Outrage over NUS disrespectful mission trip poster
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Outrage over NUS group's 'disrespectful' mission trip posters
by Neo Chai Chin – TODAY
SINGAPORE - Posters and online comments denigrating other religions have sparked an outcry at the National University of Singapore (NUS), leading to their removal and a reminder by the university's provost yesterday to respect the religion and beliefs of others.
The posters and comments were made by the NUS Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC), which has since apologised and promised to be "watchful of future actions". The Singapore CCC is a Christian non-profit organisation active in tertiary campuses.
The posters were to spread awareness of the group's coming mission trips and contained comments about the pervasiveness of Buddhism and Islam in Thailand and Turkey respectively.
A posting on the NUS CCC's Facebook page yesterday said: "We humbly apologise for the distress we have caused you though the poster of ours that has gone viral online. We recognise that our choice of words used should have been more sensitive and tactful. We acknowledge that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and it is definitely not our intention to force anyone to believe in what we do."
An NUS spokesperson said the university was alerted to the posters on Wednesday evening. It contacted the student group and removed the posters put up on campus.
The spokesperson said: "The student group has also removed all related postings at their website. The student group has also posted an apology on its Facebook page, and the students involved have been counselled."
She added that guidelines are in place for students and student groups organising events that concern areas such as religion, language and politics. They are to submit proposals and publicity materials to the NUS Office of Student Affairs for approval but "in this instance, the posters were not sent to the office for review".
The spokesperson added: "As far as we know, this is the first time that an incident of this nature has taken place."
The incident prompted NUS provost Tan Eng Chye to send a circular to students yesterday. He said NUS had been alerted to "disrespectful and insensitive remarks about other religions and communities contained in posters and website comments" by the NUS CCC.
He added: "NUS is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious community … The university does not endorse any comment or action by members of our community that disrupts religious harmony or disparage the diverse communities that live in Singapore and overseas."
Contacted yesterday, the Singapore CCC said it was aware the students would be publicising the mission trips available in the middle of this year among members within their respective campuses.
"We would like to appeal to everyone to understand that there was never an intention to cause hurt to any individual or religious group, and we apologise to anyone who has been has hurt by this incident," it said. -
I'm curious what was written on the posters. No point apologising because of the outcry from the public. These people must admit that it is their mistakes and what they had written were wrong and not true due to their ignorance.
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They are getting too cocky.
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Originally posted by Dawnfirstlight:
I'm curious what was written on the posters. No point apologising because of the outcry from the public. These people must admit that it is their mistakes and what they had written were wrong and not true due to their ignorance.
EDMW has them.
You may also visit alvinology.com.
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Here's a protest from a christian. He questioned why NUS Buddhist Society (NBS) lodged a complaint to NUS Office of Student Affairs. This is getting ridiculous. It may not be just compliant to NUS Office of Student Affairs if the party they offended are followers of other religions. It will be something worse than a complaint and yet this christian is unappreciative and unrepentant.
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These fanatics. If only they could redirect their fanaticism against the PAP.
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The root cause is not this......
The root cause is at certain teachings, ideology, emphasis, beliefs, and preachings......
In other words,
To instill a more respectful attitude, it is difficult to just tamp the fire through social or political means.....or apologize whenever certain offensive acts or words happen, etc......it should be at the fundamental religious level.
In other words,
The religious leadership should stress more and emphasize more on tolerance, respect, and sensitivity. It is possible to do it from a religious angle and with scriptural interpretation.
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This is something that Christians have to learn from Buddhists. Thanks Buddha for his great teachings! The truth will forever be the truth. 真金�怕��
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Originally posted by Veggie Bao:
The root cause is not this......
The root cause is at certain teachings, ideology, emphasis, beliefs, and preachings......
In other words,
To instill a more respectful attitude, it is difficult to just tamp the fire through social or political means.....or apologize whenever certain offensive acts or words happen, etc......it should be at the fundamental religious level.
In other words,
The religious leadership should stress more and emphasize more on tolerance, respect, and sensitivity. It is possible to do it from a religious angle and with scriptural interpretation.
I so agree with you and with dawn. But the thing is that most of such cases were not handled with a religious approach to it. Looking at the words of the posters it implies that buddhism does not equate to happiness and so buddhist in thailand is not happy.
But the apology made came in "a wrong choice of word" rather than a "wrong religious approach/wrong teachings/wrong attitude/mentallity" which could mean the idea/message to be brought across is still correct, just that the words used are "wrong" to them.
As of what i know understand from the christian forum, to them, only theirs is true and the rest is not true. So it is the exact opposite of dawn's post.
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Originally posted by [imdestinyz]:
I so agree with you and with dawn. But the thing is that most of such cases were not handled with a religious approach to it. Looking at the words of the posters it implies that buddhism does not equate to happiness and so buddhist in thailand is not happy.
But the apology made came in "a wrong choice of word" rather than a "wrong religious approach/wrong teachings/wrong attitude/mentallity" which could mean the idea/message to be brought across is still correct, just that the words used are "wrong" to them.
As of what i know understand from the christian forum, to them, only theirs is true and the rest is not true. So it is the exact opposite of dawn's post.
If it's true, there's no need to prove others false to become the truth. As one of the Ven. said that all the religions taught their followers to be good but Buddhism is the only religion that relieve us from sufferings in samsara. Unless you don't believe in karma and rebirth, then that's another story.
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Originally posted by Dawnfirstlight:
If it's true, there's no need to prove others false to become the truth. As one of the Ven. said that all the religions taught their followers to be good but Buddhism is the only religion that relieve us from sufferings in samsara. Unless you don't believe in karma and rebirth, then that's another story.
well... im just stating what understand from and about them lo. I honestly don't believe in 1 supreme religion. Neither only one religion can bring happiness. Every religion has its good, but no one is supreme over the rest.
