Pastor Lawrence Khong Weighs In on LGBTQ vs NUS Professor Saga

Pastor Lawrence Khong (FCBC)

Pastor Lawrence Khong (FCBC)

I watched with dismay as a Malay Studies Professor was insulted and intimidated by two alumni and a student for posting his personal views regarding “alternative modes of sexual orientation” on Facebook.

This action constitutes an attack on free conscience and free speech. It aims to terminate debate on a highly controversial issue. It hampers the expression of diverse viewpoints. If left unchallenged, it will harm academic freedom and democracy in the long run.

This is not the first time an academic is being maligned by LGBT activists. In 2007 when our leaders were debating whether to repeal or retain Section 377A of the Penal Code, two NUS law academics were subjected to abusive, lewd emails from LGBT activists for their cogent arguments supporting 377A. Be warned: the chief danger of the LGBT movement is its political agenda to take away freedom from anyone who disapproves their alternative lifestyle.

Academics have the right to express their religious and professional convictions on public morality. What Dr Khairudin Aljunied said on Facebook is the very essence of academic freedom, not beyond academic freedom. It is intolerant and offensive for the alumni and student to demand that he undergo counselling.

At National Day Rally 2009, Prime Minister said: “We are not against religion… religious groups are free to propagate their teachings on social and moral issues and they have done so on the IRs, on organ transplants, on 377A, homosexuality… And when people who have a religion approach a national issue, they will often have views which are informed by their religious beliefs. It is natural because it is part of you, it is part of your individual, your personality. But you must accept that other groups may have different views, informed by different beliefs and you have to accept that and respect that. And the public debate cannot be on whose religion is right and whose religion is wrong. It has to be on secular rational considerations, public interests—what makes sense for Singapore.”

The petition against Dr Aljunied makes no sense in Singapore—a secular society with conservative roots where all citizens are free to address public issues based on their moral convictions secular or sacred or both.

We hope Dr Aljunied will not lose his job over this incident. It will be a very sad day for Singapore if he does. It will derail the future of a moral man with a brain and a spine. It forebodes the end of freedom and our decline as a nation.

NUS must not allow an undemocratic minority to vandalise our consciences, defy our shared values, degrade our virtues, and terrorise our collective well-being by forcing homosexual credo on a conservative society. NUS must draw the line between truth and error, right and wrong, good and bad. Or we might end up as a mere footnote in history instead of the shining red dot our Prime Minister hopes for.

Source: Lawrence Khong (FCBC)

 

 

Read the ENTIRE chronology of saga in category ‘AGAMA’:

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