The cost of following Jesus in Vietnam is high. government and in rural contexts, tribal leaders, target Christians in Vietnam. The government has some level of tolerance for Christian groups, particularly Catholics, but if any believers are deemed to be politically active, they can be imprisoned.
Families and communities that tie religion and ethnicity closely often pressure and inflict violence upon Christians who convert from traditional religions.
On the state level, villagers collude with local Communist authorities. They beat believers, kicking them out of their villages, and stoning places of worship during meetings. Local and national government authorities persecute the Christian minority through their laws. They arrest and sentence Christian bloggers and political activists.
A sweeping 2018 law on religion, which looked like a possible improvement for Christians on paper, has not changed anything substantially, except to add another source of uncertainty. Tighter regulations on online communication also restrict and limit the freedom available to Christians.
Despite dropping by one place in the overall ranking of the top fifty, the persecution score for Vietnam actually went up by two points. The score for violence and almost all spheres of life increased slightly.
How Christians are Suffering
The state and community persecute both non-traditional Protestants and converts from indigenous religions intensively. Estimates indicate that approximately eighty percent of the country’s Christians belong to the country’s ethnic minorities, like the Hmong, and face social exclusion, discrimination, and attacks.
Ethnic minority Christian children are discriminated against in schools; schools often neglect their medical needs. Some schools do not allow them to attend at all.
Non-Christian relatives of Christians are also strong persecutors, cutting family ties and denying any family inheritance. In some cases, relatives force a Christian spouse to divorce and then withhold custody of their children. Communities and the state sometimes destroy believers’ homes, forcing them to leave their villages.
Examples of Persecution
In several incidents, government-hired thugs have attacked churches and monasteries in Hanoi, Hue, and Saigon. They pressured the believers to accept demolition and the expropriation of their land.
Vietnam sentenced and jailed a number of Catholic activists, bloggers, and Protestant pastors in 2018. In August, the courts sentenced a pastor, Le Dinh Luong, to twenty years for an alleged attempt to “overthrow the government.”
When tribal students in the central highlands converted to Christianity, their college principal threatened them with expulsion. Teachers also try to discourage Christian students. They say no one would employ them so it would be better to give up their faith altogether.
Rendered Stateless
The following example of persecution in Vietnam comes from International Christian Concern:
Government-led oppression in Vietnam has rendered tens of thousands of Hmong Christians stateless, leaving them without household registration. Without it, people cannot obtain marriage certificates, birth certificates for their children, or even open a bank account. As a result, one of the most immediate and serious consequences is that they are unable to purchase health insurance.
Mr. Ly A Lam and his not-legally-recognized wife, Vang Thi Mo, are both originally from Dien Bien province in northern Vietnam. In 2013, they were under pressure from the local authorities to renounce their Christian faith and migrated to Doan Ket Commune. This was a community located in the jungle and mostly made up of displaced Hmong Christians in central Vietnam.
In their new residence, Lam’s family, like the other 170 households in the commune, does not have household registration.
State-Inflicted Suffering
They suffer tremendously as a result. The state denies them the right to an education, to buy and own land, to set up a business, to be legally employed, to access state-owned insurance, to legally marry, and to have the father’s name included in their children’s birth certificates.
In August 2018, Lam fell ill and was hospitalized. The doctors diagnosed him with a severe stomach ulcer. Without household registration, his family was not eligible for social security or medical care.
His wife tried to get a loan from a state bank but they required a household registration. The hospital advised Lam that if the police of Dak Ngo Village certified that he was a local resident, the hospital fee would be waived.
The police, however, refused his request for certification because his family did not have household registration. Without any other options, Lam’s wife had to sell the family’s moped, which helped Lam earn a living by running errands and doing odd jobs for neighbors.
The sale of the scooter brought in the equivalent of $430 USD. Lam’s wife had to borrow another $430 from neighbors to pay for hospital fees and medication.
The High Cost of Following Jesus
The persecution in Vietnam reminds us of the high cost of following Christ for many of our brothers and sisters around the world. It also reminds us to pray for their faith and perseverance, as well as for the Lord to put an end to sin and injustice.
CoEditor’s Note: The first part of this article is taken from Open Doors, a ministry that supports persecuted Christians in more than sixty countries.
[1] https://www.persecution.org/2019/05/28/icc-provides-moped-hmong-christian-family/
