A Bump in the Road for the Shanghai Temple

Unfortunate news just reported in The Salt Lake Tribune indicates that plans for a Shanghai temple may have hit a bump in the road. Peggy Fletcher Stack’s story, “Plans for an LDS temple in Shanghai may have hit an obstacle,” reflects some decent investigation and a good understanding of how things work in China. Kudos, Peggy! We can’t be sure at this stage if the apparent problem is real, serious, or just temporary, or if anything has actually gone wrong, but with parts of the government in China saying we don’t have a deal, it sure looks like trouble As the article points out, such setbacks happen often in negotiations in China.

There are many organizations, departments, bureaus, and diverse interests that can play a role in these things and influence outcomes, resulting in the fairly common occurrence of a foreign entity thinking an agreement is settled when, in fact, it is still up in the air or might be reversed. It is possible that President Nelson’s surprising announcement has been set back by increasing tensions between the US and China, or that it was premature from the perspective of key leaders in Beijing, Shanghai, or a variety of agencies and bureaus, or had not yet been approved by someone that those involved did not realize needed to be involved. The announcement itself could have triggered alarms or stirred people to become involved that might not have been originally–if so, that doesn’t necessarily make it a mistake, for it may have resulted in facing hidden challenges months or years earlier than would have occurred otherwise, possibly leading to a swifter final resolution, one way or the other (of course, I personally hope that a temple will be possible in the end). I doubt that there is no fundamental issue apart from temporary misunderstanding from some officials — to me, this looks like genuine trouble that will require further negotiation and patience.

When sensitivities are at play, surprises abound in China. Anything involving foreigners can be sensitive, as can anything involving religion, and when you put the two together for a deal involving foreigners seeking to create a temple in China, a final agreement may take several cycles past the stage when all seems settled to the foreign party.

The announcement of a Shanghai temple, as surprising as it was, was merely a baby step, and this set back may also be merely a small but painful step backwards, the kind of temporary setback we have encountered many times in seeking to build temples around the world. Will there be a temple in Shanghai? I sure hope so. It will benefit local members there and reduce their need to go to Hong Kong or other places to receive temple blessings. But until all relevant authorities are on board and any new concerns are resolved, we’ll need to be patient. It may also require some improvement in relationships between the West and China which have become greatly strained in recent weeks.

Author: Jeff Lindsay

7 thoughts on “A Bump in the Road for the Shanghai Temple

  1. From your original entry celebrating the announcement:

    Anonymous Anonymous said…
    Interesting:

    留言时间:2020-04-07 09:18:30
    答复时间:2020-04-07 14:20
    答复单位:上海市民族和宗教事务局办公室
    留言标题:求证摩门教的消息
    留言内容:看到微博上有摩门教将要在上海建教堂的消息,特来咨询求证,烦请百忙之中给予回复,谢谢!
    答复内容:
    一、根据中国相关法律法规规定,外国人不得在中国境内成立宗教组织,设立宗教活动场所。
    二、美国摩门教发布在上海建立所谓“圣殿”的信息,我市民宗部门毫不知情,是美国摩门教一厢情愿,无中生有。

    Translation:

    Responding Unit: Office of Shanghai Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau
    Message Title: To verify the news of Mormonism
    Message content: Seeing the news on the Weibo that the Mormon Church is about to build a church in Shanghai, I have come to consult and verify, please give me a reply in my busy schedule, thank you!
    Reply content:
    1. According to the relevant laws and regulations of China, foreigners are not allowed to set up religious organizations or venues for religious activities in China.
    2. The Mormon Church of the United States released information on the establishment of the so-called "Temple" in Shanghai. My civil sect department was unaware of it.

    11:51 PM, April 14, 2020

  2. Jeff, can you translate this? I think the media got it from Exmo Reddit, which got it from Google translate, and which gives me a different translation each time I try it. Sometimes it translates the final paragraph as "my civil sect department was unaware" and sometimes "wishful thinking by the United States." A pretty big difference!

  3. Jeff, let us remember that the Lord is behind all of this. At some point in time there will be a temple in Shanghai.

  4. Google Translate is just surprisingly bad for Chinese. Somebody in the Religious Affairs Bureau allegedly is saying that they were not aware of the temple plans in one sentence, and then in the few words they also say it was wishful thinking, created out of nothing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.