ST April 15, 2008
Couple charged under Sedition Act
By Elena Chong
A COUPLE were charged on Tuesday with distributing a seditious publication to two others.
Ong Kian Cheong, 49, and Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 44, are alleged to have distributed The Little Bride, an evangelistic material, to Sembawang resident Irwan Ariffin last Oct 19.
They are also said to have distributed the same publication to one Madam Farharti Ahmad at her home in Woodlands on March 6 last year .It is not clear why they face the Sedition Act and the Undesirable Publication Act when the publication is the same.
Ong, who works in a telecommunications company, and his wife, a bank employee, were represented by Mr Selva K. Naidu.
The police prosecutor sought an adjournment of the case pending a Health Sciences Authority on handwriting specimen.
The couple were freed on $10,000 bail each. Their passports were impounded.
The case will be mentioned on April 29.
Under the Sedition Act, the maximum penalty is a $5,000 fine and/or a jail term of up to three years.The maximum penalty under the Undesirable Publication Act is a fine of up to $5,000 and/or up to 12 months.
Let this be a warning to my Christian bretherns and sistas, the dangers of such activity in Singapore. It's good advice that you MUST REFRAIN from reaching out to your Muslim friends as doing that is generally against the law. The current situation means we can still enjoy countless opportunities to evangelize to other races without much limitations or fear. But if you are going ahead anyway, you will end up putting the local Christian community in the spotlight and the Government might step in to impose tighter controls on evangelistic activities in all churches. So be wise and don't act rashly.
Anyway, the above mentioned issue is not the primary focus of this post today. If you read through the news, you will discover that the 'seditious' material in question is a publication called 'The Little Bride', an evangelistic tract by comic book artist, Jack T. Chick. Let's talk a little about Mr Chick.
Chick was a World War Two veteran who came to Christ with the help of his wife. In 1970, he started Chick Publications, which is responsible for some of the tracts we seem in some churches today. These tracts (popularly known as 'Chick Tracts') are drawn comic book style and uses interesting stories to deliver messages concerning homosexuality, pop culture, Catholicism and other religions and social issues. The stories eventually concluded in either the salvation of a born-again Christian or the eternal damnation of a non believer.
For all these publications, it's no surprise that Chick got into trouble with the Catholic Church and many religious and social groups. Accused several times of being anti-Catholic, his right wing Christianity and firebrand method of proselytizing has earned him the reputation of public enemy and mind you, this is the man who even once believes that C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien were satanic and that celebrating Halloween could put you in the danger of hellfire. Talk about overreacting.
Personally as a Christian myself, I have taken issue with his view on a subject that's close to my heart;
Rock music.
In one of his tracts, titled 'Angels?', the story revolves around a rock band that went from churches to churches, playing rock music with the name of Jesus in the lyrics. After a rejected gig at a church one night, the members met a Mr Siffer who's actually Satan in disguise. Promising them fame, fortune and (of course) women, Siffer managed to decieve the whole band into signing a blood contract so that they will be completely enslaved to his 'management'.
'Angels?' by Chick Publications.
Satan, explaining the meaning of rock to a deceived few.
Under Siffer's hands and 'anointing', the band won over the audiences on their first night. Demonic manifestations came into the concert and over the crowd as they played. The band began to experience commercial success and all the bounty it brings along. However, in the later part of the story, things slowly changed for the worst.
The band started to fall apart. A member and his gay lover got struck with AIDS after disobeying Siffer. Another collapsed and died onstage during one gig. The last victim fell to vampirism, leaving the lead singer the only sane and living member around. In his desperate hour, he managed to give his heart to Christ and break his unholy contract with Siffer.
'Angels?' presented a very interesting perspective on rock music. It described rock as a 'powerful demonic force controlled by Satan'. In one part of the story, Siffer gave the band a brief history about the genre.
Apparently, Siffer (aka Satan) headed a worldwide organization called Killer Rock. In the 50s and 60s, he gave the people soft rock, Elvis and The Beatles (!!???). In the 70s, he offered them heavy rock, KISS, Motley Crue and Ozzy Osbourne. In the next wave, he will introduce (of all things) Christian rock (!!!!!!!!?????) so I guess it's 'safe' to say these include dc Talk, P.O.D and Jars Of Clay.
The ultimate plan with all these? To get the souls of the world dancing into hell.
Without doubt, Chick's view, at best, is good material for church comedy. CHRISTIAN ROCK's SATANIC ??? Even the legions of Marylin Manson fans could have crucified him for this laughable idea.
But really, if that's true, then consider Solid Rock by Delirious?:
[bridge]
My hope is built on nothing less,
Than Jesus blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus name.
When darkness seems to veil his face,
I rest on his unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath his covenant and blood,
Support me in the ‘whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
When the last trumpets voice shall sound,
O then I may in him be found,
Clothed in his righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before his throne
This is downright embarrassing. People are viewing Christians as being too old fashioned and irrelevant. And Chicks is shouting an 'AMEN!' to that. With his strange idea of The Beatles, it could not have been anymore ridiculous:
Yesterday,
All my troubles seemed so far away,
Now it looks as though they're here to stay,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
Suddenly,
I'm not half the man I used to be,
There's a shadow hanging over me,
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.
Why she Had to go I don't know,
she wouldn't say.
I said,
Something wrong,
now I long for yesterday.
From 'Yesterday' by The Beatles
To be frank, it's because of this tract that I suffer a brief moment of guilt upon 'learning' the 'sinfulness' of listening to rock during my early years as a Christian (I went to the extent of deleting some mp3s). It's the same case for other Christians who truly desire to live a life pleasing to God. With Chick and his ultra legalistic approach, the joy of the faithful has been stripped away countless times by man-made doctrines and preachers who tried to play God.
Well, shame on them. Jesus would never be pleased.
I guess it's all up to us now. If you are going my way, I will still be tuning up to Foo Fighters and Delirious? regardless what.
As for the pro-Chicks believers, you can go break every Hillsong albums in possession and launch a petition against every Planet Shakers' concert. God bless and all the best with that.
---------------------------------
Alice Cooper, shock rocker and devout Christian.
"I will bite your CHICKen head off !!!"
"I will bite your CHICKen head off !!!"
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