Source: Morning Star News, October 3, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Savannakhet Province\u2019s Khampou village, Assaphone District, the village deputy village chief and local security officials on Sunday [October 1] disrupted the service and ordered church leader Sard Onmeunsee and 17 other Christians to stop worship, according to Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey were threatened with arrest and a huge fine if they did not follow the officials\u2019 order to discontinue exercising their religious freedom or belief to worship,\u201d HRWLRF said in a press statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the supposition that the church members had angered spirits or gods by leaving them for Christianity, the officials also threatened to impose large fines on the Christians if other people in the village became ill or died. In addition, two Christians from a nearby village who had come to the service were threatened with automatic arrest if they rejoined the church for worship, according to HRWLRF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a family in the animist village became the first Christians there in 2019, about 180 Lao villagers accepted Christ over the next two years, HRWLRF stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThus began pressures and threats from the local government upon Christians, coercing them to give up their religious faith,\u201d the group stated. \u201cThe local government subjected Christians to intimidation, threats, and coercion throughout 2022 and 2023, forcing them to abandon their Christian religion until today; only three families (15 Christian believers) from around 180 Christians remained in the Christian faith, led by Mrs. Sard Onmeunsee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The full story<\/a> also reports on a family of seven whose house was destroyed and have been barred from returning to their village unless they give up their Christian faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s worth noting that times are tough for many in Laos. See \u201cI Feel Hopeless,\u201d Living in Laos on the Brink<\/a> (BBC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Morning Star News, October 3, 2023 In Savannakhet Province\u2019s Khampou village, Assaphone District, the village deputy village chief and local security officials on Sunday [October 1] disrupted the service and ordered church leader Sard Onmeunsee and 17 other Christians to stop worship, according to Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). \u201cThey were … Continue reading Laos: Local Officials Shut Down Worship Service and Threaten Christians<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12430,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12429\/revisions\/12430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}