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| Thanh Hoa City Police discovered and removed the propaganda and activity site of the 'Church of God the Mother'. (Source: Thanh Hoa Newspaper) |
Dangers from heresy and mixed religions: far from reality, unscientific Up to now, the whole country has about 45,000 religious establishments, of which there are more than 2,900 relics associated with religious and belief establishments, some of which are recognized by UNESCO as world heritage sites. Every year, Vietnam has nearly 13,000 festivals, including 5 types: folk festivals, revolutionary historical festivals, religious festivals, festivals imported from abroad, cultural - sports and professional festivals. In the field of religion alone, Vietnam has about more than 26.5 million followers (accounting for 27% of the population), 43 organizations belonging to 16 religions recognized by the state or granted certificates of registration for operation. The whole country currently has more than 54,000 dignitaries, over 130,000 officials and 29,658 places of worship. With the characteristics of a multi-religious and multi-faith country, in Vietnam, no religion holds a monopoly position, but all beliefs and religions are in harmony with the traditions and culture of the Vietnamese people, creating a country with many religious colors. Therefore, Vietnam is considered the "museum of beliefs and religions" of the world. Although beliefs and religions exist intertwined, there is no religious conflict; religious dignitaries and followers actively participate and make many contributions to the cause of building and defending the country. The above results are due to the implementation of policies and laws on beliefs and religions in Vietnam, which have met the thoughts, feelings and legitimate aspirations of religious dignitaries and followers. In addition, local authorities, especially in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, always pay attention to and consistently implement policies to respect and ensure the freedom of belief and religion of the people; creating favorable conditions for religious organizations to operate legally. However, hostile and reactionary elements still seek every way to sabotage, propagate and blatantly distort the situation of ensuring freedom of belief and religion, and the vibrant religious life in our country. In particular, they encourage and support the formation and development of all kinds of heretical and mixed religions, illegal organizations under the name of religion in the country to attract participants, causing complications in security and order. When the government handles this, it will distort that Vietnam is "oppressing" religion to create an excuse to put pressure on and interfere in our internal affairs. A regular issue is that heretical and mixed religions often appear and develop strongly in rural and remote areas, especially in the Southwest, Central Highlands and Northwest - areas important to national defense and security. According to statistics from the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, as of December 2022, the country has about 85 heretical religions, mixed religions, and illegal organizations that carry the name of religion and are commonly called "strange religions". Among the "strange religions", there are types of activities that go against social ethics and cultural traditions, dividing national and religious solidarity such as "Church of God the Mother", "Ba Dien religion", "Dua religion" ...; there are even "strange religions" with political colors, illegal activities, and negative impacts on security and order such as: "Christh Protestantism", "Ha Mon heretical religion", "De Ga Protestantism", "Ba Co Do religion", illegal organization "Duong Van Minh", "Vietnam Interfaith Council" ... These religious phenomena and beliefs all have one thing in common: they are not recognized by our State as legal entities or are forced to cease their activities because they were established with the purpose of violating national security. But for many different reasons, the above types of beliefs and religions are still nurtured and exist, and sometimes, in some places, the subjects even find ways to bypass the authorities and operate openly. Currently, the types of heretical and mixed religions with superstitious elements are having many complicated developments, difficult to control and manage when there is still a part of the masses who believe in them and cause many negative consequences to social life. Typically, the negative impacts from the "doctrine" of the heretical religion "Church of the Mother of God" have caused many believers to follow, leading to paranoia, loss of faith and the secular world when they place absolute and blind faith in a supernatural world, in the decisions and control of gods and demons. Not only that, the leaders force participants with stable incomes to pay 10% of their monthly income as a membership fee; Every holiday, participants whisper to each other to donate at least 50,000 VND/time, usually twice a week, on catechism study days to "communicate" with God... These actions not only cause waste, instability, pain, loss, and waste of people's wealth and material, but also create opportunities for bad people to take advantage. More dangerously, "followers" who believe in superstitious cults such as "Ba Dien cult", "Coconut cult", "Falun Gong"..., after a while, have made them distance themselves from modern science, denying social progress. There have been many cases of people getting sick but due to blindness, they no longer believe in advanced science but instead believe in the superstition that just by diligently practicing and performing rituals, making offerings to deities, they can be cured. Those negative influences are not suitable for a humane society - a fair, democratic, modern, civilized society, so we need to fight to eliminate them.
| As of December 2022, the country has about 85 heretical religions, mixed religions, and illegal organizations that carry the name of religion and are commonly called "strange religions". |
Guarantee freedom of belief and pure religion While superstitious beliefs and religions have been directly affecting life, economy and society, "strange religions" established by some politically ambitious individuals are having activities that affect the country's political security.
Some people even become "puppets" of hostile forces to propagate distorted arguments about the situation of religious freedom in Vietnam or to incite and attract extremist and fanatical followers to oppose the Party's policies and the State's laws on religion as well as in other fields.
In recent times, the leaders of the above-mentioned “strange religions” have used religion as a trick to deceive and incite ethnic minorities to participate in separatist activities. In 2001, 2004, and 2008, exiled Fulro members used “Dega Protestantism” as a tool to gather and develop domestic anti-government forces, plotting to establish an “independent Dega State”.
Recently, still using the old trick, the exiled Fulro subjects continued to set up illegal organizations in the name of religion under different names such as "Vietnam Evangelical Church of Christ", "Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ"... to gather believers who are ethnic minorities in the country to unite with other Protestant groups and the number of reactionary Vietnamese subjects in exile took advantage of the issues of democracy, human rights, and religious freedom to oppose Vietnam, demanding the establishment of "a separate state and a separate religion" for ethnic minorities.
In the Northwest, in 2011, the Vang A Ia group advocated taking advantage of superstition and theocracy to pray, spread false propaganda, deceive, call for, gather forces, organize to welcome the "Mong king", "claim to be king", and establish a "Mong kingdom". Due to the influence of the above arguments, in the first days of May 2011, many Mong people including young people, women, the elderly, and children from the provinces of Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Lao Cai, Lai Chau, Dak Lak, Dak Nong... brought blankets, mosquito nets, clothes, personal belongings, food, drinking water, gasoline, followed the trails, along the mountain slopes to Huoi Khon village, Nam Ke commune to gather to "claim to be king - establish a Mong kingdom". Notably, from the beginning of 2020 until now, some subjects, because they have not given up their oppositional ideology, still have the illusion that they will receive help from outside to establish a separate state for the Mong people, so they have connected and colluded with organizations abroad and some subjects in Ha Giang, Lao Cai, Lai Chau gathered in Muong Nhe to discuss, unify, and kindle activities to establish a "Mong state"... Thus, it can be seen that the above activities not only violate Vietnam's national security but also affect the integrity of the country's territorial sovereignty...
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| Dak Ha commune authorities (Dak Glong district, Dak Nong province) propagate to people not to believe and follow evil religions. (Source: People's Police Newspaper) |
Therefore, the fight to prevent and eliminate all forms of heresy, mixed religions, and illegal organizations under the name of religion is completely correct and in line with the religious policy of our Party and State; it both contributes to protecting national security, maintaining territorial sovereignty, and eliminating political elements from religious life, ensuring the people's freedom of belief and pure religion. To achieve the above goals, relevant levels and sectors in the political system such as the Committee for Religious Affairs, the Committee for Mass Mobilization, and the Vietnam Fatherland Front need to coordinate synchronously and closely with the police forces at all levels to strengthen propaganda to raise political and legal awareness; the plots and activities of hostile and reactionary forces that take advantage of religion so that the masses of people clearly understand the nature of heresy and mixed religions; as well as the negative impacts on social security and safety. From there, self-awareness is formed in the work of prevention and participation in the fight against activities that affect the security and order of heretical and mixed religions. This will also be an important premise for the authorities to gain the consensus and support of the people in the fight against and handling the leaders and key figures according to the law, bringing about a pure religious and belief life, meeting the indispensable spiritual needs in the lives of the masses. In addition, the authorities also need to perform well the State management of security and order for religious activities. In particular, it is necessary to focus on managing and orienting religious activities and activities according to the fine customs of the nation, with the conditions and economic circumstances of the locality and in accordance with the law. For the masterminds and leaders of heretical and mixed religions and illegal religious organizations, it is necessary to handle them resolutely, promptly and thoroughly; expose the nature and illegal acts, destabilize politics and society, divide ethnic groups and religions, take advantage of religion to practice heresy, superstition, and incite secession and autonomy. In addition, it is necessary to continue promoting economic, cultural, and social development, hunger eradication, poverty reduction, etc., combined with implementing social justice, constantly improving the intellectual level of the people, especially ethnic minorities, remote areas, border areas, and islands; strengthen national defense and security, ensure political security and social order and safety in the locality. At the same time, strengthen the building of a rich and healthy cultural and spiritual life for all people to create strong "resistance" and "immunity" against the activities of heresy and mixed religions.
(*) People's Security Academy
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