Malaysian Minister’s statement on churches offensive, unfounded, say Christian leaders

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian church leaders have condemned a minister’s remark that churches spread lies to put the government in a bad light, saying it is unfounded and offensive.

Dr Hermen Shastri of the Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) said that Federal Territories Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor’s statement was shocking and insulting as Christians actually spent time offering prayers for the nation’s wellbeing and for the country’s leaders.

“This is an unfounded statement and calls into question the spiritual integrity and witness of the church in imparting the faith in line with the Gospel as revealed in the holy scriptures,” said Dr Shastri, who is CCM’s general-secretary.

“It is an affront to the Church for the Minister to insinuate our religious duty in preaching during worship services are ‘lies’ because it is critical of societal issues,” he added.

“Christians believe the Gospel speaks to every aspect of the spiritual, social, economic and political lives of Christians in society.”

He said the minister had offended churches which had made efforts to teach Christian believers about good values to build the nation.

“He should be applauding the fact religious communities in our country teach their people of justice, peace and harmony which has helped to make our nation what it is today,” said Dr Shastri.

He also said it was unfortunate Mr Tengku Adnan had made the “derogatory statement” at a time when the government is marking the World Interfaith Harmony Week which is observed every first week of February and recognised by the United Nations.

At a kenduri (community religious event) for the Titiwangsa constituency in Kuala Lumpur earlier on Saturday (Feb 3), Mr Tengku Adnan gave a speech in which he said churches should be a place to “disseminate God’s will” and not for Christian leaders to share their personal grouses.

“You (can’t) read things on the internet or whatever comes to you, then talk about it in church,” he said. 

“Because when you go around and give your sermons and preach on Sundays, there are a lot of things, sometimes, that are not true.”

Mr Tengku Adnan is also secretary-general of the ruling United Malays National Organisation. 

Centre for Religion and Society Director Sivin Kit said Mr Tengku Adnan could have taken a better approach to address the issue if there had been such incidents.

The minister could have talked to the respective churches or held a dialogue with the church leaders instead of making a generalised statement, said Mr Kit.

“This statement is offensive to the Christian leadership because we don’t take instructions from politicians as to what we should preach,” he said.

“To use a kenduri as a place to give a generalised statement, creates a kind of ill feeling among the Christian community as well as other religious community,” Mr Kit, who is also a pastor, told The Malaysian Insight.

He said a “kenduri”, as a community feast, was supposed to unite people but unfortunately the remark had singled out Christians.

“This is puzzling, how Christians are brought to the forefront to some extent unnecessarily and it’s an unfair allegation without more substantial evidence,” he said.

The pastor also said he had never heard of any complaints from anyone regarding the sermons made at churches that gave the government a bad name.

“What I have heard is there are messages about the need to pray for concerns of the nation.

“It’s very common for us to receive news we need to pray for issues of politics and corruption, legal cases that are coming up whether it is for the general elections, and this (prayer) is normal practice,” said Mr Kit.

When asked to elaborate at a press conference later on Saturday, Mr Tengku Adnan replied one example of fake news spread in Sunday sermons was a press statement by Hindraf chairman P. Waytha Moorthy who had accused the minister of “hoodwinking the Indian community” over loans for Malaysian Indians to buy affordable housing by Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan.

However, Mr Tengku Adnan did not mention which churches had purportedly spread the statement by Mr Waytha Moorthy, or how his ministry was aware of the alleged sermons.

In Sarawak, state Parti Keadilan Rrakyat chief Baru Bian said if Mr Tengku Adnan was speaking the truth, the minister should use the law against those who preached lies against the government.

“There are laws in this country. Charge or sue whoever preached lies in the church. Churches don’t preach lies,” said Mr Baru, an opposition politician who is the Ba’Kelalan assemblyman and a former Sidang Injil Borneo church elder.

Mr Baru said Mr Tengku Adnan appeared to be speaking in general as he did not give specific details about which churches had allegedly spread lies.

“Ku Nan should not make statements about things he does not personally know about. Where did he get the report from?” said Mr Baru, referring to Mr Tengku Adnan by his nickname.

“This kind of statement is only encouraging BN (ruling Barisan Nasional coalition) supporters to hate Christians”.

“He is desperate. He knows the groundswell is against BN. That’s why he talks like that,” said Mr Baru.

Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister James Masing said he did not know what church elders might have said about the government but he said he was clear lies would never be told in a house of worship.

“The House of God is no place for telling lies and I’m very sure members of Christian faith know it,” said Mr Masing, who is from BN. THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT