Adam Lambert concert promoting gay lifestyle at StarPAC

Posted on March 2, 2013 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Church feels the heat over gay singer’s gig’, 2 March 2013, article by Tessa Wong, ST

THE National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) is looking into a complaint about a church-owned venue hosting an upcoming concert by openly gay singer Adam Lambert. Lambert is due to perform next Friday at The Star Performing Arts Centre, a commercial entity fully owned by Rock Productions, the business arm of New Creation Church.

New Creation is a member of the NCCS, which represents about 200 churches in Singapore. NCCS general secretary Lim K. Tham said the council had received a complaint from a Christian that “the gay lifestyle may be promoted at the concert, and that the concert venue is owned by a church,” he said.

“The NCCS has conveyed this concern to New Creation so that it can make a response.”

The Media Development Authority (MDA) said it has also received feedback from some members of the public “expressing concern” about the concert. It declined to reveal what their concerns were. Even though it is not the first time that Lambert has performed here, the NCCS said it did not receive complaints about his previous gigs. The MDA declined to say whether it received any complaints about him previously.

He performed at Resorts World Sentosa in 2010 and sang at the Formula One Grand Prix at the Padang in 2011. (He ‘came out’ in 2009)

…This is not the first time that Christians have raised concerns about a pop concert in recent months. The MDA previously met with the NCCS and LoveSingapore, a network of 100 churches, about Lady Gaga’s concert in May last year. It is understood that they had raised concerns over how she may have insulted Christians and promoted homosexuality at her concert.

The Star PERFORMING ARTS centre at Buona Vista sounds like a venue for an evening of ballet and other classy types of refined entertainment, like an uglier Esplanade of the West. Yet it showcases a diverse range of celebrities from golden oldies to K-pop, saccharine David Foster to Bollywood, sleepy Norah Jones jazz to the flamboyant razzle-dazzle of American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert. Earlier this year, the church-owned theatre wowed male audiences with  an all-girl group from Japan known as the Ebisu Muscats. Unbeknownst to many, the Muscats are in fact a spin-off novelty act consisting of nude models and PORNSTARS.  The NCCS said nothing then. Oh I forgot, those guys don’t watch porn. They were also seemingly fine with singing pastor Sun Ho’s China Wine video.

NCC insists that its Star stage operates independently from the workings of the Church, like a secular debauched fantasy realm of its own, though the theatre is just an escalator away from a Christian book and music shop. Lambert’s music is not known to promote any agenda for ‘free love’ or cast a cursory eye on religion unlike Lady Gaga’s overt references to biblical characters (Black Jesus, anyone?). Last year, 300 Protestant South Koreans gathered for group prayer cum protest against Gaga’s Born this Way Ball. I wonder if anyone has already booked Hong Lim Park for a similar vigil to save humanity from Adam Lambert. A commenter from the NCC Facebook page refers to Lambert’s gig as an ‘appearance of evil’ (1 Thessalonians 5:22). The actual quote from the Bible is ‘Abstain from all appearance of evil’, or ‘If you see a gay dude with eyeliner, run far, far away’.

You can pray and Air guitar at the same time, it seems

As the singer proudly proclaims, he’s just here ‘for your entertainment’, though that entertainment may include him kissing his band guitarist amid the gothic ‘glitter and leather’ extravaganza. Up yours S377A!

The people complaining to NCCS and Malaysia’s hardline opposition party PAS have something in common then, both terrified of a gay epidemic, with the latter forbidding Lambert from even showing fans his nipples. In response to allegations of promoting homosexuality in Malaysia, he said:

Does my show ‘promote the gay lifestyle’? It promotes living ANY lifestyle that includes the freedom to seek love and intimacy

Lambert’s ‘We Are Glamily‘ tour was also recently cancelled in Manila due to ‘unforseen circumstances’. This is the same country where Christian and Muslim brotherhoods unite to banish demonic singers. Interestingly, the ‘Glamily’ title was left out for the Singapore promo. Sistic calls it ‘Adam Lambert Live in Singapore’. Imagine how outraged the church elders must feel if it had been left intact. Some gay singer coming here to break up the family unit! Dear Lord!

I wonder what the wholesome folks at NCCS think of Elton John (who has a male spouse, surrogate child and an orchid named after him) performing Candle in the Wind for charity here. Elton John is the last person Singaporean teens would look up to on sexuality matters of course, nevermind that he implores you to ‘Feel the Love Tonight’ on a Disney cartoon. Lambert is gay AND cool, which in the conservative Christian’s mind is an equation that adds up to ’666′.

A question every openly gay singer will have to ask when seeking to meet their fans in this part of the world is: Whaddaya want from me? Whaddaya want indeed. All together now…

Yeah, it’s plain to see (plain to see)
that baby you’re beautiful
And it’s nothing wrong with you
(nothing wrong with you)
It’s me, I’m a freak (yeah)
but thanks for lovin’ me
Cause you’re doing it perfectly

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Filed under: 2013, Art, Concerts, Gay stuff, Religion | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments »

Repealing 377A a looming threat to the family unit

Posted on January 19, 2013 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Pastor’s plea to retain S377A sparks online furore’, 18 Jan 2013, article in Today online.

A plea by a church pastor — made during morning service last Sunday — to Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong against the repeal of Section 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalises sex between men, has drawn strong reactions from the online community. Mr Goh happened to pass by the Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) during his regular walkabout in his Marine Parade constituency and was invited by the church leaders to meet the congregation.

While Mr Goh was on the stage in the church’s auditorium, FCBC senior pastor Lawrence Khong read from a prepared statement. Among other things, he called the effort to repeal Section 377A “a looming threat” to the family unit, which he defined as “a man as father, a woman as mother, and children”.

“We see a looming threat to this basic building block by homosexual activists seeking to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code,” said Mr Khong, who also urged the Government to “provide moral leadership in preserving this basic building block and foundation of our society”. In response, Mr Goh made a general remark that people are free to stand by their beliefs: “You stand by your belief, and you’ll be fine.”

There are many other educated voices out there in a better position than myself to argue for the repeal of 377A, but what concerns me here is whether someone of Khong’s calibre should be endorsed by Goh Chok Tong to ‘stand by’ such divisive beliefs and if taking this moral high ground would be detrimental not just to the livelihood of gays of the faith, but gays of society in general. In his statement, Khong talks of the repeal ‘attacking religious freedom’ and changing the way sex is taught in schools. If a religious leader expresses an irrational fear of a certain group of individuals and crudely labels it a destructive force, is it all ‘fine’ and dandy? Two gays having consensual sex in private doesn’t hurt anyone. One influential man telling every Christian or Catholic that homosexuality is a form of spiritual defilement is not someone simply expressing a ‘belief’. In some civilised societies, such condemning of an alternative lifestyle choice is considered a hate crime. Here, the ex Prime Minister of Singapore gives you an encouraging pat on the shoulder for ranting about the impending ‘gaypocalypse’. If I ‘believe’ the PAP is running the nation to the ground, will I get the same assurance?

I’m not sure that we, for the benefit for fellow humans with feelings, should tolerate such attitudes disguised as old biblical axiom. What Khong is implying is that homosexuality needs to be ‘controlled’ before it becomes a ‘norm’ and wrecks everything we hold dear. If you replace ‘homosexual’ with groups like the elderly, the sick, the handicapped, the mentally impaired, atheists, rapists, liars, gamblers, cheaters etc you have someone essentially advocating mass sterilisation of ‘undesirables’ from the pulpit. On the other hand, if one speaks up against the Church while ‘standing firm’ to a belief that monotheistic faiths are the viral scourge of humanity, you’ll be FINED rather than ‘fine’, if not jailed for sedition and ‘disrupting religious harmony’. Meanwhile, men of the cloth spew discriminatory hokum and get away with it because they have scripture to back them up, the same scripture that justifies genocide of the ‘deviants’. If a pastor is allowed to take a sweeping crack at homosexuality, so should I be able to exercise my ‘right’ to critique his sermons as being arcane, merciless and downright nonsensical. Jesus, just look what one of your heterosexual clergy have done to a 15 year old follower this past month. And you want to talk about 377A when you can’t even control your guys from the ‘proper’ family units.

The argument for the preservation of the ‘family unit’ and its role in nation building is as stale as unwashed foreskin. In 2009, Senior Pastor Derek Hong from the Anglican Church of our Savior said:

Accepting homosexual practices and endorsing any education programme that teaches our children that such practices are neutral or normal would lead to the erosion of the sound family values on which Singapore society has been built.

The infamous Rony Tan from Lighthouse Evangelism compared homosexuality to a plague of barrenness, that if left alone, ‘half the world’ would become homosexual, like the spread of some zombie pandemic. John Chew, head of the Anglican Church, told the ST in 2006 that:

 …‘It may be a cultured way of depicting a certain lifestyle, but two generations later, it will be an accepted lifestyle…If Elton John can do it, imagine the impact on his fans…It is just too dangerous, we have no fallback…It’s not like in the West, where these things take time to trickle down.”

Yang Tuck Loong, pastor of Cornerstone Community Church and LoveSingapore member, had this to say in his ‘Firing the First Salvo’ statement (Church network to speak up for S377A, 22 Jan 2013, ST), a terrifying metaphor which is hard to differentiate from a call to arms by the Knights Templar.

We must not be oblivious to our responsibilities as an army to push back the powers of darkness

PM Lee seems to think we are still at heart a ‘conservative’ society, and are not ready for change. Look at the sex scandals in your own cabinet : A heterosexual Speaker of Parliament running wild. Right under your nose.

So from the right-wing religious point of view, homosexuality is ‘contagious’ and is ‘unacceptable’ based on what appears to be it breaching a sacred union, though any link between this perfect union of penis and vagina and the success and happiness of a kingdom or nation has yet to be reliably shown. It doesn’t say if a polygamous marriage has run afoul of the Bible’s teachings (in fact it was probably rampant at the time the Bible was written). It also says nothing about the millions of men and women who made a difference to society as orphans or products of single parents and broken families, nor does it acknowledge that perfect families are as likely to produce a saint or President as a Hitler or serial killer.

Lawrence Khong and like-minded leaders need to be put in their place before such remarks are taken as a war-cry against the ‘fallen’ and a stamp of government approval for something akin to militant eugenics. The Archbishop was once told to stay the hell out of politics for commenting on the ISA, so shouldn’t a pastor be censured for interfering in our legislation as well? Likewise, politicians should know better and stay clear of mixing policy with religious affairs. Did Khong pull a Houdini here as he does on a regular basis as a trained MAGICIAN? Maybe that explains the hocus-pocus reasoning coming out of his mouth.

He should make himself disappear

Filed under: 2013, Gay stuff, Politicians, Religion | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

MDA banning Elangovan’s Stoma

Posted on January 9, 2013 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Media Development Authority bans Elangovan’s play Stoma’, 9 Jan 2013, article by Huang Lijie, ST

Singapore playwright Elangovan’s first play after a three-year hiatus will not be staged. The play, Stoma, which tells the story of a Catholic priest defrocked over sex abuse charges, was denied a performance licence yesterday.

It was originally slated to run at The Substation in Armenian Street from Jan 17 to 19. In a letter to Mr Elangovan, artistic director of theatre company Agni Kootthu (Theatre Of Fire), the Media Development Authority said a licence was not issued because the play contains “sexually explicit, blasphemous and offensive references and language which would be denigrating to the Catholic and the wider Christian community“.

This is the third time that a play by Elangovan has been denied licence to be staged here, after Talaq (2000), a play about a Muslim-Indian woman’s experiences of marital violence, and Smegma (2006), which comprises 10 mini plays that explore the control and exploitation of disadvantaged groups of people.

Elangovan’s earlier banned work Smegma sounds like a biography of a punk metal band or a sex-heavy meditation on puberty secretions, but it’s actually drama composed of 10 vignettes, including:

  • Three men in a prison cell making fun of  the Singapore flag
  • Kindergarten children calling their MP a PIG
  • Singaporeans sexual escapades with underaged girls (How prescient, this Elangovan)

But it was the Arts Consultative Panel’s fear that it would ‘create unhappiness and disaffection amongst Muslims’ that pulled the plug on Smegma. Interestingly, Smegma was initially granted a licence under a RA(18) rating, but got banned less than 30 HOURS before it was scheduled to play. 6 years later you would see MDA pulling the same last-minute stunt on a film that allegedly mocks Indians called Sex. Violence. Family Values. This followed a consultation with a similar panel of ‘experts’ AFTER MDA had made the more forthcoming decision of granting M18 instead.

The synopsis for Smegma contains the following line: “When the comfort zone is shattered, ugliness rears its head like SMELLY SMEGMA”, and so it is with MDA coming down hard on Stoma for its priest-sex associations, like a libido-killing, shameful splotch of spermy grime on a male porn stud’s scene-stealing manhood. What is the difference between Stoma and another similarly-themed production Doubt (performed here in 2006) anyway? Does Jesus Christ cameo in it totting a shotgun? Or perhaps it features sexy nuns showing more leg than habit?

The controversial Talaq (Divorce), which earned the playwright and even its lead actress Nargis Banu DEATH threats, was based on true stories of Indian-Muslim women getting battered and raped by their husbands.  The theatre company clashed with the National Arts Council (NAC) for inviting two deeply religious Muslim men from the South Indian Jamiathual Ulama (SIJU) on their panel, one of whom, Haji Marican, reportedly objecting to the play not so much that it depicts Muslim husbands as violent rapists, but that involuntary sex  should NOT be considered rape in the first place:

In Islamic law, a husband cannot rape his wife as long as the marriage continues. He need not ask permission from his wife for sexual relations each time he wants to have it. Even if she is angry or not in the mood, he has the right to it. In any event, a husband can have sex with his wife without her consent and that will not be rape

I’m no scholar on religious matters, but I wonder if these guys were intimidating the NAC into making an unfavourable decision not with choice religious words, but with wooden clubs that could beat off the most rabid sabre-toothed tiger. Elangovan’s wife (S Thenmoli) and president of his theatre group also got arrested for trespassing after holding a private rehearsal of Talaq in 2000. Maybe if I had threatened to nail Stephenie Meyer shut in a coffin and bury her alive, and MDA intervened accordingly, disgruntled boyfriends and husbands in Singapore would have been spared the torture of sitting through 5 soppy, draggy vampire movies which also promulgate bestial-pedophilia love between wolfmen and little girls. And all that got was a PG rating!

If there’s anything that should be banned, it’s this promo rap video below which MDA produced in 2007; for giving the arts-loving public the false impression that they’re cutting-edge and cool. I rather scrape dried smegma off a rapist’s corpse with my fingernails than listen to this. They just don’t stop, y’all.

Postscript: Barely a week after this ban, a sex scandal involving a pastor from an unnamed church and an underaged girl surfaced. Oh the irony. Elangovan’s fiction is eerily close to the inconvenient truth. Looks like the year of the Scandal is stretching past the Chinese New Year.

Filed under: 2000s, 2013, Art, Bureaucrats, Censors, Religion, Sex, Violence | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

CHC youths singing about ‘The Greatest Place’

Posted on July 30, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘City Harvest youths record song in support of Pastor Kong Hee’, 30 July 2012, article by Jeffrey Oon, sg yahoo news.

23 youths from City Harvest Church have recorded a music video to express support for their congregation and its embattled  leadership. Titled “The Greatest Place — City Harvest Church” , the 4-and-a-half-minute video begins with an opening sequence of several youths proclaiming their love for “this place”.

The video, which was recorded earlier this month on 15th July, also describes how the music video came to be. “23 youths from different zones and cellgroups came together to record a song in support of our church and our leadership,” says an opening message in the video.

Several lines of lyrics call City Harvest the place where the youths — who by their looks range from early teens to mid-twenties –  found their “home”, “freedom” and the “greatest place I have ever known.” Although church founder Pastor Kong Hee is never directly mentioned,  he is shown preaching in several sequences while lyrics allude to him as “the greatest man that I have ever known“.

The Passion of the CHC

This tribute ends with a shot of the lines ‘The Greatest Place. I love this place (Heart)’, a couplet which wouldn’t have looked out of place in an NDP song (Someone take notes for next year). Half of this song is dedicated to a man who saved many youths with his brand of Christianity, and despite his brush with the law and alleged siphoning of funds to turn his wife into a superstar, here are 23 youngsters returning the favour, though it remains to be seen if this musical tribute/protest would save Kong Hee and his band of Christian brothers from the cold, atheist hand of Justice.

The history of music is filled with songs dedicated to the male species and masculinity including friends, fathers, grandfathers, brothers, boyfriends, ex boyfriends, husbands, ex husbands, sons, grandsons, kings, princes, cowboys, dictators, gods, Jesus, Satan, Superman, Mohammed Ali and Micheal Jackson. I can’t for the life of me think of any song dedicated to a pastor (the closest is Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man), and one that heaps as much idolatrous praise as this, regardless of whether Kong Hee’s maintenance of integrity stands in the face of hard evidence. This feel-good hit of the year is set to be sung by more mouths in rapt unison than our current NDP fodder track ‘Love at First Light’. I can imagine people actually weeping to this, and then breaking into ungodly, ecstatic fits during the ripping guitar solo. Still, this ain’t no Bohemian Rhapsody, and thank God for that.

So let’s look at the lyrics referring to the Greatest One of All and compare it to this solemn but epic tribute to Mao Ze Dong titled ‘People Unite’, summoning whatever limited powers of translation I have when it comes to the Chinese language.

MZD: He is the People’s Great Saviour
KH: He’s a world changer and a History Maker (I don’t see Steve Jobs in the video, still this line is nerve-cringingly cheesy)

MZD: Chairman Mao. Loves the People.
KH: Of all things his love’s undeniable (especially towards Sun Ho)

The lyric of contention in this fawning Ode to Kong Hee (some insist it refers to Jesus Christ) is ‘The greatest man I that have ever known’. What about the actual FATHERS of all 23 boys and girls in the video, especially those toiling night and day for years to raise their Christian kids who are happier in a home away from home, now having to grapple for attention with another man who’s likely to be better looking and more charming than themselves? MM Lee, looks like someone has officially beaten you to it. It’ll be a long while before anyone sings a song about you, our founding father, a man who actually makes it into the Annals of HISTORY. If Kong Hee’s found guilty, this would be waxing lyrical about a JAILBIRD, and that would be, well, awkward. Wait, has any Singaporean man been sung about, ever? You mean we’ve never had a loving tyrant or a folk hero? Not even for our grandfather soldiers who died so we may live during the Japanese Occupation? You mean all these years we never cared about the real heroes of Singapore and all of a sudden we have an opus magnus about some fancy preacher man? Jesus!

But seriously, there are less controversial, more tongue-in-cheek, yet equally fanatical things to band together and sing about other than megachurches and their leaders. Take sports: In 1993, our Lions rapped to ‘The Dream Team’ song. Seeing Jang Jung go ‘I’m Jang Jung and I will TAKER you out’ always raises a chuckle. The sport has never been the same since, and maybe in a good way because we’re left with a touch of zany, fuzzy fondness just thinking about how great we used to be. The Greatest TEAM we’ve ever known.

Well dedicating a song to your church is fine and dandy if you can afford it, and having a man-crush and making your old man jealous is your own prerogative and all, but how about the cause of Gaia protection for a change? Why sing to save one man when you can, well, SAVE MY WORLD? The Greatest Kids in Weird Bee Costumes we’ll ever know.

Filed under: 1990s, 2012, Music/music videos, Religion | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Megachurch funding Sun Ho’s music career

Posted on June 26, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘City Harvest’s Kong Hee and 4 others questioned by police’ and ‘City Harvest’s Crossover Project lies at heart of CoC inquiry’, 26 June 2012, ST

City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee and four others, including former board members, were arrested on Tuesday morning following a probe into financial irregularities of the church by both the police and the Commissioner of Charities (CoC). Among other things, the CoC found financial irregularities of at least $23 million from the church funds. Its spokesman said the funds were used with the purported intention to finance the wife of pastor Kong, Ms Ho Yeow Sun’s secular music career to connect with people.

…At the centre of the inquiry by the Commisioner of Charities (CoC) is the City Harvest Church’s Crossover Project and the misrepresentation on the use of the charity’s fund. The project was set up in 2002 purportedly to use Sun Ho’s secular music to connect with people and reach out to non-Christians. By 2003, it had drawn flak. According to the CoC, an individual alleged in the media that the charity was funding Sun Ho’s music career.

This attracted public attention. Although the person eventually issued a public apology and retracted his allegations, the church faced media scrutiny. In response, it issued press statements and made several representations to its members to state that they had not funded Sun Ho’s music career. However, unknown to the executive members of the board, the church’s funds were used to run the project, said the CoC.

In Jan 2003, a CHC member named Roland Poon told the ST that he was ‘encouraged’ to purchase five copies each of Sun Ho’s two albums at the time, and accused church leadership of using funds to push Ho to superstardom.  He later spent tens of thousands publicly apologising in various media out of sudden, dramatic repentance. I wonder how the same man would feel now if the very people he pointed fingers at almost a decade ago were found to be guilty of misusing donations to manufacture a pop star, one who sells sex more than gospel to the masses. What if he was RIGHT all along? It would be the most wasteful apology ever.

There’s nothing wrong with Ho’s ‘secular’ music (other than being utterly tuneless and forgettable) and a sex-kitten image even if she’s a pastor’s wife, though critics were quick to notice Sun Ho’s extravagances once they got bored of her peek-a-boos. In 2003, she was at the Hollywood Film Festival promoting her debut single ‘Where Did Love Go’ in a RED ARMANI SATIN GOWN. This was a track produced by the legendary David Foster, the man behind the success of classic syrupy balladeers like Celine Dion, Elton John and the reason why karaoke is still alive today. Miraculously, this formula of a mega-producer combined with a virtual nobody from Singapore  propelled ‘Where Did Love Go’ to the top of the Billboard Dance charts. It’s likely that the fee paid to Foster alone cost more than the profits of Sun’s first album in Singapore. Minus the CHC fanbase of course.

Five Mandarin platinum albums aside, she’s also the only Singaporean artiste to ever appear at the Grammys twice.   In 2007, the good Christian diva image was shed, and a collaboration with Wyclef Jean of the FUGEES resulted in CHINA WINE, with Ho channeling a premenopausal Nicki Minaj going by the street name of ‘GEISHA’. By taking such gimmicky liberties with all things Asian, China Wine is to Christianity as Annabelle Chong is to Singaporean film.  Most Singaporeans would have realised by now that Ho wasn’t going to be the Asian Charlotte Church. If she had worn crucifixes over lingerie in her performances there wouldn’t be the slightest hint of irony at all. China Wine even sounds like a euphemism for some date rape drug, judging from the raunchy chorus:

China wine, china wine, china wine, china wine, china wine, china wine
Mix da china wine with di dutty wine

I’ve no idea what ‘di dutty wine’ means, though it sounds like Jamaican slang for semen. More telling is the following line:

Look upon da girl a shes a dirty wina
Ed Hardy, dats her designa

(Sun not only wears Ed Hardy, but used to own a store at Heeren with husband Kong Hee. Her wardrobe’s full of it too. Apparently hip clothing sells better than bibles)

Sun Ho in an alternate Christian universe

2009 saw the release of ‘Fancy Free’, which had Ho in MILF meets Lady Gaga Ninja garb while sounding like Gwen Stefani. The music video was directed by Joseph Kahn, the creative hand behind Britney Spears’ Toxic video. A couple of saucy videos, expensive collaborators, endorsements from congregation and you’ve earned yourself a Hollywood home. In 2010, it was reported that Ho rents her place in Hollywood Hills at $28,000 a month, supposedly sharing the same ground that Brad and Angelina walk on. If she could convert either one of them, all would be forgiven. China Wine included.

With CD sales plummeting worldwide and Ho not producing a hit single since her turn to the ‘vamp’ side, it’s not possible for someone to lap up a lavish Hollywood lifestyle without a ‘little help’ from your flock. Whether by the Grace of God or shrewd ‘investments’, Ho has put Singapore ‘on the map’, even if she’s been packaged and sold like a comfort woman with dreadlocks while at it. It doesn’t, however, excuse the CHC bigwigs of turning the prayers and generosity of many into one bad Ed-Hardy endorsed dancehall-reggae-rap -astrophe after another.  Interestingly, in a 2003 Today article, it was reported that Ho was named one of the Outstanding Young Persons by the Junior Chamber of Commerce. One of the past winners was a certain CEO of another charity who later got himself into trouble as well using funds for dialysis patients to affix gold taps in his toilet.

His name? T T DURAI.

Postscript: As befitting of a charismatic leader, CHC members continue to support the shamed Kong Hee, clamouring for him outside court, tweeting words of faith and encouragement and a certain Christopher Pang  being so bold as to threaten the COC with defamation in a written letter to MCYS Minister Chan Chun Sing. Meanwhile the cash till rolls up to $50 million, with luxury property in Sentosa added to the windfall, and Kong Hee is desperately tweeting verses from the Bible like the one below,  forgetting to include @JesusChrist in his plaintive pleas. Not sure if Chan Chun Sing belongs to any denomination himself, though he used to study at Economics at CHRIST’S COLLEGE, Cambridge.

Filed under: 2000s, 2010, 2012, Local music/bands, Money, Religion, Sex | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Pro-Israel NS man doesn’t think Islam is a religion

Posted on November 20, 2011 by gdy2shoez

From ‘NSF posts online picture of text criticising Islam’, 20 Nov 2011, article by Tessa Wong, Sunday Times

The police are investigating an incident where a full-time national serviceman (NSF) posted on his Facebook wall a picture of text that criticises Islam.

…The national serviceman, identified as Mr Christian Eliab Ratnam, had posted a picture of text claiming, among other more inflammatory things, that Islam is not a religion but ‘an authoritarian, political doctrine which imposes itself by force‘.

…Checks on the Internet found that Mr Ratnam appears to support pro-Israel and Jewish causes. Screenshots and a cached version of his Facebook page showed an image of Israel’s flag and the symbol for the Israel Defence Forces. He was also a member of a Facebook group for Israelis and Jews living in Singapore.

In a Facebook group called ‘anti-feminist empire’, Mr Ratnam made a posting that directed readers to another group, started by his wife. Called ‘Submissive and Obedient Wives (For G-d and Husband)’, the Facebook group advocates that a wife submit, obey and revere her husband. It quotes extensively from the Bible and Torah.

Christian supports Jews

It turns out that Ratnam’s post isn’t an original piece of work, but adapted from a Chicago Transportation Security Agent Roy Egan’s Facebook rant containing what I would deduce to be the most offensive (hence censored) phrase in the picture above (‘Islam is a cult that glorifies death’). Egan also took potshots at a ‘Muslim’ Obama and his First Lady, and was eventually fired from his job. It remains to be seen what would happen to Ratnam, despite posting an apology on the TOC website. But it appears that there are polarised ‘affiliations’ within our Army itself based on Facebook profiles; Christian is obviously enamoured with the Jewish cause, while we had an SAF officer proclaiming to be a Chief Terrorist for Al Qaeda just a month back. Neither appears to be Jewish or Muslim, but both seem to be waging an online make-believe religious war, keyboard ‘warriors’ self-recruited into the respective camps simply by ‘liking’ random religious Facebook pages.  Even a YPAP member has piggybacked onto this childish nonsense by suspecting kindergarteners of being terrorist trainees. Whatever happened to protecting our homeland? Haven’t you boys got your conflict kicks out of playing Gears of War on Xbox already?

Should we even take such lofty, imaginary personas seriously? If I created a Facebook profile declaring my religion as ‘Satanic’ and that I belong to a  ‘cult’ known as the ‘Foetus-eating Devil Worshippers’, would the police crack down on me for harbouring what appears to be a sick fantasy then? I’m sure both Ratnam and wannabe Chief Terrorist both lead perfectly normal lives outside of Facebook, and not spend their weekends writing manifestos or holed up in some bunker fitting wires for homemade bombs.  Perhaps the police are extra wary of NS men because of their access to firearms, but honestly, even if you’re dead serious about waging a religious war, posting your thoughts on Facebook and being a worshipping fan of slain dictators is just about the stupidest thing to do.

But what’s interesting is Ratnam’s support for his wife’s ‘Submissive and Obedient Wives‘ group, and what struck me as ironic is how similar this sounds to the  Obedient Wives’ Club, itself inspired by Allah’s teachings. Perhaps if Ratnam took some time to identify ‘common ground’ between both ‘doctrines’ instead of jumping headlong into a fashionable ’cause’ out of a desperate need to ‘belong’,  he wouldn’t be too hasty with the copycat posting. So, Holy war aside,  for the benefit of subscribers of both anti-feminist ‘clubs’, here’s a look at how the Bible treats women, methods of ‘submitting’ which OWC members could probably relate to. An apology and deserving punishment isn’t enough, Ratnam needs to REALISE how both monotheisms are equally flawed and actually similar in more ways than he can ever imagine.

Deuteronomy 25:11 NIV: If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.

Proverbs 12: A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.

Numbers 5 NIV: …Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. 20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— 21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the LORD cause you to become a curse[d] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”

Filed under: 2011, Army, Bloggers, Religion, Singaporean women, Violence | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Pastor, Don’t Preach

Posted on February 20, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From Rising Christian fundamentalism is worrying 9 May 1987 ST Forum

Last year, I attended a Christian funeral service and witnessed a pastor, in a voice choked with emotion, condemning the traditional funeral customs of the Chinese, much to the discomfort of the non-Christians present.

I also know families who after conversion to the new faith, destroy their entire Chinese antique collection because they are deemed to be ‘satanic’.

Rony-ism at its peak, when the devil was actually a being with horns and not embodied by gays, lesbians and buddhist monks.

Filed under: 1980s, Religion | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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