Nghe An: Handling many illegal Church of God activities

Colonel Phan Dinh Suu - Head of the Social Security Department (PA88, Nghe An Police) said that the Church of God began operating in Nghe An since July 2016 because a number of local people working and studying in several provinces and cities across the country joined this association.

The head of this association in Nghe An is Hoang Van Thang (born in 1989, from Thanh Chuong district). Thang is a graduated student and currently a freelance worker. Thang also assigned a number of other people to campaign and attract participants, focusing on students and young people.

Group of people attending the Church of God at Golden City 3 Apartment located in Nghi Phu Commune, Vinh City. Photo: Document

At 9:00 p.m. on August 2, 2016, an interdisciplinary working group of the People's Committee of Doi Cung Ward (Vinh City) conducted an inspection and discovered that at apartment 234, Doi Cung Ward Apartment, 21 people (mainly students from universities and colleges in Vinh City) were gathering to practice the religion of "Mother God" illegally. This group was established by Hoang Van Thang (born in 1989, from Thanh Chuong District), residing at apartment 234, Doi Cung Ward Apartment.

The inspection team made a record of the incident, suspended the illegal religious activities and requested their dissolution. The inspection team also made a record of the confiscation of 5 books “New Testament and Old Testament”; 8 books “New Song” and 1 book “Guest from the Angelic World” and 1 notebook with religious content. The inspection team also asked Hoang Van Thang to write a commitment not to organize further activities.

However, on October 31, 2016, Hoang Van Thang and Phung Minh Hieu (born in 1993, hometown Nam Cuong commune, Nam Dan) continued to organize activities at house number 82, Nguyen Du street, block 14, Ben Thuy ward, Vinh city.

The People's Committee of Ben Thuy Ward established a working group to conduct an inspection and discovered that 31 people were watching a film titled "The Bible is Truth" and singing songs from the book "New Song". The working group requested that the above activities be stopped immediately, a record of the incident was made and a number of related documents and objects such as laptops, projectors, and scriptures were temporarily seized.

Police seized many documents promoting the illegal Church of God at Golden City 3 Apartment. Photo: Archive

Not only in Vinh City, in Dien Chau area, the activities of the Church of God are also active. At 9:00 a.m. on July 18, 2017, Dien Chau District Police inspected and discovered that at the motel owned by Mr. Nguyen Van Son (born in 1961, residing in Hamlet 6, Dien Thanh Commune), there were 5 people showing signs of illegal religious activities. The authorities seized 4 books on practicing Protestantism and 1 handwritten notebook of preaching articles.

The subjects include: Dang Sy Nham (born in 1992, residing in Phuc Thiem hamlet, Dien Phuc commune, Dien Chau); Dau Dang Vinh (born in 1992, residing in Phuc Thiem hamlet, Dien Phuc commune, Dien Chau); Ho Sy Kien (born in 1994, residing in Yen Giang hamlet, Hong Loc commune, Loc Ha district, Ha Tinh); Tran Thi Ngoc (born in 1992, residing in Gia Vien district, Ninh Binh - wife of Dang Sy Nham); Nguyen Nguyen Hao (born in 2003, residing in hamlet 6, Quynh Nghia commune, Quynh Luu). Because these subjects did not admit to the act of organizing activities and illegally propagating religion, the authorities imposed administrative penalties on temporary residence registration and expelled all of these people from the locality.

Next, on January 6, 2018, Dien Chau District Police discovered 12 people (10 adults, 2 children) gathering for illegal religious activities in room 17, 4th floor of Muong Thanh Apartment in Block 4, Dien Chau Town. At the scene, they seized many books and propaganda documents about the Bible and Protestantism of unknown origin, and 14 envelopes containing 640 thousand VND.

Dau Dang Quang (left), head of the Church of God group in Dien Chau. Photo courtesy

The police force made a record and took the subjects to the headquarters for processing. Through the struggle, these subjects confessed that every Saturday they would gather for the "Church of God" activities at the above location, organized and preached by Dau Dang Quang (born in 1992, from Dien Phuc commune, Dien Chau). To serve the activities, the believers voluntarily contributed an amount of money equal to 1/10 of their income to the leader to maintain the activities of the group.

Most recently, on May 2, the authorities raided the rented house of Ms. Nguyen Thi Van in Hamlet 4, Nghia Trung Commune (Nghia Dan). Here, the police caught Phan Thi Suong (born in 1992), residing in Kim Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh District, renting a house under the pretext of expanding the market for high-quality paper, spring rolls... to gather and entice people in Nghia Dan District and Thai Hoa Town to illegally attend the Church of God.

At the scene, authorities seized 15 kg of documents, books of unknown origin and many objects related to the activities and preaching of the Church of God.

Previously, at 6:30 p.m. on April 29, Vinh City Police coordinated with professional units of Nghe An Province Police to inspect the apartment on the 5th floor of Golden City 3 Apartment Building in Nghi Phu Commune, Vinh City of Mr. Hoang Xuan Quynh (born in 1980, hometown Yen Thanh Town, Yen Thanh District).

Phan Thi Suong (born in 1992), residing in Kim Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, attracted many people to join the Church of God. Photo: Minh Thai

At the scene, the police discovered 12 people (6 men, 6 women) engaged in illegal proselytizing activities; they seized many books and documents related to the Church of God.

Initially, at the police station, Mr. Hoang Xuan Quynh - the owner of the apartment building confessed that some friends from Quang Binh and Nghe An entered the room to play and study the Bible and were discovered by the authorities.