A Christian church in Singapore has apologized for a sermon by one of its pastors that mocked Taoist beliefs, the second such incident this year in the city-state where religious speech is closely controlled.
New Creation Church, which says it has a congregation of 20,000 worshippers, said it apologized for a sermon by Mark Ng (黃馬可) in 2008 that was posted last week on YouTube and subsequently picked up by local media Web sites.
In the audio clip, Ng, who heads the church’s Mandarin and Hokkien ministries, makes fun of some Chinese traditions and compares praying to a Taoist god to paying a criminal gang for protection.
“We Chinese are under a lot of superstition and rituals,” Ng said in the sermon. “Praying to him for what? For protection. It’s just like a secret society, you know, gangster.”
Singapore, whose 5 million people include an ethnic Chinese majority along with significant Malay and Indian minorities, enforces a strict ban on speech about race and religion.
The government argues the restrictions are necessary to avoid conflict among the different groups, which include Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Taoists.
EVANGELICAL PRESENCE
Large evangelical Christian churches have become more popular in Singapore in recent decades, especially among the wealthier, English-educated ethnic Chinese.
Christians accounted for about 15 percent of the population in 2000, the year of the last census survey, up from 10 percent in 1980.
“Pastor Mark has explained to us that his intention was to highlight what he viewed as some inconsistencies in the local Chinese practices,” New Creation said in a statement earlier this week.
“He humbly appeals to those whom he has offended to forgive him of this serious indiscretion,” the church said.
DISCUSSION
The Singaporean Ministry of Home Affairs said officials from the country’s intelligence police, the Internal Security Department (ISD), discussed the sermon with church officials, but declined to give details of the meeting.
In February, ISD officers met with pastor Rony Tan (陳順平) of the Lighthouse Evangelism church, who apologized for mocking reincarnation and nirvana, beliefs of Buddhism and Taoism.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
RSS