The "City Harvest Church Trial" - A Conspiracy Theory?

In a post discussion on the Facebook page "CHC Confessions", a lady (probably pseudo-figure) by the name of Emiko Teraz claimed that she had a dinner with the personal assistant of one of the 6 accused. The objective of the meeting was to tell their side of the story, and at the same time solicit money for the legal funds. An extract of her comments were included below:

"Of course we know Insurance companies will never become their sucker! My guess was right then (before so many truths revealed in court),there and then I put a stop on my spouse to channel 5 figures sum to fund their legal fees. God gives us good wisdom to discern what went seriously wrong. If insurance companies said NO, there must be something very very wrong. Simple logic and God is indeed wonderful, HE revealed via the mouth of the person who is very close to KH!!! Long term friendship and "sincere talk" means NOTHING if the foundation is wrong."

"Terry, the meeting was meant- for him to tell the truth (as a friend whom we knew for more than 10 years , we gave chance),but it turned out as a session for him to tell his side of story with many conspiracy theory applied. We did not prepare the recorder, but we paid the bill for the dinner . It happened in overseas."

"When the leader's PA explain to us to beg for donation(few thousands KM away,13 months ago), he thought we are complete idiot who choose to ignore the cold hard facts and hopefully we are on their side to believe insurance companies are unfair, authorities are unfair....blah blah blah! Sounds like elite talk.....no repent."

Is There Even a Conspiracy Theory at All?

If it is not already absurd enough that the leadership of CHC subliminally implanted suggestions of demonic attacks and persecutions for their current predicament to their members, telling people that the government has a conspiracy theory to destroy the 6 leaders is definitely THE moment to be!

Let us consider the following possibilities:

1) "The 6 are in the current predicament because the government is afraid of the growing numbers of CHC membership, and need to find an excuse to bring it down."

Is the government really hatching a plot to destroy the lives of the 6 and to bring down City Harvest Church, or is it actually a case of some misconduct by the leaders that was exposed and in order to save their own skin, they had to hide behind the people power of their membership? This was first suggested by the writer (a CHC-member) of an article titled "This is Where I Draw the Line". Citing part of the article:

"If "balance is the key to life", what the right balance is stays elusively subjective. To keep that "ideal balance", the general observation is that the local politic stance is to keep small whatever is not controlled from within. And it naturally applies to religious organizations, among others. If gathering 40,000 people in a football stadium to support the national team is not much to worry about (though it is difficult to achieve in Singapore of late!), it is thought otherwise for associations, churches, clans, unions etc. which can deal with affairs closer to the government sphere of influence.

So the question is: What size must an organization reach to start being on the Authorities’ radar and be considered as a subject to watch with more or less scrutiny?

It is naturally difficult to generalize. In the case of City Harvest Church, Singapore’s largest independent charismatic Protestant church, it probably starting garnering non-official attention from the authorities once it reached 5,000 members. At 30,000 (or 1.5% of the overall Singapore population) the alert zone was by then being reached. " (Source: This is Where I Draw The Line, Truth Disclosed Facebook Page, currently taken offline)

I need to point out that this argument is extremely fallible and seditious - in terms of the Christian community in Singapore, CHC is NOT the largest church. There are the various denominations each definitely have over 30,000 members, the Catholics, and the independent churches such as New Creation, FCBC, Lighthouse and Cornerstone. Should the government then be concerned that they will cause "social unrest"? I don't think so, but misguided CHC members have time and time again proven they can be quite a menace, especially when it comes to challenging the authorities!

Secondly, I need to point out that if the government is in indeed afraid or "threatened" by a big church, then CHC will hardly make it into the top 3 list of threats simply because there are much larger denominations in Singapore and CHC DOES NOT HAVE A MEMBERSHIP of 33,000 in 2010 as claimed! The figure comprises of "database names", as stated in their report. The audited attendance, conducted by Global Church Solutions and "Stanfield & O’Dell puts their attendance at below 23,000. Citing CityNews:

"as of 28 February 2011, CHC’s congregation size is 22,049. The congregation size comprises attendees who attend our weekend services regularly in the past one year" (source: http://www.citynews.sg/2011/04/new-day-new-way/)

With a regular membership of that figure, and comparing independent denomination churches, New Creation Church alone outnumbers them with around 25,000 members in the same period.

I have already written about the no-nonsense approach the Singapore government adopts against corruption and white collar crime - whether is it within the high ranks of their departments or a commercial organisation. Is this not a demonstration of non-bias on the part of the government? 

Anyone believing the "conspiracy theory" against the 6 accused on the basis of the government's worry over the size of CHC ought to really do deeper investigation to the person saying it.

2) "The public is jealous of Sun Ho's success"
This was not a new theory. In fact, as early as early 2000's during the Roland Poon saga, this possibility was being echoed citing the bible verse in Mark 6:4, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home."

Being a Singaporean, I cannot imagine why I would be jealous of a fellow Singaporean who does Singapore proud by putting us on the world map. We have no problem with people such as Kit Chan, Stephanie Sun, Tania Phua, Corrine May, Tan Han Jin, etc doing well in Asia's mandopop scene! Why should we be ashamed of her when she won so many accolades and awards in Asian Music scene as well as Hollywood Billboard Charts - no Singaporean has ever even done it!

Fact of the matter is - the public are not jealous of her success. Rather, the public are ashamed of her (synthetic)-success because it did not birth out of talent, but out of funds taken from the church and used without their knowledge until recently! That explains why we rejoice when we see Stephanie Sun winning the music awards and Tania Phua finally sees her talent recognized - but sorry, not an award Chinawine.

Sorry to disappoint all the die-hard fans out there.

3) "The 6 and CHC are under the attack of the devil; that's why we are in this state"

This is even more interesting because all throughout church history, demonic persecution do not happen to individuals - it strikes the entire population. Furthermore, demonic oppression should always lead to growth, revival and breakthrough - but the attendance of CHC is dwindling. To put the blame on the devil for personal misdeed is... a really nice try! After all, who else can the devil blame????

4) The 6 and CHC is being persecuted by the government, the public, the devil and the rats!

What the 6 is going through now is prosecution, not persecution - and it was made very clear by the DPM, Mr Teo Chee Hean - so let's settle this once and for all, and not get confused between prosecution and persecution! Unfortunately, it is often painted to CHC members that they are being persecuted, resulting in much emotions against the authorities.

5) The COC is out to destroy the lives and livelihood of CHC staff

The COC is vested with legislative powers to enforce the Charities Act and provide guidance to all charity organisations (IPCs or otherwise). The COC is merely enforcing their duties to protect donors of the charity by exercising the legislative powers vested upon them. At present, they have reason to believe that church funds are misused, resulting in the suspension of the 9 individuals related to the case.

I think it's good news than the COC cleared Sun Ho and that she's free to resume her duties in Church. See? No persecution!

If It's Not Conspiracy Theory, What Else Could It Be?

So... after looking at the above 5 points... can we truly ask ourselves if there's any conspiracy at all, or is the government merely exercising it's responsibilities in order to protect the well-being of its citizens and the reputation of the country? I am deeply concerned for the youth membership who take in everything they are told - hook, line and sinker!

I hope readers will consider these and carry out their own research - especially those overseas who have been painted with all sorts of funny idea about our government and media, and (mis)led to only rely on certain information source.