Vietnam’s church shows hopeful signs?
ICC Note:
After visiting Vietnam for the first time this year, the International Director of the World Evangelical Alliance International, Dr. George Tunnicliffe, believes that Christians feel that religious freedom is expanding in Vietnam. ICC questions the report when compared with the number of violent reports of persecution against the Montagnard Christians we have heard already this year.
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5/12/08 Vietnam (MNN) Tunnicliffe met with key church leaders in Ho Chi Minh City to learn more about the current situation of the Vietnamese church. What he found was that Christians feel the 2005 liberalization of laws and regulations on religious freedom were helping
However, though there are now four registered churches in Vietnam and about 275 in a lower registration bracket, many house churches avoid registering for fear of government interference.
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Though they face these challenges, Tunnicliffe was impressed by the optimism of the pastors. They presented him with a letter of prayer requests including a prayer for action on the 265 church properties confiscated at the communist takeover, for government interference with churches to stop, and for redress of a pastor who was abused in 2007 while government officials were nearby.
