Joann Pittman is Vice President of Partnership and China Engagement and editor of ZGBriefs.
Prior to joining ChinaSource, Joann spent 28 years working in China, as an English teacher, language student, program director, and cross-cultural trainer for organizations and businesses engaged in China. She has also taught Chinese at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (MN), and Chinese Culture and Communication at Wheaton College (IL) and Taylor University (IN).
Joann has a BA in Social Sciences from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (MN), and an MA in teaching from the University of St. Thomas (MN).
She is the author of Survival Chinese Lessons and The Bells Are Not Silent: Stories of Church Bells in China.
Her personal blog, Outside-In can be found at joannpittman.com, where she writes on China, Minnesota, traveling, and issues related to "living well where you don't belong."
You can find her on Twitter @jkpittman.com and on Facebook at @authorjoannpittman.
She makes her home in New Brighton, Minnesota.
Misconceptions abound regarding what the Constitution of the People's Republic of China has to say about religion. The government trumpets the fact that the freedom of religious belief is enshrined in the Constitution. And we often hear about the constitution forbidding the teaching of religion to those under 18.
I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what the constitution has to say about religion and religious freedom.
Those of us who work in China are often asked if we think that the situation for the church in China is getting better or worse. I have always found that to be a problematic question.
There is more freedom than many realize for Christians to use the Internet. Numbers of netizens, use of web sites by Christians and links to many sites are provided in this article.
China's Eastern Lightning cult is back in the news again, thanks to the ancient Mayans. It seems that their calendar comes to an end on December 21, causing millions to believe that the day will mark the end of the world. The "doomsday" craze has hit China big-time and the Eastern Lightning cult (which, for some reason, media outlets have taken to calling the Almighty God cult) has used the opportunity to launch an "evangelistic" offensive in China, telling people that the only way to be saved from the coming apocalypse is to join the Eastern Lightning group.
If you asked most Christians in the west to identify the major issues facing the Chinese Church, the answer would probably be persecution and lack of Bibles. But what about Chinese Christians? What challenges do they see?
In order to understand China today, it's helpful to understand this simple rule: nothing is as it seems. In fact, I would say this rule applies when observing and analyzing nearly all segments of life in China: politics, economy, social relationships and even religion. To put it another way, whatever China seems to be at any given moment, it is in fact, the opposite. This can be difficult for Westerners because we tend to be dichotomist in our thinking, wanting something to be either this or that. We don't do well with this and that.