Mi Choza De Nipa

PASTOR IN CONTROVERSY AGAIN --------------------------- SINGAPORE - Film-makers Royston Tan and Sun Koh are among a group of Singaporeans , said to number about 80, who have called the police to complain about Pastor Rony Tan in the past week - this time, over his comments about gays and lesbians. The comments were made in a video clip of his interview with a former lesbian , and this had been posted on his church website , Lighthouse Evangelism Church. The pastor had made the news earlier this month after he was called up by the Internal Security Department for his insensitive comments made in videos posted on his church's website about Buddhists and Taoists. He has since publicly apologised for the remarks and expressed his remorse to members of the church, which he founded. When contacted, Mr Tan, 33, said he made an independent decision to call the police. He heard about the video on gays and lesbians after some friends told him how offended they felt by it. "How co...

AWARE SAGA He regrets backing new exco in his sermon Alicia Wong alicia@mediacorp.com.sg SENIOR pastor of the Church Of Our Saviour Derek Hong has issued a public apology for using the pulpit to give backing to the Association of Women for Action and Research's (Aware) executive committee in their dispute with the group's previous leadership. "My actions on the pulpit have aroused some tension in this saga," he said, "I now stand corrected. I undertake to be more sensitive to similar situations in the future." Hackles were raised recently when he encouraged female churchgoers to "be engaged" and support Aware president Josie Lau and "her sisters" in the women advocacy group, in a weekend sermon posted on the church's website. Last Sunday, the pastor also invited his congregation to pray for Aware president Josie Lau and her husband, who stood next to Mr Hong on stage. "I regret that this matter has caused concern and unhappi...

An EGM (Extra General Meeting) for AWARE was held, and the story goes that Old Guard, then ousted by New Guard, came back, with a league of strong members, to also oust the New Guard. And the very touchy and sensitive issues of homosexuality and religion were among those discussed. Read full story below. A Coming of Age of Civil Society - Yahoo! Singapore News

The Ministry of Education (MOE) said yesterday that some parents have expressed concern over the content found in an “AWARE Comprehensive Sexual Education: Basic Instructor Guide” that has been posted online. The MOE said it was investigating this matter. Apart from MOE’s own sexuality education programme, the ministry said that “schools can also collaborate with other agencies”. In doing so, schools must ensure that any programmes run by external agencies are guided by the same principles set out in MOE’s framework for sexuality education, said the ministry.   Why do schools engage external agencies? As the needs of students vary across schools, schools are given the autonomy to decide on topics that would best meet their students’ needs to augment sexuality education in schools; and also on which external agency to engage. For this purpose, guidelines on the engagement of external organisations to conduct sexuality education have been given to schools. What are ...