Of "Asian Reggae"

Lordy.

Kong Hee takes the stand and appall us further with their so called justifications for Project Crossover.

Here, we help our readers save time and bring them straight to the eye-rolling points. If you would like to read the full article, read on below.

1. They enlisted the help of hip hop artiste, Wyclef Jean to help Sun Ho create Asian reggae.
Oh yes. Get the help of a Haitian to make better Asian Reggae. Btw, our ears fail us. What the heck is Asian reggae?

2. Sun Ho's career would have helped open doors in the US... to the non-Christians.
It appears there are not enough non-Christians in Singapore for City Harvest to well, harvest.

3. Hits on Youtube.
To Kong Hee, each time the China Wine video is clicked, it is a hit. Doesn't matter that we are put off by it.

4. "Hips don't lie worked for Shakira", says Kong Con Hee.
Sacrilegious! The last we looked, Sun Ho bears no resemblance at all to Shakira. Ho's voice can lie. Shakira has an IQ of 140. Think Project Crossover... let's not even go there.

We refuse to be harvest by City Harvest.
#werefusetobeharvestbycityharvest 

dayum we should patent this hashtag

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Sun Ho was uncomfortable with Asian reggae style: Kong

 

Kong said he scrutinised budget for her debut English album

NEO CHAI CHIN
chaichin@mediacorp.com.sg
PUBLISHED: 2:23 PM, AUGUST 12, 2014

SINGAPORE — Latino reggae worked well for Colombian songstress Shakira in her hit song, Hips Don’t Lie, but singer Ho Yeow Sun was not sure that reggae music was her style, City Harvest Church co-founder Kong Hee told the court this morning (Aug 12).

Well known songwriter and performer Wyclef Jean had been roped in to produce Ms Ho’s debut English album in 2006, and wanted it to feature Asian reggae music. But Kong, who is facing charges of criminal breach of trust, said his wife Ho felt reggae music was not her style and was uncomfortable, despite the hits her single China Wine — featuring Wyclef — was getting on YouTube.

By Feb 2008, Wyclef wanted to re-record Ms Ho’s upcoming album. But things did not work out and both sides parted ways later that year and the album was never released.

Breaking into the US market would have opened doors for the church’s Crossover Project to reach out to non-Christians, Kong said.

He said he always scrutinised the budget for the album and, where possible, would independently work through assumptions made by American music producer Justin Herz in his profit and loss projections.

Source: http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/sun-ho-was-uncomfortable-asian-reggae-style-chc-leader-kong

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Of CHC's fund raising for the 6 accused.

From AsiaOne

City Harvest Church warned over fund raising for accused 

Singapore's Commissioner of Charities (COC) has warned City Harvest Church about its employees' efforts to raise funds to pay the legal fees of the church's leaders facing criminal charges in court.

At issue is a donation form which surfaced this month seeking funds as a "personal gift" to the six people charged so far.

Commissioner of Charities' response

"The Commissioner of Charities' (COC) office had earlier issued a Restriction Order to the Board of City Harvest Church (CHC) to restrict CHC from paying the legal fees of the six accused persons and entering into transactions relating to payment of services to the suspended individuals and their related entities, without the approval of the COC.

The COC has informed CHC that the church and/or its employees should not be involved in raising funds for the legal expenses or setting up a specific fund for this purpose."
 

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Is this a good call by the Commissioner of Charities to stop CHC members for raising funds for the lawsuit? We cannot decide. Members will simply route their funds to a fellow member who is not part of the 6 accused. This "personal gift" is a major loophole. At the same time, it does seem that CHC has forgotten why they are in embroiled in a lawsuit in the first place. Seems like CHC is pretty recalcitrant.

What is even more disgusting, disappointing and appalling is this: CHC actually puts itself up as a recipient for donations in kind. NTUC FairPrice and the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) have a collaboration so that people who would like to donate food items or basic necessities to voluntary welfare organizations (VWOs) may do so via FairPrice's website. CHC is one of the VWOs listed.

 

How is this appropriate when church members are busy raising funds for their already very rich pastors and senior members of the church and leaving the needy people in their care to the public? Surely they should know where their priorities lie? Is giving to the needy less prosperous then giving to the pastors, you believers of the prosperity gospel?

This is not an attempt to penalize the needy. This is an indication that CHC members rather tithe upwards to pastors who can live in luxury appartments instead of giving meaningfully to those who need it more. We are even more convinced that somewhere during sermons and cell group sessions, CHC has not been sharing the right message.

Regardless of religion, God helps those who help themselves.  

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Of City Harvest & good intentions gone awry

Yes, one more blog that writes about the City Harvest Church (CHC) saga. We hope this is well worth your time.

To begin with, there is nothing wrong with a project that seeks to extend the Christian faith. Obviously, the faith (Christianity, Buddhism, Islam or Hinduism for the matter) is good and it should be shared. To bring the secular over or "Crossover", to what extent should the religious give way to the secular in order to reach to the masses? Feel free to watch Sun Ho's China Wine and Mr Bill videos. When one watches these videos, surely there is an inner voice of reason that says, "something is not right. How does gyrating in skimpy clothes draw one closer to God?" Even the members of the popular Planetshakers band, the music arm of a popular youth movement are appropriately dressed.

Then there are even more disclosures. Even without the charges being brought to light, we have all heard of how CHC members "snap up" Sun Ho's CDs. Sure, showing support for the Pastor's wife involved in Project Crossover is absolutely legit. Buying CDs to support your church's effort is perfectly legit. It becomes questionable when one has to buy x number of CDs in exchange for points or a poster, or a t-shirt etc.

At the same time, it is hard to digest the fact that since the implementation of Project Crossover, Kong Hee and Sun Ho have upgraded from a flat in Tampines (bought SGD 127 000, sold SGD 420 000), to a unit in Horizon Towers at River Valley (SGD 1 million) to a penthouse in Sentosa Cove. This begets another question. We could say that they made shrewd investments or perhaps, won the lottery. Or that their staunch belief in the prosperity gospel have paid off. Even in Hollywood Hills, Sun Ho lives in a posh neighborhood which count Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie amongst other celebrity neighbors. We sure know what Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie do for a living. As far as Hollywood is concerned, who is this Sun Ho? What does she do for a living? Being a pastor is not a high net worth career. So what else do Kong Hee and Sun Ho do to generate so much income?

Yes we are naturally kind-hearted. We should not judge, just like how we thought we were giving wholeheartedly with good intentions to NKF only to find that we were contributing to a toilet fitted with a golden tap. Yet, there are some issues that cannot be ignored.

While we do not speak for the masses, we all have to agree that somehow there is a large degree of inappropriateness in this.


Since the secular approach works for Crossover, it seems appropriate to quote Jules from Pulp Fiction who appears to be paraphasing Psalm 23 and the last line is from Ezekiel 25:17:
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." 


Yes Project Crossover began with good intentions. Does it still function with those good intentions?

For some, the stark realization that you have actually become a better person than the supposed servant of God who was supposed to help bridge you towards God can be frightening.

Fret not, sometimes even the best of us get lost. It is now your turn to shepherd the weak home.

* For those who are offended by the Pulp Fiction quote, have a think about the prosperity gospel.

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