Aware: Playing with words and a controversial precedent

Playing with words and a controversial precedent

SINGAPORE - It has now emerged that two pastors at the Church of Our Saviour (COOS) sent out emails calling on church members to join AWARE and support the new Exco members. Mr Shawn Tay, a pastor with the Choices Ministry responsible for ministering to homosexuals made an explicit call in his email message to all responsible females to sign up for membership with AWARE immediately, and also to attend this all-important EGM so as to vote against changing the Constitution.

Interestingly, Mr Derek Hong, senior Pastor of COOS, has corroborated Dr Thio Su Mien’s earlier revelation that homosexuality should be cast in a negative light as opposed to a neutral one. Quoting TheOnlineCitizen, Mr Derek Hong made a beckoning call to other women in their church to support their sisters in the new Exco. He sees the move by the new Exco as a necessity to ensure that the nation does not cross the line drawn by God.

Thus, what we are witnessing is a collective ethos shared by the new Exco, their mentor and COOS in particular, with religious undertones. As for the takeover, the spokesperson of the church went on categorically state that “There is no church connection. The church is not at all involved in secular affairs”.

Perhaps, COOS can be given the benefit of the doubt for the first part of the statement because this takeover may be a voluntary action instigated by church members, but not necessarily one that is sanctioned by the church. However, the second part of the statement is a contradiction in the highest order, and to call a spade a spade, a mere play of words.

An email issuing a general call for emotional support for the current members of the AWARE Exco is markedly different from an explicit email calling on church members to join an organization, attend the general meeting, and vote against constitutional changes. That is already a damning evidence of COOS’ attempt to be involved in secular affairs. In other words, this is already an explicit move by the church to influence the outcome of events within a secular organization.

The words by the COOS senior pastor Mr Derek Hong on ensuring that the nation functions according to the principles of his religion may be the catalyst for the setting of a new precedent. Suppose in this hypothetical example, a Buddhist organization functions pretty much like AWARE in organizing sexuality programs that hold a neutral stand towards homosexuality. As we all know, Buddhism is a major religion in Singapore with 42.5% of Singaporeans practising the religion as compared to 14.6% for Christianity. Now, a Christian entity begins to find issue with the sexuality programs organized by this Buddhist organization, and sees the necessity in Mr Derek Hong’s words to ensure that “the nation does not cross the line drawn by God”. Would we see an organized takeover of the Buddhist organization by this Christian entity a la AWARE in this hypothetical scenario? If there is such a takeover, there could be consequences as far as inter-religious relations are concerned. A controversial precedent, no?

What we have witnessed here is a clear cut and organized attempt by a church to influence the events within a secular organization like AWARE. A precedent could be set, which may have ramifications on a multi-religious society such as Singapore.

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