http://www.religionnewsblog.com Religion news about religious cults, sects, world religions, and related issues Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:58:39 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25945/vietnam-tries-to-portray-cult-gathering-as-christian http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25945/vietnam-tries-to-portray-cult-gathering-as-christian#comments Sat, 07 May 2011 17:36:29 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=25945 The government tried to portray several thousand Hmong followers of a sub-Christian messianic cult as orthodox Christians while the military forcibly disbanded their gathering yesterday and today.

The cult members recruited from orthodox Christian groups – vulnerable to false teaching in a country where Christians cannot print their own Bibles and are subject to other restrictions – had gathered for religious reasons in Muong Nhe district, Dien Bien Province, but it turned into a confrontation before local defense forces disbanded them, bolstered by Vietnam People’s Army reinforcements hastily dropped in by helicopters.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25945/vietnam-tries-to-portray-cult-gathering-as-christian/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24374/widow-of-murdered-vietnam-christian-forced-to-hand-over-children http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24374/widow-of-murdered-vietnam-christian-forced-to-hand-over-children#comments Mon, 31 May 2010 12:10:16 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=24374 "H’Nguen, was forced to take her two children, H’Danh and Y-Ly, to the Nhan Hoa Police Station" on May 3 "and told she must sign documents giving custody to the government," said International Christian Concern (ICC), an advocacy group closely monitoring the case.

Her husband, Montagnard Christian K’pa Lot, died in March of torture while being detained for publicly expressing his Christian faith and fighting for religious rights, ICC and other activists said.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24374/widow-of-murdered-vietnam-christian-forced-to-hand-over-children/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24042/forced-recantations-of-faith-continue-in-vietnam http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24042/forced-recantations-of-faith-continue-in-vietnam#comments Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:58:19 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=24042 A Vietnamese man violently forced to recant his fledgling Christian faith faces pressure from authorities and clansmen to prove his return to traditional Hmong belief by sacrificing to ancestors next month.

Documentation of forced recantations in northwest Vietnam indicates authorities are contravening Vietnam’s 2004/2005 public religion policy.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24042/forced-recantations-of-faith-continue-in-vietnam/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23681/tensions-rise-as-police-question-monks-followers http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23681/tensions-rise-as-police-question-monks-followers#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:41:04 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23681 Followers of an internationally known Buddhist monk say tensions are rising at a monastery in Vietnam's Central Highlands after local officials accused them of trying to "sabotage" Vietnam's communist government.

An angry crowd gathered outside the Bat Nha monastery on Monday and local police conducted late-night searches of the rooms, said Brother Phap Tu, speaking by telephone Tuesday from the compound in Lam Dong province.

AP says the monks and nuns there are followers of Thich Nhat Hanh, an exiled Vietnam-born monk who has sold more than 1 million English-books in the West and is now based at the Plum Village monastery in southern France. ]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23681/tensions-rise-as-police-question-monks-followers/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23455/vietnam-halts-church-construction http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23455/vietnam-halts-church-construction#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 10:34:41 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23455 Amid protests against reported church destructions, the city of Hanoi has ordered one of its districts to stop construction work on land claimed by the Catholic church.

The move was seen as a surprise turnaround by Communist authorities who since March demolished at least one historic church building in the Central Highlands, Christians said.

Government work crews reportedly destroyed a Protestant church building of Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), or ECVN(S), in the area of Banmethuot om March 11.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23455/vietnam-halts-church-construction/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23419/house-church-vietnam http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23419/house-church-vietnam#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:55:41 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23419 In what religious freedom advocates regarded as a breakthrough in Vietnam, authorities granted rare permission to unregistered house church groups to hold a large, public Easter-related service here last night.

More than 15,000 people gathered at Tao Dan Stadium.

Leaders of the celebration and religious freedom advocates in Vietnam said the event was significant in that unregistered house churches were allowed to hold a large public celebration. They added that authorities must have felt enough pressure to consider the event less harmful than possible negative publicity from denying permission. ]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23419/house-church-vietnam/feed 0