Global Village
vietnam: still under Communism
By Karen stiller
In the late 1970s and 1980s
American war films such as
The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal
Jacket, Good Morning Vietnam
and Born on the Fourth of July
portrayed Vietnam in ways that
have shaped our imaginations.
Today, most North Americans know Vietnam as the foreign battlefield where the United
States created and fought a public relations nightmare that polarized its own population. The
war touched three presidencies
(Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon) and in fact
killed about four million Vietnamese and
58,000 Americans.
But Vietnam is also an ancient and beautiful country, not merely the backdrop for
American war movies. Bordered by China,
Laos, Cambodia and the South China Sea,
Vietnam is home to over 86 million people.
About half of Vietnam’s population is
Buddhist. The Roman Catholic Church has
seven million adherents. Evangelical Christians number about 1.3 million. All live and
worship under a Communist government
that has been quick to oppress and slow to
heed international calls to establish and protect freedom of religion.
Many wars have shaped the people, culture and land, ranging as far back as 111 BC
when the first Chinese dynasty began to rule.
By the 19th century, Vietnam, Cambodia and
Laos had become French Indochina.
Communist forces in Vietnam battled for
independence after the Second World War,
leading to a 1954 agreement that divided
the nation into North and South. The U.S.-involved Vietnam War soon followed, from
1960 to 1973. In 1975 the country reunified
and the Vietnamese Communist Party has
been in power ever since.
The ongoing struggle for human rights
and religious freedom is evident in a 2005
report by the World Evangelical Alliance
(WEA). The report to the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights
highlighted Vietnam as a key
country in need of drastic improvement and reform.
The Communist government has a “continuing suspicion of religion, especially
Christianity, as being unpatriotic,” according to the report.
“The State acts as an official
arbiter of defining ‘good, legitimate religion.’ Vietnam’s
leaders still do not understand
the ‘freedom of religion’ its
constitution proclaims.”
Recently, the Vietnamese government has
issued some ordinances that seem to lighten
the decades-long crackdown on religious
freedom, but members of house churches are
wary. Observers say that those who do register their organizations become susceptible
to government surveillance and control, and
those who do not remain illegal and subject
to harassment.
Poverty is also an oppressive problem
for 50 per cent of the population; the unemployment rate hovers at 25 per cent. In
2007 some observers, including the World
Bank, speculated that Vietnam was a “new
economic tiger in the making.” But Vietnam,
like most developing countries, has been hit
hard by the global recession.
Meanwhile, the Church continues to exist
– sometimes hiding, sometimes flourishing.
“Since the reunification of Vietnam under
communism in 1975, the Protestant movement has grown from 160,000 to 1.3 million
– over 800 per cent,” says Canadian expert
Reg Reimer, specialist on
Vietnam for the WEA.
“It is more accurate to
say that growth attracted
persecution than that
persecution caused the
growth.”
Just the facts
Full name: socialist republic of
vietnam
Population: 88.1 million (un,
2009)
Capital: hanoi
Area: 331,000 sq km (128,000 sq
miles)
Major languages: vietnamese,
English, French, Chinese, Khmer,
hmong
Life expectancy: 71 years
Literacy rate: 90 per cent
Average annual income: us$620
on our Knees
• Pray for protection for ethnic mi-
nority Christians in vietnam still
suffering for their faith.
• Pray for churches in Vietnam. Pray
that vietnam’s improving but still
restrictive and unclear religion laws
will open up wider and truly bring
freedom to this country’s Christian
population.
• Pray that the Vietnamese Church
will continue to grow and be a
light to others.
• Pray for Christians currently im-
prisoned in vietnam because of
their active faith in Christ.
Karen Stiller is associate
editor of Faith Today.
Canadian Connections
• The Voice of the Martyrs advocates for people im-
prisoned for their church activities. it also helps with
legal costs.
• Wycliffe Bible Translators is helping finish a New Testa-
ment translation for one of vietnam’s 100 languages.
see a more detailed version of this article, includ-
ing links to annual reports on vietnam by The
Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, at
www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/globalvillage
