JINING: Samuel Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, died almost two years ago, but his prophecy of conflict between Western Christianity and Islam and Confucianism in the East lives on in talks between Christians and Confucianists in China.

At an evening seminar Sunday during an international forum to ease cultural misunderstandings, the discussion revolved around why Christianity's global expansion had been linked with violence and war, in contrast to the teachings of Jesus Christ to love thy neighbor.

Yang Sung Moo, from Chung Ang University of the Republic of Korea, said Christianity had come to his country "very violently" in the 1880s when missionaries disregarded local Confucian rituals by forbidding believers to kowtow to their enshrined ancestors and destroying Buddhist statues.

The violent reputation remained until the democratic movement started in South Korea in the 1970s, when churches became a shelter for labor union activists and democrats seeking fairness and justice.

"If Christianity wants to spread across the world, its preaching must respect cultures and cater to the needs of local people," said Yang.

His opinion echoed that of Robert H. Schullar, a U.S. Christian minister famous for his TV program, Hour of Power, and funding the Crystal Cathedral ministries.

Asked if Christianity could save the world, the 84-year-old said: "My goodness, no. Because each person is an individual thinker, they react possibly negatively.

"Do you need help? Can I help you? That has to be the way, to give people encouragement," he said during a morning dialogue of the first Nishan Forum on World Civilizations in east China's Shandong Province.

The forum was initiated by Xu Jialu, a retired vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People' s Congress. Xu has spent nearly three years working to have this first forum in China as a dialogue between Confucianism and Christianity and watched it grow from a distant idea into a possibility.

The organizers chose Nishan Mountain, the birthplace of Confucius, as the venue to hold the epoch-making meeting.