Will Olympics Help Chinese Christians?

As concerning the upcoming Olympics being hosted in Beijing, China, I, like most, am looking forward to watching these games which begin this weekend. However, I have mixed feelings about these particular games since persecution of Christians (at least evangelical Christians who don't conform to the official Chinese 'church-state' policies, etc.) as well as other religious groups very much still exists. The current Voice of the Martyrs magazine issue (see website on link-above) is titled "China's Illegal Christians" and the issue documents the ongoing persecution still faced by Christians in China.

I wonder whether the worldwide media coverage (but see the various restrictions which have been placed on the recently arrived reporters for coverage of the games, both in forms of internet firewalls and otherwise) will have the effect of helping to ease persecution of Christians in China. My guess is that visible persecution (most of which happens away from the major urban areas anyway) will ease for obvious reasons, but once the Olympics is over with, and the rest of the world moves on, the oppression will continue.

As most remember, the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to the Soviets invasion of Afghanistan, but at the time the Soviet communist state policy was, like China, officially atheistic and oppressive of Christians throughout the various Russian states. Should we have boycotted these Olympics? My guess is probably not, since the atheletes should not be punished and whether or not the U.S. attends would not greatly affect the human rights situation, although I believe that our current administration needs to be more outspoken than it has been regarding these issues.

Although I hope and pray that the Christians in China will truly be helped by the exposure created by the Olympics, I don't believe much will change for them, unfortunately. I do hope that amongst the din of the spectacle of the games and '24/7' media coverage thereof, at least some mention will be made of the persecution of Christians by some reporters and that their struggle will not be overlooked or forgotten by American Christians during this time.