Athens was a high peak of Western civilization before Christ. Plato, an Athenian philosopher who died in 348 B.C., but who has been worshiped as a sage by many Western universities for about the past thousand years, said that a sick person should be treated medically only if the ailment is light enough for him or her to continue to do his or her work. Otherwise the sick person should be allowed to die and thus improve the general health of the entire population.

Chapter 2 of Schmidt’s book is entitled “The Sanctification of Human Life,” Ch. 5 “Charity and Compassion: Their Christian Connection,” and Ch. 6 “Hospitals and Health Care: Their Christian Roots.”

Even in 19th-century Europe, such “influences” of Christianity were by no means ubiquitous. Robert Malthus, an Englishman who died in A.D. 1834, responded to a high mortality rate among the poor by saying that their deaths made the nation as a whole healthier. Having read Malthus, Charles Darwin applied this principle to the entire organic world: it has been “evolving” because those “unfit for survival” died. That is, creation is destruction.

Nietzsche, a German philosopher (admired in particular by Hitler), said that Christianity is the worst evil in recorded history. According to Nietzsche, the essence of life is war. As the ancient Romans used to say: “Man to man is a wolf.” “If someone is falling down, push him,” Nietzsche advised. The strongest nation should and would defeat the weaker nations—for the benefit of the human race as a whole.

If such were voices heard all over the Christian West, what can be said about the millennia of China’s history devoid of the “influence” of Christianity?

It has been asserted in the West in the past decade, that Christians in China are persecuted. No, they are not if their churches are duly registered.

According to the U.S. Department of State, 8% of the Chinese are Buddhists, 1.4% are Muslims, and 1.6% are Christians, worshiping in officially registered churches.

My assistant Alan Freed, a retired Lutheran pastor, has the following to say about the scene he watched personally and professionally:

In the very late 1940s and the early 1950s I often heard reports about “the church” in China. The reports were not encouraging. Reports after 1949 were even worse, of course.

Christian missionary work, I think, was very spotty, and reports would vary from one province to another. Most of the reports I heard were from the province of Hunan. An effort was made to indicate optimism. But they were not very persuasive.

Did an “underground church” continue to exist? Sure, I suppose. Does it still? Oh, I suppose so.

But strong? Not that I know of. So in the 1960s and 1970s I never repeated those reports, either personally or professionally—for there was no way for me to know how much truth they contained.

On the other hand, the dictators of China have been persecuting furiously Falun Gong members. Why? Because they are so numerous: hence the danger! In the Christian West, it has been assumed that a person’s behavior is determined at least to some extent by his or her “soul,” “psyche,” “the inner world.” In Hebrew Christ was called a rabbi, that is, a teacher—he taught how to be kind, compassionate—to have pity for the weak, sick, defenseless. In China, it has been assumed for millennia that a human being is motivated by the fear of death and even more of torture. Falun Gong followers are so numerous that they can organize themselves and become a dangerous force. This year 40,000 mutinies have been registered in China. But what is dangerous about Christians believing in pity for the weak, sick, defenseless? In one word, the teaching of Confucius, the best-known Chinese thinker, who died in 479 B.C., is GOVERNMENT, and this hardly has anything to do with the teaching of Christ or with Western constitutionalism.

What about the Christians in the West, publishing their China studies? Here is a good example.

David Aikman, Ph.D., former chief of the Beijing bureau of Time Magazine, is an author, journalist, and foreign policy consultant. After more than two decades with Time Magazine he became a freelance writer. In 2003, Dr. Aikman published a 256-page book, according to which one-third of China’s population are becoming (in 2003!) Christian, making China one of the largest Christian nations in the world. But why one-third and not 2% or two-thirds, and why do Christians, and not Muslims or Buddhists grow in numbers so explosively in Dr. Aikman’s imagination?

The title of his book is: “Jesus in Beijing—How Christianity Is [in 2003!] Transforming China.” It took centuries for Christianity to transform the West—to a certain degree. In 1914-1918, the Christian Germany was at world war with the Christian English-speaking countries, with the Christian France, and the Orthodox Christian Russia. Had Germany’s population been the size of that of China, the world would have become a German (Christian?) colony.

Incidentally, as consequences of this “Christian” war, there came the totalitarian anti-Christian Russia, then the totalitarian anti-Christian Germany, then another world war between them, and finally the totalitarian anti-Christian China, in which Marx and Lenin are still apostles, and Mao is said to have put to death 100 million unarmed Chinese civilians.

In the title of his book, Alvin Schmidt speaks of the “influence” of Christianity. To Aikman, Christianity is not an influence, but an omnipotent primitive tribesman’s magic.

Dr. Aikman explains (in 2003) why due to his absurd fantasy that 30 percent of the Chinese were becoming (in 2003) Christians, China might be America’s next ally “against radical Islam”; why Chinese Christians see themselves as allies of the United States and of Israel; and how China’s Christian underground has won over key members of the Chinese Communist Party.

What will a Chinese say having read that Jesus is in Beijing and Christianity is (already in 2003!) transforming China? Dr. Aikman is not satisfied with the passive lack, in the Western establishment, of the will to defense against China’s post-nuclear super weapons. He is actively courting the death of his Christian constitutional civilization by his infantile fantasies about the “Christian transformation” of the dictatorship of China and about Christ, not Marx, Lenin, and Mao, in Beijing in 2003.

Ironically, Dr. Aikman is a product of his civilization. He is like a child of five whom no one has ever hurt. As such a child, he is sure that the world consists of kind Christians, and the only problem is their baptism, unity, and advent to power in countries like China, whereupon world peace, brotherhood, and advance will be assured, as they allegedly were under the dictators of the Han dynasty (202 B.C.–A.D. 221) after the death of Confucius in 479 B.C. Stalin was called in his Russia the father of his people. According to Dr. Aikman, the Chinese dictators who have adopted Christianity will be the fathers (and mothers?) of their people, and China an ally of the United States against those incorrigibly evil Sunnis in Iraq, preventing free U.S. access to the Iraqi oil for more than three years.

Lev Navrozov's (navlev@cloud9.net] new book is available on-line at www.levnavrozov.com. To request an outline of the book, send an e-mail to webmaster@levnavrozov.com.