Everyone around me is now divided on whether Section 377A, an outmoded law which criminalises homosexual acts between consenting adults, should be repealed. Churches seem to be quite eager to see that homosexuals remain branded as criminals. While that may be the official stand of the National Council of Churches, individual Christians are very much divided on this issue.
A knee-jerk reaction for any government is probably to appease the churches and forget about repealing Section 377A. But is this a wise move in the long run?
What non-Christians don't understand about us is if you give us an inch, we'll take a mile. And many of us will do all we can to ensure that our 'God is glorified', which in coded language means we want the values and teachings of our religion to be followed and it doesn't matter if they clash with the values and beliefs of other people.
It's very hard for me to write this post because I'm essentially wearing two hats - I'm a Christian who has served the church since my toddler years (first as an altar boy, then a choir boy, then a Sunday School teacher and a church musician) and I believe I will serve the church for as long as I live. At the same time, I am a citizen of this secular, multi-racial and multi-religious country which is home not just to me but to my children as well and I don't want the peace and harmony we have hitherto enjoyed to be destroyed in the heat of the religious fervour of my fellow Christians.
What the government should be careful about is if they should pander to our fundamentalist demands, they can be sure that is not the last they will hear from us. We want more. Nothing pleases a Christian more than if he wakes up one morning and he sees that the entire nation has converted to our faith in Christ. Any Christian who says that he does not look forward to the fulfilling of the verse that 'every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord' is most assuredly a liar.
You may think all that is harmless but it's not. We must always remind ourselves that we live in a secular country and Christians are only a minority of the population even though we are probably much louder than most other people. And lately, I have noticed how the homophobic voice of my fellow Christians is slowly taking on a new alarming dimension that may spell trouble for all of us. A few people are now demanding that all marriages should be monogamous. After all, they say the laws of all civilised countries in the West prohibit polygamy, which is treated as bigamy, a serious crime.
Do you see what a threat to religious harmony such a demand will be in our multi-religious country? I have seen on social media some Christians, emboldened by the loud voice of the church, clamouring for monogamy to be strictly enforced in this country.
Someone has to shut us up. I hope the government will do that. I know the intrepid LKY would have done that. The best solution is to repeal Section 377A and let this be a stern reminder to all Christians that in a secular country, our own private religious aspirations must give way to peace and harmony.
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