Editing The Shouters (section)

==Background==
During the [[Cultural Revolution]] of 1966–76, all public practice of religion in the People's Republic of China was suppressed as part of the attempt to eliminate the "[[Four Olds]]"—"old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas."<ref>Ryan Dunch, "Protestants and the State in Post-Mao China" (M. A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1991), 12.</ref><ref>Arne Sovik, "The Three-Self Documents – a Revaluation," in ''LWF Marxism and China Study'', Document No. 4.1.2.0/01, Nordic Consultation on China, Aarhus, Denmark, Paper No. 1: Conference Report, May 29–31, 1972:3.</ref> [[Red Guards (China)|Red Guard]] brigades assailed Christians in various parts of China.<ref>David H. Adeney, ''China: Christian Students Face the Revolution'' (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 126.</ref> Religion was condemned as a corrupting factor in Chinese society, and many Christians were sent to labor camps and subjected to "re-education."<ref>Jason Kindopp, "Fragmented Yet Defiant: Protestant Resilience under Chinese Communist Party Rule," ''God and Caesar in China: s of CPolicy Implicationhurch-State Tensions'', Jason Kindopp and Carol Lee Hamrin, eds. (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2004), 126.</ref> Religious books, including Bibles and [[Christian literature]], were destroyed.<ref>G. Thompson Brown, ''Christianity in the People's Republic of China'', rev. ed. (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1986), 124.</ref> From 1973 the Christian faith began to spread rapidly in some parts of China.<ref>Alan Hunter and Kim-Kwong Chan, ''Protestantism in Contemporary China'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 68</ref> Because the TSPM had itself been disbanded in 1966, this spread took place entirely underground, that is, without government interference. Many "[[House church (China)|house churches]]" sprang up, as well as many home meetings associated with [[The Local Churches|local churches]] organized along the lines of the teachings of [[Watchman Nee]].<ref>Britt Towery, ''Christianity in Today's China'' (The Tao Foundation Missionary Heritage Edition, 2000).</ref><ref>Leslie T. Lyall, ''New Spring in China'' (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1980).</ref><ref>Tony Lambert, ''The Resurrection of the Chinese Church'' (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw, 1994).</ref> However, in the absence of Bibles and other Christian literature, parts of China, especially more rural areas, became breeding grounds for the development of novel belief systems mixing elements of [[Christianity]] with [[Confucianism]], [[Taoism]], [[Buddhism]], and local folk beliefs and practices.<ref>"Problems in Henan: Reports from Itinerant Preachers," ''China and the Church Today'' 4:2 (1982):2-3.</ref>

Following the death of [[Mao Zedong]] and the defeat of the [[Gang of Four]], [[Deng Xiaoping]] became the [[de facto]] leader of the [[Communist Party of China|Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) and of the government of the PRC. In 1978 the [[5th National People's Congress|Fifth National People's Congress]] of the People's Republic of China adopted a new constitution, the third in the history of the PRC. As far back as the 1954 constitution, Article 88 guaranteed that "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief." Nevertheless, after the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, the affirmation in Article 46 of the new constitution that "citizens enjoy freedom to believe in religion and freedom not to believe in religion and to propagate atheism" led many to believe that a new era of religious freedom was dawning.<ref>{{Citation | title = People's Republic of China Constitution | year = 1978}}.</ref>{{Efn | This freedom had been a part of Article 88 of the first constitution of the PRC, adopted in 1954.}}  However, the PRC has historically regulated the practice of religion.<ref>Kim-Kwong Chan and Eric R. Carlson, ''Religious Freedom in China: Policy, Administration, and Regulation'' (Santa Barbara, CA: Institute for the Study of American Religion, 2005).</ref><ref>Christopher Marsh, ''Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival'' (New York: Continuum, 2011).</ref><ref>Yihua Xu, "'Patriotic' Protestants: The Making of an Official Church," ''God and Caesar in China,'' Kindopp and Hamrin, eds., 107-121.</ref>

=== The TSPM and the PRC's regulation of religion ===
In 1950 [[Zhou Enlai]] worked with [[Y. T. Wu]] to craft "[[The Christian Manifesto]]" declaring that Protestants in China would support the new government and reject foreign imperialism. Such initiatives led to the establishment of the TSPM which promoted the "three-self principles" of self-government, self-support, and self-propagation. Shortly afterwards a widespread accusation/denouncement campaign began which led to the expulsion of foreign missionaries and to the arrest and imprisonment of many indigenous Chinese Christians as counterrevolutionaries, including prominent Christian teachers such as Watchman Nee and [[Wang Mingdao]].<ref>Lyall, Leslie (1977), "The Chinese Christian Church under Communism—1949–1966", in Aikman, David, ''Love China Today'', Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 53.</ref><ref>Bob Whyte, ''Unfinished Encounter: China and Christianity'' (London, Fount Paperbacks, 1988), 219–28.</ref>  The CCP had a deep mistrust of any leader or movement with a significant following, including religious ones, partly due to the prominent place of the religiously motivated [[Taiping Rebellion]] in China's relatively recent past.<ref>Michael Dillon, ''Religious Minorities and China'' (London: Minority Rights Group International, 2001), 23.</ref><ref>Tony Lambert, "The Present Religious Policy of the Chinese Communist Party," ''Religion, State & Society'' 29:2, 2001:121.</ref><ref>{{Citation | first1 = Joshua | last1 = Spooner | first2 = Robert M | last2 = Hathaway | title = Will Religion Challenge the Chinese State? | publisher = Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. | url = http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/will-religion-challenge-the-chinese-state}}</ref> The CCP itself had first gained traction in China by mobilizing small groups of peasants in rural areas and had grown in strength until it was able to topple the [[Kuomintang]] from power.

The TSPM was disbanded in 1966, near the outset of the Cultural Revolution. When the TSPM was reinstituted in 1979, its influence was initially confined to major metropolitan areas such as [[Beijing]] and [[Shanghai]],<ref>David H. Adeney, ''China: The Church's Long March'' (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1985), 167–68.</ref> whereas the rapid proliferation of the Christian faith was in provinces such as [[Henan]], Zhejiang, [[Fujian]], and [[Anhui]].<ref>Hunter and Chan, ''Protestantism'', 67–68.</ref><ref>Lyall 1985, 172</ref>  Many Christians in China viewed the TSPM with suspicion because in its earlier incarnation in the 1950s, the TSPM had promoted modernist theology and had collaborated with the CCP to repress and persecute more biblical teachers. These Christians saw the reestablishment of the TSPM in 1979 as the government's attempt to reassert control over them and to slow the spread of the Christian gospel.<ref>Lyall 1985, 169–70</ref><ref>Arne Sovik, ''China Notes'' VII:2, 1979:65.</ref>