Kong Hee's arrest
Its been 18 months since I last posted anything, so if anybody is still checking this blog regularly because you are interested in what I have to say, my advice is, you shouldn't be. Its far easier to contact me by email (or in person, if you know me) than to check this blog.
In anycase, since the arrest of City harvest church founder Kong Hee few days ago, there have been quite a lot of thoughts running through my mind regarding how the church ought to respond. Below are some areas that we should consider:
1. Condemn the act. We should call a spade, a spade. Personally, I am rather disappointed at the NCCS's rather diluted response - "Members of the Christian community are united in disapproving any misuse of public or institutional funds, including money raised by or given to churches". The word "disapprove" is a weak term - akin to parent saying that he/she disapproves of her kid coming home late. A more direct statement would be to say something like "The NCCS views (such and such action) - if proven true - as a grave contradiction to the teachings of Christ". In the New Testament, the Apostle Peter condemned Simon the Sorcerer for his attempts to "buy" his way to success in ministry with the rebuke "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money" (Acts 8:20). Indeed if we consider CHC and Kong Hee as one of ourselves, we cannot afford to mince her words when it comes to rebuking for "judgment begins at the House of the Lord" (1 Peter 4:17)
2. This brings me to my second point, which is, whether Kong Hee should be considered as part of the Church body. In my view, such actions - if proven true - have disqualified him and his gang from ministry. More bluntly speaking, he's a "conman" and is using God as a pretext to further his own personal interests. One might ask, can God use unscrupulous folks to lead people to himself? Scripture's answer is a resounding "yes". In the OT, God used a donkey to proclaim his judgment; likewise in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul recognizes the various reasons and motives that underline ministry work and emphatically states, "The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice." (Philippians 1:18). This is not to condone the action and motivation but to recognize a bigger power at work here - salvation is by God's grace, and not a product of human wisdom. Furthermore, even in the midst of falsehood, the power of truth can still shineforth.
3. The church needs to recognize the Hand of God in this. Ironically, Kong Hee's twitter post "Thy will be done" is possibly the most honest thing he might have said. I sincerely pray that God's will be accomplished in Kong Hee's life, even if that means a long sentence.
4. Sun Ho's music ministry. There's lots of controversy in this area and there are questions as to whether the Cross Over project represents a legitimate expression of the Christian cultural mandate. This requires a long answer, of which I will not go into. However, one question I should pose is, "Without City Harvest support, would Sun Ho still have succeeded?" Coming from a mass communication background, I am in total agreement that the church needs to engaged secular culture, but from what Sun Ho has produced (esp her later works), its hard to see how this is happening. If she has succeeded in her music career before CHC support, at least we can say that she is competent, however this is not the case, and I strongly doubt she is remotely at the same level as some of our local singers (Kit Chan, Sun yan Zi) not to mention musicians like David Tao (whose songs, while not avowedly Christian, nonetheless provide us with powerful cultural lens to understand our times)...
There's more to add, but i'll leave it here for now...let's see how the situation pans out over the next few weeks...
In anycase, since the arrest of City harvest church founder Kong Hee few days ago, there have been quite a lot of thoughts running through my mind regarding how the church ought to respond. Below are some areas that we should consider:
1. Condemn the act. We should call a spade, a spade. Personally, I am rather disappointed at the NCCS's rather diluted response - "Members of the Christian community are united in disapproving any misuse of public or institutional funds, including money raised by or given to churches". The word "disapprove" is a weak term - akin to parent saying that he/she disapproves of her kid coming home late. A more direct statement would be to say something like "The NCCS views (such and such action) - if proven true - as a grave contradiction to the teachings of Christ". In the New Testament, the Apostle Peter condemned Simon the Sorcerer for his attempts to "buy" his way to success in ministry with the rebuke "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money" (Acts 8:20). Indeed if we consider CHC and Kong Hee as one of ourselves, we cannot afford to mince her words when it comes to rebuking for "judgment begins at the House of the Lord" (1 Peter 4:17)
2. This brings me to my second point, which is, whether Kong Hee should be considered as part of the Church body. In my view, such actions - if proven true - have disqualified him and his gang from ministry. More bluntly speaking, he's a "conman" and is using God as a pretext to further his own personal interests. One might ask, can God use unscrupulous folks to lead people to himself? Scripture's answer is a resounding "yes". In the OT, God used a donkey to proclaim his judgment; likewise in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul recognizes the various reasons and motives that underline ministry work and emphatically states, "The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice." (Philippians 1:18). This is not to condone the action and motivation but to recognize a bigger power at work here - salvation is by God's grace, and not a product of human wisdom. Furthermore, even in the midst of falsehood, the power of truth can still shineforth.
3. The church needs to recognize the Hand of God in this. Ironically, Kong Hee's twitter post "Thy will be done" is possibly the most honest thing he might have said. I sincerely pray that God's will be accomplished in Kong Hee's life, even if that means a long sentence.
4. Sun Ho's music ministry. There's lots of controversy in this area and there are questions as to whether the Cross Over project represents a legitimate expression of the Christian cultural mandate. This requires a long answer, of which I will not go into. However, one question I should pose is, "Without City Harvest support, would Sun Ho still have succeeded?" Coming from a mass communication background, I am in total agreement that the church needs to engaged secular culture, but from what Sun Ho has produced (esp her later works), its hard to see how this is happening. If she has succeeded in her music career before CHC support, at least we can say that she is competent, however this is not the case, and I strongly doubt she is remotely at the same level as some of our local singers (Kit Chan, Sun yan Zi) not to mention musicians like David Tao (whose songs, while not avowedly Christian, nonetheless provide us with powerful cultural lens to understand our times)...
There's more to add, but i'll leave it here for now...let's see how the situation pans out over the next few weeks...
posted by Benjamin Ho at
1:28 AM
1 Comments
