How not to get drunk on China Wine

In my previous post, I wrote about how Flyervision Eentertainment, an events company linked to the City Harvest Church, was mixing its religious mission and secular business. This resulted in Eric Moo being criticised for preaching at a secular concert organised by Flyervision. In the long term, this would actually make non-Christians more suspicious of Christianity. The next time they hear anything remotely related to Christ, they would instinctively think, "IS THIS GUY TRYING TO SNEAKILY PUSH ME THE BIBLE?"

The holy work of spreading the Glad Tidings should be based on open communications, correct speech, charity and volunteer work and constant involvement in the community to better our society. When others see our good work, they can also see the positive influence that the Bible bring. Let's leave it up to them to decide.

As the CHC financial scandal hits the headlines, it is worthwhile to look at how they have conceived Project Crossover. Click here to read more. Crossover is the vehicle used to promote Sun Ho secular singing career even though I don't understand how sometimes dance hits like China Wine can further the Christian way of life. Maybe I am too old-fashioned? CHC leaders including her husband, Kong Hee, have been charged with misappropriating money amounting to $50m and channeling this money to Crossover illegally.

Reading carefully, the Eric Moo case is not the first time that such offshoots of traditional Christianity tries to sneak in proselytizing during a secular event. CHC seems to be quite prone to such tactics. Using pop songs, lights, dance and fashion, it is convenient to mask over this very important decision of converting to Christianity at the altar. It is such a serious change in lifestyle, the outlook, the habits, the psychology even...I think the Bible should be spread the good old way through Biblical lessons and preaching by an old school pastor. Song and dance is good but not too much of it.

Excerpt from CHC Project Crossover: 

In 2002, Sun recorded her first Chinese pop album, Sun With Love. She held her first pop concert in the biggest indoor arena in downtown Taipei, the National Taipei Sports Complex. The team worked with a small Taipei church, New Life Church, which had about 200 members then. “Nobody was sure if anybody was even going to turn up,” said Kong. On the first night, the 4,200-seater stadium was jam-packed, with thousands more watching on big screen projectors outside. It was estimated that 80 percent of the audience had never been to church. 

After Sun finished singing, she gave her testimony about the abuse she endured in her childhood and how Jesus saved her from her years of depression and brokenness. “The love and presence of God hit the entire arena; practically everybody was crying.” Kong then gave a simple altar call, and thousands upon thousands responded. “We didn’t expect that at all. When we went back to our rooms, we were wondering what exactly happened. We were in a daze.” Over the next two days, a total of 21,500 people attended the concerts, and 8,000 decision slips for Christ were collected.

Don't mistake me, I am not anti-CHC or mega-churches and I do recognise the good work that they have done in bringing Jesus to so many Singaporeans. But they should learn how to be circumspect during this period when their church leaders are being charged and let the law run its course. Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's. Remember Catholic Priest Father Joachim Kang who did jail time for his financial misdemeanor? When he was released, the late Archbishop still found a meaningful role for him.

Excerpt from Christian Post Sg in reaction to Kong Hee's arrest: 

The Rev. Dr. Koh went on to prescribe a Christian response: "Apart from praying, what Christians should do at this distressing time is to allow the law of the state to take its course."
In an email response sent Tuesday to this paper, the Regional Pastor of Hope International Ministries Benjamin Lee highlighted a need for Christians to "watch out for negative and sinful dynamics in our own life" and to "avoid the judgmental spirit and self-righteousness."

My prayers go out to worshipers at CHC and I believe they will emerge stronger after this episode. Their faith in Christ will be ever strong as it is build around the Church and not one single person. The actions of the few have run foul of the law...but the reaction of every single Christian in this episode will reflect upon us all.

    

Secularism and Flyervision Entertainment

A famous xinyao (local Mandarin song movement in the 80s) singer, Eric Moo, has been criticised for turning his secular concert into a sermon where he sang more gospel songs than pop songs and even ask the audience to worship along with him as he shared his journey of his conversion to Christianity.

As more details began to reveal themselves, it becomes quite clear that Flyervision Entertainment were rather inaccurate in their initial presentation of events. Eric Moo, who performed at the concert for free, had informed Flyervision that he would be singing gospel songs to promote his new album. Flyervision did informed consumers about this in their Mandarin poster but they omitted it in the English version. They did not immediately own up to this in their first statement which can be read here. They claimed that Eric Moo's antics were "unforseen and unanticipated."

Eric Moo, who worships at the City Harvest Church, had also come out to apologise to his fans and those affected. He had asked the concert organisers if the audience were church members and the organiser had replied that 50% were and the other 50% were their friends. And hence, Eric Moo felt comfortable to go ahead with his segment and even started worshipping.

Flyervision has now offered to refund all ticket holders if they were offended and this is good move. But they insisted that although they knew about Eric Moo's gospel songs, they did not agree with his worshipping on stage.

Flyervision, secular or religious? 

I think the real problem lies with Flyervision as a company, is it trying to be a Christian concert organiser or a secular concert organiser? Those who are less forgiving would see Flyervision as trying to sneakily preach to concert-goers while disguising it as secular event; whereas those more generous would say that perhaps there was a mistake in communications. 

Indications seem to point to the fact that Flyervision is an affiliate of CHC, why would Eric Moo agree to perform at this concert for free? CHC is known to attract many famous Mandarin pop artists who perform for free at the CHC church, they include Eric Moo, Liang Wen Ying and FIR, just to name a few. Checks with fellow Christians worshipping at megachurches also seem to indicate that Flyervision is affiliated to CHC but this cannot be confirmed.

Whatever the circumstances that led to this unfortunate incident, it seems clear that if a church is trying to run too many secular businesses, it may unwittingly waddle into territories that may inflame inter-religious relations in complex Singapore society. Churches should take a conscious effort to segregate their secular and religious businesses so as to avoid controversy and inform consumers of their nature so as to protect ourselves. For eg, The Salvation Army has done a great job running their business and they get revenue from all walks of Singaporeans.

If Christians resort to steeplejacking, similar to hijacking of women association AWARE, or other methods of preaching such that it can be seen as sneaky, the long-term result might actually be the unattractiveness of Christianity.