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"There is quite a lot of hostility against the Hmong anyway, and so Christianity, being a so-called Western religion, is viewed as one more thing to be cautious of," Parker said. "I think they're afraid that Christians will be a channel for a resistance movement."

Parker said that the Protestants' aggressive conversion efforts also set them up as perceived enemies of the government. "Anything that people take as a higher power is viewed as a threat to political power," she said. Authorities tend to favor the majority Theravada Buddhist religion because of its ability to provide some cohesion to a population fragmented by more than 100 ethnic groups, Parker noted. "Buddhists are able to practice, but the state is using Buddhism to control people and so they are under pressure to compromise and be a channel for state repression.""

About 1.5 percent of Laos's 5.2 million people are Christians, according to the U.S. State Department. Nearly two-thirds identify with Theravada Buddhism, and less than one-third are animists. Parker said members of the Baha'i faith also have been targets of government repression.

World Evangelical Fellowship's Religious Liberty Prayer List contributed to this report.

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A July 2000 press release from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom designated Laos a "Country of Particular Concern" for its acts of religious repression.

Persecution watchdog groups International Christian Concern and Christian Solidarity Worldwide have regularly updated reports on Laos.

For more articles, see Yahoo's full coverage on Laos.

Previous Christianity Today articles on Laos include:

Laotian Christians Thrive Under Persecution | Communist drive to stamp out Christianity in Laos is having an opposite effect. (Oct. 11, 2000)

Enemies of the State | Laotian Christians held in wooden stocks for refusing to recant their faith. (June 5, 2000)

Communist Crackdown Stymies Growing Church | (Jan. 11, 1999)

You've Got Mail | To the Church That Endures Persecution: (Oct. 25, 1999)

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July (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45