Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Vu Chien Thang attended the Scientific Workshop on Promoting Religious Resources in Building, Consolidating and Promoting the Great National Unity Bloc

Attending the workshop were representatives of central ministries, departments and branches; religious dignitaries; scholars and researchers.

In the documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, for the first time, the Party directly mentioned the contents of religion and religious work in a comprehensive manner, with the most focus, key points and volume compared to previous congresses. Of the 10 documents presented in the 2 volumes of the document, 4 documents directly mentioned the contents related to religion. Regarding the promotion of resources in religions, the documents of the 13th National Congress of the Party clearly stated: "Promoting good cultural and ethical values and resources of religions for the cause of national development".

Currently, the concepts of religious resources are popular in some viewpoints such as: affirming the role of religion, considering the positive impacts of religions as one of the important resources in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland; acknowledging the resources of religions in two aspects: spiritual resources and material resources, in which, more emphasis is placed on spiritual resources, which are cultural and religious ethical values; the resources of religions have participated in building and defending the Fatherland, in which the advantages and typical contributions are in the fields of education, health, social security, humanitarian charity, etc.

However, the Law on Belief and Religion and sub-law documents have not yet provided a concept of what religious values and religious resources are. How are the ethical and cultural values of religion understood and there is no legal framework to institutionalize the Party's views on promoting the cultural, ethical values and resources of religions in the cause of national construction and development to create uniformity in perception and implementation.

At the workshop, delegates focused on the ethical and cultural values of some religions in Vietnam, and at the same time, proposed a number of solutions to promote the values of religion to contribute to building an increasingly strong national solidarity bloc. First of all, promoting the values of religions in building the ethics and lifestyle of Vietnamese people today. If we can fully promote the resources from the ethical values and lifestyles of religions, it will contribute very positively to the resources of society, especially in the spiritual life of the people. Delegates also said that national solidarity is a precious tradition of the Vietnamese people. At the present stage, the strength of national solidarity is increasingly affirmed, in which the issue of religious solidarity is a wise policy of the Party, bringing many practical results in social life.

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Vu Chien Thang speaks at the Workshop

Speaking at the workshop, Dr. Vu Chien Thang, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, pointed out that religious resources contribute to building, consolidating and promoting the great national unity bloc, expressed through three main contents:

Firstly , the good cultural and ethical values of religion contribute significantly to the building of culture and social ethics, in line with the goal of comprehensive human development. Accordingly, the nature of religions contains humanistic and benevolent values, guiding people towards a life of altruism, equality, and charity. Religions always promote filial piety, similar to the traditional values of national solidarity in Vietnam,... Cultural and ethical values of religion contribute to creating solidarity and social consensus, religious beliefs affect the behavior and ethics of each believer and religious community. The close connection of people of the same faith always has sustainable vitality and spreads to the community, creating relationships in social relations, contributing to consensus and social progress. Some religious worship facilities with unique architecture not only contain spiritual and cultural values but also contribute to the system of cultural architectural works of Vietnam.

Second , religious dignitaries and followers are an important revolutionary force and mass force that contributes to the strength of national unity. Religious followers in Vietnam account for 27% of the population. They are both citizens and followers, patriotic, hardworking, creative, have deep religious beliefs, are united and attached to the religious community and the ethnic community. This is a revolutionary force in the cause of national liberation and a large mass force, an important human resource that has had and is having obligations, responsibilities and rights in the socio-economic development of the country. Regarding religious dignitaries, according to statistics by the end of 2023, Vietnam has about 54,000 dignitaries, monks and 135,000 officials from 16 religions; they are religious intellectuals with diverse levels of secular and moral education, playing an important role in guiding and managing followers in religious activities; guide believers to implement relevant policies and laws, raise awareness of citizens' rights and obligations, etc.

Third , religious resources contribute to charitable and social security activities. Participation in social security activities is both a social function and a strength of many religions, especially in the fields of education, health, social protection and charity with a wide range of facilities and diverse activities, contributing to solving a number of social problems.

Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang emphasized that the spiritual resources of religion are a strong and sustainable resource that makes an important contribution to the process of building, consolidating and promoting the great national unity bloc; individuals and religious organizations bring religious activities in line with the good nature of building, preserving and promoting religious ethical and cultural values to integrate and enrich ethics, culture and society, spreading the spirit of compassion, joy, forgiveness, truth - goodness - beauty of religion in the community of believers and society.

The Deputy Minister also said that it is necessary to unify the viewpoint of considering religious organizations as social organizations, which means that religious organizations are allowed to carry out social security activities according to the provisions of specialized laws and it is also necessary to separate or separate religious activities from social security activities; which activities need to have separate preferential policies for religious organizations, which activities are required by regulations like other organizations. The Deputy Minister emphasized the need to perfect the policy system. Law is always the most important key in managing and promoting religious resources in social security activities. It is necessary to continue to review all educational, medical, and social protection facilities of religions that are being implemented; classify licensed facilities and unlicensed facilities; provide professional support and guidance so that religious organizations can operate in accordance with regulations and improve efficiency; separate land use for social security purposes and land use for religious purposes.

In the coming time, in order to promote the resources of religions in building, consolidating and promoting the great national unity bloc, it is necessary to continue to thoroughly grasp the guidelines, policies and laws of the Party and State on promoting the role of religion in building the great national unity bloc. Implementing Resolution No. 43-NQ/TW dated November 24, 2023, the 8th Conference of the 13th Party Central Committee on continuing to promote the tradition and strength of great national unity, building our country to be increasingly prosperous and happy, it is necessary to strengthen propaganda work to raise awareness of cultural and ethical values along with other resources of religions to build and protect the Fatherland. Along with that, it is necessary to continue to effectively carry out the work of mobilizing religious dignitaries and followers to implement Resolution No. 25-NQ/TW (9th tenure) on religious work in the new situation; Pay attention to building the organization, apparatus and cadres doing religious work in the province to ensure that they meet the assigned functions and tasks. Party committees at all levels continue to pay attention to leading and directing the authorities at the same level to continue to perfect the regime and policies for cadres doing religious work. At the same time, it is necessary to further promote the role of religious dignitaries, officials and followers in participating in maintaining local security and defense; build a national defense posture and people's security to proactively prevent, persistently and resolutely fight against the plots and tricks of hostile and reactionary forces at home and abroad who take advantage of human rights and religious freedom issues to distort and sabotage the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's laws on beliefs and religions...

The scientific workshop on Promoting religious resources in building, consolidating and promoting the great national unity bloc has contributed to opening up a deeper insight into the good cultural and ethical values and resources of religions for the process of building and developing Vietnam in the current period. The workshop affirmed the role of religion, the positive impacts of religions as one of the important resources in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland; those are the values of culture, religious ethics; the resources of religions have participated in all processes and fields in building and defending the Fatherland, in which the typical advantages of contributions are in the fields of education, health, social security, humanitarian charity...

Source: https://moha.gov.vn/tintuc/Pages/danh-sach-tin-noi-bat.aspx?ItemID=56388