On Focus on the Family Singapore
A satirical press statement.
The Ministry of Social and Family Development notes with regret that TODAY published an article prominently featuring the views of an American Christian fundamentalist organisation Focus on the Family on 05 Jun 2021. MSF has reminded TODAY that foreign organisations here are not to interfere in our domestic social and political matters, including issues such as how divorce should be dealt with in public policy.
These are choices for only Singaporeans to debate and decide.
(above based on the MFA statement regarding the US Embassy's Co-Hosting of Webinar with Oogachaga)
Amusingly enough, looking into the past history of Focus on the Family Singapore (FotFS) turns up something from 2014 where a FotFS workshop at Hwa Chong Institution was abruptly cancelled by MOE. This was seemingly brought about after a student complained about the apparent bigotry in a booklet distributed as part of that workshop. Quotes from said booklet:
"A guy can't not want to look. Even decent guys in great dating and marriage relationships struggle with a desire to visually linger on and fantasise about the female body".
This understandably sparked a furore among Hwa Chong alumni, and it seems that this may have prompted the resulting cancellation of the workshop not long after.
Unrelated, but this event reminds me of a post on Christian site Thir.st’s Instagram page from earlier in the year about “helping our brothers [in Christ] by not dressing in a provocative way.” Funny how these things happen.
For the record, I’m generally in favour of what AWARE has put forward regarding this no-fault divorce proposition. If you’re curious, you can find it here.
I took a break last week, and while I’m back now, I still can’t find it in myself to write in the same manner, as I suspect is self-apparent. I’m thinking that I may have to review the format and conception of this undertaking. Future pieces are likely to be published at a much more erratic schedule (if at all) until that’s figured out.
Thanks for sticking with me on this exploratory endeavour.
~ Kai