Kong Hee of City Harvest shouldn’t get to use the ‘family card’, please

Today I came across this article on the States Times Review; and while I’m fully aware of the its credibility (no offence to States Times Review) – I was quite angered by it.

*Disclaimer: Whatever written here is entirely based on my own experiences and perceptions; which could be limited in nature.

If you’re too lazy to click and read (plus it’s quite an old article), I’ll just tell you the gist of it –
Kong Hee pleaded leniency in court, citing that his parents are old, his siblings are handicapped and his children have mental illness – and he’s the sole bread winner of the family.

Excuse me ah… but after all the money pumped into making your wife a ‘success’ in Hollywood, you still don’t have enough ROIs (return on investment) for your family while you’re out for 8 years?

You pumped in money for over good 10 years!!! If she isn’t popular by now, I doubt she will be popular anytime in this lifetime.

On the side, I honestly hope he gets more jail time. 8 years for the number of lives he negatively impacted and amount of monies he (most likely) conned from people?? Is EVERYTHING a good bargain for him?? Okay, but I know squat about the law – so will just leave it to the judges. 

And when I just remember those times back in City Harvest when other people had their own sad family stories too… THEY GOT CONNED TOO WHAT! They trusted him with their pain based on the righteous & religious image he portrayed to them – only for him to manipulate & abuse it to his advantage.

Okay, story time!!

While I was there, a fellow cell member’s grandmother was gravely ill. And on top of all the praying and fasting he did, he was instructed to give even more to Harvesting God. (I call CHC’s version of god the ‘Harvesting God’, because it seems all he wants is harvests from the people. And I think that’s why they call the church City Harvest – because cities are generally the places with more money and they always want to harvest.)

Then I remember I asked that cell member, “Shouldn’t you use this money for treatment instead?”

Aaaaand of course I got rebuked for trying to misplace someone else’s faith. The cell leader told him that if he showed ‘god’ that he fully trusted him – god will heal his grandmother miraculously.

His grandmother passed away shortly after.

Of which they said to him, “God has his plan.”

Let me guess… HMM!! An investment plan?? It seems to work that way for them.

Like one of my cell group members said previously, “It’s like when you go temple, you give money when you ask for blessings right? Same thing loh.”

Now here’s a little story about me. If you’ve read my previous post on 9 Reasons why City Harvest Church was the Devil to Me, you’d know that I come from a rather bleak past. After my father passed away – I was left with my mother who probably didn’t know how to deal with the situation. I was 4. It was awful in almost every aspect and believe it or not, I wrote suicide notes since I was in primary 1. Things got progressively worse and by the time I was in City Harvest, I was pretty desperate for any form of help or support I could find. It was pathetic of me. I hate myself for it.

Well, it wasn’t uncommon for me to break down crying for no bloody reason. And I was told that I was just trying to seek attention. I didn’t expect anyone to know what I was going through – because I got really good at playing a happy girl (no one likes a sad girl).

Then I vividly remember one day at cell group meeting, I didn’t give an offering – I just passed the A4 envelope over. And it wasn’t because I didn’t want to give… I only had S$200 every month and I gave my 10% tithing – which left me with S$180. It was the start of a new month, but my mother still didn’t give me my allowance and she always got irrationally angry whenever I reminded her I have no money left. Then my mentor said one sentence to me that fellowship after cell group meeting, “How do you expect god to give you a good life, if you don’t give god your life?”

And they refused to accept the reason that I had no money. They said they could loan me money if I ever needed it. And I actually borrowed the money to give to offering. Because I believed that if I gave Harvesting God the offering, he would finally hear my cries and maybe cut me some slack.

Seriously lah.

I never thought I was a bright bulb.

But this?!?! This is a special kind of stupid, Gera.

So yes – the guy also had family problems; his grandma was very ill and they needed money for medical treatments. I had family problems; I didn’t even have money for proper meals sometimes – I needed the money for that or at least some sort of therapy.

The underline was both of us couldn’t afford to give financially, but we bought the idea that we could maybe buy a miracle out of the abyss we were in. 

So Kong Hee really has no right to say any sob stories about his family. Because problem families were obviously no excuse for not giving money to the church – why should it be an excuse or possible appeal for leniency for him taking their money to feed his greed and his wife’s vanity? 

And now looking back – if that was the kind of god I had to please to make a better life of myself, I have better odds gambling, yes?

Maybe it’s because his family is doing so badly that he found this way to get money to provide a better life for his family.

I find this is the nicest way I can view it in… If his siblings are handicapped, he probably felt as the only ‘abled’ one… He had to do something to provide for all of them. And then he met this attention-seeking woman and made her his wife. Probably because he’s used to everything being not right one way or another, he cannot help but find an attraction to her.

Then he winds up with handicapped siblings and an extremely high maintenance wife, with parents that aren’t getting any younger… Maybe this is why he was driven into the corner to do anything to provide for them.

Well, this is just my theory…

So y’know what – by the church’s theory… They shouldn’t even pay for legal fees! No.. No.. Money should go into the church… And Harvesting God will provide a miracle that the judges will just say he’s very innocent and everyone should continue giving money blindly to the church.

Well, even if those encounters didn’t happen – I still think that using his family as shield against the lashes of his punishment is sickeningly pathetic. And a man who could do something like that has no right to stand on a pedestal every weekend, wearing the mask of God (the rightful one!) and influencing the people to feed his greed and ego.

He needs to be placed behind bars.

Wow, it’s late. Ate some durians for lunch and I still have durian breath! Yikes. Alright, nite!

P.S. Here are some generic replies to ‘hate mail’ I got from my previous post…

To those who called me Judas, the devil… – If you feel my post is entirely untrue, it shouldn’t affect you this much considering how much other people are saying as well. Unless you were able to connect with something I said and got scared by it…?

To those who said I shouldn’t be attacking the church during this ‘sensitive’ period of time for them – Aww, you’re a special kind of stupid too! Hopefully you’ll snap out of it soon enough. Jia you!

To those who said I’m going to hell – Cool. See you there then.

But tonnes of others were love mail and I’m so incredibly touched!!! Hope you guys got my replies. 🙂

XOXO, G.