Freedom Of Worship

One wonders how many of the witch-burners bothered to sit through the youtube videos which resulted in Pastor Rony Tan being hauled up by Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng's thugs.

In calm, careful language, Pastor Tan was just facilitating ex-monk Joseph's presentation of his personal testimony. If Tan expressed skepticism in the chanting of meaningless mantras or the concept of karma, he was surely entitled to fair comment. If he had believed otherwise, he would have been a Buddhist monk instead of a Christian pastor. Similarly, a Muslim must have found incongruency in Christian practices, and voiced his difference in opinion in the privacy of his circle of associates, to justify embracing his faith of choice. Even feminist mentor Thio Su Mien has her inviolate right to subscribe to intercessory prayers to save Singapore from the Tsunami.

So why is Wong sticking his nose into the internal affairs of a religious group, when his boys in blue should have better things to do like keeping terrorist Mas Selamat securely locked up, like the Malaysian police is doing successfully? Maybe he's just polishing apples, after Minister Mentor told Mark Jacobson of the National Geographic that he is now practising religion ("You see most Chinese here are Buddhists or Taoist ancestor worshippers, I’m one of them", LKY 6 Jul 2009).