05 Jun 2011
The Singapore General Hospital (SGH) recently put up signs in all its wards to remind visitors against proselytising. This followed an incident during which a volunteer, a member of the Church of Praise in Lavender Street, tried to talk about her faith to an elderly patient who is a Taoist. The patient’s son, understandably upset, wrote to the Health Ministry last month, and SGH was asked to investigate the matter. The hospital asked the volunteer to leave.
Although SGH said the incident was an “isolated” one, and the other public hospitals said they do not allow any kind of proselytising, social workers and health-care professionals told The Straits Times that it happens often enough, at least anecdotally, to prompt hospitals to have strict guidelines prohibiting such acts.
In his 2009 National Day Rally speech, in which he pointed out the dangers of “aggressive preaching or proselytisation”, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said: “For example, we hear from time to time complaints of groups trying to convert very ill patients in our hospitals who do not want to be converted and who do not want to have the private difficult moments in their lives intruded upon.”
Mr Lee observed that there was increasing religious fervour in the country, which in itself was not a bad thing, but at the same time it could have side effects that had to be managed. Proselytisation was one of them.
There have been also instances when one or more adult children of a dying parent have called in a priest to perform a deathbed conversion, against the wishes of their other siblings. This has often led to much acrimony and family feuding, and the one that suffers the most is the parent.
However well-intentioned, the faithful of whatever faith must learn not to impose their religious beliefs on others who do not subscribe to them. Religious leaders should rein in their more zealous members.
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