The Yellow Confucian Christ: Seek First to Understand China, then to be Understood by China

10:53 AM Saturday.

Greetings, Duffy.

I hope this retreat update finds you well since our marathon telephone conversation on Monday morning.

Let me begin with a confession. I started the week with a focus on Cardinal Zen and the Dalai Lama as living icons and incarnations of "yellow" Maitreya Christ consciousness (following Black Elk's medicine wheel symbolism as I discussed last week). I was convinced that America and the Church needed to learn harder on Marxist China to protect the religious rights of Christians and Buddhists in that country. As this Advent week has progressed, however, I have come to see the situation from more of a mainland Chinese point of view. This process has involved some repentance for the shadow side of my American exceptionalism:

https://share.google/aimode/qBq1SD9wc4y4zlnPr 

It now occurs to me that we may benefit from spending some time visualizing Marxism as a branch of messianic Jewish thought (Marx was Jewish, after all), and the current leader of Chinese Marxism, Xi Jinping, as an incarnation of the "Yellow Confucian Christ":

Of course, I don't mean to say that fiercely libertarian American men and earnest disciples of Christ should convert to Confucian Marxism. However, if we seek first to understand China, and then to be understood by China, we may find ourselves diving deep into a diplomatic dialogue that compels us to see the Incarnation of the Logos through both Confucian Marxist and Judeo-Christian capitalist lenses. Would you agree that many of the parables of Jesus seem to teach a healthy form of welfare capitalism, even as others seem consistent with a healthy Marxist interpretation? 

Today, Saturday, 13 December 2025, is a sensitive day for Marxist China because of the Nanjing Massacre and a recent flare-up in tensions between China and Japan over Taiwan. I think it is important in Quad talks between America, Australia, India and Japan that we seek to understand the emerging global order from a Chinese point of view. It is crucial that we balance competitive Quad assertiveness with cooperative Quad empathy: 

President Trump's recently released 2025 National Security Strategy (2025 NSS) takes an important step in this direction, but it may not go far enough. Well, perhaps not far enough for those of us in our mid-fifties. For President Trump and President Xi, both of whom are in their seventies, it may be exactly far enough. By 2050, you and I will be caught up to where President Trump and President Xi are now, God willing. Let's pray that there is much mutual affection and understanding in Chinese and American hearts at that time:

I look forward to connecting again soon.

Shalom.

End 1:17 PM.