While walking around the capital city of Laos, Vientienne, one sees one Buddhist temple after another, and many young men clad in the distinctive orange monks’ robes. Most young men join a monastery or a temple for at least a short period of time in their lives. Laos is one of just a handful of remaining communist regimes (with China, Cuba, Viet Nam, North Korea). All of them tried at one time or another to snuff out any form of religion. And all of them failed. Christianity is variously tolerated and persecuted, depending on the region and often the whim of local officials.
