Smuggle Bibles into China? It's Outdated | Christianity Today

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Christianity Today, August, 2010

The Village Green

Smuggle Bibles into China? It's Outdated

Owning a Bible printed outside China could draw suspicion about one's contacts.

Jonathan Brooks | posted 8/18/2010 10:38AM

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Jonathan Brooks, president of the Voice of China and Asia Missionary Society, Todd Nettleton, director of media development for the Voice of the Martyrs USA, and Gary Russell, international director for China Harvest, weigh in on whether Christians should continue to smuggle Bibles into China.

To answer the question about smuggling Bibles into China, it's helpful to better understand how Bibles printed within China are distributed. The city of Nanjing is home to Amity Printing, the world's largest Bible-printing facility and the only legal Bible printer in China. Its mission is to print Bibles for distribution inside China. Amity also exports Bibles in many languages throughout the world.

Because Bibles printed inside China do not have an isbn number, they cannot be sold in Chinese bookstores. The only place one may legally purchase a Bible is in a registered Chinese church.

Working with these guidelines, Amity has developed 70 main distribution points that are located in China's largest population centers. From there, Bibles are funneled out to 55,000 registered churches for sale to the general public.

These are the choicest of Bibles among believers, because they bear an imprint stating they have been legally printed inside China. To own a Bible printed outside China can draw suspicion about one's outside and perhaps unauthorized contacts. We at VOCA do not smuggle Bibles into China and do not encourage others to do so. There are positive and extremely effective alternatives to smuggling that are rarely used due to outdated thinking.

Because of historical differences, which have included persecution, many underground believers in China will have nothing to do with the registered church. To be seen entering a registered church would be to betray the trust of one's closest Christian friends. In urban areas, however, this wall of division is slowly crumbling. Many believers enjoy the traditional Sunday worship of the registered church and the intimate cell-group atmosphere of the underground church during the week.

In the past, purchasing a Bible required showing an identity card. I have been told this is no longer necessary. But such a belief dies slowly, especially among the large numbers of urban believers who bear identity cards that show they have illegally migrated to larger cities, typically for work.

Leaders of the Chinese Christian Councils in many provinces recognize that even with Amity's thousands of distribution points, distribution of Bibles to China's rural communities is very limited. They also understand that for the millions of Chinese who make $125 or less a year, purchasing a Bible may mean spending over 3 percent of one's annual income. Since China's greatest church growth is among the rural poor, arrangements have been made for free distribution of Bibles to poor people with the use of funds from overseas donors.

Chinese officials are working to ensure that Bibles are supplied to all Chinese Christians who want them. The best thing we can do is partner with their work and help to increase legal distribution avenues, rather than harming Chinese Christians by smuggling in telltale Bibles that could bring their owners unwanted attention.

Related Elsewhere:

Jonathan Brooks is president of the Voice of China and Asia Missionary Society (VOCA), which has served in Asia since 1909. Todd Nettleton and Gary Russell also weigh in.

Christianity Today spoke with more ministries last year about the Bible smuggling debate.

Previous Village Green sections have discussed frozen embryos, creation care, intelligent design, preaching, immigration, Lent, premarital abstinence, aid to foreign nations, technology, and abortion.

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August 2010, Vol. 54, No. 8

Comments (11)

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Displaying 1–5 of 11 comments

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archae ologist

August 23, 2010 4:07pm

i tend to agree with the author of this article. why bring more persecution upon fellow believers by doing an illegal act? believers are to protect each other not set them up for a fall. donate money so that more bibles can be distributed legally.

M Booker

August 22, 2010 5:42pm

I have been on 2 mission trips where our primary focus was to give Bibles to touring Chinese. We have heard countless stories from people who have been looking for Bibles for 10+ years! Wanting a Bible for that many years. The article even states that it is hard financially for a Chinese person to even afford a Bible. I say we continue doing what we are doing!

bartolome li

August 20, 2010 4:31pm

The debate is becoming irrelevant in today's China. Helping the churches in China to disciple the next generation of leaders in one of the core ministries that overseas Christians can get involved. In close to a decade of ministry inside China, obtaining Bibles by locals by and large has not been a major problem. If we simply left it untouched, churches will continue to grow in China. Concentrate on what matters.

Name Witheld

August 20, 2010 11:16am

Sitting in airport here in USA enroute Beijing to LA. 754 million still live in rural areas. Xinhua news this week reported only 45,000,000 in poverty. Their base for that is 1,067 rmb per ($158 usd). Based upon UN definition of poverty which is less than $1.00 per day the number climbs to almost 200,000,000. To those who say people have access and affordability to a bible in China I simply encourage them to go and see with their own eyes. Yes. Amity is doing a great job of printing (3.2 million this year) and the government has indeed provided much freedom of religion. These are very good things. But has the need been met. Not yet. 70 million bibles printed. Yes. But in 30 years. Bible wear out and the number of Christians is well over 100 million now. I commend Jonathan for his insight in encouraging foreigners to work legally and openly.

Steve Skeete

August 20, 2010 8:13am

This article raises several glaring questions that are inexplicably left unanswered. Why do Chinese Bibles not have an ISBN number, and what is the significance of this for bookstore sales? Why are no government bookstores set up to sell Bibles? If owning a Bible is beyond the means of the average Chinese, what are these "arrangements" that "have been made for free distribution of Bibles to poor people"? And if the government will allow "use of funds from overseas donors", why does it not also allow these same overseas donors to send Bibles as well thus eliminating the need for smuggling? What the article does tell us however, is that Christians and the Church are still not free in China. There are still "official" and underground churches,still the need for authorization to purchase a bible, and more telling, the need for identity cards even to move around within the country. In that climate it is extremely hard to believe that Chinese official want Christian to have Bibles.

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