Will Sun Ho say sorry?

This week's announcement by COC that the six convicted leaders of City Harvest are "permanently barred from having general control and management of any charity" kept me thinking about the leadership of the church, especially the mega-City Harvest Church.

Here, I recall what one CHC member said: "If there is a Crossover launched tomorrow, 15,000 of our congregation will still support it." Wow, that's what I call devotion.

Now, I know one swallow does not a summer make, and that lone member's voice does not necessarily represent the church it its entirety.

More pertinently, his gung-ho statement may not represent the intent and object of the CHC 2.0 leadership under the newly minted Sun Ho.

Yet, I believe the zealousness of that member can be found quite readily amongst the congregation. You throw a pebble in a weekend service crowd of tens of thousands and you are sure to hit one of them most of the time. I guess that is how congregational mechanics work. The issue here is not with the faith or belief, but with mass allegiance, and that is something you underestimate at your own peril.

History has shown that the mob instinct is quite prevalent, and even universal. And history has also taught us that most times, we learn nothing or little from it. As such, the gripe that "history often repeats itself" is not a cliché, but a darned reality.

So, when it comes to mass adulation, which is made worse by religious intemperance, the default position is to gravitate towards zeal on fire and brain on ice.

And although that member's Jericho-like chant is not representative of the 15,000 that he so cavalierly boast about, the legal saga of CHC over 7 years and the members' unquestioned support of their leaders' innocence even after the verdict and sentence clearly go to show that the fire-and-ice fanaticism is what makes a megachurch a formidable force to reckon with in society - whether for good or for bad.

Needless to say, the leaders play a crucial part too. It always takes two to tango. You can't have a leaderless mob because someone up there has to start the fire before the mob fans it out of proportion. Here, the leader's fire is what makes the people's unruly desires.

This brings me to what COC has to say about leadership of charities. "Good governance, accountability and transparency are fundamental principles for the proper administration of charities...Leaders, especially, have an even greater responsibility to uphold these principles as they are appointed and entrusted by their members." 

Apparently, the permanent bar on the former CHC leaders shows how serious and strict COC is when it comes to preserving and protecting the integrity and accountability of leadership for charities.

And now that Sun Ho (who has so seamlessly made the wardrobe  switch from pastor to Asian pop star and then back to being the lead pastor again) is taking the helm of CHC 2.0, one has to wonder whether she has an "even greater responsibility to uphold these principles as they are appointed and entrusted by their members." (note that that applies to a charity, what's more the church and the spiritual head).

As her husband and the others are serving time, I too wonder whether Sun Ho has anything (or anybody) she is held accountable to and desirous to be transparent with in respect of the now defunct Crossover project. 

Although she was not criminally charged, I trust she can't in good conscience say that she has not in any way or at any time started the fire, or at least the first flint, that formed the premise for the charge, trial, conviction, sentence, appeal and incarceration of the six  accused, right? The Crossover is practically and spiritually her brainchild after all.

Let me be clear. I am not talking about legal guilt or some form of proving it beyond reasonable doubt. There's nothing technical here.

I am however talking about searching one's redeemed conscience to see what needs to be done or said to the church since her husband had done the same, and it has taken him 7 long years and two penultimate staged apologies to finally come to terms with the ultimate apology that intimately admitted to his failings as a leader to the church and the public at large.

So, as a leader, a spiritual one at that, the question is this: Does Sun Ho owe any responsibility to her members, donors, supporters, fans and followers for what the six accused, the church and the faith as a whole have gone through? 

And if the Crossover is synonymous with Sun Ho and Sun Ho is synonymous with the Crossover, so says Justice Chan, is Sun Ho really innocent of, and absolve of all blame for, the flaws and failures of the church leadership that her husband had particularly apologized for?

Mind you, Kong Hee had on many occasions attributed his leadership successes to Sun Ho, and openly admitted that he has taken advice from her. As such, his deeds or misdeeds could have very well been a byproduct of taking her advice into consideration.

If so, is it fair for Sun Ho as the leader of CHC 2.0 to conveniently distance herself from Kong Hee's leadership failures, while quietly taking credit for his successes in the past?

Apart from the fact that they are husband and wife, they are also co-founders joined at the hip. As such, shouldn't one presume safely that most, if not all, important decisions concerning the Crossover and its financial arrangements were made jointly, and therefore the responsibility and accountability have to be shared jointly too?

Putting aside her excesses and extravagant lifestyle, it is a fact that Sun Ho has (or would have) benefitted financially from the Crossover.

And whether for evangelism or otherwise, she will not only profit from the royalties, but also become a huge international pop star if it all works out surreptitiously for her. This alone would have made her the raison d etre for the Crossover, and therefore share part, if not most, of the blame for its downfall.

Yet, after all's said and done, and after the conviction, sentence and apologies, Sun Ho is blissfully elevated to the highest leadership position without so much as a hint of remorse or apology. Everything seems to be swept under the charismatic rug for her.

And the irony here is not lost on the discerning reader in that Sun Ho is the appointed head of CHC, where she will have a say over church funds, and she is also synonymous with the Crossover project, where church funds were misappropriated to finance her music career.

If you put the two together, you would not be blamed if you too wonder whether the COC's permanent ban on the six accused had gone to the root of the issue. And based on the audacious proclamation of the member that "if there is a Crossover launched tomorrow, 15,000 of our congregation will still support it," will we then ever learn from history?

While I do not expect Sun Ho to be "permanently barred from controlling and managing a charity" since she is not the subject of a charge, conviction and sentence like the six accused, I would at least expect a public expression of contrition and admission for the indispensable role she had played in the Crossover project.

On this, I would like to clarify that it is not a matter of her members pardoning her. I am sure they would do it in a heartbeat. The member above is even willing to speak on behalf of 15,000.

But it is a matter of what is expected of a leader, especially one who professes to stand in the gap between the people and God. Curiously, I am reminded of what Uncle Ben told Peter Parker. But I shan't repeat it here as it would be too trite.

So, will Sun Ho apologize to the people? Will she admit to the pivotal role she had played in the Crossover project? And will she learn from it since the debacle has caused so much grief, tears, hurt, time and money thus far?

I guess for now the ball is in Sun Ho's court, and whatever she does with it, I hope she will give the matter much more thought and make a decision benefiting of a leader she already is by virtue of what I can only guess has more to do with marital default and the preservation of power than a claim to special anointing. Her dream is after all to be an international pop star, right? Cheerz

Bomoh and Christian evangelists.

Ibrahim Mat Zin, the shaman king of the world, kept me thinking this weekend.

His words lingered with me even after he admitted this week that the coconuts and bamboo pole were all an elaborate scam. He said this about the bamboo sticks, "I couldn't see anything inside. I was told to shake the sticks. I took the coconuts as if they were bombs. I didn't know what I did was wrong...All of it was drama." 

The part that caused me to reflect deeply was when he explained that bomohs are no different from faith healers of other religion, such as Christian evangelists.

As a Christian, I find no basis for him to make that kind of statement. It was a low blow – even for him.

Now, this is not about me being biased due to my own beliefs. But, comparing a bomoh to a Christian evangelist is too much of a stretch right? Surely a Christian evangelist differs both in form and substance from a bomoh.

(And for the purpose of this post, I am taking Christian evangelists to mean those megachurch leaders who are able “to articulate Christianity in a very contemporary manner” (Terence Chong, senior fellow at the Institute of SEA Studies) by blending “market-friendly ideologies associated with individualism and self-empowerment” and “selective Christian theologies to emphasize positive living and blessings, while deflecting overtly negative Christian doctrines such as suffering, judgment, sacrifice, hell or death from sin” (Jeaney Yip, lecturer of University of Sydney Business School)).

As such, I shouldn't even dignify that baseless accusation with a reply here. Anyway, Ibrahim Mat Zin has already admitted to being a fraud and that should be the end of it. For you don't hear such admission from megachurch prosperity preachers locally or abroad like Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, Sun Ho or Joseph Prince.

For this reason, his words, or comparison, shouldn't even be taken to mean anything but a desperate attempt to cast aspersions on otherwise adored cause célèbre-like megachurch prosperity preachers.

If I would to take Sun Ho as an example, although I disagree with her brand of evangelism via worldly immersion, I cannot say in good conscience that Sun Ho misleads her members with bamboo-like vision of the crossover project involving china wine and mr. bill, right?

According to her, she did it for the Church. Her pure intention exculpate her? She even said that she pleaded with God to ask for how long she would have to bear with the exposure of immodest flesh and the gyration of loose hips in order to bring about the conversion of broken hearts.

Then comes Benny Hinn. Where do we start with him? Some call him a false prophet. Others support him as God's chosen one. Either way, Benny Hinn has his fair share of controversies from his untold wealth to his failed prophecies, and from his erroneous teachings to his vainglorious stage antics.

Is he and Sun Ho then “shamanistic” in their charismatic leadership with one sprouting self-serving revelation and the other indulging in a fantastical concept of soul-saving with worldly tactics as a decoy respectively?

Moving down the list we have two beloved prosperity preachers leading megachurches here and abroad, and recently appearing on American tv, excitedly exchanging exuberant visions and dreams about a generous God with a care-bear-like heart.

Joel Osteen and Joseph Prince have almost singlehandedly redefined God for the whole Christendom to much shock or awe - depending on whether you are a critic or a fan. Notwithstanding the controversies they have spun, JO's gospel of self-help and JP's gospel of radical grace have taken the believers' world by storm. And they have been handsomely rewarded with money, membership and international stardom over the years.

Their individual net worth and amassed material possessions speak intimately of a God who rewards his devotees when they believe big and give even bigger to the respective ministries. Alas, there is surely no spiritual law against a Christian leader living extravagantly by the ordinary-man-in-the-street standard on the back of the people’s heartily donated cash right?

And while the self-proclaimed shaman king cannot boast that he attracts tens of thousands under one roof, famous preachers like JO, JP and Benny Hinn effortlessly command such adulating masses on any given Sunday service without the need to resort to strange rituals involving coconut bombs and bamboo telescopes.

Their magnetic charisma on stage woos and swoons the crowd with promises of prosperity, divine favors and protection all year round as long as they hitch their faith to God's opulent bandwagon of wealth, longevity and successes. Nothing is therefore impossible for their God.

So, we are back to the discredited Charlatan, the shaman king. We now know as a fact that he is a fake (by his own admission). His outlandish claims that he can save Malaysia from a North Korea invasion with coconut and bamboo cannons and that the passengers of the ill-fated flight (MH370) are currently residing in a parallel realm and will return in 25 years are incredible tales that only a deluded mind can so irresponsibly concoct.

And when we align the spiritual claims made by Christian evangelists like JO, JP, Benny Hinn and Sun Ho and those made by the infamous Raja Bomoh, we know by sheer logic and instinct that the two categories are nowhere alike (as Ibrahim Mat Zin would have us believe). You can’t possibly compare apple with pineapple, especially if the latter is rotten, right?

In other words, nowhere is the Crossover project with millions invested to elevate one in the most sordid manner conceivable in order to save souls standing in the same league with some shamanistic rituals involving coconuts and bamboos sticks.

Equally applicable here is JP's radical grace, which has effectively dispensed with post-altar-call repentance altogether and retired the Holy Spirit's role of convicting one of sins, or towards holy grief. In fact, he once told a crowd of 1,200 when clad in white leather jacket and jeans that God will reward them with houses, cars. Jobs, pay raises and holidays in a fundraising drive. I wonder whether there is any follow up on that?

And needless to say, JO's claim that every bible-believing churchgoer is bound for prosperity, good health and material success (or your money back) is another testament to prevailing reality that no bomoh's claim can ever hope to rival or come close in verifiable truth.

So, herein ends my weekend reflection about the rubbished comparison made by the reality-defying medicine man (Ibrahim Mat Zin) who was recently charged in the Syariah Court and had pleaded guilty to charges of insulting Islam or causing people to have a negative perception of the religion.

Let me fittingly end with the words of the decommissioned Rajah Bomoh before he was indicted. On why he wore suits, and travelled in style, he said: "We have to look smart in public. I am the king of shamans, we must protect the image of bomohs. That's why I come in BMW and Mercedes with a driver."

Well, incidentally, some of these megachurch prosperity preachers come in suits and ties too, and in branded cars - some even in private jets or travel first class, because as Kenneth Copeland once said, it is impossible for God to talk to him while travelling in coach.

I guess image is equally important to these rich and famous Christian evangelists too. And that may just be the only similarity they share with the dethroned shaman king. Other than that, the rest of his coconut and bamboo acts are simply ritualized nonsense. Cheerz.  

...the one that got away.

Last Saturday, when Kong Hee asked for forgiveness before his church for being unwise, for taking things too fast, and for not praying more, I thought to myself that there is just one thing that he can't be faulted in this entire legal fiasco, and it is this, his undying devotion to his wife. If anything, his commitment to her is exceptional and unquestioned. 

In fact, the Crossover Project was clearly the brainchild of Sun Ho. Without her, there wouldn’t be any crossing over to begin with. So, notwithstanding the theological legitimacy of it, what Sun Ho desired became the all-consuming ambition of the husband. This conflict of interest between the proper usage of the building funds and promoting his wife's music career effectively clouded his judgment, focus and direction. 

This brings me to Justice Chan's dissenting judgment on the appeal. Although I agree in general with his view that there was wrongful loss to CHC (that is, a much higher interest to be earned if the millions were invested in bonds other than Xtron’s) and wrongful gain benefitting the pastoral couple (this is self-explanatory), there is just one minor part about his view on Sun Ho's role in the Crossover that I beg to differ.

I will tell you why after this extract from Justice Chan's opinion at page 264: "With some imagination, numerous other feasible options could be explored to identify the option which would best achieve the same (evangelistic) objective at perhaps the most reasonable cost...The apparent single minded pursuit of only one option to use Sun Ho without even considering the possibility of other better and more cost-effective alternatives to achieve the same evangelisation objective itself raises questions as to whether at the back of it all, the appellants had a predominant motive to benefit Sun Ho specifically and to benefit Kong Hee indirectly, with evangelisation being just a distant objective. The undue preference by the appellants for this single option to the total exclusion of all others is compelling."

Now, the part I differ in the above quote is when the Judge wrote that they (CHC leaders) should have considered exploring other "better and more cost-effective alternatives" rather than myopically putting all the financial eggs into one Sun Ho's basket.

While I understand where he is coming from and it is eminently logical from a secular point of view, I feel that one cannot analyse the whole saga without factoring the mentality of Kong Hee (and Sun Ho) at the time they allegedly received that divine (Crossover/Cultural) mandate. This is where the context of religious zeal and mass belief comes into play.

For Kong Hee and his leaders, it was never about the money or cost. Didn't Kong Hee once say to plan to the sky? Money is secondary to obedience here. As such, no other cheaper alternative will do or nothing is deemed better (than his better half). The bottom-line is that Sun Ho was the chosen one. She was God’s elect for the Crossover. Like a modern day Moses, she was destined (so they believed) to take the tens of thousands across to the promise land of mass conversion via musical masquerade.

In other words, she was created for this indispensable role which had its innocuous start in the late 1990s when the couple were vacationing in an Asian country and were marveling at pop singers strutting their stuff on huge TVs screens. That was where the vision of the Crossover took hold and took root.

After that, the cultural mandate to evangelise through secular music by grooming Sun Ho (and no one else) was affirmed rather divinely (if not conveniently) by three separate and independent scriptural sources/authorities. That was their defining moment, and the launch of the ill-fated Crossover ambition tour.

In fact, as an aside, every megachurch pastor has his defining moment. For Joseph Prince, the head of New Creation Church, his defining moment was when God spoke to him while he was driving in the Swiss Alps.

So, while the CHC leaders may not deny that there are other better and more cost-effective alternatives to spread the word, a calling is however still a calling. And to defy or ignore it would be an outright rebellion against their divine creator. Mind you, this is no small infraction for the religiously obsessed.

And, yes, at this point, I can hear the voices of protests asserting that they are simply delusional. But, we are forgetting that this vision was nevertheless very compelling and real to the pastoral couple at that time, and it became their raison d'étre over the next decade before the law caught up with them.

So, whether they are delusional or not, Sun Ho was the one and only reason for the Crossover Project. As such, it bears repeating that there was no other better or cheaper alternative available for the CHC leadership other than to elevate Sun Ho to be their sole evangelistic vehicle.

This in fact coincides with what Justice Chan said (at para 511) that "the Crossover is synonymous with Sun Ho's secular music activities and that the two may be used interchangeably." He even went on to write that "I would have thought that the particulars of two of the three sham investment charges as framed are fairly clear in that the monies were dishonestly misappropriated "from the said Fund for the purpose of funding one (Sun Ho's) music career."" (emphasis in italic from Justice Chan).

When you put them together, that is, the Crossover, Sun Ho and the criminal charges, what you get is an insidious convergence of all funds, effort and investment into an unwieldy ambition with the single aim of making Sun Ho into an international success. Everything is therefore poured into her career, and I believe she was kept apprised of them from the start.

Sun Ho knew what it takes and how much it takes to launch herself into international stardom because she was the ultimate recipient/beneficiary of a major portion of the funds. I also sincerely believe that she knew the risk involved and the surreptitiousness of the whole operation.

The above can be inferred from the Blackberry message sent directly to Sun Ho (and the other leaders) on 5 April 2010 before the accused were charged. The message strikes at the heart of her feigned innocence, and it reads:-

"Sun, one of the main reasons why I proposed the Special Audit is to buy us time to fill up the hole. We don't want all the issue to grow to the extend (sic) that the authorities step in BEFORE we fill up the hole. By appointing our auditors, it will be easier to talk and get things done. If the report turns out to be lacking in some areas, we will improve and change. They can help us. 

That's why to me, it is important to let the relevant authorities know that we initiate a special audit. They will at least not do anything till the report comes out. By then, the hole is filled."

But alas, all attempts to fill up this hole were in vain because Kong Hee bit off more than he could chew in his desperation to fund his wife's music career in America. As such, Kong Hee's waterloo was an American rapper named Wyclef Jean and Sun Ho's Wellington was her sexually-charged music video "China Wine". Both of which were the beginning of the end of the Crossover fantasy.

But, just as every historical reality is spiced up by a counterfactual hypothesis, the counterfactual for the Crossover is this: "What if it had been an international success and Sun Ho a runaway mega-hit? What would become of Sun Ho then?"

Well, if the Crossover were to be a smashing success, you can expect Sun Ho to benefit immensely from it. 

Contractually speaking, she stands to gain 25% of the gross income received by Xtron, on top of the S$10,000 monthly income to her. Mind you, it's "gross" and that means sale revenue earned from her concerts, album sales, tours, licensing and merchandising activities before taking into account any cost and expenses incurred. That’s quite a huge sum, but that's not all.

She is also entitled to 10% of the gross income from the agreement with UA as well as 100% of the royalties that UA will receive on her behalf. While it is said at the trial that Sun Ho had always donated her money back to the church, this cannot be independently verified.

Even if this was so, it cannot be denied that the Crossover was set up to not only make Sun Ho an international superstar with unauthorized church funds, it was also for the purpose of enriching her greatly.

And yet now, as we fast forward to the present day, the ones who were investigated, charged, sentenced, and soon to be incarcerated are her husband and five other leaders. She somehow remained blissfully untouched.

Alas, the greatest irony of this prosecutorial dragnet operation is that Sun Ho is not only free from any criminal implication, she was also ordained in November 2015 by reputed church leaders to take over the helm of CHC leadership.

So, if you look at it from a panoramic view of the entire saga spread over the last 14 years (since 2003 when Roland Poon blew the whistle and paid a price for it), you will realise that Sun Ho is not only synonymous with the Crossover, she had also benefited directly from it without spending a single cent from her own pocket. Yet, when the house of cards fell and the deception was unraveled, it was not her but the others who have to face the music and the clanging sound of prison bars in due course.

To compound the irony, Sun Ho was even red-carpeted back to be the lead pastor of CHC 2.0, thereby retaining full control of the church and over the millions of dollars in the Building Funds.

Indeed, if anyone ought to be thankful of her divinely-protected fate, it has got to be Sun Ho. I guess it's like most of the congregational prayers got diverted to forging a divine hedge of protection around her. For at the end of the day, she is most definitely the one that got away. Cheerz.