Frederic Bastiat answered that question in his famous 1850 essay, “What is Seen and What is Not Seen.” There the economist and member of the French parliament pointed out that law “produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen; we are fortunate if we foresee them.” Bastiat further noted that “[t]here is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: The bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.”

In general, COE churches also do not have indoctrinations lists for the quarter for cell-church leaders or use Hillsong A/G recordings and other “Christian contemporary” artists in their hymnal or specific promotion of “health and wealth” gospel including sections on “maintaining your healing”. (The latter is, shall we say, unique–apparently failures of faith-healing can literally be blamed on “thinking negative thoughts” and thus “opening doorways to Satan”.)

In other words–we are dealing with something not unlike what happened with Holy Temple Bradenton in the UK–the church that is the originator of the “bait and switch evangelism” Alpha Course. Namely, the church seems itself to have been steeplejacked by NAR promoters from a completely different denomination–in HTB’s case, by a Vineyard-linked “cuckoo church”.

And in tracing the possible influences on Church Of Our Saviour, all roads lead–disturbingly–to Hillsong and to the Denomination Formerly Known As The Australian Assemblies of God.

You may think that these people are united with you on the issue of homosexuality, but in reality it is merely used as a wedge issue in order to take over your church. If you are not militant, hardline and confrontational, then you are not a “real Christian”.

Not only does FCC promote cells openly, but they promote within “women’s cells” a particularly horrific religiously motivated child abuse program (namely the Ezzo’s “Growing Kids God’s Way”, linked starvation deaths and hospitalisations of children and which is essentially a program of religiously motivated child abuse and neglect). In addition, they are quite explicitly NAR in promoting the “fivefold ministry” concept as well as cells and the very Alpha Course invented by the steeplejacked Holy Temple Bradenton.

These are facts that have been reported in Australia and beyond. Is this what you are willing to let happen to your church? They WILL come for you.

Additionally, take note: these cults are virulently anti-Catholic. There are a number of anti-Catholic sites online which are banned in Singapore, and they are all run by these cults which claim to be “Christian”.

Time to make a stand. For the sake of your own faiths.

1. The new exco are all from the same church.

2. Their “mentor” is Thio Su Mien, also from the same church.

3. They fired the manager of the center and hired a new person, also from the same church.

4. They are all chinese, all christian, and all from the same church.

5. They have openly said that they are anti-lesbian and anti-gay.

6. If you look at the following link :http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,199936,00.html?

Note what the reporters heard:” Ms Ong mumbled something about changing Syariah law”.

Here’s what the real AWARE should be about:

Let religious fundamentalists know that they do not have a monopoly on the word “conservative”.

2. Note the following quote from this news article from TNP:

Up front, the exco members interrupted one another’s long-winded explanations, clarifying one another’s points, sometimes resulting in even more confusion.

At one point, Ms Ong mumbled something about changing Syariah law, but when asked to clarify by a reporter, she took it back and said:

‘What I want to say is that we are working for all women, whether you are Muslim, Buddhist, Christian…’

Question: Keeping in mind that these people “mentored” by Thio Su Mien are all Chinese, Christian, and from the same church (and they are appointing more people from the same church to work at AWARE), how appropriate would it be to for them to make changing Syariah law an issue for AWARE?

3. Consider this statement by Thio Su Mien:

I go round Singapore teaching, counselling. So when all these problems about Comprehensive Sex Education came forth, then I started thinking: Hey, parents, you better know what’s happening, you better know what’s happening…I talked to parents, I said, you better do something about this, otherwise your daughter will come back and say, “Mum, I want to marry my girlfriend” or your son will say, “Dad, I want to marry my boyfriend.”

Compare the following 2 sentences:

A. “You should all be gay and lesbians! You should try experimenting with same sex partners and consider marrying them!”

B. “Homosexuality is perfectly normal. Just like heterosexuality, it is simply the way you are. Homosexuals also form meaningful relationships, and face the same emotional issues that heterosexuals do.”

Why would anyone confuse A for B? The thing is, Thio Su Mien is no ordinary person: she is an accomplished lawyer, a former law dean, and no doubt a wordsmith herself. Why would she be confused as to the meaning of the sex education program at AWARE? Or alternatively, did she intentionally misrepresent the program to the public?

Question: What does this say about her as a person and as a lawyer? Would you trust this person to represent you?

However, the Bush years have highlighted the fact that social conservatives only pay lip service to the ideal of small government: the Bush administration expanded the size, power and reach of the US government faster than any other presidency in recent history. Social conservatives, no longer in opposition but wielding the power under Bush, became cheerleaders of Big Government in order to mould society according to their religious beliefs. Libertarians lost faith in the Republicans under Bush, hence Obama’s win this year signals re-alignment of libertarians and independents against the Big Government social conservatism.

The Singapore example is instructive. Never having to face issues of federalism, states rights, or a liberal hegemony in government power, Christian fundamentalists in Singapore show their true colours. Being the craven whores that they are, they gladly leech on to any social engineering programs and exercises of government power that would shape Singaporean society in way consistent with their beliefs. Despite the fact that Christian fundamentalists in Singapore are more or less proxies of their American counterparts, they never bothered with arguing for a less intrusive government that American evangelicals at least appeared to advocate.

There are two lessons here to be learnt. Firstly, to all the left-wing progressives, it is time you recognised that it is fine and dandy when a person you like is in office, but those structures of government power you want to see built up to serve your causes, can equally be used for purposes detrimental to you when a person you do not like is in power.

Secondly, to the PAP government. The religious fundamentalist threat is real. There are some who want to bomb us and kill us. But there are others who are far more insidious, who wish to destroy our society from inside out, by putting themselves in positions of power so as to coerce people to live according to their religious beliefs. On this road lies the path to ruin for this country that has been painstakingly built up according to secular principles.

Unknowns knock out veterans at Aware polls

SINGAPORE’S best-known women’s group, the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware), has seen a dramatic changing of the guard – which some members are describing as nothing short of a leadership grab.

A check showed that some of those at the AGM and on the new committee have appeared in The Straits Times Forum Page.

Ms Chua, Ms Thiang and Dr Alan Chin, a male member of Aware who attended the AGM and supported the newcomers, all wrote letters to this newspaper between August and October 2007.

In a letter on Oct 17 that year, Ms Chua said NMP Siew Kum Hong had overstepped his non-partisan role and advanced the homosexual cause by tabling a petition in Parliament to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code which criminalises homosexual sex between consenting men.

In another letter on Oct 25, she took issue with a Straits Times report which said NMP Thio Li-Ann had been ‘visibly distraught’ when she opposed Mr Siew’s petition vigorously.

Big financial players now know they have a colossal potential put or bailout option. They can also construct interconnected structures that no one can understand, except possibly the Treasury. So every 10-20 years (or more often?) we will experience a crisis of current proportions?

Inappropriate Stimulation « ThinkMarkets

The fiscal stimulus program is designed to stimulate where economic activity has deteriorated and there are job losses. Many of these areas are those that had over-expanded. As we have been saying for some time on the blog, the effect of this kind of stimulation is to slow down the re-allocation of resources. It will not succeed, however, in preventing it. What it will do is prolong the recession.

I ask myself whether I am more limited than what I thought in what I could achieve. Surely it cannot be that I will be held back for the rest of my life by that piece of paper?

I just have to press on. I’m looking for that one chance, a foot in the door.