2 of 3

The ECVN 22-member executive board chosen at the conference includes only two token members of the tribal minority Christians, although minority Christians comprise three-quarters of the ECVN's estimated 600,000 members. Minority Christians were excluded by government authorities from participation in this "regularization" process. There was also concern over the changes in the new church constitution that the church drafting committee had been required to make. The district or diocese level of administration was to be replaced by city and area representatives. Many delegates feared that the provision for "new branch churches" in the constitution was not strong enough and might hinder the ability of the ECVN to grow by adding new churches. The authorities had tried unsuccessfully to eliminate the term.

House churches persecuted
Leaders of Vietnam's many illegal house church organizations, whose followers total about 200,000, have expressed concern that government "normalization" of the ECVN's situation could cause more difficulty for them. They run a constant battle with authorities and often suffer harassment and persecution.

And many of the house churches exist in tribal minority areas.

Several hundred churches of the minority peoples were confiscated or destroyed immediately following the communist takeover in 1975. Yet the number of tribal minority Christians has grown dramatically, even according to government documents. Denied church buildings in most places, many hundreds of minority Christian congregations are forced to worship in circumstances deemed "illegal" by the government.

Minority demonstrations
"It is ironic and significant that the ECVN conference should take place the very same week as unprecedented public demonstrations by Vietnam's minority peoples took place in the highland provinces of Dak Lak and Gia Lai," an observer said. According to media reports, thousands from minority tribal groups took part in what appeared to be well-planned, peaceful demonstrations over land confiscation and religious discrimination.

A February 9 Agence France Press report carried in The New York Times said, "Residents of the region say members of the outlawed Protestant churches, which have a large following among the ethnic minorities, have joined the protests in large numbers out of anger over confiscation of churches and the breakup of religious services."

In recent years, thousands of minority peoples have become Christians, particularly among the Mnong, Ede, Jarai, and Bahnar peoples who live in the regions where the demonstrations took place. One group, the Ede, have seen the number of Protestants grow from 15,000 in 1975 to more than 150,000 today.

Various reports have documented vicious persecution of Protestants among Vietnam's minority peoples, including among the Hmong in Vietnam's northwest provinces along the China border. Thousands of these new Hmong Christians in the north have fled to Dak Lak, where they believed they would experience more freedom to worship.

Government reacts to protests
The demonstrations in the highlands last week sent shudders down the spines of Vietnam's communist rulers. They believe that churches in Eastern Europe played a key role in the fall of communism, so they will likely assume that Protestants were the instigators of the demonstrations. Secret Vietnamese government documents about Protestant Christianity, released last November by Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., conclude that the communist revolution's worst enemy is the prospect of "peaceful evolution." Government leaders see "peaceful evolution"—with the vanguard of Protestant Christianity—as the latest strategy of the "U.S. imperialists."

next page... |  2 of 3

share this page

February (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45