In this essay, I will be focusing on why there is a trend of increasing number of people being converted to Christianity in Singapore society.

Furthermore, there is also a major difference in the religious acts of Taoism and Christianity. While Taoists worship their gods through burning of incense paper and joss sticks, Christians worship their God through singing, clapping their hands and sometimes even dancing.

2. Religious Conversion

There is a great difference in terms of religious conversion between Taoism, Christianity and Catholic.

In the eyes of Taoism, you are accepted as a Taoist the moment you picked up a joss stick and pray to one of the Taoist gods. This is what a Taoist interviewee said when asked this question,

“There is nothing complicated to become a Taoist, just take a joss stick and pray to the Goddess of Mercy and she will keep you blessed.”

However, in Christianity and Catholic, all these are different. Christians and Catholics alike, have to go through water baptism before becoming true Christians or Catholics. Furthermore, believers of Christ are not allowed to deny God after becoming a believer or they shall be punished on Judgment Day. As one of the interviewee said,

“In the ten commandments written in the Bible, the first commandment is that there is only one God. Furthermore, Jesus said that if you deny him in front of others, then he will deny you in front of his Father in Heaven.”

3. Religious Conflict

Religious conflict is one of the biggest problems in a multi-cultural society like Singapore. It cannot be compromised, and can only be avoided.

One of the interviewee said when asked about the religious conflict that had impacted him and his family most.

“My mum stop talking to me for many days after I told her I’m becoming a Christian. My father was so mad that he almost drove me out of the house when he knew it. However, we started talking again after some time when they understand that they are not going to lose me as a son.” 

After interviewing my neighbour, I find that conversion to Christianity for traditional Chinese families is a big disaster. If the parents are Taoists, they know that if their children convert to Christianity, they will not be able to offer oranges & joss sticks to venerate their dead parents. They perceived that as family lines being cut off if their children are not in their veneration. So most parents are against conversion to Christianity. Nevertheless, this also shows that religious conflict can be resolved within the family through understanding. However, this only applies when parents are willing to listen and understand their children. I also found out that there are differences in religious affiliation within my own family as well as my neighbour’s family. This could be due to the differences in the level of education they

received.

Analysis

The reason why we have an enormous diversity of religions is due to the fact that Singapore society is constituted by an indigenous community and a migrant society. The Malays are the indigenous community while the migrant society is made up of the Indians & the Chinese. Furthermore, Singapore is not a homogenous society but a heterogeneous society. Religion is one of the important identity markers that helps these different ethnic groups to preserve individual self-awareness and cohesion in a group. Thus, the emphasis on religious affiliation and identity is one of the strategies that allows the indigenous community as well as the migrant society to maintain self-identity while simultaneously acquiring community acceptance as a whole.

The Constitution of Singapore does guarantee every citizen the right to practice, profess and propagate his/ her religion, including the freedom to not profess any religion. Thus, atheism and agnosticism, captured in the Singapore Census category of ‘no religion’ is politically permissible in Singapore. (Kwok Kian Woon etal, Our Place In Time 1999, p.77)

There are several factors contributing to the surge of Christianity in Singapore. First of all, the role of the ideology of pragmatism adopted by the Singapore government must not be overlooked. After the separation of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965 and the British decision to withdraw its military base from Singapore in 1967, Singaporeans were told to identify with the economic goals of the state. The formulated government policies were very pragmatic and the government adopted a problem solving approach in the economic crisis in the 1960s. By 1970, in less than ten years, Singapore was transformed from a service-based economy to a manufacturing-based economy. It had almost achieved near to full-employment by then already. It had experienced a very high rate of economic growth and it had been successful in the housing program. As a result, Singapore became too successful as an economy. It had become too westernized. Therefore, due to the nation having opened itself to the Western culture, Christianity is well accepted in Singapore. This is because Christianity is commonly connected to the modern Western culture. Yet, with no exception, its existence is only appreciated when it does not intrude into or create conflicts with the more traditional cultures.

Secondly, the role of the state-run educational system and educational developments also played a part for the rapid growth of Christianity. In 1979, The Goh Report on education introduced the bilingual policy of education in Singapore. Through the government's endorsement of the English language as the first language, Christianity received a strong boost when the reception of Western culture was accelerated. There is a high correlation between the English-educated and those who are Christians. Another factor to note is that the growth of Christianity has mostly come in the expense of traditional Chinese religions especially Taoism. Statistics show that majority of the converts came from Taoist or ancestor-worshipping families.

 The religious shift to Christianity among young Chinese Singaporeans may be due to the fact that they perceive traditional Chinese religion to be unfulfilling and impersonal. Christianity is considered by these converts as a more rational, systematic and intellectual religion, as opposed to the perceived disorderliness of Taoism. (Tong Chee Kiong 1992 The Rationalization of Religion in Singapore p. 289)

        In early 1982, the government introduced religious subjects to secondary schools, which included Bible knowledge. This was done with the hope of giving the young students then, a cultural base for their identity as against the Western culture that was dominant in the Moral Crisis of the late 1970s. As a consequence, with regards to religious conversion, there was a degree of religious revivalism especially amongst the Christian Charismatic Churches in Singapore. The conversion was disproportionally high amongst those who were young (14-19 years old). A lot of young Singaporeans, being 14-19 years of age, were being converted to the Christian Charismatic Churches. They were mostly English-educated and came from the middle-class.

Thirdly, one of the reasons for this growing trend in Christianity is the evangelistic zeal of the local Churches to reach out to unbelievers. The blossoming of evangelistic efforts began with the aggressive ministry of Youth for Christ in the secondary schools in the 1970s with the introduction of religious subjects in the curriculum. Since then, many Christian organizations had joined forces to evangelize the unbelievers. Currently, a great majority of the Churches are either evangelical or charismatic. Evangelistic meetings can now be seen in almost every Church and often assumes a high priority among other church activities. The high concentration of Christians among the students, in particular, should not be seen as a coincidence. Apart from the language and culture factors, the rapid growth among the students is a direct result of evangelistic efforts. Organizations such as Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC), Varsity Christian Fellowship (VCF) and Navigators, all maintain strong

presences in the universities and polytechnics.

            Nonetheless, while Christian Churches continue to attract unbelievers, Charismatic Churches are particularly successful in recent years as they are more effective in evangelizing a certain group of people particularly the youths. For example, in the university campus, fellowship programs are designed to attract and retain the young and Western-inclined unbelievers. Efforts are made to correct the notion that "Christianity is boring". Songs and music are to be contemporary and appealing. Campus Christian fellowship, apart from its spiritual dimension, is given a social role of nurturing friendships between the believers and unbelievers. As the friendships mature, they become a ground for the unbelievers to experience the Christian faith more concretely and personally.

Therefore, many youngsters are attracted to the Charismatic Churches’ lively and contemporary style of worship, dynamic preaching and close-knit cell group setting. In addition, as a means of reaching out, they also maintain a comprehensive network of social services, ranging from day-care centres to workshops for the mentally retarded. This effective approach to evangelization has become more and more popular among the Churches and thus a lot of souls are won to these Churches.

Fourthly, human beings ask existential questions all the time, either implicitly or explicitly. Christianity seems to be a rational, modern religion that is systematic in its doctrines and relevant to one's life. One of the interesting internal features or doctrines of Christianity is that human beings were born in sin. This was traceable in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis. God made human beings, Adam & Eve, and instructed them not to eat from the tree of knowledge & evil. But they did as Satan tempted them. So they transgressed God’s law that is the original sin, which all human beings subsequently have accorded because of the original sin. The second central concept or idea of Christianity is that God love man so much that He gave His one & only Son, Jesus Christ, to save them by dieing on the cross & taking on all the sins of the world upon Him so that those who believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. The central aim in Christianity is to save ourselves from sin because we are born in sin.

More importantly, the next factor to explain this trend is that Singapore is a secular state. There is no official state religion in Singapore. The secularism in Singapore is closely associated with government policies, which say that everybody is entitled to his/ her religion and there is no one religion above others. Secularism is also closely associated with industrial capitalist development and the ideology of pragmatism used by the government in Singapore. The way the Singapore government goes about planning its policy in Singapore is based on formal rationality, which says that all things can be done by scientific thinking, calculation, planning, and anticipation as opposed to substantive rationality in any religion. In Christianity, the teaching or assumption is that we are all born in sin. Substantive rationality operates in a sense that if we are born in sin and we want to be saved, then we have to accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour.

It is clear that the state’s proclamation of secularism does not signify its disinterest in ‘religion’ or the implications of its citizens’ religiosity for purposes of governance. (Kwok Kian Woon etal, Our Place In Time 1999, p.77)

In Singapore, as a consequence of this kind of formal rationality and this industrial capitalist development, we have been thrust very rapidly into a condition of modernity. The central characteristics of modernity are uncertainty & existential anxiety. With modernization and industrial capitalist development in Singapore, religion does not seem to decline. Instead, we find that there is either switching of one religion to another or even in some case, an increase in the number of followers, because religions deal with existential issues like anxiety. Singapore in the condition of modernity implies risk and existential anxiety because living & operating in this kind of industrial capitalist system produces anxieties. With stress and the indulgence of materialism in Singapore society, it is no surprise that people continue to practise religion because it offers them some comfort to explain or handle this kind of existential anxiety.

In this essay, I have to examine why Christianity is on a rapid rise compared with the other religions. The most common motivation in becoming a Christian would be the "assurance of going to heaven". In Singapore, the government, with its paternalistic style, has from the very beginning defined the goal and meaning for its people. One interesting observation is that as people get more affluent, they tend to become more insecure. Thus, they begin to search for security. It is no wonder that the insurance industry in Singapore has multiplied many folds in recent years. There is a high demand for security as a commodity and Christianity comes in as a nice fit. While traditional religions do promise passage to heaven, Christianity, with its strong "structures of plausibility", often looks more convincing. The intimate setting of the cell groups provides listening ears to the empty souls; the contemporary worship and dynamic preaching enable both emotional release and uplift. Finally, the elements of tongues, healing, miracles, and demon-deliverance add a sense of power and authenticity to the Christian faith in a world of loss and confusion. All these elements have made Christianity attractive and plausible. Therefore, conversion to Christianity is seen as an "insurance" for the after-life.              

Finally, conversion of unbelievers very often involves more than just the preaching of the Word of God. When an unbeliever comes to a church, he not only learns of the spoken truth proclaimed from the Preacher, but also the unspoken truth proclaimed through the deeds of the Christian congregation. This unspoken truth oftentimes carries more weight than the spoken truth. More significantly, the Protestant Christians are substantially more well off than the general population in terms education and occupation. A typical Christian in Singapore will be young, English-speaking, a graduate from a university, holding a professional job, and very possibly a Chinese. In fact, the association of Christianity with elite social and political status may have helped attracted some converts. Thus, the whole matter of eternal truth is reduced to a rational decision based on some cost and benefit principles.

Conclusion        

A religion looks after the spiritual, moral and social well being of its followers. In Singapore we pride ourselves for the peaceful existence of different religious groups, due to our practice of religious tolerance.

As recently as 1987, in his National Day speech, Lee commented that rapid development and resettlement had produced a disoriented and rootless population, and that religion had helped many Singaporeans keep their bearings. (Michael Hill and Lian Kwen Fee, The Politics of Nation Building and Citizenship in Singapore 1995, p.102)

But the division still exists because, despite being able to identify with one another, the dividing line that differentiates the people is religion; the Christian community, the Muslim community, the Hindu community and so on. In this essay, I had focused on the growing trend in Christianity in Singapore since the Second World War. The successful induction of the Western culture and the employment of English language in almost every sphere of our life have no doubt opened the pathway for Christianity. However, there are other factors, such as the ideology of pragmatism being adopted by the government, the Singapore educational system and developments, the evangelistic effort by the local Churches, the existential issues that we as human being pose to ourselves and last but not least, the very nature that Singapore is a secular and modern industrial capitalist state, that played a pivotal role in bringing a religious revivalism in Christianity. The Christian faith was therefore put in a favorable position from the very outset. As the old generation passes away and the new generation comes along, it is expected that the percentage of Christians in Singapore will continue to increase.

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Bibliography

Tong Chee Kiong (1992) The Rationalization of Religion in Singapore.

Michael Hill & Lian Kwen Fee (1995) The Politics of Nation Building and Citizenship in Singapore. Chapter 8: From the ideology of pragmatism to shared values.

Kwok Kian Woon etal (1995) Our Place In Time

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