Reference to pastor's father was ill judged
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Jul 27, 2010 - ST Forum
Reference to pastor's father was ill judged
YOUR report ('Rise of the megachurches'; July 17), and in particular its reference to Pastor Joseph Prince's father as 'an often drunk Sikh priest...', displayed an unacceptable disregard for minority religions in Singapore.
It is entirely up to Pastor Prince to decide how he wishes to describe his own father. But a national newspaper in a country which prides itself on racial and religious harmony should have known better than to report it.
When a mainstream newspaper reports such a comment, it conveys a false caricature of Sikh priests as drunkards and irresponsible fathers. It also suggests that there was good reason for Pastor Prince to convert from Sikhism to another religion.
The report could have simply mentioned that his father was a drunkard. There was absolutely no reason for the reference to the father's religion.
The report has hurt the feelings of the Sikh community in Singapore.
Surjit Singh
Chairman, Sikh Advisory Board___________________________________
EDITOR'S NOTE: We are sorry the reference to Pastor Joseph Prince's father has caused offence and hurt the feelings of the Sikh community. That was never our intention and we apologise for the error of judgment.
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1. The pastor was wrong to have used such a phrase. Seriously, what's with the whole 'drunk Sikh priest' thing? Would it be too hard to just say 'My father was a drunkard'?
2. The newspaper editor should have noted the slur and simply changed it to 'The pastor described his father as a drunkard '.
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soon his dad will call him the ..... "heartless christian pastor"....
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like father like son...
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actually, i'm in favour of them printing and writing it as it was said...
while the Sikh community may not be happy about it, it shows the pastor's contempt for his own father...
and his inability to practice what he preaches..
it is in The Lord's Prayer of Christianity which says "forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us"
has he forgiven his father? has he tried? the contempt of which he has shown, i don't think so...
he has much soul-searching to do... and much to explain to his flock
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Originally posted by Clivebenss:
Jul 27, 2010 - ST Forum
Reference to pastor's father was ill judged
YOUR report ('Rise of the megachurches'; July 17), and in particular its reference to Pastor Joseph Prince's father as 'an often drunk Sikh priest...', displayed an unacceptable disregard for minority religions in Singapore.
It is entirely up to Pastor Prince to decide how he wishes to describe his own father. But a national newspaper in a country which prides itself on racial and religious harmony should have known better than to report it.
When a mainstream newspaper reports such a comment, it conveys a false caricature of Sikh priests as drunkards and irresponsible fathers. It also suggests that there was good reason for Pastor Prince to convert from Sikhism to another religion.
The report could have simply mentioned that his father was a drunkard. There was absolutely no reason for the reference to the father's religion.
The report has hurt the feelings of the Sikh community in Singapore.
Surjit Singh
Chairman, Sikh Advisory Board___________________________________
EDITOR'S NOTE: We are sorry the reference to Pastor Joseph Prince's father has caused offence and hurt the feelings of the Sikh community. That was never our intention and we apologise for the error of judgment.
what is there to apologize for ? .......
the apology should come from the chap who said it ...... not the newspaper who just printed what he said .....
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It's because ST is the only major newspaper in Singapore, so all comments are taken to be the "truth". If there was freedom of the press, I don't think this would even be an issue.
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
It's because ST is the only major newspaper in Singapore, so all comments are taken to be the "truth". If there was freedom of the press, I don't think this would even be an issue.
don't be daff .... the statement was clearly attributed to the paster himself, no ?
so when the straits times print out the words of some umno ultra up north, or some taleban militants, you'd swallow their shit and take it as the "truth" that the straits times stand for ?
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Originally posted by Fatum:
don't be daff .... the statement was clearly attributed to the paster himself, no ?
so when the straits times print out the words of some umno ultra up north, or some taleban militants, you'd swallow their shit and take it as the "truth" that the straits times stand for ?
daft? thank you very much :) Perhaps you have some issues interpreting postings here.
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
daft? thank you very much :) Perhaps you have some issues interpreting postings here.
the issue lies with you alone kid.
you try to turn pin everything as the goverment's fault, which in this case is just irrelevant and juvenile. I'll attribute that to teenage angst, so just stick to speaker's corner eh ...
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Originally posted by Fatum:
the issue lies with you alone kid.
you try to turn pin everything as the goverment's fault, which in this case is just irrelevant and juvenile. I'll attribute that to teenage angst, so just stick to speaker's corner eh ...
What's your beef, dickhead? lol When the paper is the only major one in the country, many things are taken to be "truth". So hard to understand simple logic? That's how it worked for many years in Singapore. And there's nothing anti-govt about it. It's just the way it works in a country where the entire media is under govt control.
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
What's your beef, dickhead? lol When the paper is the only major one in the country, many things are taken to be "truth". So hard to understand simple logic? That's how it worked for many years in Singapore. And there's nothing anti-govt about it. It's just the way it works in a country where the entire media is under govt control.
oh, just that I think you're stupid, that's all.
so ... in this case ..... do you take what this pastor fellow have said ... about this father being "an often drunk Sikh priest..." as the "truth" from the goverment ?
*snorts ....you just think it's fashionable to blame the goverment for everything that's all .... so run along now kid.
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Originally posted by Fatum:
oh, just that I think you're stupid, that's all.
so ... in this case ..... do you take what this pastor fellow have said ... about this father being "an often drunk Sikh priest..." as the "truth" from the goverment ?
*snorts ....you just think it's fashionable to blame the goverment for everything that's all .... so run along now kid.
Haha, man you're such an egoist. And a stubborn one at that. If there's no "truth", then this sikh advisory board wouldn't be worked up enough to write to the forum. There's a certain way in how the media can work itself into the subconscious minds of people....even if like you have put it as..... plain facts staring you in the face.
My gut feel tells me that you only want to see want you want to see. That's fine with me :)
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
Haha, man you're such an egoist. And a stubborn one at that. If there's no "truth", then this sikh advisory board wouldn't be worked up enough to write to the forum. There's a certain way in how the media can work itself into the subconscious minds of people....even if like you have put it as..... plain facts staring you in the face.
My gut feel tells me that you only want to see want you want to see. That's fine with me :)
well, this is really getting more and more comical ....
so tell me kid, what sort of "truth from the goverment" do you think the pastor's words hold for you ? ....
and tell me also ... what sort of "truth from the goverment" were implied, when the newspaper decided to print out the sikh's reply also ...
Are the ramifications and argument points of the above two questions too hard for you to grasp ? .... if so, then I suppose you do prove your own point. I suppose silly people would always swallow every shit they read in the papers eh .... we must protect minds like yours from being imbued with the "truth"
run along now kid ....
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Originally posted by Fatum:
well, this is really getting more and more comical ....
so tell me kid, what sort of "truth from the goverment" do you think the pastor's words hold for you ? ....
and tell me also ... what sort of "truth from the goverment" were implied, when the newspaper decided to print out the sikh's reply also ...
Are the ramifications and argument points of the above two questions too hard for you to grasp ? .... if so, then I suppose you do prove your own point. I suppose silly people would always swallow every shit they read in the papers eh .... we must protect minds like yours from being imbued with the "truth"
run along now kid ....
There you go, you only wanna see what u wanna see. Till next time.
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i wonder...
you want the ST to apologise for printing the truth...
and you want them to censor the truth for what you think is "acceptable"?
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
sounds like we got ourselves a wannabe tinpot dictator
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folks these days are a bit too sensitive, the article was just describing the father, who was a sikh priest and a drunkard...just as the sex pervert pastors or the greedy buddhist monks....so folks just need to chill and accept that there are black sheeps in every society....
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I wonder why he didn't try to convert his father to be a christian
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Originally posted by dechang:
I wonder why he didn't try to convert his father to be a christian
that's a question which only he can answer... if he can bring himself to practise what he preaches...anyway, this whole episode reminds me of the time the editors and the journos got "disciplined" for printing the very words uttered by Lau Lee
self-censorship of the truth just to make it politically palatable
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Originally posted by the Bear:
i wonder...
you want the ST to apologise for printing the truth...
and you want them to censor the truth for what you think is "acceptable"?
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
sounds like we got ourselves a wannabe tinpot dictator
I think ST could have used a 3rd person narrative to "quote" rather than fronting the opinon. You get what i am trying to say.....Sometime it is difficult to tell especially when ST is the main news that represent the main message especially the newspaper have been closely "Edited"
I think the gees is that recently we sees pastor demonstrate lack of EQ. I think media should have taken a Q from that and not repeat the lack of EQ.
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Originally posted by Arapahoe:
I think ST could have used a 3rd person narrative to "quote" rather than fronting the opinon. You get what i am trying to say.....Sometime it is difficult to tell especially when ST is the main news that represent the main message especially the newspaper have been closely "Edited"
I think the gees is that recently we sees pastor demonstrate lack of EQ. I think media should have taken a Q from that and not repeat the lack of EQ.
sometimes, it's not for the newspapers to make the person look good...
raw news is best... it allows the people to make up their own minds by presenting nothing but facts..
analyses can come inside under "opinions"
otherwise, it must be just news...
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Originally posted by the Bear:
sometimes, it's not for the newspapers to make the person look good...
raw news is best... it allows the people to make up their own minds by presenting nothing but facts..
analyses can come inside under "opinions"
otherwise, it must be just news...
control media vs news....
if the article is approved by the editor and whatever that they go thru which representing control media than what gets printed become a message.
That is what i am getting from the letter.
There are many other ways to make the person look bad...in newspaper.
we don't have other source of competition in getting the news.
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Originally posted by Arapahoe:
control media vs news....
if the article is approved by the editor and whatever that they go thru which representing control media than what gets printed become a message.
That is what i am getting from the letter.
There are many other ways to make the person look bad...in newspaper.
we don't have other source of competition in getting the news.
with the lack of competition, we have to censor the news?
journalists should not and must not allow their feelings to "make someone feel good" to get in the way of reporting the truth..
oh well.. this is my opinion, you have yours...
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Originally posted by Arapahoe:
control media vs news....
if the article is approved by the editor and whatever that they go thru which representing control media than what gets printed become a message.
That is what i am getting from the letter.
There are many other ways to make the person look bad...in newspaper.
we don't have other source of competition in getting the news.
you're starting to sound like the kid up there ......
let's consider this question. Why should the newspaper have any agenda at all, whether to make the pastor look a little better, by censoring out what he said about his sikh father, or bad, by simply repeating the pastor's own words ?
The issue here is straightforward, to try to warp and stretch it by getting so philosophical about it is just silly, period. What is there about this particular incident to read so deeply into ? This is not the goverment trying to telling you foreigners are good for you, or that HDB resale are still affordable, mate ! *geez ...
here's a rephrase of the question I posed to the kid; what sort of hidden agenda do you think exist ? Was it to insidiously make the sikhs look bad by printing what the pastor said ? or to insidiously make the pastor look bad by by printing what the pastor said ??
you're chasing shadows here mate.
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Originally posted by Clivebenss:
Jul 27, 2010 - ST Forum
Reference to pastor's father was ill judged
YOUR report ('Rise of the megachurches'; July 17), and in particular its reference to Pastor Joseph Prince's father as 'an often drunk Sikh priest...', displayed an unacceptable disregard for minority religions in Singapore.
It is entirely up to Pastor Prince to decide how he wishes to describe his own father. But a national newspaper in a country which prides itself on racial and religious harmony should have known better than to report it.
When a mainstream newspaper reports such a comment, it conveys a false caricature of Sikh priests as drunkards and irresponsible fathers. It also suggests that there was good reason for Pastor Prince to convert from Sikhism to another religion.
The report could have simply mentioned that his father was a drunkard. There was absolutely no reason for the reference to the father's religion.
The report has hurt the feelings of the Sikh community in Singapore.
Surjit Singh
Chairman, Sikh Advisory Board___________________________________
EDITOR'S NOTE: We are sorry the reference to Pastor Joseph Prince's father has caused offence and hurt the feelings of the Sikh community. That was never our intention and we apologise for the error of judgment.
Singapore is a multi-religious society. We should not say things that might threaten our religious harmony in our countries.