Persecution Increases in Laos as Christianity Spreads
While Christianity in Laos has spread in recent years, news agencies also report an increase in persecution against those who embrace Christianity.
While Christianity in Laos has spread in recent years, most notably to villages in remote areas, news agencies also report an increase in persecution against those who embrace Christianity.
In a recent interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), Khun—a believer in Laos’s Khmu village—said that after her evangelist husband was arrested late last summer, Lao Communist Party officials came to her home and demanded she return to tribal spirit worship.
"They said you and your children need to give up your faith in Jesus Christ,” Khun told CBN. “If you do not, you will become a widow. If your husband does not deny Jesus, he will die in prison. They told me my family was the most committed among believers in our district, and if we give up our faith and return to tribal beliefs, all the others will follow.”
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Although Laos is a mountain and jungle paradise for nature lovers and trekkers, for many Christian members of the ethnic Hmong or Khmu tribes, it is paradise lost—a land of anguish and suffering, according to CBN’s report.
The Khmu ethnic group, the largest minority group in the country, has historically been despised. Their name translates to “slave.”
However, since the Khmu were first evangelized by a Protestant missionary some 125 years ago, Christianity has reportedly been spreading faster among them than any other group in Laos today. But as these people have embraced Christianity, persecution against them has increased.
“Foreigners who preach the gospel here are expelled, and Laotian evangelists […] are harassed and jailed,” CBN reported.
Today, Laotian Christians are expressing concern for Bootheong, a missing evangelist who disappeared last July with his wife and seven-year-old son. Church leaders believe government officials are responsible for the disappearance of the evangelist, who they claim has helped more than 400 Laotians embrace Christianity. They say communists feared his ability to lead large numbers of people to Christ.
Khun and other Laotian Christians are asking believers around the world to pray for evangelist Bootheong and the persecuted Christians in Laos.
"In the name of Jesus Christ, our business is your business,” Khun said. “Our hurt is your hurt; our happiness is your happiness too. Please continue to pray for us that we will have more freedom to worship God."
On the Open Doors “World Watch” List of the top 50 countries where Christians suffer most, Laos is listed as number three, following North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
