The Rise, Causes, and Impact of Rural Religious Beliefs in the New Era
In the New Era, especially in the thirty years since the beginning of Reform and Opening-up, the face of the countryside has undergone earth-shaking changes; the political status, economic income, and cultural life of farmers have reached historical zeniths. Simultaneously, significant changes have occurred in people’s belief systems. Looking nationwide, several universal phenomena have emerged: a continuous "religious fever," a sharp increase in the number of believers, the steady multiplication of religious sites, and the gradual expansion of the scale of religious activities. The forms of belief have shifted from a base primarily of traditional folk beliefs to the current co-existence of Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and others. The occupations of the believers are becoming more diverse and their ages increasingly younger; even a segment of minors has shown signs of religious inclination. The religious population is shifting from the "Three Mores" (more elderly women, more of the sick, and more of the uneducated) toward the "Three Increases" (increase in men, increase in young people, and increase in intellectuals) [1]. The rise of religious belief in the rural areas during the New Era has profound socio-historical roots, and its impact on the construction of the New Countryside [2] is characterized by complexity, requiring extensive attention from all sectors of society.
I. Reasons for the Rise of Religious Belief in Rural Areas during the New Era
There has long been significant controversy regarding the definition of religion and whether "folk religion" exists in China. Generally speaking, most scholars believe religion includes both "institutional religion"—which possesses its own unique theological system, organization, and rituals, independent of other social organizations—and "diffused religion," namely folk beliefs, which lack an independent organizational system but are deeply permeated within secular folk organizational structures and social orders. In this sense, the religious beliefs of farmers have never been severed; rather, with social progress, they have gradually shifted from diffused religion toward institutional religion. Especially since entering the 21st century, various religious organizations and activities have sprung up in the countryside like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. As the saying goes, "it takes more than one cold day for the river to freeze three feet deep" [3]. The rise of rural religious belief in the New Era has significant social roots.
(1) Social Problems Resulting from the Process of Modernization
In sociology, "modernization" refers to the process of transition from a traditional agricultural society to a modern industrial society. It is a process of social change featuring coordinated economic and social development, led by scientific and technological progress and centered on industrialization and urbanization, all premised on social differentiation [4]. In this process of transformation, social differentiation accelerates; individual roles, social organizations, and social status are in a state of constant flux. Modernization has brought people immense opportunities, but it has also forced them to face immense challenges. Under the constraints of existing normative systems, individual ability and opportunity have become the keys to success in market competition.
Because rural areas have long been in a backward position, some farmers seized the once-in-a-lifetime opportunities granted by history to become "tide-players" in the surge of the market economy, rapidly amassing great wealth and becoming a new affluent class in the countryside. However, for the majority of farmers, following the old ways and being "strongly attached to one's native land" [5] remain their consistent modes of thinking. Faced with external temptations, most farmers dare not or cannot become active promoters of modernization. Modernization awakened their longing and expectations for a better life, yet reality proved cold and ruthless. The external world brought a huge psychological shock; unable to find a spiritual anchor in real society, they could only place their hopes in the afterlife. The inherent characteristics of religion happen to fill this spiritual void. Consequently, beyond traditional Buddhism and Taoism, the most striking phenomenon in rural religious trends is the widespread dissemination of Christianity. The Christian doctrines of original sin, redemption, and the Ten Commandments provide a spiritual anchor and explanation for the numerous social problems arising during this period of transition.
Some scholars believe that the "social anomie" brought about by social changes since Reform and Opening-up is an important root of the rise of rural religion. Specifically, this includes anomie in the economic sphere: under market economy conditions, the contingency and volatility of production and exchange increase, and the process of circulation becomes complex, with the market becoming an alien force [6] dominating people's behavior. Dishonest practices in economic life—such as fraud, defamation, disparagement, enticement, coercion, false advertising, and bribery—lead to emotional imbalance. There is anomie in the political sphere: the "non-action" of primary-level organizations. Finally, there is anomie in the cultural sphere: the collision of different values causes massive shifts in the social psychology of farmers. The absence of a dominant social spirit has led to a "vacuum of belief" for some, while the impoverished spiritual and cultural life in the countryside leaves people lacking spiritual support. It is precisely because of these various manifestations of anomie across these three spheres that Christianity and other beliefs have flooded the countryside [7].
In fact, the rise of religion in rural China must be considered within a broad historical context. For a long time, development policies that prioritized industry over agriculture caused rural development to lag increasingly behind the cities. Reform and Opening-up broadened the horizons of farmers and ignited their expectations for life; however, due to various subjective and objective constraints, their hopes could not be realized. Rational reflection is always painful, but the "narcotic effect" [8] of religion possesses a powerful attraction. Furthermore, as China’s social transformation accelerates, the increasing visibility of the social division of labor and differentiation has led vast numbers of young and middle-aged laborers to leave their hometowns for migrant work. Those left behind in the villages are mostly the elderly, women, and children. Material scarcity and psychological poverty are intertwined, leaving the "left-behind" population in the countryside without a spiritual home. Scholars surveying a town in a coastal province found that the local Christian population exhibited the following structural characteristics: first, they were generally older and the vast majority were married; second, they were primarily female, with fewer males; third, they were primarily farmers, with concentrated residential patterns; fourth, their household incomes were relatively low; and fifth, their educational levels were generally not high [9].
(2) The Contraction of the Rural Public Sphere
Humans are inherently social animals. When faced with common problems in production and life that they cannot solve alone, they require the help of others. There must be a medium and mechanism between social forces at all levels for the communication and expression of their own interests and demands; the network and social space formed by this interaction and discourse can be called the "public sphere." In Habermas’s terms, the public sphere is best described as "a network for communicating information and points of view... the streams of communication are, in the process, filtered and synthesized in such a way that they coalesce into bundles of topically specified public opinions" [10]. The existence of the public sphere does not stem from external demand, but from people's internal needs and requirements.
With the dissolution of the People’s Communes and the implementation of the Household Contract Responsibility System, individual production replaced the collective economy. While this released immense productive forces, it also brought about significant changes in the lifestyle of farmers. The traditional, politically LED and coercive interdependence was transformed into a greatly expanded space for farmers' autonomous and independent activity. Simultaneously, the connections between farmers gradually weakened. Traditional rural public gathering places, such as teahouses and open-air cinemas, vanished one after another. The popularization of modern media, such as television, has caused farmers to remain hoistered in their homes, becoming "slaves" to modern media. Communication and interaction between individuals lack appropriate media. Meanwhile, the organization of collective life by township and village leaders is mostly concentrated during the period of village elections. Due to the usual lack of mutual communication and interaction, and the weakness of democratic knowledge and skills, the effectiveness of elections is greatly compromised. The spiritual life of farmers is impoverished; since their spiritual pursuits cannot find new carriers, they must seek help from traditional forms. Religious belief and corresponding religious gatherings have become important tools for farmers to satisfy their own need for public participation. Coupled with the state's long-term neglect of rural compulsory education, the modern scientific and cultural quality of farmers is relatively low, and their capacity for rational thinking is weak. They encounter many perplexities with no place for solace, making them easily influenced by external religious ideas.
(3) Changes in the State Political System
Religious belief has a long history in human development. Following the founding of the People’s Republic, it underwent a circuitous process. In particular, the unprecedented Cultural Revolution dealt a devastating blow to religious organizations: venues were destroyed, religious personnel were criticized, and many religions were suppressed under high political pressure. However, religion is deeply rooted in people’s production and life; it possesses a vast vitality that cannot be subdued by the force of a regime alone. After Reform and Opening-up, with the establishment of religious policies suited to China's national conditions and the implementation of the policy of freedom of religious belief, religious organizations, activities, and personnel have flourished like bamboo shoots after rain.
Beyond the implementation of the policy on freedom of religious belief and the government’s lifting of high-pressure policies, the development guideline of "taking economic construction as the center" also indirectly promoted the rise of religion in the countryside. On one hand, the focus on economic construction promoted rural economic development; on the other hand, it also prompted the differentiation of rural classes, widening the gap between rich and poor. At the same time, faced with the rapid transitions of social development, governments at all levels focused their attention on "attracting investment and capital" [11], paying little or basically no attention to rural cultural development. The spiritual life of farmers remained in a long-term state of poverty. Modern mass media like television, which focuses primarily on metropolitan and urban content, finds it difficult to elicit a spiritual resonance from farmers. Faced with complex and ever-changing new social phenomena, the decline of traditional values, and the shifting of new value systems, people's sense of anxiety has generally increased. Farmers feel they cannot adapt; their restless souls must find a place of repose. Religion, whether for the rich or the poor, the old or the young, men or women, is undoubtedly an optimal choice.
(4) Strengthening of Farmers' Consciousness of Participation
Political participation is a vital component of modern democratic politics and the foundation upon which modern social democratic systems depend. Modern democratic politics requires all social classes, strata, and even the general public to participate directly or indirectly in politics to varying degrees. Political participation refers to "activities by private citizens that attempt to influence government decision-making." The "consciousness of political participation" among farmers refers to the sum total of their thoughts, views, knowledge, and psychology regarding political participation—that is, the desire of farmers to participate in politics. As a major agricultural country, the status and level of political participation consciousness among 900 million farmers is an important parameter for measuring the construction of political civilization in our country, and a major political issue concerning whether the construction of a Socialist New Countryside can be successfully realized. An important basis for political participation is social participation. Without good systems and habits of social participation, true political democracy—in the form of the currently implemented "villager self-governance" [12]—will fall into empty talk. The activity of rural religious organizations and the increase in religious followers themselves indicate that farmers are no longer satisfied with being long confined to their homes facing "cold" mass media, nor are they satisfied with being ignored for long periods after the feverish "carnival" of election time. They want to step out of the household and realize their desire for participation.
II. The Impact of Religion on the Construction of the New Countryside
The reasons for the rise of religion are very complex, and its impact on the construction of the New Countryside is multi-layered. There is both a beneficial side and a harmful side. However, taken as a whole, through long-term development of rural religion itself and the government’s standardized guidance and management, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
(1) Strengthening Trust Among the Masses
Social differentiation in rural areas requires a corresponding force of social integration to regulate farmers' behaviors. In a context where the moral integration of traditional clans is gradually weakening due to social transformation, religion—as a shared belief—easily resonates with farmers' spirits, allowing them to find a final spiritual anchor in a complex and shifting world. Believers with a common faith possess a strong sense of identity. Religion can utilize its own doctrines to influence the worldviews, outlooks on life, and values of its followers. Religious rules can regulate the behavior of believers. In particular, the benevolence, kindness, performance of good deeds, and self-discipline/altruism promoted by religion enable the masses to care for one another and unite. This concentrates the various forces and interests in the countryside and allows them to coexist peacefully, benefiting the improvement of interpersonal relationships and the eradication of "rural bad habits" [13]. Especially at present, when there are many "left-behind" masses in the countryside and government public security faces difficulties, the role of religion as a bond for regulating tense interpersonal relationships is increasingly highlighted.
(2) Enriching Rural Culture
Rapid economic development has been accompanied by a sharp decline in rural cultural life. The mismatch between urban culture and the rural "soil and water" [14] has led conservative peasants to seek out traditional cultural forms of entertainment to satisfy their needs. The religions prevalent in the countryside—Taoism, Buddhism, and Islam, as well as Catholicism and Protestantism, which have developed rapidly since the Reform and Opening-up—are all closely integrated with long-standing rural folk culture, swiftly embedding themselves into the production and daily lives of local peasants. Traditional rural celebrations contain strong religious elements. The revival of traditional culture under the banner of religion manifests, on the one hand, the peasants’ unfamiliarity with and resistance to cultural forms of the New Era, reflecting the poverty of their spiritual and cultural lives. On the other hand, it highlights the immense attraction that religious culture, with its ancient traditions, holds for the peasantry. Through sermons by church leaders and collective study by believers, the deficiencies of rural compulsory education are compensated for to a certain extent, enhancing cultural knowledge and skills.
(3) Developing the Participation Capacity of Peasants Due to the low level of traditional agricultural productive forces, peasants have historically possessed a weak sense of autonomy, a heavy reliance on authority, and deep-seated worship mentalities. From the worship of natural deities to the worship of individuals, this thread runs throughout the history of rural development. A top priority in the construction of a new socialist countryside is to transform peasants from a "subject consciousness" into a "citizen consciousness." The implementation of the system of villager self-governance is undoubtedly a major institutional breakthrough. However, because peasants have long lacked the cultivation and training of corresponding skills, their awareness of participation remains weak. Furthermore, due to flaws in institutional design, the methods for peasant participation in social affairs have not been formalized or normalized; thus, their desire for participation has long lacked an outlet for realization. The inherent inclusivity and openness of religion allow it to accommodate peasants from all strata, enabling them to participate equally in religious activities supported by a common faith. In this process, the democratic consciousness, awareness of participation, and participation capacity of peasants are all markedly improved.
At the same time, we must soberly recognize the negative impact that the massive rise of religion has brought to rural development, remaining vigilant [15] and taking early precautions.
(1) Commericalization Tendencies Chinese folk society has long lacked serious religious belief, possessing instead a thick layer of utilitarianism. Peasants believe in religion either to seek spiritual sustenance from church organizations or for leisure and entertainment. The impact of the tide of the market economy on the countryside, along with the prevalence of money worship and materialism, has led some to use religious organizations as tools for profit. By organizing religious activities and using enticement, deception, or even superstitious coercion, they swindle money and property from the believing masses, who remain unaware that they have been duped. Grassroots political power organizations at the township level often lack supervision over these activities. Existing performance appraisal methods for township leaders also drive some local governments to rack their brains searching for "roads to wealth." In order to attract investment, they adopt strategies such as "using temple fairs to build the stage so the economy can perform the play" [16] or "letting temples go first to revitalize tourism," investing heavily in the new construction, expansion, and renovation of temples. The religious industry is developing rapidly, yet the market for religious products lacks effective regulation. Some leaders of religious organizations collude with officials to defraud the believing masses of their wealth.
(2) Small-Group Tendencies The large number of religious groups emerging in the countryside are informal groups, lacking the constraints of explicitly stated rules and regulations. However, because of their shared faith, they have formed common interests, characterized by the clustering of likes, mutual benefit, grassroots nature, and organizational structure. Therefore, when the functions of rural grassroots political power decline and the administration of grassroots leaders loses public support, religious groups become an important force influencing the production and life of peasants. They either use legal channels to influence rural elections or adopt confrontational methods to resist rural public authority. In some areas, highly exclusive religious organizations have appeared, which not only confront public authority but also create a great deal of conflict between masses of different faiths, affecting rural harmony and stability.
(3) Confrontational Tendencies The smooth progress of the construction of a new socialist countryside requires harmonious interpersonal relations. Many aspects of religious doctrine reflect the common moral requirements of humanity and meet the psychological needs of human nature for familial affection, friendship, justice, fairness, and virtue; these are compatible with the ideology of cultural construction for a new socialist countryside. Actively exerting the educational functions of religion is beneficial not only for the construction of advanced rural culture but also for coordinating social interpersonal relations, guiding the believing and non-believing masses to respect one another and live in harmony, and promoting rural construction. On the other hand, however, some believers possess a narrow sense of religious identity, often regarding their own sect as the orthodox center and viewing other religions, denominations, or non-believing masses as "others." This easily leads to interpersonal tension, alienation, and even antagonistic conflict.
In short, faced with the surging rise of religious belief in the countryside, government management departments should deeply reflect on their own behavior and adopt rational policies. They must not let things drift, indifferently assuming that religion has no bearing on the overall situation of economic construction; nor should they view it as a "flood or a wild beast" [17] and attempt to solve the issue through crude methods. Instead, they must manage religion according to the law and guide it to adapt to the development of socialist society.