Church must work with like-minded groups to oppose Pink Dot: Pastor

SINGAPORE — With only a few days before the sixth annual Pink Dot gathering is held at the Speakers’ Corner on Saturday, Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) senior pastor Lawrence Khong said yesterday: “It is time for the church to work with like-minded groups (such as Muslims) to register our opposition (to the event) before it is too late.”

Writing in a lengthy Facebook post, Mr Khong said people need to let the Government know that by allowing the event, held in support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, to continue without restraint, it is “bordering on endorsing and emboldening the LGBT claim to gay rights”. “We must continue writing private letters to our ministers. But we have come to the point where the Pink Dot event is getting so unashamedly public and loud with its agenda that we can no longer just rely on private communication,” he added.

Among other things, Mr Khong, who has regularly spoken out against homosexuality, also said multinational corporations “have no business in supporting Pink Dot”. “They cannot and should not meddle (in) our national values,” he said.

When contacted by TODAY, Pink Dot organisers declined to comment on Mr Khong’s remarks. The pastor’s Facebook post came a few days after he had publicly expressed his support for the Wear White campaign, organised by Mr Noor Deros, a 28-year-old Islamic religious teacher.

Mr Noor is calling on Muslims to wear white on Saturday to protest against homosexuality and defend traditional family values. Ramadan begins on Sunday and the first evening prayer to mark the fasting month will be held on the previous day.

Various faith groups, such as the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore and the Catholic Church, have expressed their positions on the LGBT movement in recent days.

Weighing in on the issue, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs, Mr Yaacob Ibrahim, had said those who want to express support for a cause or lifestyle choice should express it in a way that does not divide the community. He added that differences in society had always existed, but Singaporeans must not forget “to keep the social fabric as tight as possible”.

Last month, the NUS Centre for Asian Legal Studies at the Faculty of Law held a book launch for Mobilising Gay Singapore, which was written by law professor Lynette Chua.

Citing the launch, Mr Khong said: “Every pastor should read this (book) to find out what our premier university is promoting. It’s clear the LGBTs in Singapore have been strategising for some 20 years to normalise homosexuality in our nation.”

Assistant Professor Chua had said the book was written in her personal capacity as a scholar and did not represent the views of the National University of Singapore.

She had added that her work aimed to examine the LGBT movement from a social-legal perspective, which looked at how the roles of law and rights had played out in the process of the movement’s emergence and development.