"No Other Gods before Me" vs. "It's Safer to Believe them All"

(The Puzzle of Religion Pluralism in Taiwan)

Dragon Mountain (Longshan) Temple in Taipei

I was reminded recently of one of the difficulties in sharing the gospel in Taiwan. A friend invited me to eat dinner with her family, who were very happy to have a missionary over. They are not believers, but the mother told me "the world is a more beautiful place because of people like you." She then claimed proudly that Taiwanese people love diversity and can respect any kind of thinking or religion or worldview.

In the context of our conversation, her claim was more or less accurate. In the West when you share the gospel outside of a relational context (and sometimes even inside one) with another Westerner, the person with whom you are speaking typically knows that you are making a truth claim that demands a decision on their part. They may become defensive or even angry because they know you are communicating that their current status is unacceptable and wrong, and they need to accept the truth you are presenting to them. All too often, no matter what we say, what nonbelievers hear is "you are broken... and I'm here to fix you."

In Taiwan, this is much less the case. Especially young people are interested to hear what you believe, if they think you are an interesting person (normally Americans are in this category by default), and will thank you for sharing something with them that is so meaningful to you. But to them your sharing confers no responsibility on their part whatsoever; you're just discussing one belief system in the spectrum of beliefs that make up society. You might get more or less the same reaction talking about how important it is for us all to do our part to protect the environment, or the importance of spreading literacy in developing countries.

I recall a restaurant owner in Kaohsiung one year who, after finding out we were a short term missions team, happily gave us a discount for our meal, explaining that he gave the largest discount to Buddhist monks, the second largest discount to Christian missionaries, and also a discount to students who were doing their mandatory year of military service.

If all religions are basically good and help their adherents to be better people, it's an entirely reasonable and morally upright attitude, and indeed that is how the world thinks. If one religion is true and the others false, however, it's wishful thinking, hiding behind pleasantries because the implications of having to sort through what is true and what is false on one's own are too daunting.

"A Name-Unknown Diety"
Shrine to an unknown god in Keelung

Pluralistic yet Traditional

 

So Taiwan is something like a truly pluralistic society, rare in this world, and for adults already established in traditional beliefs it can be hard to get anywhere until people find themselves in truly despairing circumstances and reach outside themselves for help. (By contrast younger generations of Taiwanese increasingly don't really believe traditional religion at all, they participate in it purely as a family activity, and are much more open to a message of God's unconditional love; more and more of them are from broken families and have only received very conditional love at best)

Often, people come to Christ in Taiwan due to the help and support of Christian friends in a time of crisis in their life, after which they are willing to begin going to church and eventually believe. Baptism, however, the symbolic step which has the effect of officially separating them from Chinese traditional religion, doesn't come until years later, when they feel confident enough to take that step, knowing it may lead to ostracization and fighting within their family. Some people won't do it until after their parents have passed away.

This may seem like a contradiction: how can a people be so pluralistic, yet the decision to become a Christian cause such problems within a family?

The answer is largely in how different Christianity is from a traditional/folk religion. In Chinese traditional religion, it is not at all important what you "believe in your heart" about the gods and spirits; people don't even think in those terms. The gods did not create you (there is a creation account, but that's largely irrelevant and the original creator god is not accessible to people), nor do they love you. The important thing is that you do X, Y, and Z, where X are typically actions that involve protection from evil spirits and their influence, Y are actions that bring yourself and by extension your family or business blessings and prosperity, and Z are actions that promote family and community connectedness and honor spirituals connection to the past.

There is also a saying in Taiwan, "it's better to believe than not," which basically means that belief is better and safer than doubt, since while no one is quite sure whether the host of gods and spirits of the Chinese pantheon (and others) exist in reality or not, it's safer to act as if they do, rather than risk the disfavor of the unseen. It's more or less the polytheistic version of Pascal's Wager.

So the problem with Christianity in a Taiwanese family is not at all that you believe there is a Creator God, that you believe Jesus can purify you from your sins by His sacrifice and save your soul from eternal punishment, etc. Even the Trinity is no problem; in Asia religions are supposed to be mystical and occasionally not make sense in human terms. I haven't met a single person in Taiwan who rejected Christianity on logical or argumentative grounds that did not at the same time reject all religions in general in favor of secular scientism.

Dragon Mountain (Longshan) Temple in Taipei

There's No Fun in Dysfunction in Taiwan

The problem here is the fear that, once you believe another God ('The Western God,' as is all too often the perception here), you will stop "being a good Taiwanese family member." You will stop observing the proper safeguards against evil and misfortune ("Sure, maybe your god will protect you," the conversation would go, "but what about the rest of us? It's your responsibility to join in the ceremonies on our behalf."), you will stop appealing to the gods for luck and prosperity, which for the majority of Asian families is not an individualistic affair- your own prosperity affects your family and others-, but most importantly, and this is the sticky point for most families, you will not observe the proper rituals together with the rest of your family for your ancestors after they die.

Imagine a large and close American family who would call themselves Christians but aren't too serious about it. Suddenly one of the aunts has "an experience" while on a trip to the Himalayas and wants to convert to Hinduism. It's a bit awkward, and there is some disapproving gossip, but if she doesn't start acting too weird no one wants to openly complain. But let us say she then refuses to join the family for Christmas because she doesn't believe in celebrating Christian holidays anymore, and on top of that won't attend the funeral of beloved Grandpa Joe unless she's allowed to offer rice balls on his coffin to appease his restless spirit, and begins inviting the kids in the family to go down to the Monkey temple with her, meet her guru, and present offerings to Shiva.


This situation might be unacceptable to many families by itself. Now imagine after all that, the only son of one of the more prominent couples in the family now professes a desire to become Hindu as well. You can imagine that it is a rare family who would react happily to this news, let alone the mother and father, who now imagine Christmases with their only child refusing to come home, and perhaps eventually no flowers being placed at their graves, but rice balls offered up in Hindu ceremonies, and who knows what else.

For a more traditional Taiwanese family, which is still the default here, that's a reasonable picture of what it feels like to them when family members start becoming Christians. (It's even stronger than in the example because in Chinese culture your parents have much more input into and control over your life than in the West, even into adulthood, and expect you to worship them after they die just as they had to worship their parents), Nearly all cultures place a strong emphasis on holidays/times of family gathering and the proper way to handle a death in the family. Disturbing these meaningful observances due to a 'foreign religion' will not be looked upon favorably.

Dragon Mountain (Longshan) Temple in Taipei

The solution for many Taiwanese Christians is to demonstrate that they are indeed still part of the family, and that Christ and the Church are purifying and not corrupting influences in their life. That can be easy in very open-minded families who aren't picky about the traditional rituals or have already stopped practicing some of them, or very difficult in families who are very traditional or have members with religious responsibilities. For my friend mentioned at the beginning, she is a believer but her parents believe children should be able to choose their own religion. That is increasingly common in Taiwan, yet those holidays and worship of deceased family members are often still problem points. It seems like a small thing to ask for the family, who don't worship idols because the gods they represent are worthy of worship, but in hopes to get favor/assistance/protection from them in exchange for the worship. The idea that there could be a transcendent God, a Most High God whom is the only God worthy of worship and indeed the only God who can rightly be worshiped, is more or less totally absent from polytheistic religions. (Communicating that concept is an essential part of the pre-evangelism process in Taiwan; sometimes people think they can just add Jesus to their personal pantheon and if he's a nice god he'll get along with the rest ok. As Westerners we do this with our schedules instead.)

Sometimes it takes a very bold believer to be the first; to be willing to endure their family's criticism and shaming and appear to be a "wayward son/daughter" in order to follow God. Sometimes their living testimony then shines in such a way that the family changes their mind about the faith, and may even look favorably upon other young members becoming Christians. That's not something we can make happen as missionaries, it takes courage and faith on the part of local believers. But we can pray for them, encourage them, and work alongside local churches to help them function in a healthy way, where young believers can be trained in sound doctrine and grow in their walk with God and older believers can set an example in faith and good works.

Looking Forward:

In the future, things may actually improve. There are some interesting parallels with America here. Fewer and fewer Taiwanese are choosing to follow traditional religion strictly, and the rapid loss of traditional morality is impacting Taiwanese culture in a negative way, similar to what has occurred in the United States, at the same time as the economy has gone from formerly booming to stagnant (again, similar to the United States.) And the people I've talked to seem to feel the same way about the situation as do conservative-to-moderate Americans: uneasy at what seems to be a downward spiral for the culture into disorder and moral decay, hoping for answers and a way out of this mess but not too optimistic about future prospects.

Taiwan's birthrate has plummeted, now the lowest in the world. Divorce rates have rapidly increased, and stable, traditional family units, long considered the foundation of Chinese culture, are increasingly disappearing

Whereas in rapidly post-christian America we have seen a general turning away from the Church as the societal default, in Taiwan's pluralistic culture the historical default is not Christianity but Chinese traditional religion (Sometimes inaccurately referred to as Buddhism, with which it actually exists in paradoxical but comfortable parallel. Thus is religion in East Asia). If the Christian churches are seen as a stabilizing influence on society and a source of moral goodness, they can become an increasingly acceptable option for Taiwanese, who already seem largely more concerned that their children at least be decent people than that they follow traditional religion. It's the perfect time for outreach and for churches to demonstrate the love of Christ and the unshakeable wisdom of the truth of scripture. (And not the false promises of the prosperity gospel which itself is merely monotheistic idolatry)