In defence of City Harvest Church?

I can't keep up with the news flow and opinion penned about City Harvest Church. I bet I am in the company of the majority here.

The news and views of detractors have arrived first. The other side of the story Kong Hee promised to reveal in court. Perhaps I have managed to locate some. They are easy to find at Singapore Daily. Quickly I have spent the minutes on these two videos. First the one explaining the work of the Church.



It was a wonderful video outlining who they are and what they do.

At the end of this clip, YouTube suggested Jack Neo's testimony. I didn't know he was with CHC. I know many of its members are very talented and form the cream of our society.




These two clips and I bet CHC members must not only have seen but heard in person the testimonies of others. No wonder they are persuaded about the work of the church, the rightness of their leaders actions and flabbergasted about the criminal charges facing them.

Just earlier today when I took a little break I read a few stories from, "Stupid American History: Tales of Stupidity, Strangeness, and Mythconceptions" One story, "A Slave to Fashion" I got a reminder that this world is do not consist of black and white. Not even shades of gray is an apt description.

In the American civil war the north was fighting the south to free the slaves. But did you know that Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland and Delaware remained in the Union but continue to allow their citizens to own slaves. These are collectively known as the "border states".  That's life. President Lincoln had no confidence they could otherwise win the war.

And this parable explained the past before it was told and presaged the affairs of this world after Jesus shared it.

Matthew 13:24-30

Good News Translation (GNT)

The Parable of the Weeds

 ²⁴ Jesus told them another parable:
         The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man sowed good seed in his field.²⁵ One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.²⁶ When the plants grew and the heads of grain began to form, then the weeds showed up.²⁷ The man's servants came to him and said,
         Sir, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds come from?²⁸
         It was some enemy who did this, he answered.
         Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds? they asked him.²⁹
         No, he answered,
         because as you gather the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat along with them.³⁰ Let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until harvest. Then I will tell the harvest workers to pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them, and then to gather in the wheat and put it in my barn.

Pretty tough job for the CAD and COC. No wonder they had taken such a long time to investigate this. The legal code has it process and precedents. That will proceed and the outcome will be consistent with those that were delivered before. The larger outcome, I can't tell. The government could win in the courts but lose outside. CHC has raised the stakes and like I pointed out yesterday, they are playing with fire.

I hate the ISA and I don't wish for how events might turn out to make me change my mind. I still think on balance the negatives outweighs the positives in the way CHC goes about its business.

All of us are wrong and also right in our unique ways. Let's not judge each other, nothing good comes from that. On the other hand we must respect and abide by the decision of the courts or we shall have anarchy. We must never allow the label of Satan or Nero to be stuck on this government over this.