In 2002, eighteen Western tourists visited one of China’s premier academic research institutes, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. They were astonished to hear their Chinese lecturer say,

“One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world…. We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics.  We don’t have any doubt about this'” (Aikman 2003:5-6).

In his book, Jesus in Beijing, David Aikman, former Beijing Bureau Chief of Time magazine, describes what is perhaps the largest movement to Christ in history, in the most populous country on earth.

In 1900, 83% of Christians were in the West (Europe & North America). Since then, Christianity has grown dramatically in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Today, 75% of Christians are non-Westerners (cf. Jenkins 2011). What exciting cultural transformations will they introduce into the world? For more on how one movement to Christ reshaped the culture, economics and politics of the West, see below.

Thankful your partnership in Christ
Mike & Katie Crow