Laotian Missionary Murdered After Christmas Service
A native Laotian missionary was found beaten and stabbed to death in a rural district after leading a Christmas service. Missionary Aroun Warapong’s body was found on Dec.23 in an abandoned creek with his throat slashed and his chest stabbed, report
A native Laotian missionary was found beaten and stabbed to death in a rural district after leading a Christmas service.
Missionary Aroun Warapong’s body was found on Dec.23 in an abandoned creek with his throat slashed and his chest stabbed, reported Virginia-based Christian Aid.
According to the missionary agency, Warapong left for his home to celebrate Christmas with his family in the village of Heuysiak in Phaksan district after leading a Christmas service in rural Pakading district, Borikhamsay province.
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The Laotian missionary’s family became worried when he did not come home that night and began a search for him. They found his body the next day.
"His face was all bruised and beaten and left dead," one witness reported according to Christian Aid.
Threats against Warapong had occurred in the past, including an incident about two years ago when he was arrested and imprisoned for over a year because of his outspoken faith.
According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2005 International Religious Freedom Report, most parts of Laos respect the constitutional guaranteed of freedom of religion. But in some areas, officials are intolerant of minority religions, especially evangelical Christianity.
Minority Christians were pressured to renounce their faith on threat of arrest or forceful eviction from their village, the Religious Freedom Report noted. Persecution such as these occurred in the province of Savannakhet, Bolikhamsai and Luang Prabang and in the Saisomboun Special Zone.
“Some authorities criticized Christianity as a Western or imperialist ‘import’ into the country,” reported the U.S. State Department. “The LEC's [Lao Evangelical Church] rapid growth over the last decade, its contact with religious groups abroad, the active proselytizing on the part of some of its members, and its independence of government control contributed to the Government's suspicion of the Church's activities.”
“Some authorities also interpreted Christian teachings of obedience to God as signifying disloyalty to the Government and Party.”
Church closure is another method used to persecute evangelical Christians in Laos. Between 1999 and 2001, local authorities closed about 20 of Vientiane Province’s 60 LEC. Most of these churches were allowed to reopen after a policy of religious tolerance was introduced in 2002.
As many as 200 of the LEC's nearly 300 congregations do not have permanent church structures and conduct worship services in members' homes.
It is not certain whether or not the death was religiously motivated, but no one has yet been charged with the crime.
"Now," writes one of Warapong's former coworkers, "he is with the Savior and has finished his race strongly and faithfully."
Warapong leaves behind his wife, Ta, and their children.
Christian Aid urges Christians to, "Pray the Lord would comfort them in this time of sorrow. Pray also that their needs would be met as the family faces great poverty with the husband and father gone."
