The only way for a church to survive is to join the state-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement and become part of the ideological state apparatus. Equally important is that Beijing completely rejects Wang’s efforts to preach and practice the principle of Christian spiritual sovereignty in society. Independent church movements have given Pastor Wang, or people with a similar theological background, a social space to reconcile piety with activism. Moving away from focusing exclusively on spiritual cultivation, the taking up of civic duties represents an attitudinal change among today’s Chinese Christians. For Chinese Christians, the Maoist regime had nothing to offer but trouble.
