Wang Mingdao

b. 1900; d. 1991

Protestant pastor

Wang Mingdao was an immensely popular independent Beijing-based Protestant pastor from the 1920s to the 1940s, and remains today one of the most important Protestant symbols of resistance to the CCP’s repressive religious policies. Wang’s rigidly fundamentalist theology—which posited a sharp division between the goodness of God and the depravity of man, and hence between believers and unbelievers—drew him into conflict with secular authorities, first with the occupying Japanese forces, and later with China’s Communist rulers. Leaders of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) tried to recruit the popular Wang, but he refused on grounds that the TSPM accepted the CCP as its head. In an influential tract, We, Because of Faith, Wang criticized the TSPM leaders Wu Yaozong and Ding Guangxun by name, calling them ‘unbelievers’ and declaring that he would ‘not unite in any way’ with them, ‘nor join any of their organizations’. The TSPM denounced Wang during the ‘anti-Hu Feng’ campaign in 1954.

Wang was arrested in August 1955, the day after he preached a sermon entitled ‘They in This Manner Betrayed Jesus’. Wang was released for a short period in 1956 after agreeing to write a self-criticism. He quickly retracted his self-criticism, however, and was re-imprisoned, where he remained until 1979. After his release, Wang moved to Shanghai, where he continued to preach and receive guests until his death in 1991.

See also: itinerant evangelists (Protestant)

Further reading

Wang, Mingdao (1955). ‘We, Because of Faith’ [pamphlet]. Beijing (June). Reprinted in Francis P.Jones (ed.) (1963), Documents of the Three-Self Movement: Source Materials for the Study of Protestant Church in Communist China. New York: National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.

JASON KINDOPP