Life as we don't know it

What's got my goat today? - FCBC's Pastor Lawrence Khong

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 @ 2:46 PM PERMALINK

What's got my goat today? Family Community Baptist Church's Pastor Lawrence Khong and his statement on how homosexual activists are a looming threat to Singaporean society.Here is an extract from the statement:

Full statement can be found here

What alarms me is the judgmental tone of the statement and the flawed arguments being used in the name of 'rights' and freedom.

Here are my main problems with the statement.

1. 'Therefore, we are committed as a church to build strong families in Singapore.We affirm that the family unit comprises a man as Father, a woman as Mother, and Children. This is the basic building block of society, a value foundational for a secure future, a premise fundamental to nation-building"

Really? In this society where divorce is rampant and single parents bravely bring up children on their own, you choose to 'affirm' that a family is only defined as such when it has a man as a Father, a women as a Mother and children?

Are you really qualified to judge that a family with a mother and a father is better than one with a mother or father or with two mothers/ two fathers? No you are not. Because a family is made up of individual relationships and depends on individuals.

There are shitty as hell 'traditional' family units and loving families that don't have a mother and a father (like mine) and vice versa. Likewise, there are bound to be good same sex parents and bad ones. Parenthood really shouldn't be about one's ability to reproduce.

No one needs your narrow minded affirmation and I cringe to think about how it must feel like to be a member of this church and to be a single parent or to be contemplating separation from a spouse. It pains me to think that families with problems are going to be taught to grit and bear with it because that is what a 'family' is. This kind of narrow minded thinking is what wrecks families and scars children.

You know your thoughts are outdated when even Disney is clued in enough to tell the audience that even two sisters and an alien can be a legitimate family (Come on...Lilo and stitch guys? Okay okay, jokes aside. Moving on..)

2. 'It takes away the rights of parents over what their children are taught in schools, especially sex education..'

This is so idiotic that I can hardly begin to address this. A right suggests that there is a choice.

With 377A in effect there isn't a choice. Children are not being taught about safe sex practices if (God forbid) they happen to be gay because gay sex is against the law.I don't understand how this man thinks that he can speak for all of us and act like he knows what all parents want.

I won't deny that it in our current state of society heterosexual-only sex education would be the popular choice. But suggesting that parents now have freedom on sex education for their children that will be taken away with the repeal of 377A is stupid when there is NO choice to begin with.

While I don't have any children (and will not have any for a long time more) I would like to actually have a choice. A real one, not the one choice option that Lawrence Khong claims is currently the right of parents.

I can ensure you that the future mini me-s will be exposed to a balanced sex education. They will not be brought up to think that HIV originated from homosexuals. They will however, be taught how to practise safe sex, NO MATTER their sexual orientation. They will also be taught that there is no shame in feeling an attraction to the same sex and that they don't have to hide who they are or condition themselves to feel otherwise.

3. 'It attacks religious freedom....(I will address the second part seperately because I don't believe they are linked anyway)

WHAT does repealing Section 377A have to do with religious freedom? Not all of us are members of FCBC church. Many Singaporeans are not even Christian - let alone Baptists. Not all religions condemn homosexuality. So how exactly will repealing Section 377A affect our religious freedom?

It is awfully uneducated to connect religion (yours especially) with the religious freedom Singaporeans enjoy. The church and the state are separate.

4. "...and eventually denies free speech to those who, because of their moral convictions, uphold a different view from that championed by increasingly aggressive homosexual activists"

So, it is okay that you hold a different view from 'aggressive homosexual activists' and voice your opinions but when the shoe is on the other foot and it is homosexuals voicing out that they believe Section 377A should be repealed, it suddenly is a threat on free speech? How is it different, because you don't agree? Finally, why are only 'homosexual activists who are trying to repeal Section 377A' targeted in this statement?

There are heterosexuals who feel that the Section should be repealed too. How come Paster Khong isn't saying anything about us? Are we doing anything less wrong in his eyes?

I hate it when people sprew hatred in the name of a 'God' that they deem to be the true God. If that is the case please keep your God away from me. The further the better.

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