Vietnam, Darkness and Light: Christmas Counterpoint in Hanoi, Page 2

February 2002

Articles in this issue:  Vietnam, Page 1 | Vietnam, Page 2 | Vietnam, Pakistan, Page 3 | Vietnam, Page 4

“You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry....” Psalm 10:17

Darkness and Light: Christmas Counterpoint in Hanoi

Vietnamese Christian children.

          Hanoi, in the winter of December, is penetrated by a dull gray sky. In the morning gloom flower sellers go door-to-door, bicycles laden with bright red and yellow blooms, shining brightness into the grayness. This is a metaphor too strong to miss! 

          This is the second Sunday of Advent. There are few signs of Christmas in this communist capital. A red, lighted star, hanging from a string of white lights across a wide street fooled me for a moment. Reality check! The next string held the glowing image of the hammer and sickle. Vietnam is one of the five remaining communist bastions in the world, and determined to remain that way. 

          But as in all communist regimes still clinging to this failed ideology, the leaders are desperate to hold onto power and privilege. They see other world views and religions as threats. Christianity, with its claims to transcendent truth, is high on the list. Evangelical Christianity is most dangerous. It is officially described as "the vanguard of the enemy's new strategy of peaceful evolution that uses human rights, democracy and religious freedom to undermine the revolution." Truth is an enemy. And so the Party works very hard to cajole and force religion into subservience to the state. 

	Leaders secretly gather to pray and study God's word.

          For example, in May hundreds of security police came to arrest Father Nguyen Van Ly at his parish in the city of Hue. In September he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. His crime? Speaking the truth about lack of religious freedom! Evangelical Christians of the tribal minorities in the mountains are especially hounded and persecuted to try to persuade them to abandon their faith. Pressure intensified in 2001. 

          But Vietnam is a place of contradictions! I was invited to a Christmas concert at the Hanoi Opera House this afternoon. An enterprising foreign worker had found a way to let the Light shine in darkness. He had spent months teaching music to the children of the Nguyen Dinh Chieu School for Blind Children, and had found international organizations willing to sponsor this wonderful event. So I went at 3:00 PM to the theatre. 

          A Vice-President, a Vice-Prime Minister, and the Vice-Minister for Culture and Information of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam are introduced. Representing an atheistic system, they nonetheless sit front and center at the Christmas concert, perhaps in ceremonial deference to nationals whose help they so badly need. 

          The blind children learned their music well! What amazing sounds they elicit from indigenous instruments--the bamboo flute, a monochord and guitars. What harmony! The audience is warmly appreciative! After a break and tea in the Hall of Mirrors and on the open balcony looking down on the main city square and up Tran Tien Street with its art galleries and book stalls, we returned to the theatre! 

          The children's choir began the Christmas carols. They sang unhindered by the darkness of their blindness, "When a Child is Born!" They continued with "Go Tell It on The Mountain." A young lad with a guitar sang hauntingly, "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Two girls continued with a duet, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." The choir sang "We Three Kings." The lights were down while the children's choir holding candles sang "Silent Night." A dozen young girls in pink tutus danced silently in front of the choir. Pure delight! I'll bet Jesus liked it too! 

          I sat under the balcony in the rear struggling with the competing realities around me. I was filled alternately with joy and wonder and anger! It was the joy of Christmas. It was wonder at the skill of blind children expressing the Christian message so clearly here in the heart of Communist power. And it was anger! You see, in the small backpack that lay at my feet were newly acquired official government documents, lists of prisoners, and testimonies of Christians, underlining in the clearest possible way that the wonderful news of the Newborn King in Vietnam, as in Herod's day, is unwelcome, feared and cruelly resisted! 

          The song rang, "Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere!" In a Communist Party bulletin issued on May 5, 2001, in the mountains of Lao Cai Province, an official order says, "Firmly resolve not to allow people to meet together to pray and worship and sings Christian songs. . ." The Scriptures say, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news . . ." The pledge form that many people, some illiterate, are forced to sign reads, "If any stranger comes to my village illegally preaching the good news religion, I will turn him in to the authorities." 

          "O come, O come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel" says another carol. At least 21 Hmong men, recent converts to Christianity and bold witnesses to its freeing power are themselves in prison cells because they chose to follow Jesus! "O come thou rod of Jesse, free thine own from Satan's tyranny." 

"In thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light," is true not only of Bethlehem, but also of some villages in Bao Thang District of Lao Cai Province. And because it is, officials organize seminars for Christians in which they are enjoined "to sign pledges to follow traditional customs and beliefs, and to resist the useless, socially deplorable, outdated, backward, and confused people who follow Christianity illegally." (continued on page 4)

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POSTED:  March 9, 2002

February 2002

Articles in this issue:  Vietnam, Page 1 | Vietnam, Page 2 | Vietnam, Pakistan, Page 3 | Vietnam, Page 4