377a - silence from christians

Even a remote possibility of 377a being considered unconstitutional by the courts in Singapore, say, 5 years ago, would have caused a real storm, letters to the editors from christians, and complaints to the MPs and PMs. What a difference, 5 years have made from Oct 2007 when NMP Thio launched an attack in Parliament on gays with the moral support of the Anglican and mega churches who followed suit in their Sunday sermons.

 For many Christians, the line in the sand stops at keeping 377a lest Singapore falls into the downward slope of immorality (never mind adultery, abortions, immoral takeovers, making fun of other faiths, financial irregularities against charities act). Soon after, Singapore became the leader of the Anglican South a group of 70 million christians determined to enshrine their anti-gay aggenda in the Jerusalem Conference in June 2008.

They had reached Jerusalem the epi-center of the Christian Faith and put up their anti-gay rethoric at the gates of the city of God. Gays were to be shut out from Christendom. But I believe that God had other ideas. What happened thereafter was totally unscripted. In Singapore, the high mountain of Christian moral and righteous religious indignation was chipped away in large chunks by one major public and humiliating event after another. Gays were coming out of the closets becoming pink dot(s) linking them together in love with increasing support from the wider community.

In the US, gay marriages were starting to be mainstream in a wave of increasing support for basic gay rights in the western world.

 Year 1 June 2008 - Same-sex marriage starts in California. Sept 2008 - Rules changed on the speakers corner at Hong Lim Park allowing legal mass gatherings. Nov 2008 - S'pore DBS Bank's charity links to Focus on the Family, a Christian anti-gay organization in the States was exposed. FOTF was in the forefront of the anti-gay religious movement in the states which seeks to deny gays of any rights. Due to the outcry from gays and the general public threatening to withdraw their accounts, DBS have had to back down. The tide has started to turn.

 Year 2 Apr 2009 - Aware Saga - when anti-gay Christians from the Anglican/ Mega Churches tried to take over a secular organization in the guise of coming against homosexuality. Pastor Hong of Church of Our Saviour, a leader of the churches anti-gay movement was implicated. The general public and gays rallied to help the Old Guard of Aware and in a miracle, the churches were forced to back out for invading the secular space and playing gutter take over politics. April 2009 - same-sex marriage passes the US New Hampshire Senate. May 2009 - Pink Dot attended by 2,500. The headline reads "Singaporeans don pink to support gay rights". A new dawn emerges for the support of the general public for gays.

 Year 3 Feb 2010 - Pastor Rony Tan, of Lighthouse Evangelism, a strong anti-gay Christian preacher having to bow down to ask forgiveness in the traditional manner for mocking a major faith. March 2010 - Same-sex marriage starts in Washington, D.C in the US. May 2010 - City Harvest Church under investigation by Singapore's Commissioner of Charities (COC) and the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) May 2010 - Pink Dot attended by 4,000 June 2010 - Pastor Mark Ng of New Creation Church (a church that often joked about gays) had to apologize when they joked about the religious deities of the 7th month hungry ghost festival.

 Year 4 June 2011 - Pink Dot attended by 10,000 July 2011 - Same-sex marriages legalised in New York 2011 - City Harvest continued to be under scrunity with some pastors leaving.

 Year 5 Feb 2012 - Campus for Crusade in the National University drawn strong public condemnation for a seemingly innocent outreach poster for mission applicants to Thailand. It shows increasing antagonism against the churches activities whence once the general public had even supported their anti-gay push. The entire faith message was now impacted. May 2012 - President Barack Obama becomes the first sitting U.S. president to support same-sex marriage. June 2012 - Pink Dot attended by 15,000 June 2012 - Senior leaders of City Harvest church, the largest mega churches were charged for mis-use of millions in church funds. It placed the moral and righteous standing of the entire Evangelical Christian faith to major exposure before the general public. Aug 2012 - The Festival of Praise, a mega gathering of Christians to listen to some of the most anti-gay pastors such as Pastor Mike Connell was cancelled due to the CHC issues. 

Therefore in just 5 years, the thumping support against gays by the religious Christian conservations has been replaced by the color of pink to support gay rights, the winds of change for gay rights coming in an increasingly faster pace in the US, and the major Christian leaders who could/would have come against any gay rights finding themselves in a morally exposed and isolated position. The blazing loudness of the Christian Right has been replaced by an odd silence.

It was a Moses like experience of God dispensing judgement after judgement on Pharoah to let my people go free. It can only be God causing a shaking, and opening the doors out of the closets for the GLBT community. The news in Singapore that the 377a court case is to go ahead has become a non-issue for gays have come out in the open to become real, whilst many Christian religious leaders who had wanted to jail all gays and throw the keys away from the jail closets finding themselves at risks of going into their own closets. It would be a non issue when they finally repeal 377a.

 Deut 27: 19 “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!” Gal 3:10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”[

 The church had condemned gays under the works of the ancient Jewish religious laws, and had insisted on it to the full measure for gays even though the ancient context did not apply. At the end its not about 377a, it's about the church witholding justice against a defenceless group being brought down to their knees.

 When NMP Thio stood in Parliament in 2007 to insist that injustice be maintained through 377a, it became a curse on the church. When the church insisted that gays be denied of all rights, they were also under the curse of the law to be severely exposed if they were not 101% righteous and holy. The last 5 years has been a coming out for gays, but an unholy exposure/scrutiny for the churches forcing them to go into their own closets where even the biggest public praise festival/ evangelical outreach was cancelled.

 The curse of the 377a upon the church will continue on with an increasing severity if there is no repentance. The white washed tombs will be exposed of their skeletons. In 2003, a group of Christian leaders led by Pastor Yang Tuck Yoong decided on an anti-gay campaign or a "Gay backlash" in response to the hiring policies to include gays.

Not satisfied with keeping 377A, in Feb 2008, Pastor Yang preached on "The Sin of Sodom" and asked his Cornerstone church to stand firm against gays lest Singapore be destroyed like Sodom. Instead, 377A has become a slippery slope for the Antioch church, not Singapore. In 2012, for the majority, the sinful abomination of Sodom becomes the misappropriations of the millions of charity funds by the major church leaders.

 They didn't know what they had started in 2003 and the battle lines drawn on the ground would release judgement. For the curse was already in the ground, for the thousands of gays who died denied of the basic rights to live and to love. Their blood cries out for justice.... ... that was denied even when their freedom was enshrined in the constitution.