Church leaders say pulpits should not be used for social activism

Published Date: May 20, 2009

Christian leaders say Churches should not interfere with the affairs of secular organizations in the wake of controversy surrounding a women´s advocacy group.

Archbishop Nicholas Chia:
‘Secular organizations should
remain secular.’ (File photo)

An executive committee of the women´s group AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research), which stepped down recently after just two months in office, said the group had deviated from its original goals of working on women´s issues.

This committee, voted in during AWARE´s annual general meeting on March 28, had complained about the content of an AWARE sexuality education program that they had offered to secondary schools. They said the trainer´s manual had recommended that terms such as “homosexuality,” “anal-sex” and “pre-marital sex” not be regarded as positive or negative, but as “neutral.”

Among the 12 members of this committee, six attend the Church of Our Saviour (Singapore), an Anglican church that has a strong anti-homosexual stance. The committee had also complained of AWARE screening a lesbian-themed movie, Spider Lilies, for a charity show.

Old-time AWARE members had charged the new executive committee with taking over the running of the organization in an underhand manner.

While the new committee and long-time AWARE members sparred through media interviews, Singaporeans questioned the new committee´s motives, sparking a debate on the interference of Christians in secular organizations.

In a weekend sermon on April 25 and 26, senior pastor Derek Hong of Church of Our Saviour urged the women in his congregation to “unite” with their “sisters and support them” and to “be engaged in a situation which needs to be arrested.” This generated public discussion that his church played an active role in taking over AWARE.

In response, National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) president, Anglican Archbishop John Chew and NCSS general secretary Lim K. Tham issued a statement on April 30, saying: “We neither condone churches getting involved in this matter nor do we condone pulpits being used for this purpose.”

NCCS urged the proper use of the pulpit, but did not discourage Christians from participating in “matters of social concern and well-being,” or stop churches from being involved in “public square discussions within the rules of engagement in a multi-religious society.”

“TODAY,” a local tabloid with a readership of 584,000, quoted Pastor Hong´s apology on May 2: “My actions on the pulpit have raised some tension … I now stand corrected. I undertake to be more sensitive to similar situations in the future.”

Hong also clarified that his church did not “initiate or instigate any campaign to take over the leadership of AWARE,” and emphasized that the pulpit had not and will not be used to “intentionally teach anything that would arouse social tensions, divisions, or unrest.”

A local broadsheet newspaper “The Sunday Times,” which has a readership of 1.23 million, quoted Catholic Archbishop Nicholas Chia on May 3 saying that the Catholic Church does “not use the pulpit for social or political activism, neither to canvass for nor against.”

He said, “Secular organizations should remain secular. Religious organizations can give their points of view, but we don´t go into their affairs.”

In an email interview, Franciscan Friar John-Paul Tan, said: “What a religion can contribute to society is that it proposes, sometimes with strong convictions, but it does not and should not impose its values on others.”

Instead, there should be “respectful dialogue” between religions or between people with religious convictions and society. Father Tan explained that all religions can promote a better understanding of what it means to be a human person, and the way to live in a society that accords equal respect to all.

The AWARE executive committee was replaced during an extraordinary general meeting on May 2.

Father Albert Renckens, from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, told UCA News: “It was not good that the view of one particular church should dominate a social institution like AWARE. I was happy that this was remedied.”

He added that the incident revealed to Singaporeans that “there are different views on homosexual people.”

In the meantime, the Ministry of Education has suspended AWARE´s sexuality education program, saying that “some suggested responses in the instructor guide are explicit and inappropriate, and convey messages which could promote homosexuality or suggest approval of pre-marital sex.”

AWARE, a non-profit organization, was formed in 1985.

Rate this article