Expert witness testifies Central Christian Church is a cult
An expert on cult studies said the Central Christian Church is a cult because it exhibited "many cultic characteristics." The expert witness, Rev. Adrian van Leen is the director of the Concerned Christians Growth Ministries, which are based in Australia and which conduct researches into religious movements. He identified the characteristics of a cult for readers. The Straits Times (Singapore) - Friday, July 18, 1997Expert witness testifies that church is a cultBy Tan Ooi BoonAn expert on cult studies said yesterday that it was appropriate to call the Central Christian Church a cult because it had exhibited "many cultic characteristics."Based on his study of the church, the Rev. Adrian van Leen, 52, said, "I am of the view that the group is disruptive and even destructive to family units." He added that the church's practices were also damaging to the emotional integrity and stability of some of its members.The expert witness is the director of the Concerned Christians Growth Ministries, which are based in Australia and which conduct researches into religious movements. He was giving evidence to support the defense's case that the editors of The New Paper, Lianhe Wanbao and Impact magazine were justified in calling the church "a cult" in 1991.Rev. van Leen is not a newcomer to the Singapore High Court. In 1994, he gave evidence on cult matters in another defamation case involving The Straits Times and a religious sect.He said yesterday that it was in the public interest for newspapers to publish reports about the Central Christian Church because the church was active and aggressive in recruiting members at places that included MRT stations and tertiary campuses.He said, in answer to defense counsel Tan Chee Meng, that the church has many practices that are found in cults.For example, he pointed out that its present suit was "wholly consistent with cultic fear and paranoia" and "a persecution complex". Former church members had also told the court that they were often rebuked by their leaders when they thought their authority was being questioned, he noted.And while mainstream churches collected donations or pledges from members, the Central Christian Church carried such a practice to extremes by keeping records of members' monthly income and their pledges, he said. The church even handed out envelopes with sections for members to mark "IOU" for pledges owed, if they did not have money on them, he added.And he could not agree with the church's's expert witness, Dr. John Gordon Melton, who said on Wednesday that the church was not a cult.The Central Christian Church and its founder, Mr. John Philip Louis, are suing the editors of The New Paper (TNP) and Liauhe Wanbao for calling it a cult in a TNP report "Concern over two cult groups" on Nov. 23, 1991, a translation of which was published in Lianhe Wanbao the same day. A Christian magazine, Impact, one of the sources of the report, is also being sued.The newspaper editors contend that the reports were accurate, and that they had a moral and social public duty to publish such information. Their lawyers are trying to prove that the church has unique and exclusive practices. The parties are expected to present their final arguments soon after the expert witnesses have given their evidence.The Rev. Adrian van Leen said the Central Christian church had many "cultic"characteristics. These include:
believing that its baptism by repentance and full immersion in water is the only true form of becoming a Christian
making members confess their sins and private thoughts to leaders
making members submit papers on how they spend their time
encouraging members to leave home to live communally
encouraging members to date and marry only fellow members
making members submit sin lists to leaders
pressuring members to recruit new members
teaching members that their church is the only true church
making attendance of all church meetings compulsory
disciplining members who question the authority of leaders
http://www.factnet.org/straits.htm
Under "What CCC Believes", it is stated that :
1. Other churches are not true congregations until they are "reconstructed"
5. Under teachings:
2. The group teaches baptismal regeneration and practices rebaptism. Only those baptised by the group are truly baptised.
3. The movement has a pyramid-type organisation, and expects total commitment to the leadership. One of their leaders was reported to have said : "Leadership is to be imitated, not evaluated."
4. Members are to confess their sins to one another. All sins including sinful thoughts are to be confessed.
5. Members are encouraged to leave their homes and live communally. Boyfriend and girlfriend relationships tend to be guided, if not determined, by the group and its leaders.
6. Under group characteristics :
6. Control is very tight. The disciple has to report to the discipler exactly how he spent his time and who he was with.
7. The article continues with extracts of interviews with two persons who had left the group. These two apparently had been members of the more conventional Christian churches. They had been attracted to the group by the warmth, openness and sincerity of its members. But they were never able to reconcile what the group taught them with what they had been taught previously, such as in the area of baptism. One of them also had difficulty accepting that CCC was the only true church. She also could not understand why the group was trying to reach out to existing Christians to get them to repent and be rebaptised. Both spoke of the emotional difficulty they experienced on leaving the group.
8. In the middle of the article is interposed a section, in a box, headed "Why People Join Cults" and the author analyses how cult groups satisfy certain basic needs of people.
9. At the end of the article, there is a note saying: "Attempts to interview the leaders of both the AOG and CCC were not successful. "
10.The Impact article was picked up by two newspapers, the New Paper and the Wan Bao.
http://www.tolc.org/sing15.htm
They have not been officially banned by the Singapore Government. But is already so active that they have a 'church' building.
Located at...
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN CHURCHSINGAPORE1 Edgefield WalkSingapore 828850(Punggol)
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