Ms Ming-Min Lin Cheng, Presbyterian Church in Taiwan

1. What are the most burning issues you are facing regarding the role of the churches in your society?

1. The Retreat Of Democracy

After the transition of government from the Democratic Progressive Party to the Nationalist Party on 20^th May 2008, democracy, hard won since 1990, went into retreat.  Abuse of power by those in office had long been part of Taiwan’s culture, and even the Democrats were not “pure”, but the Nationalists trampled on human rights and turned back the clock on democratic transition in this country.  At times they have used law, and at other times they have used force.

Under the Nationalist Party government, Taiwan’s judicial authority has detained defendants, their family members and subordinates without substantial proof and before any trial proceedings. The intent has been to extract incriminating evidence by detention. This process has caused many people to lose trust and confidence in Taiwan’s judiciary. Leaders of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) have called on the president to refrain from using executive power as a tool against members of opposition political organizations. Taiwan’s society has become increasingly tense as the president and his administration: 1) compromise national sovereignty through policies that lean towards China, 2) use police violence to suppress citizens, and 3) promote biased reporting through mass media outlets they control to blur the truth behind events. In light of the worsening situation, the General Assembly of the PCT held a press conference on 20^th November 2008, urging all of Taiwan’s people to face social and political matters with reason and calm.

Under the previous government Taiwan’s people came to expect that major changes in the way the nation was run would be put to referendum votes conducted among the public at large. The Nationalist Party opposition did its best to complicate these elections. Now in power, the party has used the law in ways that make referenda extremely difficult to conduct.  These changes have not been accepted lightly. Early in November of 2008 the Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP) organized a sit-in protest calling for reform of existing referendum laws. Members of the PCT participated.  One wheelchair-bound woman from a local Presbyterian church who joined the sit-in on October 31st remarked, “Being a disciple of Christ means that we should care for others just as we care for ourselves.” In her opinion, the term “others” refers to those who need help. “As the light and salt of the earth, Christians should not shrink in fear, but fight for truth and justice instead.” She encouraged everyone to take time from their busy lives to support calls for referendum law reform and emphasized that even though God reigns, Christians are never to sit on their hands, “for we are to be partners with God.”

One of PCT’s Associate General Secretaries pointed that the PCT should continue to focus on the progress of human rights in Taiwan as it had done in the past. He urged churches to pray for human rights in Taiwan. The PCT trains members how to hold public forums and in techniques for pursuing neutral third-party mediation to promote and protect human rights in a non-violent manner. He urged Taiwanese not to look down on themselves despite recent human rights setbacks in the country. Taiwanese need to have faith because Taiwan’s future is not determined by its ruling government or by any individual. Ultimately, it is God who controls the course of a country’s history.

The PCT issued a 3-point statement calling on Taiwan’s president and his administration to: 1) protect human rights as God-given rights; 2) to safeguard Taiwan’s autonomy and independence from China; and 3) to preserve the political neutrality and complete autonomy of the judicial branch of the government. 

2. Dishonesty In Government From The Top Down

As in many other nations around the world, corruption is as common in Taiwan. It is almost expected that public office-holders will profit in some illegal way. During the last year that Chen Shui-bian served as Taiwan’s president, the PCT’s former General Secretary, Rev. C. M. Kao, warned him from the platform at the National Prayer breakfast that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” When news broke in August 2008 that he had been charged with embezzling public funds and money laundering, pastors from the PCT promptly issued a public rebuke. General Assembly Moderator Rev. Asing Aman stated that those who commit crimes must face the law and all its repercussions. At the same time, PCT pastors also hoped that the Taiwanese judiciary would remain independent and impartial during investigations and see all corruption charges brought against public officials in the same light, regardless of whether these officials were Nationalist Party members or Democratic Progressive Party members.

The culture of corruption that seems to pervade both society and government at times reaches into national and local church affairs. Most aboriginal churches are financially poor. Their pastors are susceptible to temptation during campaign season, when money for votes flows freely. Many pastors fear that their jobs would be on the line if they spoke up against vote-selling.

One aboriginal PCT pastor who used to work at headquarters of the Democratic Progressive Party said that bribery during campaign season has always been a severe problem for aboriginal churches. Regardless of how many people have warned against this trend in the past, there will always be a few leaders who will act contrary to principles of Christian faith. Facing churches that are unable to resist these kinds of temptations, some PCT pastors believe that it's time to reflect on where theological education has gone wrong. 

3. The New Poverty

Around the world there is an economic crisis in progress. In November of 2008 Taiwan’s unemployment rate reached a new high 4.37%, which translates into 476,000 unemployed people across the country.

The Christian Relief Association reported total appeals for emergency financial aid from January to August 2008, a 150% increase from the 2007 figure for the same period. This was the highest number of appeals in the past five years. More than 50% of those applying for aid are between the ages of 41 and 65.  40% are from ages 19 to 40. More than 90% of those requesting aid cite unemployment as their reason.

The central government’s Ministry of Interior reports that there are currently 90,846 low-income families in Taiwan, the highest number in over ten years. In February of 2009, as students headed back to school following winter vacation, many parents faced work furloughs or job redundancies. . This situation had a spillover effect on students, creating a drop-out crisis across the nation. Among students struggling to pay for tuition and other school-related expenses, an increasing number opted to suspend studies because families could no longer afford education.

Many aboriginal students, whose financial situation is often worse than the average urban-dwelling Taiwanese, dropped out of school because their parents had lost jobs. PCT affiliated schools found creative ways to aid their students. Some teachers at the PCT’s schools donated portions of their salaries to create funds to prevent students’ being forced to drop out for financial reasons. Schools also urged churches to partner with them in reaching out to students who struggled financially. 

4. The New Racism

Taiwan’s society has always been multi-ethnic. Aboriginal tribes of differing languages and cultures filled the whole of the land for thousands of years. When ethnic Han Chinese began to migrate to these shores in the 15^th and 16^th centuries, lowland tribes, along with their lands, were subjugated and eventually assimilated. Highland tribes remained free in the mountain fastness. 

Following the Second World War the Nationalist Chinese government from China was named temporary supervisor of Taiwan. Eventually this government lost the civil war in China and, without making any excuses to the United Nations, assumed complete control. Millions of Mainland Chinese refugees flooded the land and suppressed all movements by local people for self rule. A clear ethnic divide between Mainlander and Native Taiwanese existed in power relationships.  As decades passed, this divide was slowly ameliorated.  Mainlanders held control of government agencies until the mid-1990’s. In 1996 two of four candidates in Taiwan’s first direct presidential election were native Taiwanese, and one of them was the victor. Four years later, only one of three candidates was Taiwanese, and he won. His victory, by a larger margin, was repeated in 2004.

In 2008 elections the “pro-Mainland” Nationalist party won the majority in the Parliament and the presidency. Ethnic tensions again came to the fore. Groups differ over the  “right to rule,” one side claiming that their ethnicity makes them superior, and the other standing for leadership chosen by majority approval without regard to ethnicity.

Further complicating the ethnic picture is the phenomenon of foreign spouses. These women, brought from Southeast Asian nations, are Taiwan’s new underclass. They often are wed to men more than twenty years their senior who have been unable for various reasons to find a bride at home. Out of their culture, out of their language context, and afloat in a world of strangeness, they are often poorly treated by the families who bring them in. The children they bear, a welcome to Taiwan’s aging society, are considered of lesser value because they are “mixed race” and “their mothers cannot help them with school work.” Stigmatized because of their ethnicity, this new generation is set to provide an ongoing divide in Taiwan’s coming years.

Church resources, through agencies like Christian Family Counseling Center, affiliated with the PCT, provide counseling, training and fellowship opportunities focused on this new cohort of Taiwan’s society.  

2. How can the fellowship of member churches support the churches in the situation you are facing?

The fellowship of member churches can support the PCT and other churches of Taiwan (whether members of the fellowship or not) through prayer and paying attention. We ask that those staff members and officers of churches in the fellowship who are tasked with justice and human rights concerns, economic justice concerns or racial justice and minority rights in their own nations and regions pay attention to situations in Taiwan, regularly communicating the fact of their watching and the nature of their concern to Taiwan's ruling authorities and diplomatic offices around the world. 

Let Taiwan's authorities know that the world is watching and that God's people are praying.  When your church prays for Taiwan, and when your church officers send messages to Taiwan's ruling authorities, please inform the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. We promise to spread news of your action to the Churches and Christians of Taiwan.

3. In which regard and how can your experience enrich and be of relevance to the fellowship?

The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan can be a help and guide to multi-ethnic churches around the world. Though not perfectly, in many ways we have learned how to deal with the racial issues that, though dividing the people of Taiwan, no longer so strongly divide our own communion.

The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan offers to share with churches around the world the models we have developed and used in training members how to hold public forums and techniques for pursuing neutral third-party mediation to protect human rights in a non-violent manner.  

The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan will stand in solidarity with churches anywhere in the world who face the similar retreat from democracy and abuse of human rights that we have seen in our land. Communicate your situation to us, we will spread the news among our members and join you in prayer. If you desire that we monitor the situation in your country and communicate our concern and prayers to your governing authorities, as we have asked you to do for us, please let us know.   We will stand with you.