Vietnam

Ethnic Christians in Vietnam are bracing for potential fallout should they be blamed for recent anti-government violence.

In the central Vietnam province, officials vying with each other to create “Christian-free zones” operate “with no conscience or humanity,” as if they were in a different country than the one whose religious freedom measures they are violating, Christian leaders say.

When the “Government of Vietnam” posted two draft religion decrees the first week of June, even ranking staff members of the Government Bureau of Religious Affairs were taken by surprise and encouraged religious leaders to strongly object. The decrees with ancillary documents were posted online for input by government departments and the public. The document dump was 151 pages.

While Martin Luther King Jr. Day is mostly commemorated with quotes and clips of King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech and footage of bus boycotts and the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, some of the most important moments of King’s work came later, as he turned his attention from civil rights to poverty and the Vietnam War. Here’s a sampling:

According to sources, authorities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam have questioned a pastoral couple and 11 congregation members in the criminal prosecution of a church facing wild accusations of starting a COVID-19 outbreak.

Some 290 of the 306 students and staff at the Evangelical Church of Vietnam South’s (ECVN-S) Institute of Bible and Theology in Ho Chi Minh City have tested positive for COVID-19.

According to sources, Vietnamese authorities sent a recently formed house-church alliance a letter noting that security authorities were investigating the Revival Ekklesia Mission (REM) for “violating the law against ‘spreading dangerous infectious diseases in humans.’”

The vilification of the Revival Ekklesia Mission church in Vietnam has somewhat quieted, but its linking of evangelicals with COVID-19 is feared to have done long-lasting damage.

A Vietnamese house-church organization is facing government prosecution and community hate due to a widespread COVID-19 outbreak within the organization.

The Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South) was denied permission by the Vietnamese government to hold its scheduled bi-annual Clergy Assembly.