AGC is right to prosecute Kong Hee and gang to the fullest extent of the law
Incidentally, I DO NOT think that AGC is just acceeding to the haters of prosperity gospel but the wider implications to national security. Pls note that all religious groups/ organisations here are registered as charitable societies, a privileged registration class that is property, income and perhaps even GST tax exempt (even my visit to public pool is GST taxed though exercise is good for society (reduces my Medishield-life claims against state)): PS: ( I believe that due to income + GST tax exemptions, IRAS does not watch charities that closely): thus, the gahmen/ citizenry give religious charities a very wide berth but onus is on charities to act extra TRANSPARENTLY and EXEMPLARILY: I.e. to be beacons of good conduct for all society to follow.
But City Harvest Church not only betrayed the trust of the SG gahmen, they also made deliberate and egregious steps to hide their dishonesty from both the gahmen and their flock (round tripping etc). PS Kong Hee should have known better as the gahmen's generous tax incentives for all religious institutions is premised upon their sacred duty to uphold morals like transparency, honesty etc for the rest of Singapore to follow.
But Kong Hee decided to play tricks with the authorities and surrounded himself with handsomely rewarded yes-men professionals under his 'spiritual guidance' or on his payroll. Thus instead of being a beacon of moral authority, Kong Hee subjugated his morals to the sought advice of 'puppet professionals' whom he rewarded favourably for: no doubt, the advice that these 'puppet professionals' gave didn't quite pass muster; arguably, implicit in Kong Hee's shopping for advice (legal etc) was the desire to exploit loopholes and skirt the limits of the law.
The real world danger of religious leaders not being a corner-stone of moral authority but pushing the limits of the law is that religious institutions could then ABUSE their privileged tax/ self regulatory position and fund terrorist organisations the like of ISIS through lax/ opaque accounting methods and vagueness in fund raising objectives/ beneficiaries: where donations towards the construct a physical church building could equally be channelled towards advancing the highly sexed 'musical' carreer of the pastor's own wife.
If the Church were allowed to produce porn inspired musical videos for financial gain (more tithes to collect, more sexed videos to sell), then the Mosque would likewise be justified to sponsor terrorism for some perverse objective.
Instead of being God's steward and accepting the Godly assignment of benifiting the community at large, Kong Hee succumbed to the lure of profligate entitlement: to use church building funds to society's detriment: revealing/ exploiting existing loopholes in charity governing laws which might have easily resulted in some other rogue religious organisation raising funds for terrorist like ISIS under the cloak of vagueness/ formlessness.
AGC is right to prosecute Kong Hee and gang to the fullest extent of the law, and to demand increased transparency and accountability from all religious organisations.
So to answer U, those who view prosperity gospel preachers with suspicion do not "loathe the practitioneers of prosperity gospel can’t wait to see them thrown in jail quick and left to rot." : we just do not want their cancer of impersonating God to mislead/damage greater society further as they surrender in their morals to the lure of easy power and profit, just as pimps and terrorist harm society very much.
[IMHO: Real religion is mission to maintain creation(environmentalism etc)/ develope society. Fake religion is preaching 'entitlement profligacy' and cheat people's $$$.]
SIMMTANN said:
Incidentally, I DO NOT think that AGC is just acceeding to the haters of prosperity gospel but the wider implications to national security. Pls note that all religious groups/ organisations here are registered as charitable societies, a privileged registration class that is property, income and perhaps even GST tax exempt (even my visit to public pool is GST taxed though exercise is good for society (reduces my Medishield-life claims against state)): PS: ( I believe that due to income + GST tax exemptions, IRAS does not watch charities that closely): thus, the gahmen/ citizenry give religious charities a very wide berth but onus is on charities to act extra TRANSPARENTLY and EXEMPLARILY: I.e. to be beacons of good conduct for all society to follow.
But City Harvest Church not only betrayed the trust of the SG gahmen, they also made deliberate and egregious steps to hide their dishonesty from both the gahmen and their flock (round tripping etc). PS Kong Hee should have known better as the gahmen's generous tax incentives for all religious institutions is premised upon their sacred duty to uphold morals like transparency, honesty etc for the rest of Singapore to follow.
But Kong Hee decided to play tricks with the authorities and surrounded himself with handsomely rewarded yes-men professionals under his 'spiritual guidance' or on his payroll. Thus instead of being a beacon of moral authority, Kong Hee subjugated his morals to the sought advice of 'puppet professionals' whom he rewarded favourably for: no doubt, the advice that these 'puppet professionals' gave didn't quite pass muster; arguably, implicit in Kong Hee's shopping for advice (legal etc) was the desire to exploit loopholes and skirt the limits of the law.
The real world danger of religious leaders not being a corner-stone of moral authority but pushing the limits of the law is that religious institutions could then ABUSE their privileged tax/ self regulatory position and fund terrorist organisations the like of ISIS through lax/ opaque accounting methods and vagueness in fund raising objectives/ beneficiaries: where donations towards the construct a physical church building could equally be channelled towards advancing the highly sexed 'musical' carreer of the pastor's own wife.
If the Church were allowed to produce porn inspired musical videos for financial gain (more tithes to collect, more sexed videos to sell), then the Mosque would likewise be justified to sponsor terrorism for some perverse objective.
Instead of being God's steward and accepting the Godly assignment of benifiting the community at large, Kong Hee succumbed to the lure of profligate entitlement: to use church building funds to society's detriment: revealing/ exploiting existing loopholes in charity governing laws which might have easily resulted in some other rogue religious organisation raising funds for terrorist like ISIS under the cloak of vagueness/ formlessness.
AGC is right to prosecute Kong Hee and gang to the fullest extent of the law, and to demand increased transparency and accountability from all religious organisations.
So to answer U, those who view prosperity gospel preachers with suspicion do not "loathe the practitioneers of prosperity gospel can’t wait to see them thrown in jail quick and left to rot." : we just do not want their cancer of impersonating God to mislead/damage greater society further as they surrender in their morals to the lure of easy power and profit, just as pimps and terrorist harm society very much.
[IMHO: Real religion is mission to maintain creation(environmentalism etc)/ develope society. Fake religion is preaching 'entitlement profligacy' and cheat people's $$$.]
