Chào các bạn,

Theo bản tin dưới đây, chính quyền Hà Nội không cho phép các giáo hội Tin Lành tổ chức lễ mừng Phục Sinh với nhà truyền giảng nổi tiếng Luis Palau tại hội trường Mỹ Đình ngày 15 và 16 tháng 4 vừa qua, sau khi đã chấp thuận trước đó và mọi người đã chuẩn bị moi thứ. Hàng trăm giáo dân các nơi đã đến nơi bằng xe bus phải trở về.

Tuy nhiên, trước đó một tuần, Luis Palau đã có hai buổi truyền giảng lớn ở Sài Gòn vào ngày 9 và 10 tháng 4. Buổi ngày 10 có đến khoảng 12.000 người tham dự.

Mình chẳng biết gì về vụ này, tuy nhiên theo bản tin dưới đây thì “Sau 1 giờ chiều ngày 15.4, sau nhiều điều đình dài lâu, nhà chức trách [Hà Nội] đồng ý miệng cho phép, và nói là giấy phép sẽ có ngay.” Như vậy thì quá gấp rồi. Nếu tính làm lễ hội tối thứ 6, mà chiều thứ 6 mới có “ừ” miệng, thì làm sao có giấp phép kịp để nhân viên ở Mỹ Đình mở cửa cho vào. Chẳng nhân viên nào dám mở cửa cho cả nghìn người vào mà chẳng có tờ giấp phép cả. Từ “ừ” miệng đến “ừ” giấy là cả một quãng dài, có thể tốn nhiều tuần nhiều tháng, đâu thể xong ngay được.

Có vẻ như các quý vị nhà thờ ở Hà Nội cố tranh thủ dịp Luis Lalau có ở Sài Gòn để mở thêm lễ hội ở Hà Nội vào phút chót? Chùm chữ “các điều đình dài lâu” trong bản tin này rất đáng ngờ. Lâu là mấy ngày? Các chuyện có thể có hàng nghìn người tham dự phải tính trước cả mấy tháng, và có giấp phép trước mấy tháng, đâu có thể để đến phút chót mới chỉ có “ừ” miệng thôi!

Chú ý: Compass Direct News, nguồn tin của tin này, thường viết tin rất thiên vị và một chiều. Đọc tin của họ thì phải suy nghĩ một tí.

Bản tin này bằng tiếng Anh, mình chỉ có thời gian dịch vài câu đầu mà thôi. Các bạn muốn biết chi tiết xin đọc bản tiếng Anh.

Tin cuộc lễ ở Hà Nội bị hủy bỏ vào giờ chót có ảnh hường đến việc riêng của mình. Minh có một thân chủ tính về Việt Nam lo công chuyện và nhờ mình đi theo làm luật sư tư vấn. Mình đã chuẩn bị để về và nhân dịp đó ra mắt sách Tư Duy Tích Cực Để Thay Đổi Cuộc Sống luôn.  Nhưng  ông này nghe được tin cuộc lễ của Luis Palau bị hủy bỏ, ông ấy ngại kiểu hứa rồi rút ngang xương, và có lẽ là ông cũng không vui vì ông là Christian, ông báo tin cho mình là hủy bỏ dự án. (Và vì vậy mình mới biết tin này, vì chẳng thấy gì trong các nguồn tin mình thường xem qua hàng ngày).

Dù sao đi nữa thì tất cả những biến cố như thế này chỉ làm phiền thêm danh tiếng của Việt Nam, nhất là khi thiên hạ chỉ có thông tin một chiều, chẳng có chiều kia của nhà nước.

Dưới đây, sau bản tóm tắt tiếng Việt của mình là hai bản tin tiếng Anh–hủy bỏ cuộc lễ tại Hà Nội, và  cuộc lễ đã diễn ra tại Sài Gòn.

Chúc các bạn một mùa Phục Sinh an bình.

Mến,
Hoành

 

Chính quyền Việt Nam ở Hà Nội hủy bỏ lễ mừng Phục Sinh do mục sư Luis Palau chủ trì

Quan chức địa phương ngăn chận buổi lễ của nhà truyền giảng Luis Palau

Một tuần sau khi cho phép tổ chức một buổi lễ Tin Lành lớn ở TP Hồ Chí Minh, chính quyền Việt Nam bỏ lời hứa chấp thuận lễ mừng Phục Sinh mà nhiều người đang mong đợi ở Hà Nội.

Một ủy ban tổ chức liên giáo hội đã xin phép trước rất lâu và đã chuẩn bị kỹ càng cho những hoạt động lễ hội với nhà truyền giảng nổi tiếng Luis Palau vào ngày thứ Sáu và thứ Bảy (15-16 tháng 4).

Những người tổ chức nói rằng họ thất vọng nhưng không hoàn toàn ngạc nhiên với hành động của nhà nước.

“Chính quyền đã cho thể giới thấy rõ ràng điều chúng tôi phải trải nghiệm thường xuyên—rằng lời hứa của họ, dù là nói miệng hay trên giấy tờ, không thể tin được,” một lãnh đạo ẩn danh của một nhà thờ nói.

Được hỏi hãy đoán lý do nhà nước từ chối cho phép, một lãnh đạo nhà thờ khác nói, “Tôi không biết tại sao, nhưng có vẻ như là nhà nước cố tình làm hại uy tín của chúng tôi.”

….

Vietnamese Authorities in Hanoi Cancel Luis Palau Easter Celebrations

Local officials prevent events featuring U.S. evangelist Luis Palau.

A week after granting permission for a large Christian gathering in Ho Chi Minh City, authorities in Vietnam reneged on a verbal promise to allow a much-anticipated public Easter celebrations in Hanoi.

An interchurch organizing committee had submitted a request for permission well in advance and had made elaborate preparations for the special events featuring renowned evangelist Luis Palau Friday and Saturday (April 15-16).

The organizers said they were disappointed but not entirely surprised by the Communist government’s action.

“The authorities have clearly demonstrated to the world what we experience regularly—that their promises, whether verbal or written, cannot be trusted,” said one church leader who requested anonymity.

Asked to speculate on the reasons for the government’s ultimate refusal, another key church leader said, “I don’t know why, but it almost seems as if the government is deliberately damaging its own reputation.”

Shortly after 1 p.m. on Friday (April 15), after long negotiations, authorities gave verbal assent for the events to proceed, promising the required written permission would be issued imminently. The government-approved venue was the Dien Kinh My Dinh Sports Complex, a state-of-the-art indoor track and field stadium in Hanoi’s Tu Liem district. It reportedly holds 3,100 people; organizers had requested a place with considerably larger capacity.

After receiving the verbal promise, organizers said they went directly to the sports complex hoping to begin preparing the sound and lighting systems. They were not given access.

When no written permission was forthcoming by the scheduled start at 7 p.m., organizers said they were forced to turn away many hundreds of people arriving from the provinces by chartered buses. They urged the people to return home quietly and to pray for the event scheduled for the next evening, they said.

Very late Friday evening, the organizing committee received written permission from the Hanoi People’s Committee to hold what was to have been the second night of the event on Saturday (April 16). They immediately posted the document on Vietnam’s most popular Christian website, Hoithanh.com, they said.

Apparently, however, public security and city authorities quietly overrode the reluctant permission granted by Vietnam’s religion bureaucracy. Organizers said that even with the official letter from the People’s Committee, several hurdles had remained. They had still needed to secure a contract from the sports complex on Saturday morning for use of the facilities, and they had yet to request the Committee for Religious Affairs for permission for Palau to speak.

Early on Saturday, Pastor Nguyen Huu Mac, president of the registered Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North), or ECVN(N), who had signed the request, went with colleagues from unregistered house churches to the sports complex to pursue the contract. When they were told that Saturday was not a work day, they went to the Tu Liem district office.

There they were stalled for several more hours by fruitless discussion. District officials eventually told them that although the sports complex was in their area of the city, it was owned and managed by another entity over which they had no control.

Finally, at 1 p.m., the manager of the sports complex arrived. He proceeded to give the organizing committee what Christian leaders described as unreasonable conditions for a contract. For instance, the manager said they could not enter the complex to prepare until 4:30 p.m.—hardly enough time for the scheduled 7 p.m. start. Organizers said he further told them that the sports complex would retain control over who and how many entered the building; he said they would not honor the tickets/invitations that had been widely distributed by the event organizers but would distribute their own and count every head.

The organizers sensed trouble.

Faced with such government duplicity and control over their event and without enough time to set up properly, church leaders said, they unanimously decided they could not proceed with integrity. Shortly after 4 p.m., they issued an indefinite postponement notice.

Late Saturday (Hanoi time), a Luis Palau Association spokesman reported that the evangelist had just spent significant time encouraging the tired organizers. Palau told them that the Lord would bless them for their diligence and predicted that they would soon reap a great spiritual harvest. In a few years, he said, they would look on the disappointments of this weekend as insignificant, according to the spokesman.

Despite their disappointment, church leaders took note of gains: The effort to stage the events, they said, marked unprecedented cooperation among various groups, with the ECVN(N), the only registered church based in the north, applying for the permission document on behalf of all groups. Cooperating in the organizing were northern house churches belonging to the Hanoi Christian Fellowship and southern-based house churches belonging to the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship, as well as some smaller groups.

Together, the church leaders said, they determined not to bow to government manipulation and pressure.

“Clearly someone at the top disallowed these events and then left it to clumsy underlings to create bureaucratic obstacles,” said a long-time overseas Vietnam analyst. “Most people will see through this ruse and recognize simple lack of religious freedom.”

Last-minute approval in Ho Chi Minh City

In Ho Chi Minh City, similar Easter celebrations were given last-minute approval and went ahead the previous weekend with considerable response to Palau’s messages.

The April 9-10 event marked the first appearance by a U.S.-based evangelist preaching at a major event since the 1975 communist victory in Vietnam. It was the first major celebration of the Centennial of Protestantism in Vietnam (1911-2011). Vietnam officials granted permission just three hours before the first night of the event, though organizers had requested permission months earlier. The officials also required the event to move to a venue (Thanh Long Stadium) several kilometers from the one organizers had sought and announced.

Given the lack of government cooperation, the leader of Vietnam’s Evangelical Fellowship said the fact that the event went ahead at all was “an absolute miracle.”

By word-of-mouth, Twitter, Facebook, and other methods—especially phone texting—thousands of people got word of the change as technicians and hundreds of volunteers made heroic efforts to ready the stadium. Vietnamese police proved surprisingly helpful in redirecting people from the original site to the new location.

Palau began his message at 11 p.m., delivering a concise and clear evangelistic sermon, and about 800 came forward as he invited people to receive Christ. It was after midnight before people began to depart for their homes.

The second celebration proceeded Sunday evening (April 10) in a more orderly and timely fashion. More than 12,000 people filled the seats and most of the chairs set up on the stadium field. In response to Palau’s second message, more than 1,000 people, according to one organizer, came forward in response to the call to follow Christ.(Iconic singer/songwriter Bob Dylan also appeared in Ho Chi Minh City that Sunday evening– though his performance sold only about half of the 8,000 seats at RMIT university.)

It is not known if or how the cancellation of the events in Hanoi will affect plans for the Evangelical Church of Vietnam, both the northern and southern entities, to include Palau in their June centennial celebrations in Danang, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City.

Permission has been long requested, but so far the government has only given general verbal approval.

Vietnam: Palau preaches as believers celebrate Protestant centennial

The first appearance by a US-based evangelist preaching at a major event since the 1975 communist victory in Vietnam helped the country’s Protestants to celebrate their centennial last weekend, after government officials gave last-minute approval.

In what seems to have become standard government procedure in Vietnam, permission requested months in advance was granted – at a venue several kilometres from the one organizers sought – just three hours before the first major celebration of the Centennial of Protestantism in Vietnam (1911-2011) at Thanh Long Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday (April 9) was scheduled to begin.

Argentine-born Luis Palau, who has preached in person to 28 million people in 72 countries, delivered the gospel message.

A second night of celebration began at 7pm on Sunday.

The venue change meant equipment staged in one part of the city had to be moved to the new location before it could be assembled, church leaders said. It also meant notifying many thousands of people invited to one venue about the change to the other, they said.

Given the lack of government cooperation, the leader of Vietnam’s Evangelical Fellowship (of house churches) said the fact that the event went ahead at all was “an absolute miracle”.

By word-of-mouth, internet, Twitter, Facebook, and especially phone texting, thousands of people got word of the change as technicians and hundreds of volunteers made heroic efforts to ready the stadium. Vietnamese police proved surprisingly helpful in redirecting people from the original site to the new location.

At 9pm – two hours after the schedule start – huge banners reading “Pray for Vietnam” and “God loves Vietnam” were unfurled to welcome the Luis Palau Team and thousands of people to the festival, which joyfully combined the centennial celebration with Easter.

After opening prayers and welcome by Vietnamese leaders, Palau’s son Andrew Palau gave testimony to how God delivered him from alcoholism and drug addiction and called him to Christian service. An Intel Corp. vice-president also gave testimony to how God blessed his life and his business.

Pastor-musician Don Moen provided inspirational music followed by exuberant congregational singing.

Palau began his message at 11pm, delivering a concise and clear evangelistic sermon, and about 800 came forward as he invited people to receive Christ. It was after midnight before people began to depart for their homes.

The second celebration proceeded Sunday evening (April 10) in a more orderly and timely fashion. More than 12,000 people filled the seats and most of the chairs set up on the stadium field. In response to Palau’s second message, more than 1,000 people, according to one organizer, came forward in response to the call to follow Christ.

Photos and Vietnamese text on the events are readily available at http://www.hoithanh.com, and clips of the arrival of Palau and Moen in Vietnam may be found on YouTube. They were welcomed at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhut airport by hundreds of enthusiastic young people carrying banners and flowers.

Dr Nguyen Xuan Duc, president of the Vietnam World Christian Fellowship, said he was very encouraged about the future of the church in Vietnam.

“These are watershed days for Protestantism in Vietnam,” he said. “There is no fear, but rather wonderful spontaneity and irrepressible joy. Events like this happen in spite of the government and without the blessing of some overly conservative church leaders. What we see is young, vibrant, lay-led, internationally connected and very media-savvy.”

While Moen, Palau and others spoke on Sunday night, also appearing in Ho Chi Minh City was iconic singer/songwriter Bob Dylan – whose performance sold only about half of the 8,000 seats at RMIT university.

A week before in Beijing, censors who reviewed Dylan’s song list allowed an unabashedly Christian song beginning, “Jesus said be ready for you know not the hour in which I come,” but did not allow “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” according to The Associated Press.

Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch complained that, in an earlier day, Dylan – whose music contributed to opposition to the Vietnam War – would never have let a government tell him what to sing, according to the AP.

Vietnamese organizers and the Palau team now travel north to Hanoi for similar events on Friday and Saturday (April 15-16). As yet there is no indication whether authorities there will be more accommodating than they were in Ho Chi Minh City.

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