. May all kinds of goodwill and repentance inspired by it become a small mustard seed, and let the church and Christian groups wake up again and realize that we can’t avoid and evade participation in social justice.
Carl Henry finished the book with this, “The evangelical task primarily is the preaching of the Gospel, in the interest of individual regeneration by the supernatural grace of God, in such a way that divine redemption can be recognized as the best solution of our problems, individual and social. This produces within history, through the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit, a divine society that transcends national and international lines. The corporate testimony of believers, in their purity of life, should provide for the world an example of the divine dynamic to overcome evils in every realm. The social problems of our fay are much more complex than in apostolic times, but they do not on that account differ in principle. When the twentieth century church begins to “outlive” its environment as the first century church outreached its pagan neighbors, the modern mind, too, will stop casting about for other solutions. The great contemporary problems are moral and spiritual. They demand more than a formula. The evangelicals have a conviction of absoluteness concerning their message, and not to proclaim it, in the assault on social evils, is sheer inconsistency. But the modern mood is far more likely to react first on the level of Christianity as a life view, than at the level of Christianity as a world view. Obviously, from the evangelical viewpoint, the two cannot be divorced. But from the non-evangelical viewpoint, a baptism of Pentecostal fire resulting in a world missionary program and a divinely-empowered Christian community would turn the uneasy conscience of modern evangelicalism into a new reformation – this time with ecumenical significance.”
- Translated by Charlie Li
A Conviction Alarm of the Chained Mother Incident in Xuzhou to the Church: Reviewing the Spirit of Carl Henry's 'Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism'
