Christians on Wednesday urged prayers for the “swift and safe release” of three church members in northeastern Vietnam, including a Catholic priest, after security forces reportedly detained them during a home worship service.
Christian workers in Vietnam say believers in the Communist-run Asian nation experience “severe persecution,” including violent attacks on church services that killed a Christian leader and his wife and injured a pastor.
A pastor in Vietnam’s Central Highlands was recovering from his injuries Thursday after being shot in his left knee with a rubber bullet while riding a motorbike home, Worthy News learned.
Multiple ethnic Montagnard Christian leaders in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region were arrested on December 21 after they began preparing to celebrate Christmas and led congregations in unauthorized worship services, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Two house church pastors in Vietnam have been wounded in separate shooting incidents they each believe are connected to their congregations not not being registered with the Vietnamese communist government, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
A Vietnamese man who recently became a Christian has been killed after local authorities objected to his conversion, Worthy News learned Saturday.
Christian advocates have expressed concern that the August 3 election of communist President To Lam as Vietnam’s new leader will make life more difficult for Vietnamese believers. Even before Lam’s election, Communist-ruled Buddhist-majority Vietnam ranked 35 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
Six Protestants and five Catholics in Vietnam have disappeared after being imprisoned by the ruling communist government for religious activity deemed threatening to “national unity.”
Christians in Vietnam now face new hurdles in planting churches as the government has issued Decree 95, a law which requires religious groups to submit financial records and allows officials to close down religious activities for unspecified “serious violations,” Christianity Today reports.
A Vietnamese evangelical pastor whose body was found hanging in a cemetery in Vietnam’s Dak Lak Province is believed by local Christians to have been killed by government authorities who had forced him to renounce his faith in Christ and leave his church, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Vietnam’s ruling Communist party has designated as terrorist organizations two human rights groups which support the country’s largely Christian Montagnard minority indigenous community, Premier Christian News (PCN) reports.
Worryingly, Christian refugees from the Vietnamese Hmong and Montagnard minority groups are now facing arrests and harassment from officials in Thailand, where they have come seeking refuge from persecution in Vietnam, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Ethnic evangelical Christians in Vietnam are preparing to be violently blamed for recent anti-government unrest in which nine people were murdered by armed groups earlier this month, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
Hmong Christians in the Nghe An province of Vietnam are suffering intense persecution as officials work to create “Christian-free zones,” Morning Star News (MSN) reports. Christians make up 8.5% of the population in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, where many identify with animism and with ethnic Vietnamese Folk religion.
Four families in northern Vietnam have been officially expelled from their village homes because they converted to Christianity, Christian Today reports.
Devoted Christians in northwestern Vietnam faced a challenging Easter after government officials raided a Catholic Church service in the region.
A pastoral couple and 11 members of their church have been interrogated by Vietnamese police officials in regard to false accusations that the Christians maliciously started a significant COVID-19 outbreak in Ho Chi Minh City in May, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. Local Christian leaders believe the interrogation and accusations are part of an effort to defame and shame Vietnamese evangelicals.
Vietnam has come under fire from US government officials and international human rights advocates after Vietnamese authorities raided two churches and arrested over 20 Christians, almost all of whom belong to the persecuted Montagnard ethnic group, in May, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
The California-based rights group Vietnam Human Rights Network (VHRN) has published its 2020-2021 report, asserting that Vietnamese Christians are suffering persecution, including imprisonment and land confiscation at the hands of the country’s communist government, ICC reports.
Recent accusations by Vietnamese government authorities that Christians are responsible for spreading COVID-19 in the country may have caused long-lasting damage to Vietnam’s Evangelical community, Morning Star News.