Roy Chui quotes a news story about a nurse who couldn't stop promoting her religion to a patient in Singapore:
A routine blood test at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) turned out to be a lesson in evangelical Christianity for Associate Professor Wong Weng Fai, 41, a computer science lecturer, and his 66-year-old mother, a dementia sufferer.
According to Prof Wong, a National University of Singapore lecturer, in the testing room, they were greeted by two nurses listening to Christian worship songs on a CD player. As one of them drew blood from his mother, she began evangelising.
He recounted: 'She asked my mother in Cantonese, 'Auntie, do you believe in Jesus?'
'My mum was saying, 'No, no, I'm Buddhist.' But the nurse continued, 'You should go to church because it'll be good for you.' '
Prof Wong felt offended. 'They're preying on the weaknesses of old folks, especially when they are sick and down.'
Evidently there is a growing debate in Singapore over whether people who work for public institutions should evangelize those who come to them for assistance. Officially they aren't supposed to, but in reality they seem to be able to get away with it regularly.
Chui comments:
My curiosity here: Why merely stop at proselytisation? Why not expound to their patients that religious prayers and what-nots will ensure full recovery? Better still, hand out free religious pamphlets, rosaries and bibles to the patients!
Instead of conducting religious proselytisation in their lavish institutions, religious institutions have now resorted to invading secular institutions to spread their gospels.
Well, as society becomes more secular and people are able to live their lives without relying upon religious institutions, then the opportunities for a "captive audience" for proselytization decrease. From the perspective of religious believers, this would require abusing their positions in public, secular institutions. It's a sign of religions weakness that believers must resort to this.
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