| Published February 9, 2008 - Glendale News Press - Los Angeles Time IN THEORY Preparing for a religiously free China Amid China’s rapid economic growth, the government’s control of religion has reportedly softened slightly. What does the prospect of a religiously free China mean to you and your faith? Religious freedom everywhere is important to me and my faith. In the Armenian Church, we have never taken that freedom for granted because we’ve had to struggle to attain and maintain it. But even more, religious freedom in China strikes a reverberating chord for us in the Armenian Church.
As we know (and has been articulated by the U.S. State Department) there is a genocide going on in the Darfur region of Sudan. Today, China is one of Sudan’s largest suppliers of arms, and in return Sudan is China’s largest overseas oil project. Official data shows that China now takes 40% of Sudan’s oil output. China can and must play a role in bringing an end to the genocide in Darfur.
In our particular parish and through our youth ministry, we vigilantly follow the news from Darfur and campaign for peace in the region. Being descendants of genocide survivors ourselves, there is a moral imperative, no less dictated by our faith, that we stand in the shoes of others who are going through the sufferings we’ve endured.
And our motivation to do so comes from the possibility of what might have happened had the world disarmed Turkey at the time of the Armenian Genocide (1915).
With religious freedom in China, I’m hoping that the same Christian mandate that moves us to search and work for peace will lean heavily on the government to end the Darfur genocide. George Bernard Shaw reminds us, “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” The Christian Church, at this vital point in history and the history of the people of China, cannot bask in its newfound freedom. It must rise to the occasion and talk the talk of Christ. Religious freedom in China is only as important as we take this responsibility seriously, in an effort to bring peace.
FATHER VAZKEN MOVSESIAN
Armenian Church Youth Ministries
In His Shoes Mission Glendale |
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