chinese version  http://kongheeinfo.com  english version  http://konghee.info

added on 19/4/1: it appears CAD has wrapped up its investigation without laying criminal charges on anyone in Cityharvest, but on the condition of major board changes, with Kong Hee stepping down as chairman though remaining as a board member. Unlike companies where a major shareholder can assert control without being chairman or CEO, a voluntary organization is more "self governing"; how much influence Kong will have as a spiritual leader remains to be seen

http://news.google.com/news/search?q=kong+hee The news that City Harvest Church, probably the largest single worship organization in Singapore with 33000 members, is involved a fund misuse investigation by police, just after the conviction of well known buddhist monk Ming Yi for an offense of this kind, rocked the whole Christian community. Judging by comments left on news blogs, the people are more inclined towards "religion and money should not mix" than "innocent till proven otherwise" or "government interference in religion"...

It so happens that pastor Kong Hee was my student in the NUS Computer Science Department, though I have no recollection of him (his class had probably 300 students so it was to be expected) and I did not know we had such a connection till one of his classmates pointed it out to me. His graduation book picture showed him to be more skinny than his current photos from news reports, with alert eyes, thus throwing doubt on what once he said in a self introduction, that he was a fat  teenager, but it is always possible that he lost weight during his National Service and Freshman/ Sophomore years, as those who knew him were quoted as saying that he was into many activities.

City Harvest, and one of its competitors New Creation Church, both grew rapidly over the past decade (NCC has 17000 members currently). With large numbers paying tithe (10% of income), both organizations have substantial financial reserves; NCC is jointly developing a shopping/ entertainment/meeting mall with Capitaland, the Temasek linked real estate company with five listings on the Singapore stock exchange (Capitaland, Capital Mall Reit, Capital Commercial Trust, Capital Retail China, Capital Mall Asia - there might be others I do not remember), while CHC bought a part of Suntec City Convention Hall, in addition to its current facility in Jurong.

Members of these churches tend to be young, often with non christian parents, or parents who go to other churches already; in other words, the churches offered something new; worship sessions are more like entertainment events,

in fact Pastor Kong Hee's wife is a pop singer currently living in LA trying to develop her entertainment career,  

rented house in Hollywood Hills

from a dance video produced for her blog 

Both churches own entertainment subsidiaries. CHC Members often tell their friends to join because "it is good place for networking", even "lots of wealthy/successful people are there"

In other words, the boom in their membership represents something more than a new spiritual interest among Singapore youth; rather, I see a case of expanding social networking mechanisms with a religious theme.

City Harvest started as a registered society; under Singapore law, a society cannot own assets, which must be registered in the name of trustees; if any trustee used the assets as capital for other businesses of his/her own, or gave contracts from society funds to his/own businesses, then there can be a problem

Here are links to various relevant news stories (including one from USA indicating he is back to work - there may be others I did not see)

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_15758423

A 'difficult, interesting' 27 days  

Senior Pastor Kong Hee thanked CHC congregation for their "support"

City Harvest replaces Kong Hee

Leadership change at City Harvest Church

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/media/singapores-city-harvest-church/ Singapore's City Harvest Church Controversy Comes to the Hollywood LA Weekly (blog) - Patrick Range McDonald

That slippery slope of plagiarising homework

We are doing well: Kong Hee

City Harvest pastor Kong Hee assures management's cooperation in CAD probe

Pastor breaks silence

Kong Hee doing well

City Harvest founder says he is doing well

Kong Hee: “'I believe that the City Harvest story will continue to unfold”

Lives like Hollywood star

Churchgoers defend Ho's lifestyle

Ho Yeow Sun's $28,000-a-month Hollywood home

 'We look to Sun when we feel down'

Where does cash to fund her career come from?

Ho Yeow Sun

Ho Yeow Sun called up for questioning by police

More than 18 called up so far for City Harvest Probe

Just remembered that there was a law suit relating to enbloc sale of Horizon Towers in which he figures

http://www.google.com.sg/search?q=horizon+"kong+hee"+"rajah+&+tann"

A word on doctrine - reluctantly since I am not into religions at all: it appears CHC advocates a minimalist form of Christianity, with maximum tolerance for various behaviours that other denominations condemn as sin; in fact, the idea of humans being born sinners has been minimized - by joining, you are automatically cleansed. Since "joining" means basically "paying tithe and going to sunday services", the restriction imposed by adopting this form of Christianity is minimal, hence my characterization of "minimalist".

I take no position on the validity of such a doctrine, but point out two historical parallels:

1. When Christians were persecuted in Roman times, they can avoid punishment merely by dropping a pinch of incense on any pagan altar - minimalist show of accepting paganism.

2. Catholic church in the period before Reformation proclaimed indulgences for any sin.upon suitable payment.

In short, minimalist Christianity is not new. Whether my points provide comfort is another story.

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I received the following email, quite late at night - the time shown is by Yahoo clock in California

for some months there have been charges by bloggers that Kong Hee plagiarised other people's writings in his messages to parishners; to me, the text reuse seems very small, and represents sloppiness rather than intellectual theft; there is after all very little that you can be creative about in orthodox preaching (cults, however, can be inventive)

I am sure everyone has skeletons that can be dug up once you become focus of attention; one need to keep things in perspective; so I myself would not take things too seriously either way: while one should not condemn him because of this, one should also not see this as a smear campaign and conspiracy against him; the matter is simply too small

but more serious is the following item

http://music.ifensi.com/article-96344.html

http://www.google.com.sg/search?q=何耀珊+性侵

 the information is only available in Chinese, which immediately makes it suspect, because it shows deliberate distribution for a particular "market segment"; as do the conflicting versions given out

I believe she did tell some story of being molested, as a tool of sympathy during counselling sessions with young female parishners; it could have been based on some actual event of being touched inappropriately by an adult neighbour or date, but even if we assume this, I doubt the event rose to the level of seriousness depicted in the stories - it is ridiculous to imagine a 10 year old, after 5 years of molesting, still being unable to tell her mother what happened.

Ho did not expect such confidential counselling information to leak, but it did, and when asked about it by a reporter in a PR session, was caught by surprise, panicked and inprovised badly. It was a thoughtless things to do; her parents (and old neighbours) must have found the story very upsetting. It also makes one wonder how she handles other tricky issues that arise in life.

ho yeow sun at CAD after assisting enquiry

added 17/6/10:I assume she has no green card and would not be able to stay indefinitely in USA refusing to come home; it is therefore better to cooperate with the police, whether or not you are confident of your innocence

her husband was involved in management till recently when he stopped taking a salary; he might be questioned as a witness about what other people might have done; it is unclear what she was questioned for, since she was in the media section of the church, and has not been an employee since 2003

Raffles Town Club

I mention in passing that Raffles Town Club's membership recruitment drive in 1997 attracted 19000 members, at $28000 each. This then led to a series of management tussles, and several lawsuits, shortly after it started operation in 2000; one of these is still ongoing (the judge has handed down his verdict but asked the parties to try to agree on the issue of division of legal cost)

I am a member of RTC and go there quite often, but was not part of any of the lawsuits. The story illustrates the size of the social networking market, and the complexities it gets involved in.

addded on 13/6/10-when I wrote the above last week, I did not know that the analogy between churches and clubs is even closer: this Straitstimes report

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_539689.html

says newly built churches pay the Singapore government for 30 year land leases at more than  $400 per square foot, RTC paid 100M for a 30 year lease on approximately 10,000sq m of land, or about $1000/sqft, but in a prime property area (in any case, the group probably overpaid since the next bid was only half the amount so they could have won the lease for much less)

it also starts me wondering what kind of annual property tax a church has to pay, and how temples and mosques, whose members are usually less well off, have to pay to maintain their occupation, even though their land might be freehold