TheSugarBook promotes ‘a hook-up culture’, leads to ‘wounded souls’

In 2013, access to extramarital dating website Ashley Madison was blocked by the Media Development Authority (MDA) after it ruled that the website has content that shows flagrant disregard of our family values and public morality.

Mr Chan Chun Sing, then Minister for Social and Family Development, said that such a website is not welcome in Singapore as it promotes infidelity that undermines trust and commitment between a husband and wife, which are core to marriage.

For The SugarBook mobile application, users are able to select an option indicating their relationship status, including “Married But Looking” when setting up their profiles. It does not verify if users are singles, just like the Ashley Madison website.

The Members of Parliament have rightly voiced their concerns over this dating platform that targets young women in their late teens and early 20s. It is a platform that reinforces the lie that beauty, money and youth are the only essentials in a relationship.

I agree with Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee that the more enduring way to protect young Singaporeans from being exploited is to inculcate in them good values from young, so that “they can exercise discretion and good judgement” when navigating the online world (“Police will keep a ‘close eye’ on TheSugarBook: Demond Lee”; Feb 5)

However, it should be noted that not all young Singaporeans come from families with highly involved or highly educated parents. It is increasingly challenging to teach our young to build sound character.

The SugarBook reinforces the message that money can buy one’s integrity and that money is almighty power. It promotes a hook-up culture that breaks our society apart and leads to wounded souls who are disillusioned with marriage. After all, marriage is hard work and calls for sacrificial love, not just a glamorous life indulging in the luxuries that life has to offer.

If the blocking of the Ashley Madison website sends a message that our nation values stable marriages, then the blocking of The SugarBook app is all the more critical to steer our young to pursue a meaningful relationship that is not built on exploiting another person’s vulnerability. This is public morality.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/thesugarbook-promotes-hook-culture-leads-wounded-souls

Ban surrogacy to protect the interests of children and women

It is heartbreaking to learn that a precious life was artificially created at a price tag of US$200,000 (S$268,000) (Gay man fails to adopt child he had via surrogacy; Dec 28, 2017).

As a single woman, I, too, have a basic human need to love and be loved by a child.

However, I recognise that there is no right to a child, single or married. There is only the need and right of a child to a father and a mother.

A dual-sex union provides healthy male/female role modelling and establishes a template for a child's future relationships. Children require more than just love and stability. They thrive with a father and a mother.

In surrogacy, a child is treated as a commodity, intentionally separated from his biological mother.

It is most demeaning to a woman to be treated like an incubator. In surrogacy, women, usually of lower economic status, are exploited by wealthy clients.

The Government should enact laws to explicitly ban surrogacy to protect the interests of women and children.

Under the Adoption of Children Act, singles are allowed to adopt children. It is shocking to learn that same-sex couples have made use of this loophole to form a family as I touched on before in a letter last year (Adopted children deserve the best family environment too; Feb 9, 2017 ).

What is being done to address this issue?

Children are the most vulnerable members of our society. Their needs and rights should be put before the desires of adults.

As a citizen, I am committed to speak up for the children who have no voice.

http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/ban-surrogacy-to-protect-the-interests-of-children-and-women

The crisis of our faith

The crisis of our faith today lies not in threats without but threats within.

Inside the secret corners of our heart, when we think we stand, we fall.

I write this to remind myself too.

This year has been a very fruitful year but yet a most heartbreaking one.

When faith becomes, "God, You will bless me in this, this and that. Because You love me, You will give me this, this and that."

God, You are my Santa Claus.

Honestly that's what I sense all around if God had not brought certain friends in my life to wake me up.

This is not what Jesus died on the cross for.

We even brought this prosperity "Gospel" to developing countries. We think money solves all problems. We are best in giving money, slack in training people to learn to fish for themselves.

It takes so much to empower and enable people in developing countries to create with their hands, work with their brain to get out of the poverty cycle.

Just give money. Easy, saves time and effort, makes us feel good instantaneously.

Pride. Our greatest enemy.

Even to write this takes effort.

To follow Christ is really hard. To invest time and effort in people is tiring because we do get hurt.

To obey God is the hardest because it is contrary to our flesh.

No one warned me it is this hard.

No one prepare me that my heart will break for people who don't even bother, for embryos, for the unborn, for the teens, for the Church, for our nation.

I thank God for exposing me to all these.

Because it is His heart that must take over.

Protect baby Jesus, protect our babies!

25th December is NOT the actual date of birth of our Lord Jesus Christ but hey, He was definitely born one day, 2,000 years ago, in a manger that symbolizes the messy world we live in today.

The birth of Jesus in a stable gives us great comfort. That means you and I who are not rich by the world's standards, are deeply understood by God who knows poverty. Poverty that surpasses material things but of the spirit.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5)

This year, I learnt more about Joseph, Jesus' earthly father and His earthly mother Mary. One saved Jesus from being killed by King Herod, another protected Him in her womb.

And so on that outreach to kids aged 6-14 years old, I told some of them, "You must protect the younger kids and those in the womb, ok?"

Our kids learn to protect the environment since young.
It is time, never too late, to teach them to protect their brothers and sisters. May we be found faithful in speaking up for those in oppression, in protecting the most vulnerable members of our society: our children.

Remember Jesus, remember His beloved! ❤
Go love our family!

Our Daily Bread: Gift of Grace

Lots of people are sharing about how depression caused the death of SHINee's Jonghyun's death.
I shall be thick-skinned to share again and again my story of life and hope against the curse of suicide!

1. Depression need not lead to suicide.

Through sufferings, we can grow and be more resilient. But I will be honest with you. Without God, recovery can be temporal and superficial. Because without God, we would be depending on our limited strength and we would depend on people with equally limited strength.

2. Please DO NOT say that it's courageous to commit suicide. It is MORE courageous to LIVE than to have a premature exit. It is hurting to a family who lost a loved one through the violence of suicide.

3. Depression is not a condition of aliens. It is as common as flu, yet it is real and you can't just snap out of it. God is the Healer, even as medicine gives temporal relief.

4. There's no beauty in melancholy. In my university days, I started being melancholic with a peer. It seemed beautiful to dig deep into the soul. That was the foothold to depression. Beauty is in the light of Jesus Christ.

https://www.facebook.com/ourdailybread/videos/10155675875690673/?hc_ref=ARQOVeuW82-lS0Dzev14_Hn18viK6pcaz4vxiWGs5RWVp1hJlw0NNHfOdjcJUzeh_gg

https://ourdailybread.org/no-one-is-useless/