The CHC debate continues

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After reading comments and responses to the CHC incident by people on Facebook, MSM, and pastors, I think several threads of thought emerged.

For the Christian community in Singapore, there are much food for thought. Perhaps the first question we need to ask ourselves is what is God really telling us as His people through this incident (or in fact any other incidents that might be reported in the news). We need to bear in mind that God does not operate anything in vacuum and does not do anything without any purpose. Just read the bible and one will realise this. I am currently reading the book of Jeremiah and I can see that even when God decides to 'abandon' the kingdom of Judah, there's a reason and purpose for His decisions. Jeremiah 29:11 is often quoted by us to say that God has a purpose for everyone of us but we often forgot that He mentioned this in the context of Judah's plight with the Babylonians. If we put things into context, we learn that He had a purpose for Judah even when He sent them into the hands of the Babylonians. 

So transposing this into today's context, if God is bringing this saga to CHC, I don't think He is only specifically doing this for CHC but to His people as a whole. On top of commenting and commenting, the more essential question should be the nature of His purpose in all these things that are happening. Implicitly, I do not see this in most of the comments that I have read so far and in most of the articles written by Christians about the incidents. There might be and I may not be connected but I certainly have not read much. 

Secondly, instead of being defensive and start quoting John 8:7, we, as a Christian community, need to think about our attitude towards the whole incident. It is disappointing to see Christians readily assume guilt ahead of innocence and proclaiming judgement on the whole incident. I don't really blame non-believers for doing so although they won't have a real interest in all these. Reactions from Christians seems to be the most violent amongst those whose money has never been channeled to the cause of CHC. One will wonder why. I can easily gather the comments from Christians on my Facebook (from Hope somemore) who can criticise the pastors as if they are already guilty and demand more accountability. One thing to note at this juncture, as a Christian, we are accountable to God and we need to be accountable. But that doesn't mean that we can go around telling people whom we have no oversight on to be accountable. And under the backdrop of recent debates about homosexuality, isn't it not surprising why people are not taking Christians seriously? Precisely because we are too ready to proclaim judgement on people whom we have no business proclaiming judgement towards. 

And with that mind, the question is whether are we ready to stand united as a Christian community? Or are we ready to use this incident to voice our differences and allow the devil to divide the house? What exactly are our business in this Kingdom of God? When Jesus said that loving one another will show people that we are indeed His disciples, do we really follow that? Or it is an opportunity now to decry the 'evils of charismatic churches'? Is it the time to start drawing the lines between traditional and more contemporary denominations, if ever there's such a thing? 

To all Christ disciples, what exactly are we called by God to do? The social media is not there for us to exploit and throw the proverbial stone. Are we really following God, or following man? Are we flowing with the flow of the world, or are we flowing with God? Instead of throwing stones, maybe this is a good time for the churches in Singapore to sit down and reflect. 

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