Is City Harvest Church a CULT?

Extracted from an online webpage (to link, click on the title of this post). The views expressed here are entirely the writer's own personal opinion. I have edited the article for grammar.

Answer this question: "Is City Harvest Church a place where...

a) a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by are promoted

OR

b)a place where extreme or excessive admiration for a person, philosophy of life, or activity is conducted

Firstly, let me state that I am not in anyway against the belief of a god(s). What i am against is the active searching out of and roping in of new members of City Harvest Church and asking for donations.

Now granted, people may choose not to donate, but seeing how everyone else does so, they will feel peer pressure to do the same. I especially abhor the way in which City Harvest Church sets out to recruit prospective new members. By telling them that they will go to hell if they do not attend your church or believe in (your) God, you are blalantly insulting the right of that person to his/her choice of religous belief. And I would like to remind everyone that NOT believing in God is a choice of religous belief as well.

By hosting youth activities at the church, City Harvest is encouraging young members to ask their friends to come and participate in them. Once at these events, the young people will feel obligated to join in by the intense peer pressure. Soon, more young people will join, because it seems to be the "in" thing to do, and this use of peer pressure, whilst brilliant, is utterly immoral.

Many of these young people have no grasp of the religon at all, and are simply repeating what is told to them by those in charge at the church. Often they go to extremes such as walking around and praying openly, or excessively buying biblical books. They do not truly believe in the religon, although they may think they do - they simply do it because their friends do it. "Hey! if that many people are doing it, it can't be wrong can it?"

Well, up until the mid 1800's people all over the US had slaves, and no one can doubt the wrongness of that can they?

The point is, just because everyone does it doesn't make it right. Haven't we had that old adage drilled into our heads from youth? To the young people attending City Harvest at the behest of their friends, I strongly urge you to reconsider. City Harvest members who are reading this, I welcome your LOGICAL reasoning and explaination. (Please don't give me any crap about burning in hell. I'll just laugh in your face and ignore you).

Which answer did you choose for the first question?

a) was the definition of a religon

b) was the definition of a CULT

So that effort DID pay off.

Several "heart attacks", panic "strokes" and tonnes of sweat... it was all necessary. Breaking out from the normal crowd, the typical lifestyle, and the dazzling temptations, I had to keep myself disciplined strictly to follow my mundane regiment.

The normal crowd. My social life for the past one year has largely been confined. Except for the occasional class outing, I rarely went with my classmates to "chill out" or "hang out". It's good that my parents have a rather strict curfew on me as well - so I pressured to come home on time. Good discipline.

The typical lifestyle. Singaporeans in general love to EAT, SHOP, TALK, and SLEEP. I have tended to eat or desired to eat more recently, but it's for me to grow bigger (if it's any use at all in helping my size/weight). Shopping is something I dislike - I don't go window-shopping at all (waste of time); I only shop when I have something ESSENTIAL I need (not want). Needs and wants. Yakkity-yak. Not having a handphone has kept my mouth quieter and my fingers less itchy. It also prevents people from bugging/irritating me (that's why I always prefer to be contacted by e-mail). I can't stand the sight of teenagers now when they have nothing to do - the handphone is whipped out and the fingers itch and twiddle with it. I find it pointless, especially if you're not replying to an SMS or playing some game. Is it really just a "fashion statement"? A huge barrier has been built between the real and the virtual. As for sleep, I hate being a lazy bummer doing nothing at home or being a potato couch, even if it's the holidays. I can even go to the extent of being BORED and wanting to get BUSY if ever I have too much free time on my hand. The origins being from secondary school (some of you may know I was renowned as being a very BUSY student).

The dazzling temptations. One year on, I have continued to resist the negative forces of EVIL. Here goes my list of "No-nos": NO useless TV shows (excludes news and documentaries), NO cinema visits (when was the last time I entered a cinema? hmm.), NO anime/cartoons, NO computer games (addictive shit which so many people are hooked to), NO BGR (for now, not the proper time), NO crapping around or wasting time, NO slacking, NO... I know I'm placing many restrictions on myself, but it's a matter of working hard now and reaping the fruits of my labour - later.

Well, I've been putting or at least attempting to put heart and soul in whatever school project I did in Year 1... so that effort DID pay off:

PERFORMANCE 1 - DIST

MUSICIANSHIP - DIST

MIDI & SYNTHESIS - DIST

RECORDING AND MIXING TECHNIQUES - DIST

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES - DIST

APPRECIATING CROSS CULTURAL DIFFERENCES - DIST

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT - A

CRITICAL REASONING SKILLS - B

INNOVATION, DESIGN & ENTERPRISE IN ACTION - B

Semester GPA: 3.957

Cumulative GPA: 3.922

Cruisin' about...

Back from my cruise... enjoyed the view of the endless seas and the strong winds that nearly blew me across (literally) the ship. The main thing I did there was eating a superb 6 meals a day at the many restaurants they had onboard. The food wasn't that great, but what can you expect onboard floating restaurants that struggle to keep tonnes of food fresh continually trip after trip? Didn't use many of the facilities there because I preferred to spend my time eating or taking in the view of the surrounding waters. A pity the trip was only 3D2N... so short...

Just yesterday I went for the MIT Club BBQ. Why am I the only DMAT representative - again? But the food was good for 2 bucks - satay, sambal stingray, and sotong - above the usual chicken wings, fried rice, crab sticks, sausages and potatoes.

Up next there's the Freshmen Enrolment (including two camps) and 3 concerts in store for me... life gets tiring. Half the holidays are gone - I shall try to get more sleep and rest.

Vacation-ing

It gets tiring going out almost every day for class holiday events. And I'm spending so much money that my pocket money's almost depleted (there's still ang bao money though). There was the Pulau Ubin cycling trip where we went to Chek Jawa (one of the few mangrove swamps left in Singapore), the Bukit Timah Hill Hike (got soaked in the rain like a sponge), and most recently yesterday's East Coast Park outing where we cycled or roller-bladed. I conquered East Coast Park for the second time; I took 23 min 13 sec 73 ms to cycle (read "chiong") from Pit 80 to Pit 1 over at the other end of the park!

I've a steamboat dinner at Marina Bay tomorrow (gonna' blow at least 12 bucks tomorrow) and I wonder if I should go bowling (and bowl my bucks down the drain). Hmm... I'm definitely looking forward to next Tuesday's Paranormal Night Experience @ SP. Well, surely hope we don't see "anything" along the way or else everyone might just freak out.

So many other events are coming up too... I'm cruising from 15-17 March, have at least one BBQ coming up, along with two camps, among other activities. And I want to resume my music lessons soon! Argh... my former teacher's expecting so I gotta find a new one. Wanna take Grade 5 theory end of this year...

Another thing - I shall endeavour to sleep earlier every day because every day after requires more energy. I've gotten deeply stuck in the vicious cycle of sleep debt. Anyway, I require about 10 to 12 hours of sleep for optimal performance and alertness. Zzzzz...