Vietnam Mennonite pastor again calls for religious freedom

Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang. Photo: MWC photos

Vietnam Mennonite Church leader Nguyen Hong Quang took centre stage again recently in calling for freedom to publicly share the gospel. After several people were detained by security police for distributing unauthorized Christian literature, pastor Quang and members of his church went to the police station demanding their release.

Vietnam was hosting a prestigious sports event, the 22th South East Asian Games, for the first time. A number of people were detained for distributing flyers about the games which contained a personal witness by international soccer players about their faith in Jesus Christ.

In an apparently unrelated incident, a plain-clothed policeman on a large motorcycle crashed into the small motorcycle of pastor Quang Dec. 9. This was viewed as a veiled attempt to assassinate him.

Reports from Ho Chi Minh City indicate that police tried to apprehend Pastor Quang soon after he and Rev. Pham Dinh Nhan, Chairman of the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship, met with Jean M. Geran, a representative of the US State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, to discuss issues of religious freedom.

Later that evening, Quan and his associate Pham Ngoc Thach were attacked. Quang managed to evade the police but Thach was badly beaten and taken to the police station. Quang called on members of his congregation to come to the police station and stage a hunger strike until Thach was released. Within 24 hours he was released.

Quang then turned his concern to those held for distributing literature, and gathered church members at a main police station to call for their release. Latest reports indicate that most persons were released, but several persons were missing and believed still held.

The first report of these events from Ho Chi Minh City to Vietnamese Mennonite pastors in North American began, “Please pray.”

Quang, a pastoral leader of the Vietnam Mennonite Church, was chosen vice-president and general secretary at the Church’s first general conference last July. He has repeatedly called on leaders and government organs to implement true religious freedom as guaranteed by the Constitution and governmental decrees.

In his role as legal counsel to a group of house churches, Pastor Quang has frequently served as spokesperson when local authorities have torn down meeting facilities of the churches.

Unknown persons on motorcycles have attempted to strike Pastor Quang on several occasions in the past years. Once he was severely hurt, and a rider on the striking motorcycle was killed.

—Mennonite World Conference release