November 30th, 2009 Posted in Culture |
From The Temasek Review
Singapore’s head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop John Chew has implored his followers to unite against “alternative values” such as homosexuality, rampant materialism and religious extremism which are fast eroding “mainstream values”, especially in the west.
He noted in a sermon to about 10,000 people during the Church’s centenary service at Suntec City that the lack of consensus on mainstream values had resulted in the spread of ‘alternative’, ‘fringe’ and ‘fundamentalistic’ values.
Echoing the government’s call for Singaporeans to have more children, the Archbishop also spoke on the importance of procreation within the family
“If Singaporeans do not produce enough babies, the danger is that the mainstream population, its socio-cultural norms and ethos, will dwindle and diminish down the generations…..The breaking down of families, and the changing of classical family norms, makes all this more aggravated,” he said.
In March this year, a group of Christian women steeplejacked and took control of feminist NGO AWARE ostensibly on the grounds that it was promoting “alternative” lifestyles like homosexuality.
Their plan backfired and they were subsequently voted out of office in an EGM called by the AWARE old guards.
The AWARE saga prompted Prime Minister Lee to urge Singaporeans to be tolerant towards those with different values and beliefs during his National Day Rally.
Under Section 377A of Singapore penal code, sexual intercourse between males is a crime punishable by a jail term though nobody were ever prosecuted under the law.
The move to decriminalize homosexuality has met with stiff opposition from conservative Christians in recent years such as former NMP Professor Thio-Li Ann and her mother Thio Su Mein, the self-proclaimed “feminist mentor” who is the mastermind behind the AWARE takeover.
Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans 