Why is it that an openly Christian organisation (www.focusonthefamily.com) was permitted to conduct such a workshops within the secular Singapore school system?
This level of influence challenges the idea of a secular state. Nowhere else is a person more vulnerable to conditioning that at school which is perhaps why groups with social agendas are so keen to gain access. This is a dangerous precedent and one we need to keep in check. And this isn’t the first time such an attempt has unfolded.
The entire episode highlights the excessive influence wielded by a group that represents only a small percentage of Singapore’s population — close to 20 per cent of Singaporeans identify as Christian and less than half this number again would identify as members of hard line evangelical movements.
Yet somehow, despite their absolute numbers this minority has time and time again taken it upon itself to speak and act on behalf of the so-called moral majority. The even more recent Penguin-gate saga is another example of this very narrow base of values seeming to influence the secular civil space.
The Internet is rife with theories as to why this happens: That conservative churches on account of being organised, funded and attended by the educated, wealthy and well-connected wield a disproportionate influence on our state. Full story
