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In her last chapter, "The Persecution of Other Faiths," Chang points out that Falun Gong is merely a symptom of China's spiritual hunger and social ills. Persecution is no remedy. Even if Beijing eradicates Falun Gong, other groups will continue to emerge—until the Party reaps its own fate. The solution, she suggests, is a reformed political system that tolerates religious faith and political opposition—though she acknowledges that the likelihood of such reform is slim.

One weakness is that Chang tries too hard to fit Falun Gong into a thesis on millenarian movements. Falun Gong has inherited some essential traits, but Li Hong Zhi is above all a shrewd entrepreneur. He created a value-added product, offering physical health and spiritual salvation. To undercut his competitors, he taught free classes and waived membership fees. While appearing benevolent, Li peddled his own literature and pocketed millions. He also registered Falun Gong as an exercise group and not a religion—exploiting a loophole of non-censorship. Three years before the crackdown, Li suddenly left China for America. What kind of leader would abandon his followers for a life of safety and comfort? A capitalist maybe, but not a zealot.

More troubling is the author's humanistic approach to a spiritual problem: if only the political system becomes more democratic, then China would be on her way to salvation. Looking at history, there is not one political system (not even America's) that is free from corruption or able to eliminate its country's social ills. The problem lies in the sinful condition of the human heart. Heart renewal cannot be programmed into a system—each heart is changed from within, only by Jesus Christ.

Joy Lo Cheung is the editor of the Hong Kong Evangelical Community Church magazine, Tapestry, a quarterly publication.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Falun Gong: The End of Days is available from Amazon.com and other book retailers.

For more on Falun Gong, see In Perspective: What is the Falun Gong? | And why does the Chinese government want to destroy it? (Feb. 06, 2002)

More coverage on religious freedom in the country is available from our China page.

Books & Culture Corner appears every Monday. Earlier editions of Books & Culture Corner and Book of the Week include:

Ambiguous Redemption | A riveting memoir by the author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. (July 20, 2004)

Tending the Garden | Evangelicals and the environment. (July 07, 2004)

How the Monster Grew | A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian looks at the origins of modern media. (July 05, 2004)

Wasn't That a Mighty Fall | Martha Stewart, VeggieTales, and Narnia revisted. (June 29, 2004)

Insect Theodicy | Who sent the locusts? And who exterminated them? (June 22, 2004)

Telling Lies, Telling Stories | Lars Saabye Christensen's The Half Brother reveals imagination as escape. (June 15, 2004)

The Art of Political War | A veteran columnist urges his fellow liberals to take a lesson from those nasty conservatives. (June 07, 2004)

Thou Shalt Not Swap | The uses and abuses of copyright. (May 24, 2004)

Mystery and Message | Must they compete? (May 10, 2004)

Celebrating Faith in Writing | A dispatch from Calvin College's biennial event. (April 26, 2004)

Shabbos, Sheitels, and Yarmulkes | A novel set in the world of Orthodox Judaism. (April 19, 2004)

The Naked City | The story of the 1977 blackout in New York-the occasion of widespread looting and destruction-has some surprisingly timely lessons for America in 2004. (April 19, 2004)

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July (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48