I was in Tienamen Square six months before the massacre.
Everyone remembers the occasion through the iconic picture of the "Tank Man".
But the Tank Man photo doesn't show you that over a million people gathered there, demanding:
- Freedom...
- Freedom of speech
- Freedom of association
- Social equality
- Democracy and
- The end of corruption and nepotism.
Things we take for granted in the West.
But both photos don't show how it brutally ends.
While I was there, I met with a professor of history and sociology. He told me he had been part of a research team that had been hired to look into something. But now after three years they had their results but he was afraid to present their findings.
"Who was the client and what were you researching?" I asked.
"The client was the Chinese Communist Party," so I said, "you have a right to be frightened."
"What did they want you to research?"
"They want to know why the Western Civilization had got ahead of all cultures."
"What did you fnd out?"
"We thought it was technology at first because you defeated us so easily at the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 20th century.
But after some deliberation, we decided it wasn't that.
Then we thought it might be democracy but after considering that carefully, we decided it wasn't that.
Because we are a communist country we thought it might be free markets but after a lot of investigation and debate, we decided it wasn't that either."
"You're running out of possibilities," I said, :What did you conclude?"
"You won't believe me," he said.
"Try me," I replied.
"It's religion. Because for centuries you believed in a God who gave you benevolent laws, you obeyed them.
As a result, you ended up with the rule of law.
We don't get the rule of law like that. We get it by frightening the bejesus out of people.
We hold open trials, with very public and gruesome executions.
But when you see a crowd gathered around a television watching these things, you won't hear them saying, 'Bad person, deserves all he gets', instead, you will hear, 'Stupid person, for getting caught!'
But we know that Western society is becoming more secular and moving away from a belief in God.
And so we know that we will catch up."
I was left wondering, "Was he warning me or was he threatening me?"
Our knowledge of God and His ways have shaped the world.
The knowledge that
- God created the world for the basis of modern science and the scientific method.
- God loved all human kind, led to the idea that all life is precious.
- That all humans are created equal led to
- The idea of Human Rights and
- Servant leadership
- God gave us his law (or ways) led to the Rule of Law; and
- God's gift of reason meant that there was an obligation to Progress.
God's revelation has shaped and changed New Zealand too:
In the 1870s, an elderly Hawke’s Bay chief, [Chief Hapuku Ngaruhe,] reflecting on the changes that had occurred in his community over his lifetime, concluded that:
‘It was only after the word of God was preached that the evil of the deeds and life of olden times was seen, that is these were condemned, murdering, family quarrels, seduction, and cannibalism, but there were many and great evils committed in Ao-tea-roa (North Island) but the gospel being preached caused the evils of Maori to cease.’
Western civilization has been touched in so many ways by God and his revelation through the bible.
And we are all the better for it
The Western World may not be perfect
And despite what its critics may say:
There are not thousands of people lining up trying to emigrate to Iran, China, Saudi Arabia or Russia.
