Homosexuality: How the economics and politics of Singapore have shaped the Anglican Diocese and its role in the Province of South East Asia by The Reverend You-Leng L. Lim

"The government is not only concerned with the left, but also with right wing activism of the church. Take abortion for example. The Singapore government in the 1970's embarked on a comprehensive family program (whose success also contributed to higher economic growth), of which cheap and accessible abortions (costing about US$3) was a main stay. Eventually, abortion became the prefered form of contraception among women, because it was cheaper than the pill, and it did not require the negotiation with the male partner that a condom would otherwise have necessitate. Nevertheless, rampant abortions provoked no public commentary from Protestant (including Anglican) or Roman Catholic church leaders, thus indicating their quiescence.

Consider another right wing or evangelical issue: converting people of other faiths to Christianity. In Singapore, though one is free to practice any religion, one may not always be at liberty to convert someone else. The proselytization of the indigenous Malay minority (16% of the population), who are almost entirely Muslim, is prohibited. [Ed: I didn't know this]... Several studies done by the National University of Singapore in the 1980's showed that younger Chinese people had converted from the traditional and syncretized Taoism-Buddhism (which is the majority religion) to Christianity... magic and evil spirits are major elements in the Buddhism-Taoism of Chinese Singaporeans. As such, when the Chinese person converts to Christianity, this basic orientation of a cosmic battleground where hierarchies of spirits do battle continues... This henotheistic, rather than monotheistic orientation explains why a few years ago an antique table with Chinese dragons—symbols of benevolence in Chinese culture, but confused with the dragon of Revelations—at the Anglican Cathedral was hacked to pieces [Ed: So we have Taliban in Singapore too]. By taping into a culturally real vocabulary of evil spirits, Charismatic Christianity has thrived.

One consequence of seeing the working of spirits is that genuine psychological dysfunctions are given a demonic interpretation. Homosexuality, infertility, behavioral and medical problems are often interpreted as oppression by evil spirits...

Prior to colonialism, sexuality and gender varied greatly among Asians. Among the Bugis people, now part of the Indonesian nation, a third gender consisting of men dressed in women’s clothes-- akin to the Native-American Berdache--was accepted. The Minangkabao people, also now part of Indonesia, were a matrilineal society. Among the Chinese, polygamy was practiced. Everyone lived in families that were multi-generational. I do not mean to suggest that these arrangements are better, but the situation was more diverse and complex. Homogeneity came with the advent of colonialism and industrial capitalism—and abetted by Protestantism, Max Weber would say—so that today sexuality, and family and gender roles have become monogamous, patriarchal, single-generational, and exclusively heterosexual...

The larger question in Singapore is whether there is anything that is not foreign? The laws that provide for private property, detention without trial and caning are British inheritances. MNCs and free-trade are American influences. All religions and all races, apart from the indigenous Malays are imports. It follows that a nation of immigrants whose success comes from the utilization of imported ideas and imported capital must necessarily go through bouts of anxiety about its own identity. In this process of self-definition, it must define itself against the "Other," and the foreign becomes either something to emulate or to castigate.

(All emphases original)


A good article, but it has little to do with homosexuality at all.