Monday, April 25, 2011

Vivian Balakrishnan: Judge not

A friend wrote me the following this morning.


In  plain terms, Vincent Wijeysingha is [redacted] . Mr Tan JS and Dr Ang YG both are staunch Christians. They don't or shouldn't mix. That is Vivian's innuendo. We're going into personal sexual orientation and religious belief. What's next?

As reported in Sunday’s newspaper,
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan yesterday described the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) team running against him as ‘strange bedfellows’ who do not have a shared vision or ideology.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, he said: ‘It has been brought to my attention – in fact it is the SDP which is suppressing a certain YouTube video, which raises some very awkward questions about the agenda and motivations of the SDP and its candidates.’
He declined to give more details about the clip.
‘I suspect Mr Tan had not done appropriate due diligence of his teammates and his party,’ he said.
– Sunday Times, 24 April 2011, ‘Strange bedfellows’ in SDP team

Here was my response to my friend knowing that Vivian Balakrishnan was a Christian and also married the Pastor's daughter.

Before Jesus mixed freely with tax collectors and prostitutes nobody, not even the most saintly, not even his cousin John the Baptist, not even the farseeing and privileged Simeon or Anna who had been given the opportunity to see him as a baby. None, absolutely no one would imagine him partying with sinners. Equally unthinkable was the washing of his disciples' feet. 

Most of us are spiritually not open to him. Actually he continues to shock. He does it everyday but only a few examples make it to the global media. Of course the most prominent one being Mother Teresa.

Therefore who are we to judge? If you must judge, let your love, forgiveness and grace be greater than your judgement. When we appreciate better (we are incapable of grasping it fully) all these, you will discover you have no mood to judge. Only He can judge but for now he chooses not to but prefer to be like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son standing at the door to wait for our return. 

Yes, there will be judgement, but not now and certainly not by us or Vivian Balakrishnan. Each of us must be careful not to go over to become sons of the Pharisees and religious teachers of Jesus day!

And in case the point is missed, I would like to add this story on what it means to be Christian. Forget about the intolerance and nonsense of the religious right in America. Their stand against abortions, gays and their strange love the sinner but hate the sin which is so confusing. Here below is an experession of the Gospel.

Now this is the Living Bible:

His name is Bill. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans,
and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of 
college.

He is brilliant. Kind of profound and very, very bright. He became a
Christian while attending college.

Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative
church. They want to develop a ministry to the students but are not sure how 
to go about it.

One day Bill decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, jeans, his
T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started and so Bill starts
down the aisle looking for a seat.

The church is completely packed and he can't find a seat. By now, people are 
really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything.

Bill gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit, and when he realizes
there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet.

By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is thick. 
About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the
church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Bill.

Now the deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece
suit. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walks with 
a cane and, as he starts walking toward this boy, everyone is saying to
themselves that you can't blame him for what he's going to do.

How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some 
college kid on the floor? It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy.
The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man's cane.  All
eyes are focused on him. You can't even hear anyone breathing. The minister 
can't even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do.
And now they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great
difficulty, he lowers himself and sits down next to Bill and worships with 
him so he won't be alone.

Everyone chokes up with emotion.

When the minister gains control, he says , "What I'm about to preach, you
will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget." 
"Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some people will ever
read!"

Minister Vivian Balakrishnan you ought to have taken SM Goh's advice. The story about you in the New Paper is bad enough, you don't need this. I mean the part where you were floored by a grassroots leader who gave up spending time with is critically ill with Leukemia wife to help you win this elections. As their leader you aren't even well informed of their family circumstances. You could be more caring and interested about their lives you know. Just be careful what you say, it might only make you look worse.


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