There is a right wing conservative anti-gay Christian group in Hong Kong that causes some controversy. Here is my response to my friend.

Most of the bad publicity is a result of their anti-gay position. I can understand the gay community oppose to such a group. I did go to their web site and read their material. It seems that they model their strategy of the religious Right Wing Conservatives in the US. They mix religion and politics. Bad news!

It is just my opinion. However, the experience I have with such groups is mostly bad. They may have the best intentions, but it is not the best way to transform society. Their stand of “human rights” seems problematic. They stressed on piety and society responsibility before one can gain “human right”. We do not need to bow down to our parents before they let us eat. We do not need to give money to the police before they protect our property. As I understand, we are born with inherited rights – right to free speech, freedom of expression, free from harassment from government… People may abuse their freedom, but it is still better to have those rights then have them taken away.

Christians may not agree with homosexual lifestyle, we cannot deny their right to co-exist in the mainstream society. If those rights are taken away, the government then have the right to take away our freedom to choose being a Christian as a lifestyle. You may think that it is extreme. It happened under Nazism. Also, those fundamentalist groups in the US have influence government to make unreasonable laws. In the US, one such group have themselves elected on the school board in Dover, Co. This happened as recently as 2007. They forced all the science teachers to teach God created the universe in 6 exact days. The universe is only six thousand years old. The case went to the Supreme Court and the decision of the school board was ruled unconstitutional.

Now that long ago, those Christian groups deemed mixed race marriages immoral. They used the Bible as the root of their argument. Mixed race marriages were outlawed in the US because of these Christian fundamentalist groups until late 1960’s. In some fundamentalist churches today, mixed race marriages are still frowned upon.

In Nova Scotia where I live, some fundamentalist churches, including Baptists, the Catholic Church, etc., tried to force the government to pass a law to stop all retail shops from opening on Sundays. It was then called “The Lord’s Day Act”. They claimed Sunday is the Lord’s Day. We should all rest and do nothing. Therefore Sunday shopping should be banned. Actually, the government bowed to these groups and tried to gain votes from church goers and small food stores that can take advantage of the loopholes of that Act. The law did passed. However, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that law unconstitutional. This just happened a few years ago. It is dangerous if we let government to dictate our practice and behaviour.

Despite our Christian beliefs, we should be careful on forcing our own morals to the whole society. This type of “Social Engineering” on morality is extremely dangerous. Just look at Islamic countries, couples cannot even hold hands in public. “Holding hands” is deemed immoral behaviour, never mind kissing. If we let our government to take away our basic right to choose, they will have no problem doing that. They will definitely take away more then we let them.

“Be careful of what you wish for, you may get it!”