Kelvin Teo
This is a written response to Nazry Bahrawi’s “Singapore’s fragile harmony threatened”.
Pastor Rony Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism met Singapore's Internal Security Department over coffee in February 2010.
At one point of our lives, we may come across salespersons who would promote their products to us the consumers. Basically, their main aim is to convince us to buy their products. They claim that their products benefit us. Some go a step further, especially in instances where there are competing product brands.
In attempting to convince consumers to buy their brands over competitors, some salespersons go the extra mile. They will attempt to put down their competitors, with facts for those whom are honest enough or fibs for the more unscrupulous ones. Either way, competitor bashing with facts or/and fibs is part and parcel of sales talk.
The way certain individuals promote the religion in which their professed beliefs lie in has also taken on a similar pattern as a sales pitch. According to the 2000 population census, 50% of Singapore’s population comprises Buddhist and Taoists, with Christians taking up a quarter of the population with the rest composed of Muslims and those without any religion.
In recent times, the public witnessed two high profile cases of religious figures overstepping the line to paint other religions in a negative light, prompting fears that the inter-religious harmony may be fractured by such indiscretions.
Pastor Rony Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism made insensitive remarks about the central tenets of Buddhism, which includes reincarnation, meditation, nibbana and others. His actions prompted a response from the Ministry of Home Affairs which stated that such remarks were “highly inappropriate and unacceptable as they trivialised and insulted the beliefs of Buddhists and Taoists”.
Pastor Mark Ng of the New Creation Church fared no better than Tan. The former likened the ritual of praying to a Taoist deity to a prayer for protection within a secret society setting. The interesting question is what Tan and Ng have in common?
Well, first and foremost, their actions were broadcasted all over YouTube. Since its inception, YouTube received mixed reviews, both good and bad. The bad side of YouTube comes with copyright infringement and privacy invasion. How about one of the good sides? For one, YouTube seems like an attractive platform to expose video-recorded evidences of a culprit’s indiscretions.
Both Tan’s and Ng’s actions made it to YouTube. Just last year, proceedings of Pastor Derek Hong’s (from the Church of Our Saviour) alleged involvement in the AWARE saga made it to YouTube. The latter subsequently apologised for his actions. In a way, the bright side of YouTube is that it can serve as a form of surveillance mechanism. Religious figures (regardless of religions) should be aware that a slip of tongue or an action of indiscretion could be recorded and subsequently make its way into YouTube.
What is the other thing that both Tan and Ng have in common? Arguably, both are no different from salespersons when it came to promoting their beliefs. Both aren’t any different from a typical salesman who put down competitor brands, except that now we are dealing with ‘religious products’ here. This is where promoting religions take on a sales pitch.
A senior friend of mine always believe that the best form of evangelism is through one’s actions. Simply put, how beneficial a form of belief is can be evaluated through a person’s conduct. In consumer-based terms, a product’s effectiveness can be witnessed by the benefits it has on its consumers. Thus, the smart money is on observing the benefits of the product on its consumers before making the decision to purchase.
After, all it requires is some powers of observations of the impact a belief has on a person’s conduct. Who says we need ‘salesmen’ to tell us what is good for us? After all, door-to-door salesmen are already a thing of the past.
