US embassy cable - 05HOCHIMINHCITY1212

UNCLAS HO CHI MINH CITY 001212 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KIRF, SOCI, CASC, VM, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: NEW LIFE FELLOWSHIP CHURCH STATUS - UPDATE 
 
REF: HCMC 1024 AND PREVIOUS 
 
1. (SBU)  New Life Fellowship church (NLF) pastor-in-charge Eric 
Dooley and responsible local and central-level officials have 
held a series of meetings on the impasse over the operations of 
the church (ref A).  Dooley told us that, in mid-October, at the 
recommendation of the HCMC Committee for Religious Affairs 
(CRA), he met with Nguyen Van Thong, the Central-level CRA 
official responsible for Protestant affairs.  Reportedly, Thong 
asked the NLF  to abandon discussions with the GVN-recognized 
Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV).  Instead, 
following the NLF's submission of a series of documents, the NLF 
would be "investigated as a possible risk to national security 
and national stability."  If the CRA was satisfied after its 
review, the GVN would make a decision on legalization of the 
NLF.  Thong reportedly told Dooley, that, while the GVN was 
considering his case, the NLF could continue its present level 
of operations.  (Per reftels, following its "ban" at HCMC's 
Windsor Plaza Hotel, the NLF is conducting services for 
expatriates in 20 private homes in HCMC.)  Thong emphasized that 
the NLF's services should be for expatriates only. 
 
2. (SBU) On November 16, Dooley informed us that he is 
scheduling a follow up meeting with Thong for later in November. 
 He has engaged a local HCMC lawyer to accompany him to the 
meeting. 
 
3. (SBU) On November 3, PolOffs raised the impasse over the NLF 
with Tran Ngoc Bao, Vice Chairman in charge of Protestant and 
Catholic Issues of the HCMC Committee for Religious Affairs. 
Bao had last met with Dooley in late October.  Bao said he 
encouraged Dooley to reconsider his refusal to partner with a 
local Vietnamese church, but Dooley stuck to his position that 
the NLF did not want to be dependant on other organizations and 
would continue to demand the right to conduct services in a 
five-star hotel.  Bao said that he emphasized that "Vietnamese 
custom and law" dictated that regular worship services should be 
conducted in a designated place of worship.  He asked why the 
Japanese, Korean, and French Protestants and Catholic 
expatriates could share church facilities with local partners 
"without any problems," but the NLF could not. 
 
4.(SBU) We asked Bao about the apparent disconnect between the 
HCMC CRA's advice to the NLF to partner with the SECV and the 
Central-level CRA's admonition to Dooley not to deal with the 
group.  Bao explained that the approach depended on what legal 
status the NLF and Dooley sought in Vietnam.  The HCMC CRA had 
the authority to approve a church-sharing arrangement between 
the NLF and the SECV (in effect the SECV would become the parent 
church of the NLF).  If Dooley and the NLF wish to operate as an 
independent, registered foreign church in Vietnam, the church -- 
and Dooley -- must apply for legal status with the GVN under 
separate legal provisions governing foreign religious groups. 
According to Bao, even now, the NLF can use of a hotel for 
"social" gatherings, but religious services, Sunday school and 
baptisms would have to be conducted in a church.  The NLF's 
rental of a room or hall in a hotel is a pure business 
transaction between the NLF and the hotel management, Bao 
asserted.  The CRA does not have any role in administering or 
monitoring such a business transaction, Bao added.  (Even if 
granted independent legal status, it is unclear whether the NLF 
would have the right to hold religious services anywhere other 
than a designated church.) 
 
5. (SBU)  Comment:  The NLF's discussions with HCMC and 
central-level authorities is a positive development, although 
the two sides still are far apart on substance.  It may signal 
that church's leadership is beginning to realize that dialogue 
is preferable to the more confrontational posture it first 
adopted.  And, whatever CRA officials may think of Dooley, they 
seem to understand that the NLF's expatriate membership, which 
includes representatives from major multinationals based in 
HCMC, is an important constituency and that an outright ban of 
the NLF could be a costly decision. 
WINNICK