Jonathan Koh
Over 50 people attended Anthony Yeo’s memorial service held at the Free Community Church (FCC) last Friday. It was a simple and heartwarming tribute to this late veteran counselor in Singapore, who, for the past 3 years, regularly preached at FCC’s Sunday services.
On 20 June 2009, Anthony Yeo passed away due to complications from Leukaemia, leaving behind his brother, wife and children. He was 60 years old.
Friday’s eulogy was delivered by Susan Tang – Anthony’s personal friend and a service pastor at FCC. “What we appreciate and love about Anthony is the fact that he understood and empathised with us on a very deep and real level – he got down and into the messiness and chaos of our lives,” she says.
Fighting the good fight
While Anthony was quick to steer people away from fights and confrontations, Susan added that he did believe in fighting – but only for the right causes.
“Anthony fought for all sorts of marginalized people by opposing the discrimination and bigotry he saw in his time,” Susan eulogizes, alluding to the heated controversy that Anthony generated as a liberal Christian who advocated openly for non-discrimination towards the gay community.
“He was seen to be encouraging the gay lifestyle because he spoke up for them,” says Reverend Yap Kim Hao, Pastoral Advisor at the FCC. Anthony Yeo’s nonjudgmental attitude towards gay people agitated the conservatives.
Rev Yap adds: “The conservatives think that (the gay lifestyle) is a choice. But one cannot make a straight person a homosexual, one can only try to understand – that no one in his or her right mind would want to be gay.”
Bashed for speaking up
Anthony’s speaking up for the gay community did not come without personal costs. CS Zhou wrote in an article on Fridae.com, a gay portal: “It was in the Singapore General Hospital when I went to visit Anthony on the day he passed on that the personal cost he experienced entered into my world. His wife Soo Lan, whom I had not met before, came up to me, held my hands and broke down. Through her heart rending weeping she said she wanted my friends and I to know how much Anthony loved gay people and how he often spoke about his work with the gay community fondly to her.
“Throughout that eternity of a moment as she held on to my hands, I kept hearing two words again and again – “love” and “bashed.” Yes, “bashed” – as Anthony loved again and again, he was bashed again and again and tragically often by the very people he had considered friends. And yet Anthony never stopped loving and he just kept on speaking forth.”
At the memorial service, Zhou says, “Anthony was actually a very sought after Christian preacher. When he openly spoke up for the gay community, he stopped getting invited to speak. Some of this rejection came from friends, which was quite sad.”
Honoring Anthony Yeo
Anthony “did a lot for straight people too, with his counselling and in his quiet way”, though these contributions have largely been “unrecognized”, says Rev Yap. For instance, Anthony helped salvage many marriages from breaking up – and there were many married couples who came seeking marital counseling advice only from him. He also assisted in FCC’s outreach ministries to HIV-positive persons and their caregivers.
The Singapore Democratic Party wrote on its website that Anthony “is also a regular contributor to the Straits times’ Forum, often speaking up for the underdog”, speaking up “in defence of M Ravi who was the lawyer for the late Shanmugam Murugesu, who was hanged in 2007. He also spoke up for the SDP secretary-general when Mr Lee Kuan Yew called him a ‘near- psychopath’”.
Those who wish to send their condolences can do so at http://www.counsel.org.sg/.
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Isn’t it true that in Spore, one always gets bashed for speaking up? Look at Siew Kum Hong, whom din’t even get reelected when he contributed so much.
But these are true moral leaders too. And for this, they deserve salutations.
Farewell Mr Yeo. I’ll miss you.
RIP Anthony.
His unfortunate experience only goes to show that those with a religion aren’t always compassionate.
Another daring Sporean gone. How many more left in this junta ctry?
Wang Zhen Zhen #1 is correct. You get bashed for speaking up. It is nothing new. It has been happening for the past 44 years (since independence 1965). I have worked with the late Mr. Anthony Yeo before in area of counselling and Anthony is indeed a person that speaks his mind. Unfortunately, he left us so early and so sudden too. May his soul rest in peace.
i can only imagine it must be very stressful for Anthony to follow thru’ his conviction even going against the “safer” conventional norms to just “go along” or just “keep quiet” and if really you want to help, can just adopt a low key approach about it.
Instead he spoke up and made known his stance. To do otherwise, will not be Anthony Yeo.
I shudder when i imagine that at the back of the minds of some Christians, maybe they doubt that Anthony may enter heaven because of his “doctrinal” difference! i am just a nobody, but to me, i believe Jesus received him. At that moment, he was overcome with tears but no tear dropped from his eyes because there are no tears in heaven!
A lion of Singapore.
Hi Jonathan Koh,
I think your statements in your above article can stir religious disharmony. Don’t mind I ask if you have checked on the validity of the text you quoted below?
“He was seen to be encouraging the gay lifestyle because he spoke up for them,” says Reverend Yap Kim Hao, Pastoral Advisor at the FCC. Anthony Yeo’s nonjudgmental attitude towards gay people agitated the conservatives.
“At the memorial service, Zhou says, “Anthony was actually a very sought after Christian preacher. When he openly spoke up for the gay community, he stopped getting invited to speak. Some of this rejection came from friends, which was quite sad.””
1. Did Anthony encourage gay lifestyle?
2. How do you know that “he stopped getting invited to speak”?
Accepting gays is not the same as accepting gay lifestyle or encouraging gay lifestyle.
maybe you can’t read, but i can help you with your point 1. Did Anthony encourage gay lifestyle?
Answer is no. “…He was seen to be encouraging the gay lifestyle because he spoke up for them…” Maybe you can set your fonts to size 36 so that you can see the words “seen to”. Its connoctations are pretty clear: Anthony was not encoraging the so-called gay lifestyle (what the hell is ‘gay lifestyle’ anyway?), but some bigots asumed that he was doing so just because he wasn’t being judgemental of gays.
As for point 2. Well, if you insist, no one now know for sure, since the man is already gone. Maybe you could go ask him to verify…
woah…stir religious disharmony wor…. Strange that anything and everything can cause religious disharmony. Maybe when my dog peed on the sidewalk just now, he was also stirring up religious disharmony….
Is Jonathan Koh aka “anon” ?
Hi creducator,
I reported what I heard from the two people you quoted. I don’t think my aim was to sow religious discord and I don’t think this constitutes sowing religious discord. Let’s not get too enthusiastic dropping statutory laws, yah?
It is a fact that there are Christians who are more liberal and those who are more conservative. Anthony Yeo’s speaking up for gay community clearly estranged him from other more conservative people who did not find his advocacy acceptable to their doctrines. In fact there are more conservative Christians who, by the way, also did not identify with FCC. What, if any, religious discord is sown here – please enlighten me?
And no, I’m not anon. But thank you anon.
Rgds,
Jonathan Koh
everything is like stir religious disharmony ah? hahahahaha. make me luff only
Creducater……. does it matter if Jonathan Koh is anon?
So…… Cresucator…….. are you a Christian?
Hi creducator,
I reported exactly what the 2 speakers told me. I don’t think this article constitutes sowing religious discord at all. So let’s not get all too enthusiastic cowering before laws and statutes and concealing facts, yah?
It’s a known fact there are liberal Christians and there are conservative ones. Anthony’s advocacy for gay rights did not sit very well with his more conservative friends. Is this unimaginable? What’s so religiously disharmonious with me reporting this fact? I think conservative Christians will be quite proud to say they disagree with what Anthony has done.
And no, I’m not anon. But thank you anon.
Rgds,
Jonathan K
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your response.
The reason why I said they “can stir religious disharmony” is that assuming what you reported is true, Christians, non-Christians, straights, gays will start to argue based on your report. However, since there is a lack of reference from your quotes, commenters will be hitting air to even comment on those points. So that’s why I asked those two questions to confirm if you are asserting them before we could further comment/debate.
From the article proper, the quotes were attributed directly to Rev Yap and CS Zhou. Going by most global journalistic practices, that is already a sufficient reference. The only lacking point would be CS Zhou was not reported as a full name.
In any case, to say this stirs religious disharmony puts more than a tad of unnecessary weight onto the article. Both Yap and Zhou are entitled to their own opinions and observations. If any one wishes to create civil strife based on that, then that someone is purely using this as an excuse. He or she is the one guilty of stirring religious disharmony.
aiyoyo
speak up get bashed,
is it to understand that those no speak up join the elites club?
sad story
aiyoyo
I give credit to him for speaking up for Dr Chee who was bashed again and again by LKY machinery where even the judge got a hand to play in politics!
Rest in peace, Mr Yeo.
Sometimes people can be too smart and too much by twisting words and issues to serve their own narrow minded objectives and aims. They lose sight of the issues that really matter.
Anthony Yeo was a giving and generous soul whose only fault was his emphathy for everyone irregardless of who they were. So it is amazing that there are people out there who can fault these admirable attributes. By doing so, it reveals more of these people and their intentions.
May we all be inspired by the words and ways of Anthony and be more compassionate to everyone, including his critics.
Dear Anthony,
Rest in peace. We will carry on your legacy by spreading information and understanding.
Hi Creducator,
I am curious if you are well-informed about the doctrinal differences in the global Christian Community, especially on the moral substance of homosexual acts. These differences are strong enough to divide the Anglican Communion to the point that a number of former Anglican churches rejoined the Roman Catholic Church in response to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s implicit recognition of homosexual clergymen. Why are you discouraging the Church to divide? If there is fundamental difference in doctrine among the Church, it should split.
I last attended a course conducted by Anthony Yeo in May. When asked by a fellow coursemate what he would like to be remembered as, Mr Yeo answered that he wanted to be remembered as human-friendly, not just gay-friendly.
Lets honour him.
Sigh.
Christianity need more of him than the likes of TLA.
Sigh
to 22) Marketplace Thiologist:
not contributing to the debate, but i’m just curious about how your nickname has been spelt as opposed to the dictionary, “theology”. and whether it has any link to the recent AWARE saga.