City Harvest "No Case to answer" rejected

In Singapore, the attempt by the senior counsel of the accused church leaders of City Harvest Church for outright dismissal of the charges against them has been thrown out.

My mind wanders back to "D-Day" of the CHC building fund in 2010 when Pastor Kong showed the mega stadiums when he urged the congregation to give for the building fund. Was he really honest? or was it just a show.

However, one cannot get too far in life being honest. The churches label gays as the worst sinners being the greatest threat to the family, when the bible context was about pagan worship, and the threat to the family comes from divorces and abortions! They spin half truths all the time.

The Christian News organization City News reported that Judge See Kee Oon was "satisfied that the evidence orchestrated by the persecution supported some element of each of the charges against the accused".

However, an honest reporting was given by the secular Today Online which reported that Judge Oon ruled that

  • "Sufficient evidence has been adduced to support every element of the charges of criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts ...."

  • "there is no need for the court to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty. If suffices that a court could resonably convict on the evidece adduced by the persecution"

  • the evidence is "largely documentary rather than oral"

  • ".... in my view, there is evidence to show that sham or false investments took place"

  • " .... even if one does not use the word sham, the evidence suggests the so-called investments were not genuine investments, but were merely disguises for something else"

  • "... there is evidence that the true purpose of the transactions were to generate a false impression that the purported bond investments .... has been redeemed".

  •  " ... the crux lies in whether the accused knew they were "not legally entitled to use CHC's money the way they did""

  • " they may have been dishonest even if they had intended only to temporarily deprive the church of its funds ..."

Hence, the earlier attempt by the defence to argue for "no case to answer" because it was "church funds for church purposes" has been rejected outright. This was expected since the funds were raised and earmarked for the specific building fund projects and not for Sun Ho's Hollywood secular rock stint.

Sun Ho's Hollywood forray was spinned by the defence to be part of the Cross Over evangelism project using church funds when it was never previously referred or considered as such. Moreover, any direct support by using church funds for Sun Ho in Hollywood had been hitherto denied vigorously and publicly by CHC (way back to 2003 in the Ronald Poon affair).

Pastor Kong's own blog entry "Wholesome Shallowness" in Sep 2009, vigorously affirmed that Sun was not related to the ministry of the church in anyway hence was free to do the rather lewd China Wine music videos. Kong categorically stated it was on Sun's own accord as an entertainer as she was not and never was a pastor, nor her albums had anything to do with the church.

It was being succesful in the market place on her own accord rather than any cross over evangelism. Hence, it was not for "church purposes" in response to strong accusations from other churches of the unsavory music videos.

On the Cross Over, the judge said that "I do not find this argument persuasive. Even if this is indeed a case of 'church funds for church purposes', dishonesty could be established if the evidence shows the accused persons knew they were not legally entitled to use the money in the way they did.".

 The totality, logical threads, and obvious motives of the evidence were too grave, and were all documented correspondences, directives and transactions. They got caught with their hands in the piggy bank!

When the CHC case brokeout, the "Blog Pastor" spoke about the CHC leaders as people who "went about doing good and with good intensions". The evidence to the fact questions this integrity, honesty and the true intentions, to a mega sham possibly misleading 30,000 members, and over SGD 50 million in funds.

It has been 3 to 4 long years for the accused. My heart goes out to them even though I don't have a luxury European car, or live in Sentosa Cove, or travel first class. Yes, I don't walk in their skin of power, control, wealth, fame, and luxury to really know what their going through.

As a Christian, we all suffer together as a body of Christ. I feel really sorry for them because they are suffering amidst the clicking sounds of DSLR cameras in the court house. All they have doesn't really matter anymore as they face a real possibility of being convicted.

When all is lost, we are reminded to value a humble walk and communion with Jesus Christ in the presence of the Holy Spirit, and a fellowship with family and friends, and experiencing all their love, fellowship and relationship. We are reminded to treasure life, to treasure people, and to walk a simple faith of humility, love, mercy and grace.

May God's will be done. May there be justice, and recompense, and truth to light the darkness.

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Excepts from Pastor's Kong's Wholesome shallowness blog entry in Sep 2009

 "Although Sun is married to me, she herself was never formally ordained as a minister. " 

"......But the reality is that she is no longer a church staff or a gospel singer. She doesn’t work for any religious organization."

".....But Sun is not a pastor. She is an entertainer. All her music videos were not produced by the church but by her secular music label, the company that she is working for." 

"The “China Wine” music video was never meant for a church event. Neither was it ever intended to be an evangelism tool or a gospel video." 

 

 
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