Scholarly Analysis: Christian Responses to Persecution in Laos 

India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Laos, Pakistan, Indonesia

Panel: Findings from South Asia, with Dr. Paul Bhatti, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan for Minority Affairs
Moderator: Chad Bauman, Butler University
Speakers: Robert Hefner, Boston University
James Ponniah, University of Madras
Reginald Reimer, Expert on Christianity in Vietnam & Laos
Sara Singha, Georgetown University

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Christian Demographics

Christians comprise less than 3 percent of Laos’s population of 7.6 million. Most Christians belong to ethnic minorities such as Kammu, Hmong, Mien, and Bru, although ethnic Lao—about half the national population—are also among the believers, as are long-time residents of Vietnamese and Chinese origin. All sections of these diverse Christian communities appear to be growing, though not as rapidly as in the 1990s. The most rapid expansion is clearly among ethnic minorities. The Catholic Church, which in 2019 estimated its membership at 55,000, now estimates some 100,000 believers. The Lao Evangelical Church, whose membership was estimated at between 100,000 and 150,000 in the past decade, now claims more than 200,000 members. 

History of the Lao Christian Community

Catholicism in Laos dates to French colonization in the nineteenth century, and the evangelical movement began not long after. In the 1950s, a noteworthy evangelical breakthrough occurred among the Lao Hmong in particular. After the Communist takeover in 1975, however, a powerful anti-religious sentiment began that still endures today. Many Christian leaders fled the country at this time, and the disorganized Lao Evangelical Church and most of its members stayed quiet and kept a very low profile. Because of this, Lao Christians faced less persecution than those in neighboring Vietnam. However, when the Lao Evangelical Church rose again in the 1990s, the government responded by arresting leaders, closing churches, and requiring Christians to sign an oath renouncing their faith or face prosecution. A few Christians were murdered or disappeared during this decade.

Current Situation

While the major tenets of Marxist economics were discarded more than two decades ago, the anti-religion ones are still seen by communist rulers as a necessary plank for political and social control. This bias against religion is augmented by the legacy of the Vietnam War, which affects Laos’s attitude toward and treatment of evangelical Christians especially. Even four decades later, evangelicals in Laos are portrayed as related to the ongoing goals of the unnamed “enemy”—a.k.a. the United States. In addition Lao’s government maintains deep mistrust of minority groups such as the Bru people, who have experienced particular persecution in recent years, and Hmong Christians.

All religious institutions are strictly regulated through the Ministry for Home Affairs (MOHA) and the Lao Front for National Development (LFND), an organization led by the communist party of Laos. As these organizations have maintained shared oversight of religious affairs since 2011, the bureaucratic environment has become stifling for Christians, who must often request permission from both MOHA and the LFND to engage in routine religious activities, such as worship and travel for religious purposes.

In 2016, in response to a United States recommendation before the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Lao government instituted Decree 315, a religion law intended to bring Laos closer to compliance with international religious rights standards. Decree 315 declares the equality of all religions within the legal system, defines a process through which religious communities can gain state recognition, and clarifies the government’s legal requirements for religious groups. However, through these regulations, Decree 315 ultimately grants MOHA essentially total control over all religious affairs in the country. MOHA is reluctant to allow new religious groups to register legally, and in 2021 allowed no religious groups to register. Because the regulations of Decree 315 are inconsistently enforced, many unregistered groups continue to quietly remain active, often while attempting to complete the arduous registration process.

Since the year 2000, the situation has slowly improved for all religious communities in Laos. Although some Christians have been detained and fined, and some places of worship have been closed for lacking official permission, over the past few years the government has detained and arrested fewer religious practitioners than previously. The government’s somewhat mellowed attitude towards Christians is not the result of an improved legal context, but has rather been influenced by an understanding that Christian communities have cultivated with individual government officials.

However, Christians continue to face intense societal pressure to renounce their faith, especially in rural regions. There have been regular reports that some ethnic minority Christians have been forced from their homes by officials and community members and ordered to move to places where there are other Christians in order to retain Christian-free zones. In 2020 and in 2021, for instance, residents in two villages in Salavan Province forced a total of five Christian families who refused to renounce their faith to leave their households and subsequently destroyed their homes. The primary wage-earner of one of the families died from exposure-related health complications, as both local authorities and MOHA refused to respond.  

Individuals are required to declare their religion in a household registration document known as a family book. Due to this requirement, Christians and members of other religious minorities are exposed to endemic workplace discrimination and face difficulty becoming village chiefs, gaining government appointments, and joining the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party.

A Summary of Christian Responses to Persecution in Laos

The predominant response to the persecution of Christians in Laos is one of survival and endurance, accepting persecution as a central dimension of the Christian life and persisting in worship and evangelization. At times, however, Christians in Laos also employ strategies of association and confrontation.

In some cases, survival has meant leaving the country altogether. After the communist takeover, for instance, most Lao Christians either fled or dramatically reduced their visibility in order to avoid persecution. A large number escaped to Thailand, particularly the Hmong ethnic minority, which comprised the largest group of refugees from Laos. In fact, all but one Hmong pastor left the country at this time. But fleeing, while it removed people from the immediate threat of persecution, presented other obvious difficulties, including lack of shelter, and food and job security. 

Christians who remained in Laos have developed strategies for maintaining existing communities. During waves of crackdown, as in the late 1990s when many house churches were raided and leaders interrogated, evangelicals found that by breaking into smaller groups, rotating locations, and changing meeting times they could often evade authorities. Some even found opportunities to respectfully explain their faith to their interrogators, although, in the face of persecution and fear, others recanted.

At times, Christians in Laos have also responded to discrimination, persecution, and repression by pushing back against it. Though success has been modest, the most successful strategies involve building respectful relationships with government officials and nudging for small, incremental changes. For instance, the general secretary of the dominant Lao Evangelical Church (LEC), Rev. Khamphone Pounthapanya, spent years in a prison/re-education camp following the communist takeover, and while there he earned the trust of his jailers and was given many privileges. His earlier good relations with authorities have given him access to officials to negotiate and advocate on behalf of the LEC. Though he has made some suspicious by declining to use his influence to help church groups other than his own, overall, observers agree his contribution to government understanding and tolerance for the Christian movement has been substantial. As local officials rarely respond to the concerns of rural Christians, rural religious leaders relay the issues of their communities to their peers in Vientiane, who have cultivated personal relationships with MOHA and LFND officials and thus can advocate effectively for national officials to address local concerns in rural regions. 

In recent decades, Lao Christians have also been aided by international advocates such as the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE), which has cultivated respectful relationships with top Lao diplomats, officials, and scholars in the interest of religious dialogue and has conducted provincial-level peace-building seminars for local government and religious leaders. Whether such advocacy has produced any real change in government policy or action, however, remains to be seen. Overall, Lao Christians do not trust the government to keep any promises they may make regarding religious freedom.

 

This country profile draws on research by Reginald Reimer and on the report In Response to Persecution by the Under Caesar's Sword project. It was updated by Joseph London at the University of Notre Dame in June 2022.