It’s crucial to understand the mindsets behind the 5 accused followers of Kong Hee. Normally, Christian churches have Christ as the cornerstone of their faith. Pastors are called to serve their congregants by faithfully proclaiming repentance and the forgiveness of sins through Christ’s death and resurrection. Pastors also spend quality time getting to know their congregants by praying for them, visiting them in hospitals, counseling, and other Biblical means.
CHC is NOT a Christian church by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, it’s a cult built around “Pastor” Kong Hee and his vision. (With Kong Hee possibly facing prison for 20 years, “Pastrix” Sun Ho’s vision will become the new cornerstone of the congregant’s faith.) It is impossible for the other 5 accused to walk away from their boss because their boss IS “God.” In these cults, to question the leader is to question God. Not submitting to the cult leader is a direct violation of God’s way and to leave the church is to reject God. To break any of these commandments is to lose one’s salvation, so of course the accused 5 had their fate sealed as soon as they took up the leadership positions. Kong Hee will only choose those that have sold out to his lies and who have “seared their consciences” to his every word.
Keep in mind we are NOT in any way excusing the 5 accused from the crimes they’ve committed. Rather, we’re pointing out why they would willingly break the law and blindly follow Kong Hee to the ends of the Earth. This mentality is precisely why CHC, Hillsong, C3, and other mega churches with vision-casting leaders are so dangerous.
RHT Digital & Media writes:
The sensational City Harvest Church case makes for scary reading with a pastor using his power of persuasion to make five key followers paranoid into cheating their congregation of $50 million.
Pastor Kong Hee manipulated a whistle blowing incident to create fear among the five that the church was maligned and under attack, and so they had to do their work discreetly. The whistle blower had alleged that church money had been used to promote the music career of the pastor’s wife. He convinced the five that the Crossover Project that started in 2003 to use his wife’s pop albums to reach out to non-Christians should be handled in secret. From then onwards, it was plain sailing for Kong Hee. A company, Xtron Productions, was started and sham bonds worth millions of dollars that the church bought from Xtron were funnelled into the Crossover Project.
Who can you blame for this sorry state of affairs?
The pastor who used his sway over the five to cheat, the state for not interfering early enough to stop the system from rotting, or the church members for allowing themselves to be manipulated?
Reading the excerpts of the 270-page verdict, it is clear that the pastor is the conspirator and the manipulator. But the five who allowed themselves to be manipulated cannot escape scrutiny. As the judge said, the zeal for the Crossover vision may have clouded their objectivity and judgement and obscured the need to protect other people’s money and not use it as they wished.
These five are in trouble today because they were trusted and trusting. Those following this case only for the salacious details, better wise up to the judge’s wise words: “It has … been wisely said that the real tragedy is when men are afraid of the light, and if they choose not to come into the light they do so for fear that their deeds will be exposed, as they will in time.”
The bottom line is this: You must have the guts and gumption to stand up to your boss and say no when you are asked to do things that go against your conscience. And if your boss insists that you still do it, walk away and send in your letter of resignation.
Source: From RHT Digital & Media, Power, paranoia, and a pastor, http://www.rhtdigitalmedia.com/2015/10/power-paranoia-and-a-pastor/, Published 28/10/2015. (Accessed 28/10/2015.)
Categories: City Harvest Church
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