A 62-year-old Seventh-day Adventist Church building in Da Nang, Vietnam, was torn down July 17 by government officials who want to build a school on the site. Adventist Church leaders, both in Vietnam and at the Church’s international headquarters in the United States, are protesting what they call the “unfair destruction” of church property.

In a letter sent to top national and local leaders, Tran Cong Tan, president of the Adventist Church in Vietnam, has asked that “construction of the school on the land of our church building be stopped immediately.”

This is an opportunity for the Vietnamese government to demonstrate its policy on religious freedom and to show that “places of worship are always protected,” said Tan in his letter dated July 23.

The church was built by Adventist Church members in 1939.  In 1975, the Communist government closed 38 of the 45 Adventist Church buildings in Vietnam. The church in Da Nang was one of seven that the government allowed to continue as officially recognized Adventist churches. 

But in 1982, authorities stopped the worship services at the Da Nang church and sealed the building. Despite ongoing efforts of local church leaders to recover the building, it has remained under government control for the past 19 years. After 1982, the building was initially rented out as a nightclub, but following protests by church leaders, the premises were leased to a kindergarten.

Dr. John Graz, director of public affairs and religious liberty for the Adventist Church worldwide, says the destruction of church property is a serious matter. He has expressed the concern of the world church in a letter to the Vietnamese ambassador to the United States, and he says the Adventist Church will also take the matter up with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Vietnam’s constitution guarantees religious freedom, but in practice the government continues to monitor and restrict religious activity, according to international human rights reports. 

The Adventist Church, a Protestant church with more than 12 million members worldwide, is an outspoken advocate for religious freedom for all people of faith. It has operated in Vietnam for more than 70 years.