Update on Beijing Olympics and bibles, Good News

[buzuxi02]

They deny any ban unless your a member of the Falon Gong


Beijing officials deny Bibles will be banned - Other sports- msnbc.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21680421/)

[MariaRegina]

Read the text: visitors and athletes can only bring in one bible for personal use.

very controlling indeed.

[Philothei]

Nevertheless, it is a big step for them. The one bible policy again is so that they do not missionize.... In fact this is silly since that way they generate more interest... It is a known fact that if you forbid something you give it more power and makes people more curious about it. IMO the more they try to "control" it the more they promote it. If an average Chinese is curious about a bible.... I am sure there are ways of getting one. But Zhilian would know better about that.

God bless,
Philothei

[MariaRegina]

Many Christians will willingly part with their Bible when going there so that some person will have a chance to read it.

I wonder if the Chinese government will check to see if a bible is missing from their luggage upon leaving the country.

[ShiFuBill]

Oh, that is silly. I lived in China for two years, bibles were available for anyone who wanted one. I know an elderly woman who went to north China to teach, she used to go to the local church bookstore and buy as many bibles as she could carry and just give them away. She probably got away with more than the others could because she was old, but the bibles were right there for her to buy. There was a little shop attached to the church. Some cities even have Christian book stores for Catholics or Protestants. People go on a lot about persecution in China, but as long as one isn't agitating the athorities people are free to worship and even prosteletize. Some localities are stricter than others, though. The problem is that some Protestant missionaries don't think the locals are doing a good enough job and need foreign help so they try to smuggle in other Chinese translations of the bible, even though the government published Chinese Union Version is a perfectly good one and is still the most popular version used here in Taiwan where there are many choices. Bible publishing is big business, so is fund raising for missions. Olympics or not, you can take bibles to China. I had more trouble traveling with my souvenier knives than with bibles. Just don't take a big box. One reason for what security there is is that they don't cults coming over. Some have sprung up locally or from overseas, pseudo-charismatic type cults, some have even spread from China to the US, like Witness Li and his Local Church. I heard vague rumors of cult like home churches from local Christians when I was there.
Don't believe everything you hear, just remember what you've heard coming from missionaries in Russia.
S.