thanks for the link. good to lighten the mood.

^.^

http://www.mrbrownshow.com/2009/05/18/the-mrbrown-show-safe-sex-education/

in their eyes neutral is pro, nothing but condemnation will do.

If we want to.

Be Peacefull and live in Harmony, everything will turn out for the better.

So why put it inside your heart,

I know everyone can forgive and forget.

Love People , love the world, Love the people around you

you are right about the intensity Pastor Derek Hong is facing for his misconduct. to be fair, its not the norm for religious leaders to abuse his position of influence on that level. he has done something very wrong- to misuse the pulpit & stir religious intolerance.

in your opinion he has done nothing gravely wrong, its also your opinion he did “apologise”. the world as you see it, through tinted vision?

can i ask what will God do? oh wait, you can’t answer cos you are not God. realistically, there are judges & lawyers & law enforces who do not wait for God to take action. Judges do make decisions with moral implications, & so do parents, and they’re not God. so please do not make a fool of yourself using God’s name too casually.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

i do feel that humans err, more so when they are blindly devoted to an overwhelming single cause/believe with little of any others to act as a balance. when that happens, they are likely to follow a set of doctrine dogmatically even when there are facts pointing out the flaws in it, but it is often too late to reverse the intellectual hubris.

the way some defend blindly a person, not the bible or their God in this case, also shows attachment can be unhealthy if not dangerous. dangerous in the sense that its not what wrong is done, its who does it that determine what is right or wrong.

dada, although I agree that all should be more forgiving but in this case it involves a spiritual leader and his abuse of power. I would expect a leader in a church to have a higher standard of morality and responsibility but he misuse that trust given to him.

This is the problem…. A christian who do do think will use terms like “Let God be the judge”, “God will do something”, “God is watching”, “God knows the best” ….. Although all these phrases are the truth but these have been used by many leaders to conditioned the common christians to disengage their mind and follow blindly ….. not following God, but the leader himself. These are commonly used to find an excuse for the wrong doings a leader have committed.

A common believe will reason out the “because God did not do anything, God must be on his side, and if God is n his side, he must be right”. WHY is GOD not doing anything if he has done wrong? Maybe that is the reason why HE gave you a brain. When God really judge, HE seldom destroy a single person, those who stand with him in this issue has to answer for it too.

Let’s live in peace and harmony.

No one is stopping you from worshipping your God.

But if your God is the Bible God, then I would suggest that you are worshipping a Jewish god that is racist, malevolent and genocidal. Just read or review the Bible – that’s the challenge.

Wah lau.
Remember the ‘marked by generosity’.

We ought to be a little more forgiving.

Besides a lot of what we read from the local media reports were second hand news so don’t believe every word you read from our papers/web news. Media is never just (worldwide) because they need to make story a little lopsided in order to spice up the coverage value. Were any of you guys actually there in person to hear the Pastor’s apology, if not let take things with a pinch of salt.

If there’s really something wrong, pretty sure if there is a higher power; ‘GOD’ will do something.

We are here involved in squabbling over an apology issue but it doesn’t deny the fact is there really was something ‘unusual’ with the trainer’s material for the AWARE program to respective schools. This is why MOE suspended all programs. It doesn’t matter a thing whether it was a sincere apology or who won the AWARE re-election because the only fact is we are living in a very conservative nation regardless of race or religion.

re: mice is nice
would a negative backlash be different for other religious heads?

No. It’s the same for all. Singaporeans loved to comment on issues.
If you have been keeping track of past incidents, there were many cases throughout Singapore’s short history involving Priests, Pastors, Taoist temple leaders, Buddhist Monks and other religious leaders. They all had ‘enjoyed’ their fair share of backlash from general public. The only difference though was that this recent episodes were more intense because we are more IT Savvy and web is by far the only avenue for Singaporeans to express their ‘2 cents’ of opinion. Surely nobody would want to go to the speaker’s ‘dead’ corner to do that and no ‘taboo’ theme is permitted.

All people must live in harmony and not getting angry with each other.

I will worship GOD that is for sure.

Let’s learn to forgive and forget.

I sincerly hope that all of us ( people ) can do that.

Have peace in your heart and we will be happy.

Thank you

Quack, church leaders will always use the term you used “do not judge” but e bible c;early stated that judge your leaders by their fruits. So when you becomes a leader in a church, you suddenly open yourself to judgment by those you are shepherding and a high judgment from God. Sorry, that is the perks that come with leadership.

Quack, please worship God and no men…. you are evidently worshiping your pastor. You try to find excuse for him, and make him a fatherly figure to help him gain understanding from the public. There is nothing more effective than a genuine apology statement from him with the “SORRY” word. He has not done so. If he has done so, the Singapore public is usually more forgiving. However, what the public hate is arrogance … since his apology is not genuinely felt by the public, the public feel that his is not repentant at all.

You mentioned he is like a father to you, will someone who treat you like a child make use of you by manipulating your emotions to influence you do what he want you to do. He actually misuse your trust in him. As a pastor, he is right to stand for what he believes is the biblical truth but he should also know that as a man of position in a church, he has to be careful NOT to misuse that position of influence and trust to manipulate those who trust and look up to him. It is very easy to fall into that TRAP…. because power corrupts more easily than money.

I am sure he did am not apologize during service for misleading the church in the AWARE issue…. Am I right?

what Pastor Hong did was wrong, that’s it. he was not sincere in “apology”. to say he “stumbled” is your rather kind interpretation. not sure about reaching God’s perfection, but there has been a more aggressive proselytising to gain new members, reported by MSM.

all humans err, for him to remain a pastor is a big error. seriously, any figure heads in any religion should be put in their place if they abuse that position of influence politically. in this case it just so happened he’s from the said religion.

would a negative backlash be different for other religious heads?

Don’t worry. The public has a short memory. Pastor Derek Hong’s existence will be forgotten soon if you wait long enough. Public lynching does take effort, time and resources and a lot of fanatical hatred – people in general are just too lazy to do anything drastic. Anyway, popular disagreement is not religious persecution.

You use the term “sheeps”. Well, “sheep” is the correct word in more ways than one.
Also, you should note that Derek Hong did not say “sorry” (as far as I can see from the press reports). He said that he stood corrected. I don’t think he’s sincere at all.

Nobody likes to be told that he is wrong.

I just believe that Pastor Derek teaching is correct and please do not pin him down, He is not agaist you, our me or the world. He is just fighting against satan, as satan has made people in the world confuse and you see Satan wins when we do not know what is right or wrong. So what if you think you have teach the correct values who can say you are wrong

Pastor Dereck is just doing his job as a sheperd looking after his sheeps. He is not agaist all you people.

He can pull himself down and say that he is sorry. Can you say and do the same thing like him saying you are sorry when you are wrong.

Look we are all sinners, God did not forsake us and God will never forsake us.

So please, do not pin Pastor Derek down I know he is good and like a father to many people.

He is a good pastor and he will always be a good pastor to me.

mice is nice on May 5th, 2009 11.17 pm to a person in position of influence, is such an error acceptable?

-Religous leaders are not gods that is why people worship supernatural higher beings or deity or GOD or whatever they are known as but not the leaders. The leaders of temples are also striving in their own faith to reach a GOD’s perfection however they are still human beings which means there is always room to stumble. If people worship another human being then there is something seriously wrong !! In other words,only GOD is perfect and error free. Humans?….never.

unless he was drunk when he said it. being drunk is not against the law… :P