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.
Christian rights activists and other advocates urged Vietnam Tuesday to release four prisoners of conscience in Vietnam, including pastors, amid concerns about their health.
A Montagnard Christian in Vietnam was released from prison in February following sixteen years of torture by the Vietnamese government for protesting its treatment of ethnic and religious minorities.
Evangelical pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh will always have the scar on top of his head to remind him of the years that he was imprisoned, beaten and tortured for daring to advocate on behalf of indigent people groups being denied human rights by Vietnam’s communist government.
Two dozen Christians in Vietnam were recently attacked by a mob for their faith.
Evangelist Franklin Graham said that multitudes responded to Jesus Christ during his two-day evangelistic crusade in Vietnam, and argued that the Communist government there is starting to warm up to Christianity.
After 19 long months of investigative detention following his Dec. 16, 2015 arrest, renowned human rights attorney Nguyen Van Dai was finally charged with a crime on July 30.
As Pastor Dang Ba Nham, his wife and a church elder were praying with a recent convert to Christianity along a busy roadside, a large pickup truck with military plates suddenly veered across the street and struck them.
Earlier this month, the wife of an imprisoned pastor suffered severe mistreatment at the hands of Vietnamese authorities.