Vietnamese Minister Pledges Religious-Freedom Support at Graham Meeting

Evangelist Franklin Graham met this week in North Carolina with Nguyen Dinh Khang, Vietnam's minister of ethnic and religious affairs and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, The Christian Post reports. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which Graham leads as CEO, said in a statement Thursday that other high-ranking Vietnamese officials and three Vietnamese church leaders joined the meeting. Khang committed to promoting religious freedom in his country, the Post says, amid a reported improvement in the climate for Christians there.

"In the years to come, the government of Vietnam, at all levels of administration, is committed to promote religious freedom," Khang was quoted as saying in the BGEA statement. According to the Post, Khang described open channels set up by the government so religious minorities worried about restrictions can share ideas, recommendations and needs. The delegation visited BGEA's headquarters in Charlotte on Tuesday, the Post says, and on Wednesday stopped in North Wilkesboro to see the relief work of Samaritan's Purse, the aid charity Graham also heads.

Graham responded by pointing to the progress Vietnam has made in the half-century since the end of the Vietnam War. "I know relations with churches were difficult in the early days, but Vietnam has made great strides in improving religious freedom in recent years and I'm thankful we can discuss the continued importance of that today," he said, according to the Post. Pastor Nguyen Hu'u Mac of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam Northern, one of the church leaders who traveled to North Carolina, said there are more than 1,400 churches and about 220,000 Christians in Vietnam. BGEA estimates that evangelical Christians make up between 1% and 2% of the country's population.

As the two-day visit ended, Khang gave Graham a painting of a rice harvest in Vietnam. "I hope that your ministry and our friendship will lead to a great harvest," Khang told him, the Post reports. BGEA said the delegation's trip continues with meetings with U.S. government officials and religious freedom stakeholders in Washington, D.C., and Texas to discuss steps the Vietnamese government is taking to give religious minorities greater freedom.

The Post notes that concerns about religious persecution in Vietnam persist. In a December 2024 report, Open Doors said there is some relative freedom for historical Christian communities in the country, but that Decrees No. 95 and Directive 24, introduced in 2024, raised concern about the government's tightening control over religious groups. Those rules, along with a neighborhood grassroots security force created in late 2023, could signal more surveillance of religious activity, especially among non-traditional Protestants and ethnic minority Christians, the report said. Paul's call in 1 Timothy 2:1-2 to pray for all in authority fits this moment well.

Read 1 Timothy 2:1-2