City Harvest's founder Kong Hee arrested.

Disclaimer: This post is purely based on my knowledge of the church and this incident. Some are based on what I've read and others are based on my own experience. If there's anyway I've offended anyone or the religion itself, I apologize and it is definitely not the intention. 

One of Singapore's "Big Boy" Church - City Harvest Church (CHC) is being put under the light of conservancy once again. A little background for those who does not know CHC and have no clue why I would call it a "Big Boy", (Actually I doubt someone like this exist. They are not the big boy for no reason.) they are known as the big boy simply cause they are always on the papers of their number of followers. They are often a media "dartboard" for many reasons; from having a celebrity Mrs. Pastor to buying of properties and more often being flamed for it's image and style of doing things.

Mr.Kong Hee - From CNA.com

The story so far is that their founder/ pastor Kong Hee's arrested for alleged criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts of the church. And apparently these funds were used with the purported intention to finance the music career of Ho Yeow Sun.

Unknown source. From facebook's wall.

You may wish to read more about it from CNA's site. 

Infographic from CNA

After this news is being published/ released online, I've read a lot of comments. And some of the very common comments goes something like this: 

. You mean you didn't see this coming?
. It's about time. 
. Finally.
. Anybody wanna go celebrate? 

Although I am not from CHC, neither am I a Christian I still feel very sad for this whole incident. I think religion is a set of rules that makes us a better person and not to divide all of us or make us pass of such comments. Even if it's true that he has committed a crime in falsification of the accounts I do not think that it is a reason for us to go all sarcastic over this.  We do not know them personally and neither do we know the "truth" behind this. Even if he is "god's messenger" he is just another human and human makes mistake.

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*Warning: Wall of text which is not exactly funny.

I am sharing a personal account on this CHC from a non-Christian point of view. In fact, just very recently I visited one of their services. Nope, not because I wish to go check out girls at the Church and neither did I go there because one of the Christian from the Church made me go. I went there on free will going there and hoping to see what is this whole CHC thing was all about. 

I must say that I was a little intimidated with the whole service session. I did not accept it easily and in fact I still have yet to accept it. It's totally not what I thought a church will be like or at least nothing like what I saw on the TV. There are a lot of things that I do not agree with and I am uncomfortable with. 

• Donations to be made in this envelope thing which was being passed around the hall. And everyone just put it in and I just felt some people did it due to peer pressure.
• Donations are even available by credit card and cheque. 
• Everyone on stage looks too flashy.
• The things that was preached on the day. Some sounded more like threat to me. It sounded like they want people to believe based on human's fear. Life after death. Things like - you will be safe in after life if you believe and follow. (Do not quote me, I can't remember the exact words but at least this is the emotion I got away with.) 
• People speaking in tongues. (Apparently it's the angel's language.) 
• People falling on their body without feeling pain. Supposed to be some sort of holy spirit. 

I am not challenging the religion for sure. Believers call the bible an actual fact/ history. There is no way a man like me can challenge God. Him who has millions of followers around the world while I only have 1.5k followers (on twitter.). So my main point here is that I do not get why must a church be all flashy. Isn't it suppose to be serious? What's with all the singing and dancing? Shouldn't people be there just to learn about the way? 

My friend then shared with me some of her experiences and knowledge. The fact that God will love whoever who loves God. God does not say no to anyone but a sad fact is that some churches says no to people because of their job. Because they are celebrities, because they are air-stewardess and because of their life style. But they need God too. And on top of that it's about changing the image and "save" more lives and reach out to more and make them become one of them. From the technicality point of view of it, it's like rebranding a product and attract new customer base and still selling the same essence of the product. After understanding this I find them more acceptable. Being flashy doesn't make you a bad person. Being young and fun doesn't make you a bad person. However, I hope that they did convert more followers through this way rather than more followers going there just for alternate reasons like for fun and hit on girls. (A very common understanding with youths. Go church and meet girls.)

Everyone has their own calling and to fulfill his/ her calling, there is more than one way to do it and we are not in the position to judge what is right and what is wrong. 

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I am not sure how many people are affected by this whole incident or how many of you people reading this has direct relation to any of the above mentioned but what I am trying to say here is be objective. Do not judge this incident simply based on what the media is presenting to us. Be objective about it. Also do not judge people who support them, even if this is true and he gets jailed, I am still very sure that he has touched many peoples' lives and helped many people as well. Although he has to pay for his crime, we too cannot disregard all his credit and work. I hope people do not go around judging the rest of CHC because of this incident. I am sure this church has done it's part of helping people and making them better persons as well. All we can do now is wait for the verdict and maybe pray if you are a supporter.  

On top of what is happening, truth aside, I thought what Sun tweeted today was very meaningful and romantic. 

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.” ― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets "

"The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that that situation is over, you cannot move forward.” ― Steve Maraboli"

Mr.Smith, I can see the sun, I can see the sun with love.