My name is Selwyn Lee, a graduating Mass Communications student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

I am the original author of the letter, which i wish to mention was extensively edited by the NP Tribune editor Jeremy Boo.

I wrote the letter on behalf of my girlfriend Petrina Anthony, keeping with the infomation that was provided to me as I am a PR student and would be best suited to delivering such a response. Curiously enough, I am also have some sympathy towards beliefs in LaVeyan Satanism. A nicely mixed cocktail indeed.

As for the letter published in the Tribune, The editor requested that we formulate the reply which had certain requirements to which we adhered to. Amongst others, he asked that we include the difference between evangelism and attempted conversion. Furthermore he requested that we only include the CYA's stand on matters and not to comment on the issue at large. Hence neither me nor Petrina is responsible for the style used. At the end I have enclosed a copy of my original letter, written with Jeremy's requests in mind.

Also, I find it prudent to state that all I wrote in the letter to the Tribune was factual. The Catholic Youth Apostolate has not, nor does it plan to, had any activities targeted at non catholics. the organisation is practically self-serving, and they have a grand total of less than 15 members. I for one have attended, finding it an excellent venue to play Diablo while waiting for my girlfriend.

I feel that the manner you edited the letter was irresponsible and self-serving. I agree with the rest of your article, but the usage of my letter was irresponsible. It took my words out of context. Therefore , I respectfully request that statements made pertaining to the article be retracted, or a clarification made with regard to the original unedited letter.

This body of text was what was submitted to Jeremy, before it was edited

Catholicism definitely does not believe in undermining religious harmony. Catholic priests, for example, are required to study other faiths as well as their own. This helps to prevent a culture of misunderstanding and unhealthy suspicion of other religions.

Officially, the Catholic Church does believe in evangelism. That would be, of course, going by the dictionary definition of ‘spreading knowledge’. That is in contrast to the popular misconception that evangelism equates to conversion, much like anarchy is popularly misconstrued as synonymous to chaos. To break it down further, the Catholic Church believes in telling people about the gospel instead of merely bloating our numbers.

There is indeed a fine line between spreading knowledge and trying to convert people. To go a step further, there is an additional line between merely talking to people and putting them under duress. Our official stand is that religion is a personal choice and that we are against the idea of coercing people into conversion. We can talk to people as much as they allow us, but it is strictly against our policy (both us and the catholic church’s) to force people into religion with either duress or coercive means. If people convert to Catholicism, it is of their own free will.

On a secondary note, CYA’s primary function is to be a club for fellowship for catholic students in Ngee Ann. Our main function is definitely not to convert people, but rather to minister to needs of our members. We have not, in recent memory, had any outreach activities to the public at large. As such, most of our activities are targeted at our members, for fellowship. Our sole attempt to recruit members during my tenure as chairman was at the previous CCA fiesta.

Finally, on a more personal note, I am proud to say I am a libertarian at heart. I believe that everybody should be given the right to do what he or she wants, so long as it does not harm people who do not wish to be harmed. To tie that into this matter at hand, I wish to quote Voltaire.

I may not agree with what you have to say, but I shall defend until the death your right to say it.

I fear that the viewpoints posited in this letter, including the choice of language as well as those pondering ‘the need for such organisations in our Polytechnic." are nothing short of those that might draw us closer to becoming an Orwellian state. You may not agree with our doings, but it would be nothing short of fascist to question our right to exist.

Another point to note, you seem to believe all people worship in temples, mosques and churches. Apparently there are no jews, Sikhs, neo-pagans, Satanists, shintoists, zoroastrianists, wiccans or those of the baha’i faith in Singapore. How ignorant.

Oh and a final point to ponder. Why didn’t you just tell them sternly to go away?

 
And thus would be the original letter.

As for my viewpoint on the issue,

Yes, I disagree with such Christian efforts to force religion on others. From a personal perspective, I find religion much like a set of iron fetters for the mind. I don’t believe in organized religion.

Admittedly, I am a theist. Many of your readers seem not to be able to understand the difference between agnosticism and atheism. Atheism is the non-belief in a god, or any god(s) for that matter. Agnosticism is a lack of belief in whether the character or existence of a god(s) can be proved. I believe that there is some cosmic power at work which made the world. However I don’t know who, what or where it is and consequently do not subscribe to the madcap ramblings of people claiming they do.

However, I do believe in freedom of religion. One important thing I have learnt from LaVeyan Satanism would be belief in freedom. Freedom to do whatever you want, so long as it does not harm people who do not wish to be harmed. People should be allowed to carry out their religion, so long as it does not adversely affect others. In this manner I disagree with the current state of Christianity in Singapore. Some christians nowadays believe that they have the right to tout their religion freely. They also act like Christianity is ineffable which I believe to be utter nonsense. The various churchs have never claimed to be the voices of conscience for Singaporeans and It would certainly be a mistake for any of their members to coherce others into thinking in that fashion. Singapore is not, and hopefully will never be, a Christian country. Singapore is a multi religious country and we do not have room for zealots here.