Overcoming Oppression of Ethnic Minority Christians

San No Thuan1

Introduction

Myanmar (Burma) is made up of 135 national ethnic groups with eight major national ethnic groups: Kachin, Kayin, Kayah, Chin, Mon, Bamar, Rakhine, and Shan. According to The New Light of Myanmar (Feb. 12, 1993:) Bamar, the largest national ethnic group, constitutes 70% of the population; Karen 9%; Shan 8%; Rakhine 5 %; Mon 2.5%; Chin 2.5%; and Kachin 2%.2 In terms of religious adherents, Myanmar Facts & Features (2000) estimated the percentage of Buddhists to be 89%, Christians 6%, Muslims 2.5%, Hindus 0.5%, and animists and others 2%.3 This diversity of cultures, languages, and religions is Myanmar’s distinctive character and blessing. In this paper, I will use Bamar to refer to the majority people. The terms Burma and Myanmar will be used interchangeably to refer to the name of the country.

Unfortunately, there is a tendency among the Buddhists to regard the Christian church only as the church in Myanmar but not as the church of Myanmar. Simon Pau Khan En said that Christianity was and still is an alien religion to people of Myanmar due to three significant factors: (a) identification of Christian mission with colonialism by Burmese people; (b) negative attitude of missionaries towards the religion and culture of the people; and (c) conversion en masse of tribal groups to Christianity. The fundamental challenge of Christian mission for the churches in Myanmar today is to discover how to inculturate the Christian gospel to remove this alienation of Christianity in the country.4 This alienation leads to misunderstanding, and even socio-political and religious oppression of the ethnic Christian minority.

To remove this estrangement, Christians in Myanmar need to look back at their history and transform their spirituality to meet the needs of the people. As a well-known Burmese proverb says, “Pokku hkin hma taya myin” (a person sees the truth only after personal intimacy). To have intimacy with Buddhists, Christians need to find common ground where both faiths can come together in cooperation. Edmund Za Bik was right when he described the condition of religions in Myanmar. He said, “We have come to the stage in which the situation is ‘Do or Die’. If we want to survive, we have to overcome suspicion and build trust by actively promoting Inter-faith Dialogue”.5

This paper deals with a Christian spirituality of involvement aimed at removing alienation and building trust. By spirituality here I mean what a Christian ought to do under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is a kind of life ideal, guiding value, source of meaning, and deep vision that will ultimately affect the life decisions and commitment of people. First, I will outline the history of the church in Myanmar to highlight the reasons for the estrangement of Christianity. Then I will propose some possible ways of overcoming oppression through a spirituality of involvement.

The Church in Myanmar under Successive Governments

A Christian community has existed in Myanmar since the early sixteenth century. Over the years since then, the churches have endured hardships of many kinds under diverse political systems including monarchy, colonial rule, parliamentary democracy, a socialist government, and now military rule.6 What follows is a brief survey of the history of the church in Myanmar in order to investigate reasons for the violence perpetrated against the ethnic minority Christians.

(a) The Church under Burmese Monarchy
During the period of the monarchy, there was religious freedom and consequently there were good relationships between kings and missionaries. In an article, “The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma” in The Guardian (1962:37), Vivian Ba wrote about the Christian missionaries who got permission from the Burmese kings to propagate the gospel freely and build churches and schools. During the first Anglo-Burmese war, Father d’ Amato, who was imprisoned by a Burmese official, was immediately released by the order of the Burmese king who said, “This holy man is like a god, why should we harm him.” Furthermore, the kings of Burma always asked for help from the Catholic missionaries in important discussions with the British, in settling disputes, and in developing relations with the outside world. After the Roman Catholic mission, came the Protestant mission, which had great success through the ministry of the American Baptist missionaries, beginning with the Judsons from 1813 to 1850.7 Unfortunately, the Protestant missionaries did not gain the full support of the Burmese monarchs and were seen to side with the British colonialists.

(b) The Church in the British Colonial Period
After the third Anglo-Burmese war, the whole of Burma came under British rule. During this period, the gospel came into Burma along with swords. Protestant churches such as Baptist, Anglican, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches were established.8 Though the British government practiced the principle of religious neutrality, Buddhists maintain that the decline of Buddhism during the colonial period was the result of alien rule under which Buddhism received no political patronage. Since then, Christianity was seen as religion of the invaders and the proclamation of the gospel came to be considered as a political tool for the expansion of western culture and colonial power.

(c) The Church under Parliamentary Democracy (1948-1962)
With the end of colonialism, Buddhists argued that just as in the days of the Burmese kings, there was the need now for the independent government to assume the special role of “promoter of faith”.9 In the year of Myanmar’s Independence, 1948, U Nu, a devout Buddhist, became the Prime Minister. On September 26, 1959, a General Parliamentary election registered a landslide victory of U Nu’s party (AFPFL), which promised to make Buddhism the state religion. Despite some opposition, U Nu fulfilled his promise, and in 1961 the Constitution was amended making Buddhism the state religion. In his book, The Christian Faith and Non-Christian Religions, A. C. Bouquet wrote, “Political emancipation, national enthusiasm led people to look with renewed pride upon their own heritages, whether of art or religion. All this had led to the resurgence of Buddhism”.10 In a country like Burma this observation is true. Burma’s art, architecture, music, literature and social life are all bound up with Buddhism. Buddhism came to be considered a national heritage and the nationalist Bamar are proud of it. The revival movement was undoubtedly motivated by nationalism.11

Christian ethnic minorities demonstrated in opposition to the policy of Buddhism as a State Religion proposed by U Nu, and submitted a five-point argument against it:12
1. It was against modern democratic principle.
2. It would create two classes of citizenship.
3. It was contrary to General Aung San’s conviction. 13
4. It was being forcibly imposed on the ethnic minorities.
5. It would disrupt national unity.

Although U Nu’s government promised to guarantee religious freedom later, successive governments rigorously defended and supported Buddhism and even imposed it on the ethnic minorities in various ways.

(d) The Church under the Revolutionary Council (1962-1974) and Socialist Government (1974 – 1988)
On March 2, 1962, General Ne Win and his Revolutionary Council seized power. Under Ne Win’s regime, church and state were kept separate. Ne Win decreed U Nu’s declaration of Buddhism as the state religion to be null and void. Between 1963 and 1965, all banks, industries, and the Christian institutions like schools, hospitals and colleges were nationalized. Not only foreign missionaries, but also all foreigners were expelled in March 1966. Ne Win virtually cut off the country from the rest of the world and Burma entered into a period of isolation as Ne Win’s regime pursued “the Burmese Way to Socialism”. Instead of developing the economic-political situation of Myanmar during his 26 years of dictatorship, Ne Win led the country to become one of the poorest countries in the world. Languages of the minority groups were initially allowed to be taught for five years in primary schools. By the end of Ne Win’s rule these ethnic languages were banned. This weakened the ethnic churches as it deprived the younger generation of the ability to read scriptures that had been translated into their mother tongue.

(e) The church under the State Peace and Development Council (1988- )
After the SPDC came to power in 1988, racial and religious discrimination abounded. The use of porters and forced laborers and instances of unlawful imprisonment and torture increased. Some issues of religion and education will be discussed briefly.

1. Religion
“A monk cannot tell authorities about people’s problems. If he does, the authorities will consider that monk to be their enemy,” said a monk from Mandalay. Successive military regimes have also secretly placed intelligence agents in monasteries, so if any monks are discussing politics or meeting with political activists, their activities will be reported. The ‘planted monks’ can also urge other monks to stay out of politics. In some cases, military authorities have tried to obtain representation on monastery committees, so that they could keep an eye on the activities at the monasteries.14

Although Christians in cities and towns in central Myanmar have not faced physical persecution, they have been harassed in various ways. Endless delays in approving building permits for new religious structures are common, and there have been cases of newly built churches being pulled down.15 While pagodas are constantly being upgraded, permits to repair churches are not issued. One of the worst kinds of oppression that Christians are suffering from is to be treated as second-class citizens. In order to reach the higher ranks of government service, a Christian has to choose whether to convert to Buddhism and get promotion or to remain a Christian and lose any chance of promotion. Many Christian government servants leave their jobs early, as there is no bright hope for their future. The country is left in the hands of high-ranking officials who are all Bamar Buddhists.

Christian communities in remote areas, especially where armed anti-government forces operate, have faced much harsher pressure. In particular, Christians in Karen and Karenni states on the eastern border and in Chin State and Sagaing Division on the western border have seen their churches burned down, their pastors arrested and soldiers disrupting services, taking the villagers as porters.16 In the remote Naga and Chin hills some parents in the late 1990s allowed their children to accompany authorities to what they were told were lowland secular schools, only to find out later that their children had been sent to Buddhist monasteries and made into novice monks. Furthermore, there are cases of military people offering rice and money to any poor hill people who converted to Buddhism. Many families converted to Buddhism as a result.17

2. Education: Quantity without Quality
A Burmese educator once said, “Education gives you confidence in yourself and strength to make decisions. The more people are uneducated, the more you can keep them down.”18 In the late 1940s and 1950s, Myanmar boasted as having the highest literacy rates in Asia and an expanding educational system. Yet the military regime has placed a low priority on education. Schools do not have enough textbooks and so many students are forced to buy books on the black market at a much higher price. After only two months of class lectures in a whole year, students have to sit for their examination. Some university students were disappointed because some questions were from the curriculum that had not yet been taught. Since teachers are paid less than a subsistence salary, they open tuition classes, where more content is taught, and from which they make some money to live on. As a result, students from poor families who cannot afford these extra tuition classes have a poor foundation in education. Meanwhile the children of government leaders are sent abroad to study.

A Christian Response to Oppression in a Buddhist Context

(1) Toward Incarnation in Buddhist Culture
In Adoniram Judson’s third meeting with the Burmese monarch, King Bagyidaw asked him, “Do you, followers of Jesus dress like other Burmans?” What the Bamar monarchs were most suspicious of was not necessarily the matter of conversion to Christianity but rather the problem of converts losing their cultural identity and associating with western culture and imperialism. Today Buddhists remain suspicious of a western gospel and Christians who do not fit in their society. The challenge remains to make the gospel and the church relevant in the Burmese Buddhist context. Samuel Ngun Ling is right when he says that one way to make a Buddhist feel at home with the gospel is to express it in Bamar thought-forms and ways of life. In order to do this, the Christian expressing the gospel must be a Christ-like person who can love people equally with whatever faiths they confess.19

Andrew F. Walls (1982:97f) uncovered the flexible nature of God when he wrote about the unchanging incarnational nature of the gospel:

When God become (hu)man, Christ took flesh in a particular family, a member of a particular nation, with the tradition of customs associated with that nation. All that was not evil He sanctified. Wherever He is taken by men in any time and place He takes that nationality, that society, that ‘culture’, and sanctifies all that is capable of sanctification by his presence.... No group of Christians has therefore any right to impose in the name of Christ upon another group of Christians a set of assumptions about life determined by another time and place.20

In doing contextualization, Hua Yung warns of two things to avoid in order to maintain one’s Christian identity. First, one needs to avoid uncritical contextualization and at the same time to affirm that which transcends the context. Second, one needs to guard against ‘the danger of absolutism of contextualism’.21 Incarnation in Buddhist culture means "preservation of cultural identity by a person of Christian faith",22 if we may borrow the words of Stephen B. Bevans.

(2) Toward Commitment and Service
A society is sick when injustice is done to the poor and the disinherited. A community suffers when there is political or economic oppression depriving the powerless of freedom and well being. A human community loses its human face when women, men and children are discriminated against on account of gender, race, and sex. When the world becomes a place for only the ‘survival of the fittest’, nothing is left for the majority of the weak.23

In Myanmar churches, there is an over-emphasis on prayer, fasting, and personal salvation in the next life. Even though there is a crisis in Myanmar with people suffering from HIV/AIDS, poverty, war, and conflict, most Christians are more concerned about building bigger church buildings, and converting the so-called “heathens”, i.e. non-Christians. There is little social concern and even less social action. This has served to emphasize the church’s isolation and irrelevance in its Buddhist context.

Hla Bu, a post-independence Christian professor of philosophy, stated that in the traditional faith of Buddhism, building pagodas, monasteries, and giving alms are regarded as the best way to acquire merit. However, the modern Buddhist advocates giving donations to found and maintain schools, hospitals, orphanages, old people’s homes, and various social welfare institutions. Another change is that Buddhist politicians accept the Welfare State as the goal of their political effort.24 This shift in Buddhism toward social concern provides both a challenge and an opportunity for Christians in Myanmar to engage with the Buddhists around these social concerns. Christian spirituality must be worked out through engaging with the society around it. One way to do this is through social development in areas such as education. Such involvement will provide opportunities to develop intimacy and understanding with Buddhists, hopefully resulting in trust in Christians and legitimacy for the church.

History teaches us lessons in this regard. When Christian mission came to Burma not only in the form of evangelization but also in social and educational works, it attracted Buddhist social elites, including King Mindon who let his nine sons and his ministers study with the missionaries.25 Hla Bu reminds us that on the whole Buddhist leaders were critical of Christians as being uncooperative in national concerns. He suggested that Christians should cooperate with the Burmese Buddhist people and government to be patriotic citizens. In all types of social service it is important to help people see that the Christian genuine concern for people is the source of his/her inspiration and drive.26 The Christian presence in Myanmar is meaningful only inasmuch as it meets the needs of the people. According to Bonhoeffer, “the church is the church indeed only when it exists for others.” Christians are called to be involved in the realization of the reign of justice and peace in Myanmar.

To conclude let me share the words of Philip Potter, General Secretary of WCC who preached a very provoking message at the Nairobi assembly:

We have to learn afresh together to speak boldly in Christ's name both to those in power and to the people, to oppose terror, cruelty and race discrimination, to stand by the outcast, the prisoner and the refugee. We have to make of the church in every place a voice for those who have no voice, and a home where every (one) will be at home. We have to ask God to teach us together to say "No" and to say "Yes" in truth. "No" to all that flouts the love of Christ, to every system, every programme and every person that treats any (one) as though (they) were an irresponsible thing or a means of profit, to the defenders of injustice in the name of order, to those who sow the seeds of war or rouge war as inevitable; "Yes" to all that conforms to the love of Christ, to all who seek for justice, to the peacemakers, to all who hope, fight and suffer for the cause of (people), to all who even without knowing it look for new heavens and a new earth where in dwelleth righteousness."27

A spirituality of involvement in the struggle of people demands pain from the heart rather than from the head. According to Kitamori in his pain of God, pain like God's pain that loves the unlovable and sacrifices his only beloved son for the world, can heal the wounded world. That kind of love for people flows originally from our relationship with God. Thus, in order to make the church witness in Myanmar successful, it must be fully baptized in the poverty, struggles and culture of the Myanmar peoples. Such compassionate involvement will eradicate not only alienation but also poverty and all social evils that separate people and make enemies out of brothers and sisters. In doing so, the truth of Christ's will becomes real and meaningful to us as we seek to understand Christ's presence with people who struggle for liberation in Myanmar.

NOTES:

1 San No Thuan teaches theology at Myanmar Institute of Theology in Yangon, Myanmar.
2 Samuel Ngun Ling, “Voices of Minority Ethmic Christians in Myanmar,” in CTC Bulletin, vol. xviii, no. 2 – vol. xix, No. 2 (December 2002 – August 2003).
3 Ibid.
4 Simon Pau Khan En, “The Quest for Authentic Myanmar Contextual Theology” in MIT Rays Journal of Theology, v. 2 (2001), 40.
5 Edmund Za Bik, “Universal Salvation in the Context of Inter-Faith Dialogue in Myanmar” in MIT Rays Journal of Theology, v.1 (2000), 36.
6 Simon Pau Khan En, “Myanmar Theology” in Dictionary of Third World Theology (New York: Orbis Books, 200), 151.
7 Pa Yaw, Christianity in Myanmar: Church-State Relationship (unpublished M.Div. Thesis at Myanmar Institute of Theology, 2004), p. 25.
8 Ibid., 27.
9 U Hla Bu, “The Nature (significant) of Resurgence of Buddhism in Burma” in Called to be Community: Myanmar’s in Search of New Pedagogies of Encounter ed. by Samuel Ngun Ling (Yangon, 2003), 132.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Donald Eugence Smith, Religion and Politics in Burma (1965, 142) cited in Pa Yaw, p. 38.
13 General Aung San, leader of the Burmese Independence movement, declared, “We must draw a clear line between politics and religions, because the two are not one and the same thing. If we mix religion with politics, then we offend the spirit of religion itself.” See Kanbawza Win, “Colonialism, Nationalism and Christianity in Burma: A Burmese perspective,” Asia Journal of Theology (October 1988), 276.
14 Ibid., 217.
15 Ibid., 222.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Christina Fink, Living Silence:Burma Under Military Rule (New York: Zed Books, 2001), 174.
19 Samuel Ngun Ling, “Doing Theology Under the Bo Tree: Communicating the Christian Gospel in the Bam Buddhist Context,” in Called to be a Community: Myanmar’s in Search of New Pedagogies of Encounter ed. by Samuel Ngun Ling (Yangon: ATEM, 2001), 172-4.
20 Hwa yung, Mangoes or Bananas? The Quest for Authentic Asian Theology (Great Britain: Regnum Books, 1997), 62.
21 Ibid., 62-63.
22 Stephen B. Bevans Models of Contextual Theology (New York: Orbis Books, 1992), 47.
23 Ibid., 272.
24 Hla Bu, 133.
25 Pa Yaw., 37
26 Hla Bu, 136.
27 World Council of Churches. Nairobi to Vancouver, (Geneva: WCC Publication, 1983), i.