Timothy Conkling found a completely different story: A look at China’s patriotic martyrs
19 February 2015
For years the Chinese Communist Party justified persecuting unregistered house churches by labeling them as cults that disdained the government. Conkling’s published dissertation, titled Mobilized Merchants—Patriotic Martyrs: China’s House-Church Protestants and the Politics of Cooperative Resistance, is a careful analysis of the current relationship between the unregistered house church and the government, and gives a fascinating glimpse into a world few have access to. Of the hundreds of house church members he interviewed, “never once was there talk about overthrowing the government,” even if they had issues with certain aspects of the government’s policy. Led by a theology of martyrdom, house churches view persecution as a privilege, and thus do not respond violently against their oppressors.
Read more at http://www.worldmag.com/2015/02/a_look_at_china_s_patriotic_martyrs