On 9 January 2020, Stonestreet addressed the situation in
China. Citing the imprisonment of Wang Yi, Stonestreet seems ignorant to the
fact that Beijing would consider Wang a threat due to his open collaboration
with the American Empire. Once again while I think Beijing's policies are
deplorable and bestial, Wang is not suffering for the gospel but for his
political activism.
China's Christians are indeed facing dark days. The lessons
to be drawn are from the Early Church, not the example of Wang and the legacy
of Calvinist political resistance (which leads to violence). The price will be
terrible but that's what we're called to. If the Chinese Church follows the
Calvinist-Evangelical path, they may get their wish and bring down Xi Jinping
and the present order in Beijing. But the Chinese Church will be compromised
and destroyed in the process. The lessons of the Magisterial Reformation and
the Wars of Religion which followed have not been learned. The Protestants
effectively won as Roman-Papal Christendom was forever sundered but of course
it was a Pyrrhic victory at best as the masses were largely soured on
Christianity and the chaos and breakdown of epistemology and the social
consensus opened the door to and even led to the Enlightenment.
Stonestreet's commentary is dripping with ignorance as he and
the other writers at BreakPoint have waded into waters they don't understand. Socialism with Chinese Characteristics
is a well known phrase that's code for Capitalism functioning under the aegis
of the Maoist narrative. It has nothing to do with Marxism or even classical
conceptions of socialism. In the late 1970's under Deng Xiaoping, China abandoned
communism and everything Mao had stood for. Capitalism was embraced and the
population was sold out by its ruling class to work as semi-slave labour for
Western Capitalism. The problem was this was to overturn the whole narrative
associated with Mao and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their
long-running battle with Chang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang (KMT) which survives
in Taiwan. The ruling legitimacy of the party in Beijing would be brought into
question if they openly said we now stand for the values and alliances of the
KMT, which was in fact the case.
China is not communist or socialist and hasn't been for forty
years. It's an authoritarian capitalist state that is rapidly moving in the
direction of a type of Confucian-fascism. Under Xi the party is attempting to
consolidate its power and because of American moves in the region and a larger
set of economic considerations (the calculus of capitalism) it is beginning to
expand into not just a regional power but a global empire. This has all come
together since about 2012. Xi is the primary motivator of this policy shift. Xi
is a wicked man but he's not stupid and he understands the threats directed at
his country and the pending perils in a refusal to act. His actions are wicked
but logical and sadly as a result there are dark days ahead not just for China
but for the region and perhaps the world. The US is playing a key role in these
events and Wang Yi has openly allied with Washington.
Stonestreet's commentary is completely unhelpful. Communist
states don't have billionaires. But capitalist states certainly do. There is a
spectrum within capitalism. There is freedom to make money but once your
business reaches a certain level or becomes strategic in terms of the wider
economy, then the state takes a serious interest. China's example is more
authoritarian than what we find in the West but the concept exists here too. Too big to fail expressed a reality that
such institutions were woven into the fabric of the economy and their fall (or
say ideological defection) would represent an existential threat.
Stonestreet like many commentators is hung up on the
nomenclature which continues to baffle him because he doesn't know the history
and hasn't thought through or sought to understand the issue from the vantage
point of a political scientist. Also it is an error to assume Western values
are universal or that they would be accepted in contexts that share none of the
history or social development to the lay the groundwork for them. It's
complicated and difficult for Western people to grasp the big picture in a
place like China. That's fine but then don't get on the radio with an audience
of millions of people and pretend like you know what you're talking about.
The situation in China is becoming like what Christians faced
under pagan Rome but again Stonestreet would call on the military might of the
West to threaten Beijing and 'liberate' the Christians. He speaks of Huawei and
how the state grants it freedoms that it won't grant to churches. But of course
Hauwei's agenda is in line with that of the state and serves its interests. The
Church if it was really disengaged might have a chance at being left alone. But
because of the actions of figures like Wang Yi, Joshua Wong and the aggression
of the United States and its Evangelical wing, Beijing is not willing to look
the other way. Is China threatened by the spread of Christianity? Maybe, but
what it's really threatened by are the forces that would once more bring it into
subjugation. The Church should never be aligned with such forces but both
Wang's and Stonestreet's theology of the Kingdom makes it one with the world
and thus their understanding ultimately rejects Christ's words in John 18.36.
You cannot ignore the history. It plays a huge role in how
figures like Xi assess the situation. But the West and (in particular the
United States) is not honest about what it really is, what its values are, what
its power represents and how it is wielded. Most Americans (like Stonestreet)
are actually unaware of what the United States has been doing since the end of
the Cold War and how these actions have been perceived by nations like China,
Russia and Iran.
First let's figure out what the Bible says with regard to
Christians and the world. Second, let's figure out the big picture of what's
going on. Then and only then can we hope to come to some sort of understanding
of the truth and as a consequence know how to respond to it all. Stonestreet
operates under the assumption of a false theology. This theology feeds another
deeply metaphysical and ethical commitment, that of the United States and the
Western order. This commitment makes him (and those like him) especially
susceptible to the propaganda of the state. These things in combination lead to
skewed understanding of what's happening and even more distorted understanding
of how to respond in light of it.
It's like case of tragic theatre being played out before our
eyes and Stonestreet and the Christianity he represents is part of the tragedy.
The prophets prophesy
falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; And my people love to have it
so... (Jeremiah 5.31)
See also: