Part of the reason that Singapore is harmonious is due to the emphasis placed on race and religion by the church and other religious institutions.
However, this doesn’t mean incidents that threaten our harmony never occur.
Based on a Reddit post on Monday (27 May), an elderly man – the father of the poster – was allegedly “forced” to convert to Christianity.
Even though the old man did not express any desire to convert, he was issued a certificate of conversion by Church of Our Savior (COOS) at Queenstown.
View the full post here.
You may have been approached by evangelists before — you know, the ones who try to get you to attend their church services.
COOS allegedly took it one step further. Instead of asking if the old man wanted to attend church, the member allegedly went to preach at the man’s home.
The elderly man gave his name to the member, even though he was a Buddhist.
After a few ‘preaching sessions’, the member gave him a certificate of conversion. This happened without any form of agreement on the man’s part.
The certificate, titled “Rebirth Certificate”, was issued on Sunday (24 Feb).
Here’s a rough translation of the certificate:
Congratulations, Mr X for accepting Jesus Christ as your savior on Friday (24 Feb).
Jesus replied, “If I had to be honest, you can only go to heaven by going through a rebirth.”
Without even asking, the old man is now ‘certified Christian’.
The old man’s son continued in his post that he found the actions “unethical and disgusting”.
He also feels that Singapore’s laws regarding religious harmony should include prosecuting forceful conversion of religion to protect everyone, especially the vulnerable.
While the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act exists, its main aim is to prevent hatred and ill-will from being spread by religious leaders. So it doesn’t really cover that aspect of forced conversion.
Netizens immediately jumped in to give the man suggestions.
One netizen asked the man to talk to the church directly for more information or call the police. He suggested that the member could have gone against the church’s directives. So it wouldn’t be fair to blame the church.
Another suggests that the man contact the National Council of Churches Singapore (NCCS) as they are the ones that are in charge of religious matters.
We have contacted COOS and NCCS for their comments on the allegations.
Hopefully, this was the work of one individual and not the organisation.
Featured image from Google Maps and Imgur.
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