Problems Faced By International Students Essay 1)Introduction : Is already there. 2)Summary Paragraph (1,2,3,4) – begins with a sentence that articulates

Problems Faced By International Students Essay 1)Introduction : Is already there.

2)Summary Paragraph (1,2,3,4)

– begins with a sentence that articulates the author and title of article, as well as the articles overall purpose or focus

-follows with a sentence that clearly articulates the article’s central argument or thesis

-includes 3 – 5 sentences that summarize the source’s main ideas or key points

-concludes with a sentence that articulates how the author concludes his/her argument

-smoothly integrates PARAPHRASES of main ideas…with attribute tags before the paraphrase (The author suggests that…)

-includes an in text citation in MLA format after every paraphrase

-sentences are for the most part grammatical, properly punctuated, and free of typos

3) conclusion 1
The Challenges of Missionaries in Vietnam
Nhan Tran
Father Lan
5/7/2019
2
Introduction
Missionaries are among the critical people that play a significant role in the spread of
Christianity among various local communities1. They intended to spread the gospel all over the
world. However, in their process of spreading the gospel, they experienced several challenges
from the people who they met in their new areas. Le, Phan, Vu, and Bao suggested that
regardless of the challenges that the missionaries experienced, they ensured that they never
retreated until they accomplish their mission2. Among several countries where the missionaries
visited, Vietnam was one of the nations where these foreigners experienced significant
challenges in all aspects ranging from the government to the local people. Le et al. indicated that
the significant problem that the missionaries experienced was that they met the people of
Vietnam with some established religions such as Buddhism and therefore, it was difficult to
convert the people into Christianity3. Christianity was initially introduced among the Vietnamese
during the sixteenth century after which it was entirely recognized from the nineteenth century.
Within the Christian religion, Protestants and Roman Catholics are the major denominations that
developed in Vietnam whereby they currently constitute 1% and 7% in the population of
Vietnam respectively4. Phan claimed that since the number was considered to vary from time to
time, the percentage of the Protestants went as high as 5% while the Catholics increased up to
10% of the entire population in the nation. In Vietnam, Christian missionaries from foreign
countries were not permitted to proselytize or carry out any Christianity activity without
1
Peter C. Phan, “Christianity in Vietnam Today (1975–2013): Contemporary Challenges and
Opportunities,” International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 14, no. 1 (2014): 321.
2
Phan Le Ha, Vu Hai Ha, and Bao Dat, “Language Policies in Modern-Day Vietnam: Changes,
Challenges and Complexities,” Language, Education, and Nation-building (2014): 232-244.
3
4
Ibid
Ibid
3
obtaining approval for the national government. However, several undeclared missionaries in
Vietnam belong to different foreign nations, who managed to preach the new Christian faith in
the Roman Catholic perspective5. Based on the critical role that the missionary played in
Vietnam, the history of Christianity in the nation is discussed together with some of the
significant challenges that they experienced.
History of Christianity in Vietnam
Roman Catholics
The Roman Catholic Church was initially introduced in Vietnam by the help of Catholic
missionaries during the 16th century after which the church became stable when the country was
under the rule of the French. The French used various methods to incentivize the conversion of
people from different denominations to Catholic. Pigneau de Behaine, the Bishop of Adran and
the French missionary priest served a critical role as the 18th century ended6. His purpose for
going to the Southern region of Vietnam was to proselytize7. Jesuits were the ideologues that
were considered to be very active for the Western enlightenment, who was made prime
exploratory efforts during the period. The Dominicans and the Franciscans among others were
also prominent through they had no much influence compared to the Jesuits whose focus was to
increase the number of the Roman Catholic Church followers in the Southeastern part of Asia.
According to Nguyen Huong, Nguyen Thu Trang, and Naomi Farber, after the arrival of the
Jesuits in Vietnam at around 1627, the congregation established their practices in several fields.
5
Peter C. Phan, Mission, and Catechesis: Alexandre de Rhodes & Inculturation in Seventeenth-Century
Vietnam (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2005), 473-476.
6
Peter C. Phan, “Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand,” Christianities in Asia 140, no. 144 (2011): 179180.
7
Nguyen Huong, Trang Thu Nguyen, and Naomi Farber, “Vision, Challenges, and Solutions in the
Development of Professional Social Work in Vietnam: Perceptions of Key Stakeholders,” Int’l J.
Soc. Sci. Stud. 5 (2017): 21.
4
The publishing of the Bible enhanced their activities in 16518. The Bible contributed to a
significant influence among the people in the nation who were then allowed to join particular
influential circles that the group had composed of. Alexandre de Rhodes, the Jesuit missionary
made an alphabet for the language used by the Vietnamese people from the Latin script during
the 17th century. Currently, it is considered to be the official system of writing that is known as
Quoc Ngu, meaning ‘the National Language.’
Pigneau among other missionaries purchased military equipment and developed a group
of European soldiers who participated in various military operations for Nguyen Anh. Later on,
Nguyen Anh conquered the people of Vietnam and took the position of Emperor Gia Long. He
allowed the Catholic faith to be practiced and granted the permission of unimpeded missionary
operations concerning benefactors from foreign countries9. The activities conducted by the
missionaries were mainly carried out by the Tonkin Spanish and the French in southern and
central regions. When he died, he left six European bishops to the Vietnamese people. The
Christians population was considered to be 60,000 in Cochin-china and 300,000 in Tonkin10. The
protracted achievement of developing Catholicism dominance over the Vietnamese traditional
Confucian system was no more to be unimpeded. There was a mighty struggle that emerged
between the pro-catholic and the Min Mang11. The pro-western officials had an aim of
maintaining the power that they had attained from Gia Long. However, the Catholicism and
decreased among the Vietnamese after the successful French rule overthrow and the temporary
8
Ibid
Tim Tan, H.M. Trinh, “Early Missionary Movement in Vietnam,” Mission in Context: In Search of
Asian Strategic Communication of the Gospel (2018): 37.
10
Ibid
9
11
Ibid
5
division of Vietnam during the mid-1950s12. However, on the southern part of Vietnam, the
Catholicism expanded under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem who promoted the church
aggressively through violence and coercion as an essential ‘bulwark’ against the people of North
Vietnam. In 1955 several Catholics remained in North Vietnam, who was considered to be about
600,000 while about 650,000 escaped to South Vietnam due to Freedom Operation Passage.
Protestant
Protestantism was brought to Vietnam by Robert Jaffray, a Canadian missionary in 1911.
Due to the existence of the Christian and Missionary Alliance from various countries, more than
100 missionaries from the group went to Vietnam to assist the people of the nation in increasing
their level of religious faith13. Before the end of 1967, there were several protestant communities
primarily within the Southern part of Vietnam. Some of the communities include the Seven-day
Adventist, World Evangelization Crusade, Church of Christ, Baptists, Christian and Missionary
Alliance, Anglican-Episcopalian, and the French Reformed Church. There were also different
Protestant associations that were represented among various welfare agencies and social services.
By 1967 the number of Protestant adherents was 150,000 in southern Vietnam, which
represented around 1% of the entire population in the nation. Protestants on the Northern region
declined in membership to approximately 1,200 before the Vietnam War ended. Several
properties of the Protestant church were confiscated during the South Vietnam communist
takeover of 1975. During the first years in the 1980s, most of the Protestants were situated in the
central highlands of Southern Vietnam among the Montagnard communities. The current
estimations of the Protestant population range between 500,000 among the government officials
to more than 1,600,000.
12
13
Ibid
Ibid
6
Long –Established Religions
Before the arrival of the Christian missionaries who spread Catholicism in Vietnam, there
were several religions in the country which included the Vietnamese folk religion and Buddhism.
The Vietnamese folk religion is considered to have been structured historically by the Taoism
and the Confucianism doctrines from China14. Some people from Vietnam had already
developed significant faith in the two religious’ beliefs in that the missionaries had a hard time to
convince and convert them. Due to the strong faith that some of the Vietnamese had, the
missionaries were greatly condemned whereby the Vietnamese claimed that the missionaries
have come to grab their lands15. While some Vietnamese converted to the new faith, others
remained strict to their previous religious beliefs. However, the missionaries did not lose hope.
They continued to convince the Vietnamese and later managed to get a considerable number of
believers. According to the government official statistics as of 2014, the population of Vietnam
was about 90 million16. From the population Buddhists were around 11 million, Catholics were
6.2 million, and the Protestants were 1.4 million Hoahaoist was 1.3 million, with 1,500 Hindus,
700 Baha’is, and 75,000 Muslims. The increased number of Catholics implies that the
missionaries finally managed to convert the Vietnamese beliefs17. The Vietnamese who belonged
to the traditional folk religions that involved the worship of the ancestors, goddesses, and gods,
converted in large numbers during 1980 after their realization that there is the existence of only
one Supreme Being.
Political Tension
14
Rachel Xiaohong Zhu, “The Division of the Roman Catholic Church in Mainland China: History and
Challenges,” Religions 8, no. 3 (2017): 39.
15
16
Ibid
Tara Albert, “Catholic Written and Oral Cultures in Seventeenth-century Vietnam,” Journal of Early
Modern History 16, no. 4-5 (2012): 383-402.
17
Ibid
7
In the 1830s, a significant conflict had developed between the Nguyen emperors in
Vietnam and the foreign missionaries18. The anti-Nguyen rebellion rose in Southern Vietnam in
1833 with the leadership of Le Van Khoi, who was considered as a local warlord who made
several Vietnamese to convert to Catholicism19. With increased support from the French
missionaries as well as the local Catholics, the rebel group got hold of the primary citadel among
the six provinces in Southern Vietnam and the Saigon in a few weeks. The Vietnamese emperor
took two years to recapture the places that were taken after which he defeated the rebellious
group. The retaliation of the Ming Mang was considered to be brutal and swift. In 1938, Mang
banned Catholicism in Vietnam completely and ordered that both local Catholics and the foreign
missionaries to be arrested and punished accordingly. Among several victims of the
government’s order, Frenchman Marchand who was a Jesuit missioner was the one who suffered
most since he was considered to play a significant role in Catholicism. The emperor ordered
Marchand to be arrested and murdered horrendously as a sentence for the role that he played in
Catholicism. He died a painful death since his flesh was being pulled from his body by the use of
a red-hot pincer. However, the killings did not lower the courage with which the foreign
missionaries had to convert the people of Vietnam. The missionaries became more courageous in
that their number of arrivals to Vietnam form Europe increased compared to the previous,
intending to protect the Catholic faith. However, the Vietnamese were overwhelmed by fear
leading to most of them to quit from the religion.
Anti-foreign Sentiment
18
Hoang Van Nghia, “Religious Diversity and the Right to Freedom of Religion in Vietnam
Today,” Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 4, no. 1 (2015): 213.
19
Tara Albert, “Catholic Written and Oral Cultures in Seventeenth-century Vietnam,” Journal of Early
Modern History 16, no. 4-5 (2012): 383-402.
8
The first Portuguese people to arrive in Vietnam came as missionaries. They intended to
spread the gospel throughout the land of Vietnam to convert the people to the new faith20.
However, most of the religious people in Vietnam were Buddhists and believed that Buddha was
the only real god, though some other Vietnamese worshipped their ancestors. After the
missionaries started to teach about the Roman Catholic and their beliefs in Jesus, the people of
Vietnam started making sentiments to fight the missionaries21. Some of the Vietnamese claimed
that the role of the foreigners was to convert them to their religion of interest as the same case of
the introduction of Buddhism in the nation. In some instances, the missionaries could understand
the sentiments that were made by the locals since some Vietnamese understood the missionary
language22. Other people in the community claimed that the missionaries have come to take
control of their empire and rule them according to their interest. However, most of the people in
the communities believed that the main intention of the missionaries was to take their lands and
make the people of the nation as slaves. Such sentiments made most of the Vietnamese to rebel
against the missionaries to the extent that none of the people in some communities wanted to be
associated with the foreigners23. Such sentiments became one of the significant challenges
among the missionaries since they could not meet the purpose to which they had visited the
country. However, since the missionaries had strong faith in their religion, they could not lose
hope since they believed that one day, they would accomplish their mission.
Cultural Causes of the Missionaries Challenges
20
Michael Pearson, “Conflict and Conversion: Catholicism in Southeast Asia, 1500–1700 by Tara
Alberts,” Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 29, no. 2 (2014): 488-491.
21
Hoang Van Nghia, “Religious Diversity and the Right to Freedom of Religion in Vietnam
Today,” Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 4, no. 1 (2015): 213.
22
23
Ibid
Ibid
9
The Vietnamese spoke different languages depending on their ethnic groups24. On the
other hand, the missionaries mostly spoke the English language. Some of the Vietnamese could
be able to speak the language of the missionaries, but the missionaries could not speak the
language of the locals25. Besides, the missionaries had to try several methods to ensure that they
either understand the language of the locals or the local people of the community could speak
their language. Most of the teaching and reading materials that the missionaries were using to
teach the Vietnamese were written in English Language26. Some of the Vietnamese especially
the ones in the remote areas tried to understand or speak English but could not be able. This
forced the missionaries to look for translators who could read and write English from the
communities so that he or she could translate the English Language into the local community
languages. Though some of the Vietnamese could read and write, they considered the practice to
be tiresome for them since the books that they were to translate were vast and many27. This made
most of the local translators to fail to play the role of the translator. Besides, various local people
had different thought regarding the missionaries; thus, they deliberately denied to associate with
them since the people thought that the missionaries intended to take their lands after they take
control of their national government28. Most of the translators declined to translate the
missionary language to their local languages due to negative thoughts that the people had
developed against the missionaries. The aspect of language became one of the significant
challenges that the missionaries experienced since they considered it to be easy for the local
24
25
Charles Keith, Catholic Vietnam: A Church from Empire to Nation (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2012).
Ibid
Ibid
27
Ibid
28
Ibid
26
10
people to learn their language rather than the missionaries learning the language of the
Vietnamese.
Political Challenge Causes of the Missionaries Challenges
The right to freedom of religion and belief in Vietnam was significantly enforced and
interpreted unevenly. The local officials in some regions allowed the Christian believers to
practice Christianity according to their beliefs, but in other areas, individuals who belonged to an
unknown religion were mostly harassed by the local authorities29. The government bureaucratic
impediments and practices served as some restrictions on the growth and the freedom of
religions especially the Christians, specifically the Catholics. Even though there were several
other religions and denominations, Roman Catholic was considered to be the one that was
significantly undermined in almost all aspects30. The government applied several methods to
ensure that the believers do not believe in Roman Catholics since the believers were considered
to be opposing the government. In such cases, the government ensured that the Catholics have
several challenges such as inadequate teaching materials, restriction of the expansion of the
religious training facilities, construction of new worship houses, restriction of publishing
religious documents and books, as well as restricting the number of clergies who were supposed
to be in every community31. Since the missionaries had to obey to the rules and the regulations of
the country that they have gone to spread the gospel, they experienced challenges of teaching the
Vietnamese about the new faith. The rate of growth of the Catholicism became slow to the
International Encyclopedia of the First World War, s.v., “Religious Missionaries and the Colonial State
(Indochina).”
30
Rachel Xiaohong Zhu, “The Division of the Roman Catholic Church in Mainland China: History and
Challenges,” Religions 8, no. 3 (2017): 39.
31
Connie Shemo, “Protestants Abroad: How Missionaries Tried to Change the World but Changed
America,” Journal of American History 105, no. 3 (2018): 697-698.
29
11
restriction that the believers were exposed to32. However, regardless of the condition, the
missionaries put more effort to ensure that the Catholic faith is maintained among the few who
received it.
Different Perception of Laws
Due to the lack of a well-established legal system process and the inconsistency of the
increased level of oversight, the activities that involved religious adherents were considered to be
the subject for local officials’ discretion in their respective areas. In some instances, local
officials in some of the Vietnamese communities mostly told the missionaries that the laws of
Vietnam at the national level never applied within their jurisdictions. An excellent example of
this argument can be evidenced in the Gia Lai Central Highland provinces33. Based on this
argument, these providences followed all the government policies and registered themselves
before holding any meeting with the missionaries. However, in other places such as in Binh
Phuoc and Dak Lak provinces, most of the meetings that were held with the missionaries were
never registered34. In cases where the meeting with the missionaries was not reported and
registered, the government claimed that the people of the community were rebelling against it as
a result of the behavior that they have learned from the missionaries35. Such claims continued to
widen the gap between the government and the missionaries. In such cases, the government
usually punished both the local people and the missionaries with an increased severity among the
32
Ibid
Charles Keith, “Protestantism and the Politics of Religion in French Colonial Vietnam,” French
Colonial History 13, no. 1 (2012): 141-174.
34
Tim Tam H.M. Trinh, “Early Missionary Movement in Vietnam,” Mission in Context: In Search of
Asian Strategic Communication of the Gospel (2018): 37.
35
Tim Tam H.M. Trinh, “Early Missionary Movement in Vietnam…
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