Editing The Shouters (section)

==Dongyang/Yiwu incidents==
In February 1982 conflicts broke out between Christians in [[Dongyang]] and [[Yiwu]] counties in Zhejiang province and representatives of the TSPM and the [[Public security bureau (China)|Public Security Bureau]]. The first report of these events outside of China appeared in a magazine called ''The Lord in China''. In its inaugural issue it printed the full text of a mimeographed prayer letter dated April 3, 1982, which had circulated in central and south China after the incident at Dongyang.<ref>{{Citation | title = The Lord in China | date = n.d.}}.</ref>  It stated that on February 14–16, two representatives of the TSPM had visited Dongyang to set up a TSPM chapter there. However, thousands of Christians of multiple affiliations did not agree and held a three-day open air [[prayer meeting]] in front of the place where the TSPM representatives were conducting meetings.  Then on February 28 TSPM representatives instigated a group of commune members to conduct a surprise raid on one of the Christian meeting places in Dongyang. Some of the Christians were beaten or had lime thrown in their eyes. According to the circular letter, a similar raid occurred in Yiwu county, the main difference being that TSPM personnel instructed Public Security Bureau members to disrupt a meeting, which they did, using electric batons.

This report was also picked up by the Chinese Church Research Centre (CCRC), a Christian China watching organization based in [[Hong Kong]].  Part of the circular prayer letter was translated and printed in the June 1982 issue of the ''China Prayer Letter''.<ref>Chinese Christian Research Centre (CCRC), ''China Prayer Letter'', June 1982.</ref> The prayer letter was also mentioned in the June 1982 issue of ''The People'', a Chinese magazine also based in Hong Kong.<ref>Huang Ya-keh, "The Clash between Religious Freedom and Political Persecution," ''The People'' 25, June 1, 1982. Huang's article cited The Lord in China as a source.</ref> The CCRC reprinted the circular letter in the July/August 1982 issue of ''China and the Church Today''.<ref>"Persecution in Dongyang, Zhejiang Province; translation of an internal circular issued by house churches in central China." ''China and the Church Today'', July/August 1982: 3-4.</ref> The July 1982 issue of ''CCRC News'' reported that
{{Quote|text=Due to their unyielding resistance, the church at Dongyang, Zhejiang, has gone through severe persecution at the hands of the TSPM and the United Front Department.

They are told that if they refuse to join the TSPM they are unpatriotic, and that to hold a meeting without approval is to engage in unlawful gatherings. The covering of their heads is a sign of anti-revolution; and the calling of the Lord's name is a reactionary slogan.<ref>''CCRC News'', July 1982; reprinted in ''China Prayer Letter'' 24, September 1982.</ref>}}Meanwhile, another group representing various mainline Christian constituencies, the [[Ecumenical China Study Liaison Group]] (ECSLG), had been pursuing a policy of rapprochement and collaboration with the TSPM. The group included the [[Tao Fong Shan|Tao Fong Shan Ecumenical Centre]], [[Hong Kong Christian Council]], [[Lutheran World Federation (The)|Lutheran World Federation]], China Study Project (Anglican), and Pro Mundi Vita (Roman Catholic), among others. Participants included Philip Wickeri, Edmond Tang, Arne Sovik, and Bob Whyte. The members of this group published several periodicals, including ''Bridge'', ''Religion in the People's Republic of China'', and ''Ching Feng'', which reprinted TSPM documents and statements and generally followed an editorial policy sympathetic to the TSPM's viewpoint.

After news of the incidents and the ensuing repression spread, representatives of some ECSLG member organizations traveled into China and met with TSPM officials. Among the visitors were Cheung Hui Kwan (張喣羣) of the Hong Kong Christian Council and Lin Ru-Sheng (林汝升) of the Hong Kong-based periodical ''Ching Feng'' (景風). Upon their return Lin Ru-Sheng contributed an article to the September 1982 issue of ''Ching Feng'', published by the Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture of the Tao Fong Shan Ecumenical Centre.<ref>Lin Ru-Sheng, "A Few Recent Happenings Related to Chinese Protestants," ''Ching Feng'' 71, September 1982: 38-41.</ref> This was the first publication outside of China to use the derogatory term "the Shouters sect," which the TSPM had created, and also the first to present an alternative history blaming Witness Lee and "the Shouters sect" for the civil disturbances at Dongyang and Yiwu. (Lin Ru-sheng's article wrongly stated that Witness Lee, who never returned to China after his departure in 1949, had personally visited China in 1980.) Cheung Hui Kwan and Mok Shu-en (莫樹恩), executives of the Hong Kong Christian Council, co-wrote an article titled "Another Side of the Dongyang/Yiwu Incident" that was published in both the October 1982 issue of ''Xinxi'' (信息) and the November 1982 issue of ''The Seventies ''(七十年代).<ref>Cheung Hui Kwan and Mok Shu-en, "Another Side of the Dongyang/Yiwu Incident," ''Xinxi'', October 1982: 5-8.</ref><ref>Cheung Hui Kwan and Mok Shu-en, "Another Side of the Dongyang/Yiwu Incident: Heresy Spreading over Mainland China," ''The Seventies'', November 1982: 33-35.</ref> ''The'' ''Seventies'' article was subtitled "Heresy Spreading over Mainland China." This article echoed Lin Ru-Sheng's ''Ching Feng'' article.

These reports transmuted the depiction of the believers who practiced calling on the name of the Lord from being law-abiding citizens to being a dangerous sect that was violently anti-government. Such a characterization seems to have been without justification. In any case, both disturbing civil order and participating in anti-government activities are contrary to the ministry of both Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Witness Lee's speaking about calling on the Lord never sanctioned the type of disorderly behavior attributed to "the Shouters sect,"<ref>Witness Lee, ''The Kernel of the Bible'' (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1977), 10.</ref><ref>Witness Lee, ''Life Messages, Volume Two'' (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1979), 182.</ref><ref>Witness Lee, ''Life-study of 2 Corinthians'' (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1984), 28.</ref><ref>Witness Lee, ''The Subjective Truths in the Holy Scriptures'' (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 2000), 58.</ref> and the more extreme characterizations of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee as counterrevolutionary are contradicted by statements of both men that the church should have no participation in politics and Christians should submit to whatever government rules their country.<ref>''The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Volume 27: The Normal Christian Faith'' (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1993), 178-180.</ref><ref>''The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Volume 59: Miscellaneous Records of the Kuling Training (1)'' (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1993), 132.</ref><ref>''The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Volume 60: Miscellaneous Records of the Kuling Training (2)'' (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1993), 431-436.</ref><ref>Witness Lee, ''Life-study of Titus'' (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1984), 30-31.</ref><ref>Witness Lee, ''God's New Testament Economy'' (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1986), 103.</ref>

In response to the revisionist reports, [[Tony Lambert]], a former British diplomat to China who joined the [[Overseas Missionary Fellowship]] (formerly the China Inland Mission), translated a paper titled "The Lord in China: The Dongyang Yiwu Persecution: Another View." The paper said, "In reality, we have sufficient evidence to show that the persecuted [[underground church]] at Dongyang & Yiwu does not belong to the ‘Local Church’ of Li Changshou or to the ‘screamers sect’."<ref>"The Lord in China: The Dongyang Yiwu Persecution: Another View," translated by Tony Lambert, December 1982.</ref> This account was repeated and confirmed by the CCRC in ''Don't Forget About China'' in December 1982 and in the January/February issue of ''China and the Church''.<ref>''Don't Forget About China'', December 1982.</ref><ref>''China and the Church'' 26, January/February 1983.</ref>

In the ensuing months conflicting accounts went back and forth. The February 1983 issue of ''Tian Feng'', the official TSPM magazine, contained an article by Deng Fucun, one of the TSPM participants involved in seeking to expand TSPM influence in Zhejiang, called "The Truth of the ‘Dongyang-Yiwu’ Incident." This article blamed "the Shouters sect."<ref>Deng Fucun, "The Truth about the So-called Dongyang & Yiwu Affair," ''Tian Feng'', February 1983, translated and published in Religion in the People's Republic of China: Documentation 12, October 1983:20-21.</ref> Most contemporaneous accounts from overseas took the opposite view. "A letter to all the members of the Lord's Body (from the saints in Dongyang)" was published in the April 10, 1983, issue of ''The Gospel''. It said that the TSPM "persecuted many believers who did not side with them, by creating conflicts, fabricating facts, and putting the labels ‘heretical and cultic group’, ‘unpatriotic’, and ‘counterrevolutionary’. They cracked down on the believers on these unfounded charges of political crimes."<ref>"A letter to all the members of the Lord's Body (from the saints in Dongyang)," ''The Gospel'' 1157, April 10, 1983: 4.</ref> Thus, the term "the Shouters sect" was broadened to include many who did not register with TSPM.

Most recent Western sources follow the version of events reported by the members of the Ecumenical China Study Liaison Group, which echoed the TSPM's portrayal of "the Shouters sect" as a cultic offshoot of the local churches.<ref>{{Citation | publisher = Australia: Refugee Review Tribunal | title = An Update on the Current Treatment of Followers of 'The Shouters' in Fujian Province | date = March 16, 2007 | url = http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?docid=4b6fe175d | accessdate = September 20, 2012}}.</ref> This may be due, in part, to the book-length treatments of the history of the church in China written by former Ecumenical China Study Liaison Group participants Bob Whyte, Edmond Tang, and Philip Wickeri.<ref>Bob Whyte, ''Unfinished Encounter: China and Christianity'' (London: Fount Paperbacks, 1988), 406–8.</ref><ref>Philip L. Wickeri, ''Seeking the Common Ground: Protestant Christianity, the Three-Self Movement, and China's United Front'' (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989), 237.</ref><ref>Philip L. Wickeri, ''Reconstructing Christianity in China: K. H. Ting and the Chinese Church'' (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007), 228–29.</ref><ref>Edmond Tang, "‘Yellers’ and Healers—Pentecostalism and the Study of Grassroots Christianity in China," ''Asian and Pentecostal: The Charismatic Face of Christianity in Asia'', Allan Anderson and Edmond Tang, eds. (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2011), 386–89.</ref> However, Tony Lambert later reported that TSPM Chairman [[Ding Guangxun]], who had initially blamed "the Shouters sect" for inciting the unrest,<ref>Ding Guangxun, "A Talk with the Shouters," ''Collected Sermons, Vol. 5'', May 1983.</ref> admitted in 1987 that "local TSPM strong-arm tactics had been responsible for the incidents" at Dongyang and Yiwu.<ref>Tony Lambert, ''The Resurrection of the Chinese Church'' (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1994), 84.</ref>