Lies and the Lying Liars ("Pastors") that Tell Them

In one of Alex Au's recent posts, he wrote about City Harvest Church. In that post, he featured one of Kong Hee's sermons which explained that "Jesus was rich" but He had deliberately become poor (and submitted to death on the cross) to save the souls of man.



The crux of the first part of that (second part of a) sermon was this semi-summary statement by Kong Hee that:

Even on his way to the cross, Jesus wore good clothes. So good, His enemies were fighting over it.

Alex notes that:

In fact, it was a pain sitting through its entire length. It was logically flawed and empty of meaning. Most crucially, for something in a religious setting, it addressed nothing about the human condition or the peace of spirituality.

But it was a wee bit interesting nonetheless in his clever use of argument. He first began by asserting that Jesus was a rich man, but who gave up his riches when he died on the cross, so that the riches might be bestowed onto his believers. Thus, the argument goes, if one believed in this now much-embellished character and what he represented, one would have one’s own riches multiplied.

In fact, Kong Hee's "clever argument" that Jesus was rich rests on omission of what happened just before the Roman soldiers cast lots for the "expensive robe" Jesus had on him. A little bit of Bible knowledge goes a long way to fending off the convincing prose of the false prophet. In this case, the Bible gives the crucial back story to this episode (and even gives details like the colour of said robe).

From John 19 (New International Version):

¹ Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ² The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe ³ and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.⁴ Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” ⁵ When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” ⁶ As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”

These verses precede those Kong Hee quoted in the video (John 19:23-24) and were precisely the ones omitted.

So it is clear to see that based on this account, Kong Hee omitted the crucial information on the provenance of said expensive robe that was "so good".

(Interestingly, Matthew 27 and Mark 15 contains a different account where the Romans take back the purple robe and put Jesus own clothes back on and there is no mention of the division of clothing. We can say what we may about John and whether he massaged events to match one of the inspired poems of King David in Psalm 22. In particular, Psalm 22:18.)

I have no doubt that Jesus was relatively well off. He had an education. His "father", Joseph, was a carpenter, which would have been the equivalent of an engineer in the days where only good students earn engineering degrees. That would have been a far more honest argument. But not as clever.

To deceive in order to sound clever. Horrid, horrid, horrid.

My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves

And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all of them who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,

And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

— Matthew 21:12-13 (KJV)

Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple by El Greco
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

I was discussing the City Harvest Church (CHC) case with a colleague who is a non-Christian with a particular distaste for CHC. His view is that if one is trying to evangelize, one should at least know enough about the subject matter to answer simple questions. He said that the best answer he got out of CHC's "evangelists" was "I see you are very interested in this, why don't you come down and there will be people who will be able to discuss this further with you." More quick wit than substantive content, he declined.

I was pleasantly surprised that he was familiar with the above biblical anecdote which has resonated with me (for a long time). When I was much younger, I found it extremely distasteful how my church was a cesspool of discussion about stock trading, discussion about property, boasting of children's exam results with little mention of "God", "Jesus" or "The Holy Spirit" in the fellowship hall. Much later, I understood that these people were in church to network with other "English-speaking professionals" much like some boys go to church to meet girls. (Granted, it may have been a biased picture not representative of the whole, but it was a big enough segment, and thankfully, the youth ministry made up for that deficiency.) This childhood background has fueled my disdain for the zombies that lust for money (as opposed to chewy grey matter). These impressions, in turn, fuel my vehement distaste for the money grubbery that is CHC.

Since ancient times, those seeking money have understood that foot traffic is strongly correlated with commerce (location, location, location), just as today attendences are correlated with takings. This would be a great case study at the Harvard Business School with its low cost of customer acqusition (through a viral engine of growth), high retention rates by giving people what they want: "you will be wealthy" and "God is indeed Santa Claus" and effective cross selling to increase lifetime customer value.

There is much schadenfreude going around on this matter. Many people have written about this matter in the past days. Disgusting anecdotes of coercion to "give" have emerged. Criticism of teachings at CHC, having been around for an even longer time, are receiving a fresh infusion of readership. (I am pleased. *chuckles*)

On a seperate note, the level of brainwashing is quite clear noting that some CHC members "remain loyal" in spite of clear signs of aspiritual greed (e.g.: giving a "discount" of $770k and then recovering that discount from some other fund). We should bear in mind that the amounts we are talking about are not peanuts, we're talking about the entire bag. Those people... it will take some time...