This was carried by ChristianToday. China won't ban Bibles at Olympics, assures Palau
Many of you may have heard the story back in November: "China bans Bibles during the Olympics". I have outlined the story in the extension to this post. Do read it if you have time as gives some good insight for prayer.
The Palau story is encouraging - even though Palau's encouragement was saying what had already been made clear by the Chinese. Luis Palau is someone who has honoured the Chinese authorities, and won a place of trust with them. He has even had a best seller released in China: A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian: by Luis Palau and Zhao Qizheng.
Be clear: Bible are allowed. Be quick to give thanks in prayer for this, pray for them to be well used, and also pray for the full truth to be upheld as everone seeks to get their views across in this challenging year.
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This is the outline of the story on the supposed Bible ban. Its worth following as its a little example of how hard it is for China to get it right in the eyes of the Western media. Several of the links are to my ReconciliationTalk blog. Follow the links from there.
In October 2007 China made it clear that Bibles would be allowed for athletes during the Olympics -- as well as for others. see Atheist China vows to encourage religion at Beijing 2008 and Catholic Leaders Arrange Pastoral Care For 2008 Beijing. etc.
Then in November 2007 we heard that China bans Bibles from 2008 Olympics That was in London-based ChristianToday website, and originated from a Spanish sports-focussed Catholic paper.
The mainstream media did not carry the story. That was interpreted that they didn't care. In fact it is likely their research told them it was not worth following as it was not true. However the story was out in the Catholic press, then the wider Christian blogosphere, and it spread to Christian Broadcasting Network. It became clear in the following days that the story was not true. I outlined that in: Bibles or no Bibles during the Olympics?? (where you can link to several of the articles concerned.)
That many were becoming aware that it was not true did not seem to matter. More on China's "Olympic's Bible Ban" -- not true tells of what happened after that. It spread to the floor of the US congress, where the cry to boycot the Olympics was heard, just as it had on many blogs in previous days.
The best understanding on how the false story began seems to have come from Shanghai-based but "western-oriented" blog, Shainghaiist, and fellow Shanghai blogger. They often report on religious stories, are not Christian, but concerned on human rights violations; but they seemed to be amazed at the gullibility of the Christian media and blog-world, and upset at the coverage.
China had meanwhile kept silent, probably mystified because they had done nothing. Eventually it issued denials, at which point the Western media carried the story.
Meanwhile what did the many Christians sites that had carried the story do? A few reported the denial, but mad eit look like the Chinese had changed their policy under popular pressure from outside. The majority said nothing. It was as if the Bible was still banned during the Olympics.
I wrote these words at the end of my story:
"I have been deeply saddened and upset by the way this false report has just added fuel to the fire of people’s attitude and approach to China. That barely a single religious blog or news service has properly retracted their stories, let alone apologised, is plain wrong. This is not helping the church in China, either unregistered nor registered congregations. Many of the latter are longing to leave behind the past and would like their Christian brothers and sisters in the west to do the same. Yet many western agencies working in China are still looking through the lens of the 1960’s and 70’s and refuse to approach things differently."
The ChristanToday article first quoted here: China won't ban Bibles at Olympics, assures Palau is great in that the story is being reinforced that Bible are allowed. But it saddens me that the article says:
"Palau's comments come after China persecution watchdogs criticised the Chinese Government last November for listing the Bible as one of the banned items in the Olympic Village.
No mention that the story was wrong and that the Bible was never banned at all.
A postscript to the story. A few weeks later there were several reports about Chinese productions of Bibles. My posts again:
10 Dec 2007: Made-in-China Bibles
11 Dec 2007: The book they used to burn now fires new revolution of faith in China
3 Jan 2008: 'Godless' China to be the world's biggest supplier of Bibles?
More on Bibles another time I think.
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