Police in northern Laos have detained a pastor “for attracting people to the Christian faith” as part of a wider crackdown on evangelism in the region, a representative told Worthy News Saturday, June 9.
A government crackdown on churches in southern Laos is spreading to a new district with the brief detention of two “prominent pastors” for alleged unauthorized worship and their involvement in evangelism and an order take down crosses, representatives told Worthy News.
Members of three evangelical churches in southern Laos began reclaiming their church buildings confiscated by Lao authorities in a daring move to worship during Palm Sunday, the countdown to Easter, a representative told Worthy News.
Lao authorities have detained five Christians who attended a Christian worship service Sunday, March 25, in southern Laos amid a crackdown on Christianity in the region, representatives told Worthy News.
The only known Christian in a rural district of northern Laos was under pressure to abandon his faith in Christ or face expulsion from his village, his supporters told Worthy News.
It’s been a tough time to be a Christian in Laos.
In Luang Namtha Province, Pastor Seng Aroun of Kon church and three other Christians from Sounya village were arrested in July by provincial authorities and detained at Luang Namtha’s provincial prison. Although most were soon released, the authorities ordered all Christians in Sounya village to stop worshiping in private homes, according to Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom.
Two pastors arrested six months ago on charges of holding a “secret meeting” during a Christmas celebration without government approval languish in prison without a trial. Officials continue to offer them the option of renouncing their faith and walking free.
Scores of terrified villagers faced starvation in the jungles of Laos on Sunday, February 27, after they were driven from their village at gunpoint for refusing to give up Christianity in this predominantly Buddhist nation, residents and rights activists said.
An influential house church leader is jailed in Laos for more than half a year and he may be killed as authorities fear the spread of Christianity in the region where he has been working, an advocacy group said Friday, April 16.
Dozens of Christian families in a village in Laos have been warned they will lose their homes and remaining live stock unless they abandon Christianity and start worshiping “local spirits” in accordance with Lao traditions, rights investigators said Thursday, July 16.
Several impoverished Christian families in a rural area of Laos were without livestock Sunday, July 12, after authorities slaughtered the animals because they refused to renounce their faith, religious rights investigators said.
Worthy News Asia Service
NOMSOMBOON, LAOS (Worthy News)– Christians in a village of Laos’ Borikhamxay province were without a church building Tuesday, April 14, as police destroyed their property as part of a crackdown on Christians in rural areas, Worthy NewsLife learned.
Dozens of Christian villagers in Laos were reportedly facing uncertainty Thursday, September 25, after local authorities told them they will be expelled because several Christian families refuse to renounce their faith in Christ. It came as a widow said she had forgiven those who killed her husband because of his church activities, the latest in several violent incidents against Christian villagers in parts of the Communist nation.
Authorities in Laos have ordered families of three detained Christians in Savannakhet province to sign documents renouncing their faith in Jesus Christ, rights investigators said Thursday, August 28.
Authorities in Laos have detained or arrested at least 90 Christians in three provinces in recent weeks, including an arrest last Sunday (Aug. 3) of a pastor and two other believers from a house church in Boukham village, Savannakhet province.
At least 15 Christian families in Laos remained unaccounted for Sunday, March 16, after security forces raided their villages and Hmomg church leaders were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, human rights investigators said.
Laotian officials arrested 15 Hmong Christian families in Bokeo district on February 22, a day before a court sentenced nine area Hmong church leaders to 15 years in prison for conducting Christian ministry and meetings that had grown beyond acceptable levels for communist officials.