Church groups' followers wear white to make stand

Church groups' followers wear white to make stand

SINGAPORE - Thousands of churchgoers from the Christian group that called on its members to wear white as a form of protest against homosexuality turned up at their churches in white yesterday.

At Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC), almost all of the 6,400 members present wore white at its worship service at the Suntec Convention Centre, said a church spokesman.

At Bethesda (Bedok-Tampines) Church in Bedok, about 90 per cent of the 2,500 attendees wore white, said its senior pastor, Mr Daniel Foo.

They had done so to support a Wear White campaign that Muslim religious teacher Noor Deros launched last Saturday to promote traditional family values and to protest against homosexuality.

FCBC senior pastor Lawrence Khong had pledged the support of his church and the Love Singapore network of churches.

Yesterday, he said that there were also churches that could not get their members to wear white, and that one even had members who wanted to turn up in pink.

Last Saturday, the annual Pink Dot event to support gay rights drew a record 26,000 attendees, despite religious groups voicing their opposition.

Yesterday, Mr Khong said: "We are wearing white today because we want to preserve purity in our homes. A family must come from a man, as a father, and a woman, as a mother."

At the end of the FCBC service, worshippers sang the National Anthem and recited the national pledge, as well as a pledge in support of family.

As of last night, about 7,270 netizens also signed the family pledge on Facebook as part of FamFest, an online pro-family campaign organised by Touch Family Services.

The non-profit organisation is under Touch Community Services, whose board Mr Khong chairs.

A day before, more than 40 had also shown up in white at the Ar-Raudhah Mosque in Bukit Batok, in support of the campaign.

Organisers of the Wear White campaign said on Facebook yesterday that the campaign had gone "much better than any of us expected".

They said they had received reports from mosques across Singapore of Muslims dressed in white last Saturday for the special prayers to mark the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which started yesterday.

Churchgoers told The Straits Times yesterday that dressing in white was their way of taking a stand.

Service manager Gavin Lim, 43, his wife and sons turned up at FCBC dressed in white to make the point that "family is the foundation of the nation and society".

Said Mr Lim: "This is the first time we're all dressing in the same colour, and it feels that we're united as a family."


This article was first published on June 30, 2014.
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