MacDonald, Rony Tan, Religious Harmony and Sensitive People

The Internal Security Department (ISD) has called up Pastor Rony Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism in connection with his comments and insinuations about Buddhism and Taoism at his church sessions.

By intervening in this case, the Singapore government had made a mistake. The religious fault lines exist long before Singapore. Trying to manage these religious fault lines is like trying to manage the tectonic fault lines that cause earthquake.

When the Singapore government acted on behalf of sensitive people to call up Rony Tan, more sensitive people will be created. Now that sensitive Buddhist can complain about Rony Tan, can sensitive Christians complain about Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and get it banned? What about the book "Jesus Prophet of Islam" by Muhammad Ata-ur-Rahman/Ahmad Thomson? Can this be banned too?

When MacDonald Restaurant took care of the feelings of the sensitive Muslims by replacing the pig in the Chinese Zodiac with Cupid, it offended the feelings of some sensitive Chinese. Fortunately most Chinese are insensitive to religion.

The correct way would be to manage the sensitive people so as to reduce their number. Those who complained against Rony Tan should be counselled to understand the fault lines of the major religions of Singapore. If everybody becomes sensitive, then nobody can talk. Every word will be an offence to someone.

There should be a Religious Harmony session among the different religions to emphasise on their difference and how to manage the criticisms of each other. Some formula could be agreed upon, for example, to allow criticisms of another religion, as long as it is based on the teachings of that religion. To deny that these differences exist is to deny reality.

All the religions should know how the other religions would criticise them and accept it as part of that religion and promise not to incite violence against the religions that do not accept their views.

Please don't try to manage religious fault lines by stopping criticisms. It won't work. It builds up pressure for a bigger earthquake at a later date.