In the latest twist to the investigation involving City
Harvest Church, it’s been revealed that pastor and founder
Kong Kee is taking a “well-needed break”.
Explaining Kong Hee’s absence from the church’s
usual service on Saturday at both the Singapore Expo Hall
and its Jurong West branch, senior church leader Derek Dunn
told the congregation, “I just also want to let you know that
Pastor Kong is well.”
“He’s just taking the needed rest this weekend, so he can assist
with the ongoing investigations, so let’s continue to stay united
in this church family,” he added.
The Straits Times reports that several members of the
congregation at Expo Hall 1 were seen waving placards of support
that read, “We love Ps Kong” and “We love CHC”. Holy Communion and
the giving of tithes also carried on as usual. The mood at both
services was visibly upbeat.
The 46-year-old Kong Hee has refrained from making any public
appearance since news broke early last week that he and 16 other
church members were assisting in investigations regarding the
misuse of church funds.
Reaction to the investigation has dominated online and
coffee-shop discussion in the past week, with many Singaporeans
weighing in on the issue. Close to a staggering 5,000 comments
can be found at the end of this post alone at the time of
writing.
Some have defended the church while proclaiming their faith
in its leadership while others applaud the move to audit the
church’s finances.
It is obvious the probe has touched a raw nerve, and
rightly so, because religion is and always will be a touchy
and delicate subject in the multi-racial,
multi-faith context of Singapore.
And while we must not jump to conclusions
– Pastor Kong Hee and his staff are innocent
until proven otherwise – it’s clear something is
amiss.
Reports of the largest mega-church in Singapore (over
32,000 members) having amassed millions of dollars in reserves
started to raise eyebrows years ago.
From a small church which started in 1989, City Harvest now
boasts a 14,000 sq foot office in Suntec and its own $47
million building in Jurong West. It has 45 affiliate churches in
Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Australia with a total of 48,000
members. It employs 154 full-time staff and has 15 committees
overseeing all its operations.
$40 million alone was spent in the last financial year.
Despite the much publicised fact that Kong Hee, 46, hasn’t been
paid a salary by the church since 2005, the
Pastor and his pop-star wife Sun
Ho continue to attract their fair share
of detractors. In particular, many others have criticised
his wife for her celebrity lifestyle, raunchy music
videos and daring dress sense. She has also made no
comment since the investigation started.
But what the startlingly similar scandals
involving the NKF, Ren Ci and Youth Challenge have taught
us is that excess often leads to temptation. By all accounts,
the leaders of all three non-profit organisations started off
humbly and upheld genuinely noble ideals, until money — more than
they knew what to do with — quickly led them down the path of
greed, materalism and corruption.
In July 2005, CEO of the National Kidney
Foundation, T. T. Durai, was arrested for making
false declarations on NKF’s accounts. Lurid details
of first-class air travel, a fleet of luxury cars at his beck
and call, a $600,000 annual salary and even a golden tap in
his private office suite emerged. During a much
publicised trial, it was revealed in court that NKF had amassed
$262 million in reserves.
A year later in 2006, Youth
Challenge, which sends students overseas to do
humanitarian work, came under fire for poor management
practices and was subsequently voted for closure. Its
leader, Vincent Lam
– a former police officer who set it up in 1985 to keep
aimless youths off the streets — was found to have an
extravagant annual pay package of nearly
$250,000 - 56 % of the charity’s total income. He
resigned a year later. In March this year, Youth
Challenge folded.
In 2008, Reverend Ming
Yi, the chairman of Ren Ci Hospital and Medicare Centre,
was charged with forgery, conspiracy and misuse of funds. He
allegedly approved million-dollar investments for Ren Ci, but the
funds included loans for himself. Stories of BMW cars, lavish
condos and excessive splurging were revealed in court with the
monk defending his lifestyle as that of “a modern monk”. Just
last week, his jail sentence was
reduced from 10 months in jail to
just six.
And now, City Harvest Church, which recently invested in a
whopping S$310 million stake in Suntec City Convention
Centre. In its 2009 audit, it was found to
have S$103 million in reserves.
From March next year, CHC will be renting a convention hall
from Suntec Convention Centre which will include a
12,000-seat main auditorium, 10 meeting rooms, a multi-purpose
hall, theatre and concourse on the top floors.
Benjamin Tan, 26, who makes regular contributions to his
own church, told Yahoo! Singapore, ”When it comes to religious
organisations like City Harvest, the money they receive should be
more than enough to cover the maintenance of the
church. I see no need for a reserve fund, or the
investment of excess.”
“The role of religion is the worship of God, not a tool or
vehicle to make money,” he adds.
Another senior church leader agreed, saying the sums of money
being reported made him uncomfortable.
“Money is meant to flow through the church. There is no need for
it to amass so much money because the Bible teaches us that, at the
end of the day, we must have faith that God will provide,” he
said.
Others disagree.
A 22-year-old City Harvest churchgoer, who wished to remain
anonymous, said, “Any organisation that wants to do anything on a
large scale needs a large amount of finances, be it charity work or
even day-to-day administration.”
“City Harvest Church needs such a large amount of funds partly
because it runs one of the largest community service organisations
in Singapore – City Harvest Community Service Association (CHCSA),”
he explains.
The CHCSA sent teams to Banda Aceh after the 2004 tsunami
as well as sent medical and relief teams to help in the Haiti
earthquake in January this year.
Whatever the reasons behind the financial complications in these
organisations, one thing is certain — it is often the
needy and those who really depend on them for prayer,
food, treatment and life’s basic necessities who suffer the
most.
Ren Ci Hospital, for example, suffered a severe plunge in
donations from S$9.3 million in 2007 to just S$1.1 million in
2008. A drop in NKF donations also saw the organisation
dipping into its reserves to keep its commitments to Singaporeans
suffering from kidney failure.
Perhaps even more damaging is that instead of celebrating
the many success stories by these charity and religious
bodies which so often go un-noticed, the general public begin to
question and doubt.
“Do my tithes or donations really help the needy?”
“What’s my money being used for?”
“How much do they already have in their offers?”
So, tell us, just how much money is needed to run a charity or a
religious organisation? Is it right that they be run and
financed like a private corporation? Or is the concept
of a simply-run, no-frills church an out-dated model in
this day and age?