A Word About Intolerant Christian Views

Much has been written, blogged and printed about a certain evangelical church pastor’s publicly-aired views about Buddists and Taoists. I believe one of the words the Straits-jacketed Times used to describe his ill-fated sermon was “insensitive”.

Singapore

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Feb 9, 2010

Insensitive comments made

Pastor called up by ISD

Leader of independent church apologises to Buddhists and Taoists

I read, goggled-eyed about the ISD (Singapore’s Gestapo) swooping in on Pastor Rony Tan when word got out (he had posted the video of his own remarks online) and the blogosphere almost overheated from the angry backlash. The result: a seemingly contrite apology made on his website, retracting his clearly bigoted remarks and a trotting out of a dozen or so “statements” from members of the various religious denominations here as well as university sociologists giving their take on the fracas.

A few observations to note:

1) People can very defensive about their (and other people’s) religious views. Not only were Buddhists and Taoists incensed by the pastor’s incendiary remarks, people belonging to other faiths or not espousing any faith were quick to denounce the guy. I believe someone termed this spate of events "vigilantism" by the cyber community in today's review.

2) Most people interviewed by the press expressed positive views about the ISD's swift action. In fact many others think the errant Pastor should have been arrested for sedition and that he got off too lightly, with nary a rap on his knuckles.

Personally, I find the above fascinating and troubling. First, it is not at all surprising to me that jokers like Rony Tan said what he had said. After all, a key foundation of the Church's Old Testament tenets had always been the running down of other religions, which it deemed in direct competition and conflict to it. Modern day Protestant denominations and even the Catholic Church has become less Nazi about it, seeing that it is unfashionable to embark on such ideological crusades. However, leaders of the highly evangelical new religions like the charismatic Christian churches, in a bid (my opinion) to gain and retain its super-base of followers, have been known to regularly speak rubbish without a brain-filter. The problem is, this is the first time (aside from the controversial AWARE women's coup incited by another conservative church pastor) such content has been made publicly available and circulated online.

Therefore, the shit hit the fan, but the shit has always been circulating amidst our "peaceful" multi-religious and multicultural society. It is fascinating that the community swooped down with such force and vehemence, to the point that the ISD (and government) were compelled to publicly call for calm and to take Rony Tan to task. I am relieved and extremely heartened that we have a civil society after all, even if its presence is felt mostly online. The cyber community proved that it was able to gather like nebulous storm clouds to form a real typhoon of anger.

But this seeming unity brings me to my second point -- the visceral reaction to Rony Tan's comic act. Now I will be the first person to run this kind of behaviour down, it is not just disrespectful, it is downright dangerous. I've always maintained that the Christian fundies are as big a danger to society as Osama's terrorists. The fact that Rony Tan had made these remarks in public without compunction already speaks to his fundamental beliefs - he SINCERELY despises those who are not of his ilk, and he PASSIONATELY believes he is right and that he has the right to say so.

But back to the overwhelming reactions from civil society: I find it disturbing that people simply applauded the government's reaction and even expressed approval that such intervention is good. I am not disagreeing. But I am saying that by the time the ISD gets involved, it's really damage-control more than anything else. The harm has been done, the poison has spread.

Nobody has asked this question: have OB markers on religious debate partly caused this fiasco?

For the past 40 years, we have not been allowed to speak of race, in order to preserve "racial harmony". And yet we have racists among us, being arrested by the police.

We have not been allowed to speak of religion, in order to preserve "religious harmony". And yet we have bigots among us, regularly popping up in the news, in the NUS Law Faculty and Parliament, in public harassing young students in an attempt to evangelise. And now Rony Tan.

The Government has gone to great measures to make people fear the repercussions of BEHAVING in an openly racist or bigoted manner. But it has done very little do stem the poison and rot of THINKING in racist and bigoted manners. I am sure the ISD has moles in City Harvest Church, New Creation, and the other mega churches. But the only way for a society to grow, to understand the many viewpoints out there (be they intolerant and offensive or not) is to have open and candid debate. In this regard, the Government still suffers from the Stupid Population Paranoia -- that Singaporeans are incapable of controlling themselves in an open debate and any talk of race or religion would end up in a bloody riot.

Rony Tan was caught with his pants down due to his own narcissistic hubris. The others like him -- Pastor Prince of FCBC, Kong Hee of City Harvest -- are simply smart enough to do their ranting within the safety of their church walls, away from public scrutiny.

The OB markers and the blanket ban on religious debate and exchange has benefitted the Christian Fundamentalists tremendously - they have been driven "underground" so to speak. Because there is no public arena or platform to share and exchange views, religious content is very much restricted to the confines of the churches. In a way, this has remained a "private" domain because the same people get together to talk about the same views they all share. This is dangerous and disturbing because they hear no alternative views, and have no exposure to other faiths, they rely and believe what they hear in their groups. Those with a critical mind will question and debate views they find questionable, but these individuals will soon find themselves cast out of the flock. This is how the poison of religious bigotry thrives in small, closed groups, and how small closed groups perpetuate religious bigotry.

If we simply leave it to the police and the ISD to identify thought-terrorists like Rony Tan, and then take them to task the next time they behave like asses, we as a population will always be guilty of being the dependant children that the Government treats us as. The Government cannot and must not be the final arbiter of "proper" conduct as a religious leader. We allow it to be because we have surrendered free speech. We must seek a more open and engaging society where ALL views -- be they on religion, race, sexuality -- can be aired in a responsible manner.

If not, the religious zealots and fundies will continue to run their shady shows in the closed confines of their church walls, with nobody to challenge their intolerant attitudes or the seditiousness of their teachings because now, nobody is going to be stupid enough to post their rants online and wait to be caught.