Pastor Mark Ng (New Creation) Insulting Other Religions

Speaking in broken English, very much in the mould of Ris Low's Singlish, Mark Ng mock and make fun of Chinese festival of 7th Month Ghost Festival and Chinese Deity Idol Kuan Kong....

happyman4072 — 11 June 2010 — Here we have Pastor Mark Ng of New Creation Church making fun and insulting the Chinese beliefs and tradition. I don't have any problem with people preaching. But I find that preaching and making fun of people's beliefs are two different things. I don't think that the preaching the word of god includes insults and degrading others. Pastor Mark Ng is a good example why there is an divide growing between groups of different beliefs and religions.

pigcanfly007
The whole sermon sounds like Jack Neo's "Gao Siao Xin Dong" talking show..
Christian policemen pray to Jesus, some robbers also pray to Jesus, so how?
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MrTheholydead
Clearly, its saddens me to see such leaders in the christian community wanting to set people 'free' with jokes about other people's beliefs and religion. There is no truth in anything if you dont have faith in it. Every religion teaches us values and the right morals.Be it Buddhist,hinduism or christianity. Truly,Making fun of other people religions and beliefs is an action from supposedly a leader in the church community. I am taken aback...
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pookeelahh
seriously, tell him to improve his english before criticizing or even preaching. bad bad bad speech mark. we know, we know so stop you know you knowing already. and amazing how the chinese gods are regarded as 'idols'? you mean Jesus isnt one too? no offence, but im a Christian believer too.
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FrostWurm
Aiyah...this is a free society what. He can say whatever he wants. It's just like a hypothetical example of an atheist telling a group of christians that god does not exist. Then what? Prosecute him?

@FrostWurm Not really. As mentioned countless of times, this is Singapore where we have peoples of different religions and customs. He can of course say what he wants, but there will be consequences. And there are laws in Singapore which ensures that people respect each others religion and customs.

First of all, a church is supposed to be an open place where everyone can freely enter. Secondly this is a sermon. This is supposed to be spread among the masses, no? Thirdly, no matter which own "christian grounds" you are in, you are still in SG. You have to follow SG laws. And finally, I didn't record it, I merely posted it for awareness that there are such dangerous pastors out there. If you think that it is "ME" causing divisions in SG, then by all means, pls report me.
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nusld
He devoted his sermon to poking fun,demonising and putting down the Chinese religious beliefs as much as he could to laughter from his congregation.
Frankly, i shudder when i think of my fellow Singaporeans friends among the congregation. Wonder these people who recite the Pledge everyday really believed in it or otherwise. In times of difficulties can we depend on them as fellow s'poreans to assist those who didn't share their beliefs.
This is a urgent social problem in S'pore now.
Sad!
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mattscout
6 hours ago
Firstly, No one knows how Jesus looks like nor God. And, even though we may be a democratic nation, Pastor Mark should not use his pulpit as a stage to provoke other religion, when you are on the pulpit, people believe that whatever you're saying, is from God, but when you misuse the pulpit and people would believe that whatever he's saying is true and from God. Which is not. Therefore, I guess he should apologize and not misuse the authority that has been given to him.
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haohao93
The whole sermon is held within our own christian grounds where do you get the right to record and post online on youtube and STOMP. anyway your faith toward your beliefs is weak that's why you drift away giving yourself a chance to step into church grounds. Pastor did not insult or degrade others he is only evaluating common superstition neither did he judge those chinese customs. Pastor is not the reason for the division between religion it's people like happyman4072 creating unease amongst.
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sorryalsomustexplain
5 hours ago
I wanted to hear the full sermon but realized I could not get it anywhere, either from the the online bookstore or the actual retail bookstore in Suntec. I checked and found out that this sermon was actually preached about 2 years ago. The church must have taken action to remove it after the Rony Tan fiasco that happened earlier this year. Won't be surprised the if ISA had already warned the church to be more cautious, considerate and sensitive about what and how they preach in church.
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By Yen Feng

THE internal Security Department (ISD) has looked into an incident involving the New Creation Church over a 2008 sermon being circulated online that mocks Taoist beliefs.

The 10-minute audio clip was posted on YouTube last Friday. In it, a church pastor, Mr Mark Ng, can be heard joking with the congregation about Chinese rituals; in one instance, he compared praying to Taoist deities to ’seeking protection from secret society gangsters’.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said yesterday in a response to queries from The Straits Times that the church had, on its own accord, contacted YouTube to remove the clip. It has also apologised.

‘We are aware of the case. ISD has looked into it and taken up the matter with the New Creation Church.’

In a six-paragraph letter posted on its website on Sunday, New Creation said that Mr Ng, who heads the church’s Chinese ministry, did not intend for his comments to be disrespectful to other faiths.

It added that earlier this year, the church had reviewed its archive of sermons and had stopped reproducing that particular sermon and other insensitive content that had been previously sold in the church bookstore.

‘We recognise our responsibility in this major oversight in allowing this sermon not only to be preached, but also, as a usual practice, to be made available as a resource for sale,’ the 20,000-strong independent church said.

‘It is unfortunate that while we have endeavoured in every way to stop the circulation of this sermon, its recent appearance on the Internet continues to possibly cause offence.

‘We would like to express our deepest apologies to any person who may have been offended by the remarks made by Pastor Mark Ng.’

The user who uploaded the New Creation clip declined to identify himself, but told The Straits Times in an e-mail interview that he hoped to raise public awareness on preaching styles that were disrespectful to other faiths.

‘If such preaching continues unabated, it would definitely be trouble for multiracial and multi-religious Singapore,’ said the 37-year-old Singaporean man, who uses the nickname ‘happyman4072′ on YouTube.

The clip has since been re-posted on more than a dozen websites, including Stomp!, tech forum hardwarezone.com and social networking site Facebook.

On YouTube, it has been viewed about 4,000 times.

In February, the founder and senior pastor of another independent church, Lighthouse Evangelism, was censured for making comments that were insensitive to Buddhist and Taoist believers.

Mr Rony Tan, 64, mocked the religious precepts, such as reincarnation and nirvana. His remarks were recorded on video and uploaded on the church’s website.

In days, the video clips were re-posted on YouTube and online forums.

Mr Tan was interviewed by the ISD and has since recanted and apologised for his remarks.

Mr Ng, who is 48 and married, could not be reached for comment.

The church, however, said on his behalf: ‘Pastor Mark offers his unreserved and unmitigated apology to the public for his insensitive comments… He humbly appeals to those whom he has offended to forgive him for this serious indiscretion.’

The user who uploaded the clip said he had received CDs containing the sermon last month from a church-goer, presumably from New Creation.

‘I am pretty sure that he didn’t realise that these kind of recordings could give offence to others. Perhaps that could be the problem in our society right now?’

He added that he was not religious and did not subscribe to any faith.

Taoist Federation chairman Tan Thiam Lye yesterday called on religious leaders to start paying more attention to what they say during services.

He said: ‘Such comments do not promote religious harmony -- that is obvious. There is just no need to criticise other religions when promoting your own faith.’
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Pastor Mark Ng issued a public apology for his comments about Chinese Taoist diety. Though, it is an old incident of two years but the statement was made public only last Friday when someone posted an audio clip on YouTube. It is an audio clip in which Mark Ng can be clearly heard making racy comments about the superstitions. There is also a picture of Pastor Ng on the clip. New Creation Church peeped through the matter and after finding pastor guilty they forced him to issue apology. Church also banned the sale and circulation of this sermon and told its Pastors that sermons of that nature were not acceptable. Church then issued a statement and mentioned that Pastor Mark was ashamed on whatever he said about a religion and he wanted to make clear that he would not do it again.

Pastor Ng is the second pastor who issued apology for his comments, the first such person was Pastor Rony Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism Church, who also issued apologies after being heavily criticized. It was in February when Pastor Tan was called by the Internal Security Department for the matter because there were lots of complaints against him. He too made comments about Buddhist and Taoist.

Ministry of Home Affairs has also released a statement regarding this matter in which they have said that they are aware of the case. Ministry also revealed that church had made a request to YouTube to remove that clip from their site.