Rev. Danny Fisher

Our friend Maia Duerr at the brand new, super-cool blog The Jizo Chronicles brings us the news that “the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning the violence against Bat Nha monks and nuns and calling on Vietnam to curb its violations of freedom of expression, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly and respect its human rights commitments and Vietnam’s own Constitution.”

For those unfamiliar, here’s the story again, very quickly: The Bat Nha Monastery outside of Hanoi was until recently housing members of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing.  The temple itself is not affiliated with Nhat Hanh’s movement, however, but with the official Buddhist Church of Vietnam. Following Nhat Hanh’s return to his homeland in 2005, the abbot at Bat Nha invited Order of Interbeing members to study and teach at the temple. The Order spent upwards of $1 million on new land and buildings at the monastery so that they might have appropriate space to do their work and not interfere with the other trainings taking place at Bat Nha. Then, presumably upset with some of Nhat Hanh’s outspokeness on several hot-button political issues, local authorities cut off water, electricity, and telephones to the group. Then things turned violent. International concerns about religious freedom have long confronted the Vietnamese leaders, who responded to criticism about the situation at Bat Nha Monastery, saying they only want to “manage” Nhat Hanh’s community, not “control” it.

In addition to this news from Maia, our dear friend Erica Hamilton points us to the following video: