City Harvest’s founder Kong Hee & 4 others arrested
I believe most Singaporeans will have heard of this seeing as it is all over Facebook, and of course there are bound to be some disagreements.
If I recall correctly, this is not the first embezzlement case to have happened in Singapore. One of the more recent ones that should still be fresh in everyone’s minds is the NKF issue, with the second one involving Ren Ci Hospital. I do not want to classify all three matters into one category but then again, I would like to bring up the fact that such things do happen when MONEY comes into the picture.
I would like to share some comments that I had come across in facebook;
- All those money… it’s hard not to sway
- if true, this is disappointing and downright DISGUSTING. What a wolf in sheepskin and a cheat posing as a pastor. Disrobe him.
- i love how people are defending him when he misappropriated their money. hilarious
- they must have found something before they make the high profile arrest. 2 years ago, it is questioned. this time round is arrested.
And more comments while I am browsing;
- Whatever it’s is. Believe in your own judgement. God is real not human. Church is real not human. Things are not as simple as we think. Fund must be decided by the church and authorize by the church. No individual human shall have the right to interfere.
- A Pastor given his LIFE and Time to church.
A Pastor who raise fund for Charity.
A Pastor who Loves and Support his wife’s career.
I did not see, Fund for Drugs, Human Trafficking, Ah Long and etc. Yet people are angry? It is sad…. - judge not and you will not be judge, condemn not and you will not be condemn, forgive and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37
- all i can say is, my pastor Kong and Sun ho are righteous man and woman of God. the sacrifices they made to make miracles happen for the 23years will not be forgotten by God. 🙂
Among all, the most sensible comment:
- I think we need to be sensitive to religious issues here. Yes, I’m disappointed… Disappointed in the person himself, but not the religion. I’m not a Christian btw.. But to each his own religious views. But I certainly will not respect anyone who uses religion for his own Profits or Monetary gains. That’s just despicable.
(The comments above are extracted from facebook, I did not put their names in so as to protect their privacy)
All of us – regardless of race, language or religion – will be out there talking about City Harvest Church (CHC) and Pastor Kong Hee. The contents of our conversations will probably involve stuff like money, Christianity, church, a pastor’s job scope, the CHC culture and etc. But what’s the point? What are these ideas that you have that you are trying to share with others?
Personally, this matter happened because of a religion’s representative. Pastor Kong Hee represented the CHC and decided to use the church’s money – amounting to SGD$23 million – to fund his wife’s singing career at USA.
Now let’s add in more information: Pastor Kong Hee has contributed 23 years of service as CHC’s pastor. Throughout his service, he did plenty of good deeds and has helped a lot of people to stand up and walk out of their darkest days. At the very least, we ought to acknowledge his work and service towards the community.
So dear readers, should we lessen his punishment because he has been a Great Man for the past few years? Or do we still defame City Harvest Church because Pastor Kong Hee is the church’s representative? These are issues that we ought to give some thought as well.
God’s Will, He knows the Truth more than anyone else
Pastor Kong Heecommitted a crime under the Charity Act. By utilizing the SGD$23 million from the CHC’s funds for his wife, this can be considered a selfish act.
Let’s put it simply – the man, who clearly loves his wife, used a lump sum of money from his workplace that he is serving in for the purpose of her dreams and career. The only few complex factors are:
- Religion Representative – Christianity
- A huge lump sum of money
- Funds meant for charity purposes
Is the religion considered as an accomplice in his selfish act?
Does the amount of money matter?
Does where the origins of the money matter?
I hope we do not mention anymore negative things about CHC. It is not the church’s fault; it’s the Pastor’s. Yes, the amount of money embezzled is BIG but even if it were to be any lesser, it is a crime nonetheless. It doesn’t matter where the money came from because essentially it is not his own money.
Religion is innocent. The core factors that they hope that their followers can abide by is to harbour a kind heart, act out a kind deed and cultivate themselves to be kind people.
Ultimately, someone is at wrong, and he is a single human being leading a group of people with him. That is the only thing that I see with my own eyes. Do you agree?
发善心、做善事、成善人。
Shiroi Ryuu @ dusty corner 
我同意你的看法。人非圣贤，岂能无过？牧师也非圣贤，宗教和这件事没有关联，要怪就怪在牧师没有遵守法律。
我就是看到了人们将个人过错与宗教团体给弄得团团转，才希望大家看开一点。
身为教徒，教徒们当然会极力拥护他们的精神领袖，可是他毕竟是一个普通人，而不是一位神。
Yes, although it’s hard, one should not blame the religion. Followers should see the people arrested for who they really are.
Yes, that is the main point.
One flaw about human, they can’t really distinguish two or more than two items away once they are in a package.
Especially when comes to emotions which do associated with likes, dislike, gratitude, anger, etc etc.
Example: a Teacher, can’t smoke, can’t drink, can’t club. Because his occupation and the stand of a role model. But isn’t educators human as well?
Pastor Kong, he is a great leader, he saves many many more people than we know of, but isn’t he a mortal as well? And humans make mistake.
We shall open our eyes, look and see things around us with the eye that gifted us and the wisdom he taught us. But not blindly follow oneself own emotions, same goes with people thy dislike CHC.
Save the trouble to argue, fellow friends. Justice will be upon whoever did wrong, to God, to his people.
CHC members, save the argument. God forgive everyone, Law will let him free if his not guilty.
Trust God for your belief, not trusting someone else. God is your savior and your mentor.
Sorry to be so long winded. =P
Well said! It is true that certain occupations have to be good role models such as teachers, principles and religious leaders. However, it does mean any less occupation can have bad morals and cheat others. Ultimately, we are still humans and have the tendency to fall from the grace of God. That’s the risk of being human, we make mistakes at certain point of life and that’s life. Suffice to say, the weak link is human and it also is true when religion is concerned, he/she has to always look to God for answer and direction.
By the way, I like your viewpoint and I am a Christian.
I think it can be distilled to a point as simple as that the sinner is to be blamed, not the religion. The fact that Kong Hee did all these means that regardless of the intentions, or motivations, he must be brought to justice by the law as an example to everyone. The message of Christianity has always been that of love for the sinner, and extending God’s hands to them, but obviously, these people used it as a mask for their own personal agenda.
Just a minor correction on the point of how much money he embezzled though: he embezzled more than 23 million dollars–more like 50 million at least. That amount of money can certainly be used for better purposes, if their claim was to glorify God.
Well said, and I agree God’s love to all of us. I’ll hope the air could be clear ASAP and let God be the judge.
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I was a CHC member when all this happened. From how I see it, the members in CHC are too trusting. Even when my friend convinced me to join, I thought it was a nice place because of the so-called “appeal” to people. Actually, they drag people in by carrying out services like a rock concert with attractive music with hidden meanings. When I was there, it was like a dazzling display of light show and futuristic graphics that got people excited, but the substance was very clear, as I found out a few weeks into my time there. Even when I went back after a few weeks, it was like I didn’t like the place anymore, and I was starting to see things much more clearly. In CHC, the culture is similar to zombies in movies or TV shows where, they are almost brain dead. The only difference is that they can think. Not for themselves, though; they are told to think the way the leaders in the place want them to think – so much so that even something like getting a boyfriend/girlfriend needed approval from leaders in the cell group and ministry. The amount of control was so bad, when I made an intellectual joke that my friends from elsewhere would laugh at or call ‘lame’, the people in the cell group would look at me and scratch their head, waiting for me to explain a couple of times before they understand. The fact is that, because they think in such degrading manner, they actually believe that them giving money to the church is actually helping the church, when actually there was a lot of other things going on behind the scenes, which to me were too obvious but almost like the people just ignored because they were told to. I left, partially due to the case, but also realised that if I stayed, there was a good chance I’d think like them as well, and my homosexual orientation was going to be a big problem eventually. Plus, I was pressured a lot of times to give a big portion of my salary to the church as “a sign of my commitment to God”; this message was constantly preached every week to the members that God would give back what the people gave the church “a hundredfold”, which is explained as 100% of your “donations” instead of the actual meaning of 100 times of your givings. As a Christian then, I was very disappointed in the fact that the religion was about anything except the morals or ethics it said to have and teach in the first place.
Dear Nic,
I would not comment much on CHC anymore as it is very open and obvious to those with the eye of wisdom. But I would like to compliment on your courage to left such hellish place, and moving forward with life.
Currently, I am looking up and down all over the Internet and News for Kong Hee’s latest news. Although his updating his FB status and Twitter daily but I believe it is control by a third party to create covers (From my own personal view)
And always hope you to be happy with your own sexual orientation, for everyone is created uniquely, you are born that way.
Will hope to see more of your comments in the future.
God Bless.