The CHC Saga

There has been lots of news and coverage on the above case as the matter has been brought to the court in Singapore. It is probably one of the biggest news in Singapore now as it involves the extremely sensitive topic we have in Singapore, that is - religion. There has already been more than enough coverage on the media on what this case is about and I will not go through the details here. It is in a nutshell, about pastor Kong and a few others who have allegedly misused large amounts of money (millions) to promote the career of pst Kong's wife - Sun Ho's music career. These money belong to the church and was allegedly misused by the accused. There are just a few points I would like to make and that is, in accordance to the hearings, we are now in a time where the prosecution makes their claim. Therefore, these few months will be a time where the prosecution makes all sorts of claims. be it true or false or how the judge is going to pass the verdict, it is still very much unknown. however, this is also the time where media coverage is at it's widest. few months or even weeks after this time, there will be some other cases that draw the attention of the media and the general public and everyone will forget about the CHC saga. So damage is being done now and it is hard to reverse whatever information the public has received until now. I do know some of the accused individually. I have also seen members of the church posting posts/entries wondering "what if Pastor and gang really took the money?" "What if they are really guilty?" And I must say that in times like this, it is only natural to doubt. I dare say a good percentage of CHC church goers do have this thought coming through their minds. what if the pastor they have been listening to all these years turn out to be a crook? Well, ministry workers and especially Christian leaders getting into trouble with the law and facing allegations especially when it come to finances is not uncommon. In the US, there have been many cases, you just need to google and there will be a lot of such cases. I have once seen a video of people accusing Pst Benny Hinn of some financial stuff as well. back in Singapore, it is also not the first time we have "charity" being questioned about their financial status and usage of money. Remember NKF, Ren Ci? And if I am not wrong, a church is considered "charity" in the context of Singapore. The question is that will the CHC case be the last? and from NKF to Ren Ci till today, what have we done to prevent future happenings of such cases? what have the CoC done to "safeguard the monies of the public"? The only ones who are benefiting are the lawyers and media people, perhaps they get to sell more papers. however, how much taxpayer's money is gone wasted because of all the investigation and court hearing? hey, the fact that an email dated many years back can be used as evidence means there is a poor chap who has to go through each individual email, letter by letter to search for evidence. probably some bloke working in CAD had that job. poor thing! As a society as a whole, it is also not useful, not productive. we should do what we can to prevent such possibility of allegations from taking place. it is for the greater good of the society, the people managing the money (religious leaders/charity organization heads, etc) and the public as well. I mean, have we not learnt enough lessons from Renci and NKF? How many more do we need? back to the Chc case, as mentioned earlier, I do know some of them on a closer level than the average joe. If the hypothesis that Pst Kong and company indeed planned all these and is after the money is true, then there will some serious lack of planning on their end. firstly, it is the timing. pst kong is in his 40s and the rest are even younger. Many of the accused have school going kids. they are not even close to their retirement age. As for City Harvest church it is still new and has greater potential to expand further. It will be foolish to try to siphon money out now. if you were to consider that one can only commit such events once, it will be in their interest to commit such deeds maybe 10 - 20 years later. Where there is more money to draw and there will be less risk as their children will all grow up etc. Therefore, my view is that it is unlikely, if they were really good at planning to plot this out and execute this at this time. Secondly, I have been to wedding dinners with some of the accused and have chatted with them. I believe in the integrity in the church's leaders. for my own wedding, I even gave a red packet to the leader who helped out in my wedding (it is a custom in Singapore for that). However, he rejected it. saying that as a new couple, I needed the money more. Well, back then, I really do need the money. I have seen this same behaviour over and over again. it is always about giving, sharing, caring. putting others first. thirdly, the accusation is that they used the church's money inappropriately. I attended some meetings and they did ask if it was ok to allow them to use the money for investments. I am not an economist, but I do know that there is a constant drop in the value of money over time. That is due to inflation. meaning, a dollar today will not be worth a dollar tomorrow. The very least to allow it to earn some interest so that the impact of inflation will be defrayed. we are not a church made up of rich businessmen unlike some churches in Singapore. Therefore, we will need more time in order to accumulate the money required for any big project, be it a mission trip or a church building project, etc. bit by bit, we saved. if we do not allow investments be made, then we are really loosing money. therefore, a decision was made and consensus given that they can use it. however, I cannot remember when was that meeting held, there has got to be some minutes of the meeting out there. More importantly, not everyone in the church went for that meeting. As you can imagine, it will be hard to determine who is really part of the church and who is not. Someone who attends the church regularly is considered a member?how about a visitor? A very regular visitor? The Church defines an executive member as someone who had the right to vote in those meetings. Therefore, the executive member is the one who has a voice in such meetings, not any member. It is a tough stand to make as we always want to be seen to be inclusive, but for administration purpose, we have to be exclusive on this one... Lastly, I know it is a tough time for all the accused and witnesses during this trial period. the kind of pressure they face from the media and from their family members. this can happen to anyone. in this modern society, it can happen to anyone. Be it guilty or not, it is not for us to judge. in closing, I remember a former colleague of mine once said "Kenneth, if you do the right thing, you will be able to sleep well at night". I am sure they can all sleep very well at night....