Inculturation or sell-out?

I think that this obituary for Han Wenzao infers that the guy was a collaborator with the Chinese Communist party and government. And there is a lot to support that contention.

For decades the Protestant organisations allowed to exist in China have been run by a tight-knit handful of Communist Party loyalists, whose grip is only now starting to loosen. Han Wenzao - though not as formidable a government enforcer as his colleague Ding Guangxun, or as prolific an author - did his bit to defend the bending of Protestant theology to Communist beliefs in Bishop Ding's controversial "theological reconstruction".
Never ordained, Han was a vocal advocate within the TSPM of the importance of lay leadership. He was also highly visible as head of the Amity Foundation, in effect a business allowed by the government to produce bibles and other literature for the TSPM. The foundation - set up in 1985 and also involved in charity work - partnered with the United Bible Societies and other international Christian agencies.

I think that I would like to support a sympathetic line of interpretation as well. These were difficult times, the only way that the churches could exist with something like a degree of freedom was to enroll in the government controlled Three-Self Patriotic movement. Now, I haven't done nearly enough reasearch to back this up, so this is really a hypothesis that would require more evidence. However, I can see on the basis of what is said how he might have seen this as the right and godly way to go. The TSPM was about the church standing on its own feet without foreign aid. That might be seen as a government 'push' to do what should be done anyway. The emphasis on lay leadership has good theological bono fides for protestants and he may have been glad to see that made into a 'given'. He may also have been keen to make sure that bibles were available legitimately [and it is no bad thing to try to head of the suffering of others who might be endangered by being found with contraband literature, what would you do if you had the opportunity to get it into people's hands legitimately?]. Before we cast stones, we might [some of us any how] take a note of the glass wall in our own houses. He took a course that empowered the laity, so might many of us in the west wish to do so! He took a course that made sure that the churches were able to look after themselves, this is considered normal in many countries and increasingly so in the historic-resources subsidised CofE. He made it a national church; this is normal Anglican polity and the ecclesiology of the Tudor and Stuart Church of England. He made it so that people could own Bibles without being jailed -or worse- for doing so. We might interpret his actions as a move to inculturation and as engaging in the art of the possible. Only when we have analysed the positive should we be critical.
Independent Online Edition > Obituaries:
Filed in: Christian China, three-self, protestant, inculturation, collaboration