Church and Cambodia at a Glance
Cambodia is a new democracy country with a constitutional monarchy. She was colonized by the French from 1863 – 1953 when it became an independent nation. For more than ten years, it enjoyed a period of prosperity. However, with the war in Southeast Asia escalating, Cambodia fell to the Khmer Rouge Communists in 1975. For nearly 4 years, Cambodia suffered through a great tragedy, where an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died during that Pol Pot regime. Even after the Khmer Rough was ousted from power, civil was continued in various parts of the country for the next 18 years. Today, Cambodia remains one of the poorest countries in the world relying heavily on foreign aid. It is still recovering from nearly 30 years of war in which all infrastructure for their social, economic and educational systems were destroyed.
In 1990, when the Christian church in Cambodia was granted permission to operate by the government, there were ten Protestant churches in the country. In 2006 estimated that the Christian community now constitute approximately 2% of Cambodia's population, with about 2400 churches, though only 900 had been registered with the government.
Even though, most churches are focused only on spiritual development. Less include social ministries which are desperately needed in this impoverished country.