The Church Under the Cross

The first edition of this work was six years in the making. It began with an invitation in September 2003 by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy to participate in a December conference on human rights and to receive an award for my involvement in the democracy and human rights struggle of the Taiwanese people during my missionary days there in the early 1970s. In preparation for this conference, I was asked to write a memoir of my experiences during what had become known as the "White Terror" period in Taiwan's history. A number of people who read that memoir encouraged me to write about my subsequent experiences in Hong Kong, China, and Indonesia as well. It happened that I was called to minister in those places at critical times in their histories-times of turmoil that proved to be times of testing for the churches there. Thus, the common thread that runs throughout what will now be a second edition in four volumes-the church under the cross. Although this volume on Taiwan includes my story, it focuses as well on the wider church I served as my colleagues and the Christians for whom they were responsible struggled to come to terms with the sometimes terrible challenges they faced under the cross of fascism.

The second edition, besides corrections and improvements, contains over 50 pages of new text and 70 new photographs reflecting my visits to, experiences in, and reflections on Taiwan to bring the story up to 2022.

My goal in setting down my experiences, observations, and conclusions was to produce an account that was informative, interesting, and inspirational. Even today, I find that many people do not know much about many of the events recorded in this book. My hope is that this account will help fill those gaps. I also hope that readers will find this account interesting, stimulating, and at times even humorous. My further hope is that readers will be as inspired as I was when I encountered the courageous Christians described in these pages as they faithfully practiced their faith and prophetically challenged "the powers."