The many innocent faces of Kong Hee.

Kong Hee appeals. He feels wrongly convicted and sentenced. He wants justice to be done. He is innocent. He mentions that there are errors in the judgment. While it is within his right to appeal, his statement of appeal however is deeply troubling, if not offensive to any right-thinking Christian. It is three pages long and about 90% of it comprises the narration of Apostle Paul’s own appeal to Caesar. He mentions that Paul stood before the Sanhedrin and it is the same council that Jesus, Peter, John and Stephen stood before. 

For me, it is more a disingenuous statement of "I have done nothing wrong" than a statement of "I have been wronged." In the face of overwhelming evidence, a carefully-considered conviction, and a reasonably lenient sentence (because the prosecution found it "manifestly inadequate"), Kong Hee's appeal statement is undoubtedly a case of giving to Caesar what belongs to God, that is, he turned repentance on its head by whitewashing his guilt - whether by association or otherwise - with the good name of Apostle Paul, who died a martyr for God. Here is what I mean. 

Apostle Paul was accused of many things like rioting, breaking Jewish laws and committing treason against Rome. He was then held in remand for two years waiting for his case to be reopened. He then exercised his right to appeal before Caesar, who presided the highest court in the Empire.

This is what Kong Hee wrote: “…Jesus had said to him, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome”…He was also convinced that the evidence was on his side, and that he had a fair chance of winning the appeal in Rome.” Of course, Paul was acquitted of all charges before Caesar and he continued his missionary work to Western Europe, and as far as Spain.

But in 66 A.D, Paul was rearrested, imprisoned in Rome and beheaded by order of Nero Caesar. At this point, Kong Hee penned, “In God’s sovereign will, Paul was destined to be a martyr. However, before that appointed time for martyrdom, Paul exercised his legal rights within the judiciary of his day, and fought for the freedom to preach the gospel as instructed by the Lord Jesus…He fulfilled the purpose of his life and was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Paul appealed not because he was defiant toward the ruling authority. He appealed because (a) the weight of the evidence was in his favour, (b) he had a clear mission from the Lord Jesus that he still needed to fulfill, and (c) he was exercising his legal rights as a Roman citizen, a privilege that God had blessed him with.”

Wow…a standing ovation is in order. I have been a lawyer for more than fifteen years and have filed appeals for my clients before, but I have not seen such an intricately contrived justification for an appeal. Kong Hee must have really felt wronged by our justice system on so many levels. He must really be tormented by his own unproven, or unprovable, innocence.

Here, I am compelled to ask this: Is Kong Hee portraying himself as the modern day Apostle Paul? Is he saying that what he is going through is no different from what Apostle Paul went through in his days before the Sanhedrin? Or, is this just another of his outlandish public relation stunt to milk his congregation for maximum support? You be the judge.

For me, the association is irresistible, tactical even. My personal bet is that he is suggesting to the readily suggestible - with the subtlety of a jackhammer of course - that his fate is intertwined with that of Apostle Paul. That’s my takeaway from reading his statement of appeal. Can it be interpreted in any other way?

You see, he could just make it simple and say outrightly that his appeal was based on errors in some aspects of DJ See’s judgment, but he didn’t. Instead, he drew upon the experiences of Apostle Paul and used it not only as a backdoor to hanker for another bite of the I-am-still-innocent cherry, but to tell his congregation that he's got God's backing. This is reminiscent of the time when he told his audience that God apologized to him for going through what was then called the refiner's fire. As such, to me, this is clearly a calculated and deliberate move (some may even call it shameless or pathetic, but I simply call it unrepentant). This is my personal reading of that statement of appeal. Can you blame me for being too presumptuous?

But before the eager crowd goes oohs and aahs over it, let’s read what Apostle Paul wrote about his own experiences in 2 Corinthians 11: “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.”

So, what did our very own “Apostle Kong Hee” suffer? How is their fate intertwined? Apart from the 2 years of investigation and 3 years of protracted trial, which resulted in conviction beyond all reasonable doubt, Kong Hee was and is living in the lap of luxury all this while in one of the most expensive resort-like condominiums in affluent Singapore. He owns a number of premium properties and is widely adored (God knows why) by thousands of die-hard church members who readily give of their time and money to him and his beloved wife to be disposed of at their sole and unfettered discretion. He and his wife also drew high monthly salaries and bonuses.

Unlike Apostle Paul who suffered shipwrecked thrice, stoning and had spent in the deep, enduring dangers in the wilderness and at sea, and amongst false brethren, and went hungry and naked as he persevered to spread the good news on bare feet most times, Kong Hee and his recently ordained pastor wife in contrast travelled in style and class, rented extravagant apartment overseas, and spent tens of thousands of dollars on her wardrobe, makeup, consultancy fees, medical, restaurant food and hairdo.

That’s not all. Apostle Paul was also jailed on many occasions and he had even converted the jailer and his household as he (and Silas) sang hymns to God in the worse of circumstances. The songs belted out were simple, from the heart and purely accapella. China wine however is far from simple. It was sordid in fact. It was sexually suggestive, blatant. It portrayed loose morals, fornication and even adulterous liaisons. It was financed by fraud, falsification and dishonesty. And there is no denying that Kong Hee, in his blind zeal and ambition, was at most times more consumed in promoting his wife’s music career with money meant for the building fund than to spread the gospel. Can Apostle Paul and Kong Hee be any more different?

Further, while Apostle Paul knew by his Savior's assurance that his appeal will succeed as “the weight of the evidence was in his favour and he had a clear mission from the Lord Jesus that he still needed to fulfill,” can the same be said about Kong Hee and his current appeal? Can Kong Hee say that he shares the same destiny with Apostle Paul in his appeal and that his Crossover Project had the divine endorsement from our Savior? I guess what Kong Hee needs now is not so much an appeal to the appellate court, but an urgent appeal to his own insular heart.

Personally, I think Kong Hee had pushed things too far. He wrote that “In God’s sovereign will, Paul was destined to be a martyr.” Again, it is difficult not to see the parallel here. Is Kong Hee playing the martyrdom card? Is he saying that he is sacrificing for God the same way the early disciples had given their life for their Savior? Can we expect a second apology from God? For me, the suggested intertwining of fate gets more and more convoluted as Kong Hee digs deeper and deeper into his own trenches of self-delusion.

In the end, there is no denying that Jesus’ disciples gave their lives for the cause - just like Jesus gave of himself at the Cross. They died a martyr’s death. While James was put to death by Herod Agrippa I and Andrew was crucified in Achaia, Kong Hee however “engaged in covert operations and conspiratorial cover-ups” and “contrived to create cover stories and clever round-trips concealing their unlawful conduct.” While Matthew and Thomas died a martyr in Ethiopia and India respectively, Kong Hee and his leaders misused “CHC’s funds, which included siphoning off large amounts from Building Fund for Sun Ho’s music career.” And while Simon Peter was crucified and felt himself unworthy and asked to be put to death with his head downwards, Kong Hee and his leaders “chose to defraud the auditors with falsified accounts…and the evidence points overwhelmingly to a finding that they had all acted dishonestly and in breach of the trust reposed in them.” 

Alas, only one disciple died in his own hands and that was Judas Iscariot. He hung himself. I guess Kong Hee did somewhat the same by going through the 140-day trial. By his own hands, Kong Hee tightened the legal noose that goes around the only hope of his own redemption and restoration, and that is, his repentance.  Cheerz.