Chris Smith: “Mr. Speaker, worldwide, Communist dictatorships either crush or seek to control religious organizations. I have seen…”

“Mr. Speaker, worldwide, Communist dictatorships either crush or seek to control religious organizations. I have seen this in my 30 years as a Member of Congress. I remember in the early 1980s how the Romanian apologists, as MSM was coming up for renewal every year, would rush over and meet with Members of Congress. They would have very slick talking points about the number of churches and about the number of believers in Romania. All the while, people were suffering in the prisons, or the gulags, people who happened to be pastors or believers; and it was all part of a disinformation campaign. I would say to my colleagues that Vietnam uses the exact same tactic. They will give you numbers. They will give you some fact sheets; but if you are a believer who is not under the control of that dictatorship and if you happen to be part of the Unified Buddhist Church, like the Venerable Thich Quang Do, and not the church or the unified or the Buddhist temples that are under the control of the government, watch out. They will be knocking on your door. You will either be under pagoda arrest or find yourself in prison. The same goes for the monsignors and the others who are evangelicals who are finding themselves being severely repressed in Vietnam. Members really have to back this resolution.”