Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the White House and to Yale University this past week. In both places advocates of Falun Gong demonstrated against China’s persecution of the followers of this movement.

Falun Gong, rooted in Buddhism and Taoism, is viewed by some as being scientific in nature and by others as religious. In 1998 China banned its practice and imprisoned some of its adherents.

Christians are also targets of persecution in China. Jim Jacobson, Director of Christian Freedom International reports the following:

Right now–in China–many Christian leaders are in prison.

Tragically, in spite of all our “free trade,” the persecution against Protestant house churches in China has intensified. According to reliable reports by China Aid Association and others, from February to December 2005, at least 1317 confirmed arrests of house church pastors, leaders, and believers has occurred in over twenty provinces in China.

CAA confirmed reports through victims’ own testimonies showing inhumane torture against the arrested believers including coercion of evidence through drugging and other extremely abusive methods by the interrogators from both Chinese Public Security officers and State Security agents.

Despite this, I saw no media reports of protesters representing persecuted believers in China. Strange, isn’t it, that in a country whose predominant religion is Christian protests came from the followers of Falun Gong and not Christianity. It is of special note that the persecution is predominantly against evangelicals, yet the apparent absence of evangelical protest conveyed that evangelicals are okay with conditions in China.

Evangelicals might respond that protest is not our style. It is not gracious. Can you imagine Christ carrying a sign and yelling out accusations against Pilate or the Sanhedrin?

Fair enough, but what then is our style? What is the evangelical church in America doing to alleviate the suffering of our brothers and sisters in China?

The answer is precious little. Oh yes, we can point to some work being done here and there, but this is nothing compared with our size and capacity.

This lack of concern that is sufficient to awaken us to action signals the presence of spiritual disease. When someone brutalizes your arm or leg and you feel no pain, you may be in the advanced stages of leprosy. The fact that evangelicals demonstrate less concern for suffering brothers and sisters than do the followers of Falun Gong for fellow adherents would indicate that we need an evangelical reformation.