Religion and Law

October is Pastor Appreciation Week or so I gathered from my friend in US. Unfortunately, here in Singapore, it will appear that October is pastor bashing week. Or rather, one pastor in particular who has single handledly in one move, wipe off whatever remaining goodwill towards Christianity that the non-Christian has left after the sad saga of the CHC and Lighthouse. 

By now everybody will have known of the challenge that is being mounted by Faith Community Baptist Church against the Ministry of Manpower and the Minister's order to the church to compensate a pregnant employee for their termination of her from her job in the church. For those who are still living in dah dah land, here is the short brief of what happened so far.

There was this married man and this lady. Both worked for FCBC. They had an affair and the lady got pregnant. The man quit the church. She did not. She was asked by the church to forget the man and move on. She refused and after some heeing and hawing, she was fired from her job. One reason given was that she did not breached the implied rule of the church. Another reason was that she was working in the marriage department of the church and her state of affairs was a bad example for other married and to-be married couple. At that point in time, she was already 7 months pregnant. The church did not compensate her for the firing. The lady complained to MOM and after some "investigation", the church was ordered to pay her slightly over $7,000.00 as compensation for wrongful dismissal. The church paid up but has now launched a court action to get a review of the decision by the MOM and quote "the Courts can give guidance on where we stand with reference to the constitutional rights of religious bodies in the management of their religious affairs, which we believe include the hiring and dismissal of staff, the moral standards expected of staff at a level that reflects the ethos and values of the organisation"

The sacking of the woman had already given Christianity a bad name. Where is the compassion, the forgiveness that is always being preached? But having said that, to be fair to the church, I think the church has every right to sack her. She has breached the "rule". Sexual indiscretion is a major no no in many companies notwithstanding that it may not be spelled out in the HR manual. They have counselled her, given her a chance and a choice and she did not bite. So they rightfully terminated her.  But where they went wrong was the failure to compensate her for in lieu notice and in following labour law on termination of pregnant employee. The church argued that its rule book do not allow for compensation in the case of termination. That to me, is pure bullshit! The senior pastors or any other bosses in any organisation will surely have the discretion to waive this and pay out of compassion or pity or whatever reasons they can make up but they failed to do so. Where is thy compassion? 

Now having been slapped in the face by the government, the church like an indignant son who felt he has did not wrong is spoiling for a fight. The thrust of its argument is that the church has a constitutional rights to the management of their religious affairs etc. In simple words, it is saying that it has the right to behave as it deem fits within the rules of its own religious code.

And this is where I find the argument absurd. Let suppose that the Court agrees with the church's argument and rules that the church has the power to enforce its own spiritual code of conduct over its members and employees and that its own law override the country's law. So in this case, the employee sinned (committed adultery) and was fired. Case closed. 

I can imagine what's going to happen next. The Jehovah Witness movement will now come forward and restate it case against its members serving NS. SThe Mormons will said it is their religious rights to practice polygamy. The Islamic movement will want to enforce their hudud laws against their members and the list will go on and on. Is this how we want it to pan out?

The FCBC has stirred a hornet nest that was already buzzing from the CHC crude attempt to finance the Crossover Funds. The rest of the Christian community don't really need this type of adverse publicity. The mega church has grown too big for its boots and is becoming a social menace. Maybe the CHC case and this case is good in the long run if eventually the government steps in to see what really going on behind these million dollar enterprise. 

A Chinese Funeral 4

Typically, during a funeral, friends and business associates of the deceased and deceased's families will give wreath, banner and of cash known as "pek kim" or white gold. The former are valued by businessman as the more their are on display, the more status and prestige is accorded to the deceased and family. The pek kim is to help in defraying the cost of the funeral which can runs into thousand of $$$.

On the day of the funeral, the elaborate altar is removed and replace by a long table laden with offerings.

There are food galore

A Chinese Funeral 3

Throughout the funeral wake, prayers are held for the deceased. In Buddhist funeral, Buddhist monks will conduct the prayers. For those who are members of Buddhist temples, the relatives may invite the Temple members to perform the prayers as well. These members are usually dr essed in black robes and led by lay monks instead of Buddhist monks. In addition to this, the relatives may also invite a religious organisation "Siang Tong" 善堂  to chant the final prayer on the eve of the funeral. The prayer is to pray for a smooth journey to the nether world. The priest and his group will sing prayers asking for the protection and blessing of the Gods, sing praises of the deceased and ask for guidance for the deceased. Even the address of the deceased is mentioned!

The Priest saying their Sing Song prayer

A Chinese Funeral 2

In Chinese traditions, even numbers symbolises joy event such as wedding and birth and odd number for funeral. Chinese funeral wake in Singapore are therefore usually held for odd number of days but it can go up to 49 days although this is unheard of nowadays. Usually it is for 3, 5 or 7 days with 5 the most common since 3 is deemed too short and 7 too long.

The deceased in the coffin is placed with the head facing the house and the feet pointing towards the main door so that the coffin can be carried away feet first. (That is why it is consider bad fengshui for people to place their bed placing the doorway). In days gone by, the ladies will sit on the right of the coffin (facing outward) and the men sits on the right. When a guest comes to pay respect, the men will bow to him and the ladies will wail loudly to show their respect and filial piety respectively. That of course is no longer practice nowadays.

In front of the coffin is the altar. The Buddhist funeral altar is a simple affair comprising of a photo placed on a chair with the deceased's clothing, a table with some vegetarian food and an oil burner and a incense joss stick holder. The more traditional altar is a more elaborated affair.

There are 2 lanterns one on each side of the altar. One bears the name of the deceased and the other the age of the deceased. The practice is to add 3 more years to the actual age of the deceased. Not too sure why this is so maybe traditionally the mourning is for 3 years so this represent the final age of the deceased?  Or it represent Heaven, Earth and Man as some website said?

A Chinese Funeral 1

Having participated in a number of Chinese funeral and being a classic kaypoh, let me try to pin down the various practices in a Chinese Funeral. A lot of practices have changed and evolved in line with the time. Will spread this over a few posts. Please correct me if I get some of the facts wrong.

In Singapore, there are 2 type of Chinese funeral. One is the purely Buddhist funeral where the rituals are more simple and Buddhist monks conduct the prayers.  In strict traditional Buddhist funeral, there is no burning of joss paper or  金纸 'gold paper' or paper mache items. Purely Buddhist funeral are rare in Singapore. What is more common is the other type of Chinese funeral - which is a mixture of Buddhist and Chinese ancestral worship rites all designed to send off the deceased in the best and 'safest' manner possible

Let's start from the time a person pass away. After collecting the deceased from the mortuary, the deceased is  taken directly to the undertaker's premises where it is embalmed and dress up.  In the not too distant past, the dress of choice was the traditional Chinese skull hat and traditional Chinese robe but nowadays it is in his/her favourite cloth or in the case of a Buddhist follower, the black robe. Previously all this was done at the deceased's place or the location of the wake but the practice of embalming on site has now been banned for health and hygiene reasons. There is actually no real need to embalming the body but in this tropical heat, the body will decompose rapidly without the embalming. A body that is embalmed can have an open casket - one that is not embalmed must have the casket closed. Most family of the deceased will choose the former so that friends and relatives paying respect can have a last look at the deceased. Unlike Western funeral, only the face portion of the casket is open and covered with a piece of glass. There is no touching or kissing of the deceased allowed. In the past when embalming was not so common, the casket was closed and covered with a beautiful robe.

A closed casket

One other thing is that joss paper are usually placed in the casket together with the deceased. This is to provide money for the deceased to spend in the nether life.

The Singapore Song By Rony Tan

I like Corrine May but somehow her National Day song doesn't stuck a chord or gives that lump in the throat feeling. This is so much better but still not that rousing or have that catchy beat that makes one sing along. Give me those good old songs like Stand Up for Singapore or Count On Me Singapore anytime.

CHC Saga

Okay I will love to say "I told you so" but I guess it is still a bit too early.

I am referring to the investigation by the CAD into the affairs of certain individuals connected with the City Harvest Church. Since the investigation is ongoing, it is not appropriate for me to say who is guilty or not but kapo me need to say something.

But first a quick peek into what they are saying in cyberspace. Naturally, 2 schools - one openly hostile to CH and the other comprising I supposed mainly CH members. The anti-CH has according to posting on its facebook page and other blogs more or less decided that the members under investigation are guilty. The supporters, with their own facebook page sees it as an attack by the devil, the gahmen on the church itself. One smart aleck from the supporter's side is even advocating a war against the enemy of CH!

There are many more interesting reading out there and I think they put forth the point more eloquently than uncle me:

A very well put view from The Lycan Times:  here & here
The controversial Yeap Chee Seng: here & here
A neutral view here

I shall leave out the more vocal and nasty people but suffice to say, there are more anti-CH than pro-CH. I too have my own opinion on this issue and also on some other stuff related to this that been bugging me. But I think I will leave that for another day.

Meanwhile, will CH survive this? I have no doubt it will. Just like Lighthouse survived their own mini-crisis. But will the individuals involve escape unscath? Like Pastor Rony or will they end up like Rev Ming Yi?

What makes a Christian?

What happened when old friends meet? They talked about the good old days. What happened when old Christian friends meet? They talked about Christian things of course. What happened when old Christian friends meet with old not so Christian friend? Of course they cajoled, they nagged and they preach, and they nagged some more and they argued and then nagged some more...

These dear friends see in this old man here a prodigal, wayward son who must be turned back on the right path. To them, the fact that I do not belong to a Church, do not do all the seemingly Christians thingy mean I am not a Christian. To them, it is inconceivable that a Christian can be a closet Christian. A Christian must go to church, says the sinner prayers, have daily quiet time, spread the words blah blah blah. My retort was that a Christian should not be defined by his/her deeds and actions which they of course readily agreed with a big BUT: How do I as a father feel if my son do not call me,  talk to me, acknowledge me daily? Now I don't know where they came from but isn't that what been going on in most people's life nowadays? I remembered I did not see or talk to my old man for many many years until almost towards his end. Did that make me any less his son?

So when that line fails, they revert to the all time favourite Christian's triumph card ~ Heaven and Hell of course. Normally that will pissed me off no end because I hate it whenever Christian talks about believers going to Heaven and everybody else going down under because conversion by fear is something that I never believe in and which is one of the big reason why I stopped going to Church. But these are close friends so no offence taken and we diverted our talk to more sinful matters like the unfortunate Rony Tan saga.

But of course the ladies have to have a last say and this SMS came later while on my way home: "Praying tt u will find success in Christ!". The problem with this is that I didn't know I was a failure. Jeez!

清明节

This is the Chinese 清明节 month or Tomb Sweeping Festival where the Chinese honors their ancestors by 'sweeping' or cleaning the tomb. It is not as well known as the other ancestors remembrance 7th month or more infamously known as the Hungry Ghost month.Back to the Tomb Sweeping Festival.

Here in Singapore, there are only a few pockets of tombs left so the practice of sweeping tomb is more or less dying out. Traditionally though, the descendants will descend on the tomb 3 weeks before the actual day to clean it up before following it up with a 'feast' for the deceased.So if there is no tomb, then sweep what?

Most deceased are cremated and the ashes are kept in public crematorium or Chinese Temple. And so the past 2 weeks, we have been making the rounds.

The first was the Mandai Crematorium where the deceased are housed in HDB looking block of 'flats'. The environment here is serene very suitable for the dead who I am sure appreciate the peace and quietness.

The ashes of the deceased are kept in urns placed into the niches. Flowers, mostly fakes are placed on the outside of the niche. One macabre thing is that the living can also buy the niche space and reserve it for themselves so that presumably they can be next to their families and loves one when it is their time to reside there. What is most sad is to see the small toys placed here and there in memory of the little ones who has no chance to grow up. The aisle are kept clean by a battery of cleaners so the 'tomb' sweeping seems to be redundant here.

Over in Bedok South, is this temple where the remains of M's ancestors are kept.

Temples like this all over the island have alloted spaces within the temple to house the remains and these places don't come cheap. Like real property, the 'purchase price' varies according to location. Pay more for eye level niches spaces, better view.

Is there a Christian equivalent of these?

Christians have no rights?

As I trawled the internet for the latest on the Rony Tan saga, one thing strike me. On blogs and especially forums, the attacks come fast and furious. There are plenty of name calling, hate mail, flame and most of it were 1 way - towards Rony Tan and in many instances, Christianity and the churches. The response by Christians in contrast were more muted. And this remind me of the Aware saga where the takeover of  Aware became an attack on not just the challengers but on Christianity.

Which is interesting. Where are the police reports filed against these people? Or is it alright to bash Christian but not alright for Christian to bash others? Or is it because Christian are perceived to be easy target (turn the other cheek?) and can be bullied? Or is it that Christians have made themselves so unpopular with their 'superior than thou' attitude and 'you sinners, we believers' mentality that they have become the boxing bag for everybody?

But thankfully here in SG, Christians are not so confrontational and should rightly be so otherwise we will end up like certain countries.

Hopefully, the whole thing will blow over soon and peace will return. And hopefully, I won't get invited to coffee by the good people at ISD for writing this.

Gays got no righst!

"next time people will want to get married to monkeys. And they will want rights"

Who said that?

Ha ha ha no prize for guessing.

But it is not a joke. And I am not laughing. In fact I pity the poor chap and I completely agree with him on his comments.

This has nothing to do with bestiality as alleged by the pro-gay/lesbian community.

It is about basic rights and as far as I am concern, in Singapore, if you are a gay/lesbian, you have no rights. The vocal minority voices of the gays are getting irritating and annoying. And it is time the silent majority come out loud and tell them to shut up and if they are not happy with the treatment they are receiving in Singapore, fine, leave and go to the US, Netherlands or wherever where there are no morals and there they can do what they want!

So I hope the police throw out the complaints. I don't see any merit in it at all or what grounds they have. To accuse Pastor Rony Tan of creating unrest among the different class of people is stretching the truth too far. In the first place, who was it that deliberately uploaded a 9 months old video in the church domain to the public domain? What was the motive? Is it as one gay leader was quoted as saying "this might be an opportunity to establish gays and lesbians to be a class of persons to be protected under the law"

But seriously, if we bow to the voices of these 'minorities', do we want a situation where we allowed gay marriage in Singapore? Or allowed 2 gay men to adopt a child? Or what if everybody demands that they have the right to practice what they believe and everybody must respect their rights, all in the name of basic human respect? What if a man demands to marry his daughter? Or 2 siblings claimed they are in love and insist on getting married? Are we going to allow that? And he is not so far off in the monkey thing. A guy in Japan married an anime character; a guy in India married a dog; another in Sudan married a goat while one in England married a sheep and a French lady married a dead man!

So it is not gay bashing. It is about what is right or wrong. Not just in the eyes of God but in the eyes of the law and what is acceptable public moral and last I heard, homosexuality is still illegal in Singapore!

Getting Ready....

After the funeral on Tues, Mum asked us to follow her out on Friday morning. Where did she bring us to? The temple where she usually goes. Her purpose? To show us where she wants the wake to be held and the place for the ancestral tablet to be placed when her times come. Gross?

I guess the death of somebody who is her peer had rattled her much more than we realized. Should have known when after one visit to the wake, she refused to go again citing tiredness. Not like her.

Maybe it is better. At least when the time comes, we know what to do. (hands firmly on woodJ) but hopefully that will be a long long time in the future.

Miracle Breakthrough Service

For the first time in many many years, I stepped into a church, not for a wedding service but for service. But it was nearly not meant to be.

It was Good Friday and at the invitation of a good friend, M & I went to Lighthouse Evangelism at Tampines for their Good Friday Miracle Breakthrough service. Maybe I really have been out of the church scene for too long but things really have changed. We got there late as we had problem finding a parking lot and had to park much farther away. And when we finally reached the church, I was so surprised that it was full and people were milling outside because they couldn't go in and the usher refused to let anybody in. That was it! At that moment, I thought this wasn't meant to be M time to hear the Lord's message. But our friend, who had invited us came through in the end and she and her children gave up their seats for us so in the end we managed to go in. Thanks Mich but a church turning people away? That was something I certaininly had never expect to see.

And there was a second surprise for the evening. The hall we were in was on the first floor and the service was being conducted from the church at Woodland and broadcast live. That was something new to me. I have heard about this of course but somehow it wasn't the same looking at somebody on a video screen and singing along without a worship leader. And the thing is we were on one floor and there was another 2 floors of people looking at the same video broadcast. Which was really so unreal to me.

This wasn't a worship service. Rather as named, it was a Miracle Breakthrough, an evangelical and healing service for the non-believer and sick. The 3rd surprise was hearing the testimony of 2 Mediacorp artises, Rayson Tan and Chen Liping. I didn't know they were Christian. More surprising was that it was another Mediacorp artiste, Li Naxing who introduced them to Christ. The testimony was done interview style by Pastor Rony Tan and centres on their lifes before Christ and how they accepted Christ.

This was followed by a call for non-believers to stand up and accept Christ. Was M sufficiently touched by the testimony? Apparently not, caused she stayed put in her seat but in a way I am not sad. I could like it that should she one day choose to accept Christ, it will not because of some charismatic pastor and emotional feeling from the service or pressure from anybody but because she is ready and sure. Just like Chen Liping. In her sharing, she was the first one to felt the touch of the Spirit and the call of God but it was Rayson Tan, who was brought up in a traditional Taoist family and who was by their own accord very supersitious and religious who accepted Christ earlier while Chen Liping took some time to be 'ready'.

This segment was followed by a mass 'healing' session. Now while I accept that God can perform miracles and healing, I am always uncomfortable by mass session like this. Maybe I should just go to a traditional church although I think those are a dying breed judging by the number of flourishing 'modern' chuch. Even Lighthouse, when I was a student worshiping at Jubilee Church, Lighthouse which was actually a breakaway church from Jubilee had just a handful of members worshipping in a small rental shophouse at Holland V. Look at how it has grown! Anybody know of any traditional church to recommend?

Blackmail

I don't like junk mail and I am not talking about those you find in the letter box. I am talking about those silly chain letters that people circulate via email; the type that ends with "send this to xxx people and you will be rich/misfortune will strike you blah blah blah....

So I do not have a habit of reading them more so forwarding them. I find people who forward this type of letter silly... imagine Microsoft giving $$$ to people to forward email (have anybody figure out how they are going to trace all these emails in the first place) or misfortune will strike you (if so I must have died a thousand death by now) BUT and this is a very big but the type of chain mail I hate the most are those with a religious message that goes something like:

"It is easy to pass jokes or foolish photos but when it comes to God, sometimes you feel ashamed to forward to others because ,............"

This latest one I got ends with:

If you are not ashamed in doing this, please, follow Jesus’ instructions. He said (Matthew 10:33): “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven". If you are not ashamed, send this message... Only if you believe in Him."

It is not right to coerce people to forward things about religion using this method. Things like that should be all about free will and personal belief and not because some one makes you out to be ashamed of your own God! That is emotional blackmail!.

I am not ashamed of anything but as a matter of principal I do not forward chain mail of any sort and secondly I understand the sensitivity of sending religious materials to friends etc. Yea I can hear some people out there saying "but it is your duty to evangelise, spread the word of God blah....." and I agree but there is a time and a place for this and using chain mail with a threat of the wrath of God or ashamed of God is not it.

It will only turn people off just like those pompous rich people in those upmarket churches here who speak with a "my religion is superior to yours, therefore I am superior to you and you better believe in my God or you will go to hell....." attitude.

So good Christian friends out there - if you are reading this. thank you very much for your thoughts but please do not send me any such email in future. If you must share, set up a blog like a good friend of mine does and I will happily go there and read of my own free will.

Funeral

Attended the mother of all funeral. I have participated in many funerals sometime as a kin of the deceased and some time as a friend of the deceased's kins but never one this size.

This was a traditional Teochew funeral and on 

Monday's night, the size of the 'Kong Ter' altar absolutely blow us all away. It was hugh. At least 3 storey high and the High Priest sat on something akin to a second storey. But of course it has to be big since the deceased was the Life Honorary President of the Seu Teck Sang Tong, a chain of traditional charitable monastery in Singapore and Malaysia and the deceased was known at one time as 'The Richest Teochew in Singapore'. That plus the other Sang Tong as in Boon Teck and Thong Teck also turned up made the sending one a gigantic 'party' to use the words loosely.

On Tuesday, at the actual funeral, things were a little bit more modest. No stilt walkers, no

 dragons but there was a modern chinese orchestra. Modern as in there was guitar, drum, keyboard but that also come with erhu, pipa and what's not. I guess music has gone fusion as well. And this group played well - much better than the band of motley old men playing the traditional pop  songs. But one thing about these bands. Don't they have any idea what the songs they are playing mean? I have heard 'Beautiful Sunday' being played at funeral before and today I heard 'When A Child is Born' (song by Johnny Mathis) played horribly by the old men band; Teresa Teng's Goodbye My Love (this one always bring a lump in my throat when I hear it at funeral); Auld Lang Syne (okay these 2 maybe appropriate) but the last one was believe it or not - Amazing Grace! I couldn't believe my ears - a Christian hymns at a traditional Chinese funeral!  It's enough to raise the dead!

The Golden Compass

Got another email from a friend forwarding yet another warning not to watch the Golden Compass. This one came with a 10 pages PDF doc written by a local pastor. At least in this case, the writer appears to be more lucid and more analytical in his writing as compared to the earlier emails which was just parroting the warning from overseas. The main arguments against the movie however is still the same - that the movie promote the belief in atheism; that God is the source of evil and evil is the source of good???; glamorize evil, sorcery, violence, withcraft and steers children toward evil. The writer also rants against the author Phillip Pullman who is a self declared atheist and whose supposingly sole objective in life is to put down God. (Question - if one believe there is no God - then why does one need to keep on trying to destroy God?)

After reading the article, what is one supposed to do? I did the most logical things any kaypoh will do - I promptly went to watch the movie! And I hereby declared that I am now officially an atheist! No I kidding!

None of us came out from the movie agreeing that there was no God or that God was evil. In fact, throughout the show, there was nothing to indicate that the show was anti-God or anything like that. It was just a simple show about kids fighting a more powerful force using magic, witchcraft - like Harry Potter (oops that's another no-no show) so may be like Narnia. So what's the difference between The Golden Compass and Narnia? Both are about children using magic to fight evil and there are magical creatures (polar bear in GC & lion in N). So I guess ultimately, the difference boils down to who is the author - one a self proclaimed atheist and one a famous Christian. So would there be a hooha if the author of this book is a nobody or a Christian?

For those who goes to movies, movies are just movies - suspend all your belief. It may come as a surprise to some peopl but there is no superman; spiderman; Luke Skywalker; Harry Potter; etc etc. Just sit back with the popcorn and enjoy the movies for its entertainment value. Don't go reading anything more into the movie.

Finally it is not right to boycott a book over the author's belief or religion. There are many wonderful books written by Muslim, Buddhist and we need to broaden our knowledge by exposing ourself to a wide range of differing materials. There is no point in being an ostrich sticking his head in the sand and trying to ignore or will away everything that is against our belief.

Anti-Christianity Movies

Got an email from a friend who had forwarded an email advocating/cajoling people (read Christian) not to watch the movie - The Golden Compass. The zealots are up in arms against it because it supposingly promotes atheism. Now I wondered how they got to this conclusion when the movie has not even premiere yet? They became expert just because they read the book or somebody said so?

This is not the first movie that got 'hit'. I remembered when the movie A1 first came out in 2001, a good friend was writing left/right/centre to every Christians she knows not to watch the show because it implies that robots can become human (or something like that) and therefore it steps on the Christian's belief that only God is the creator of human.

Then of course there is the famous Harry Potter. That time round when the first book came out, a number of churches got into the act and openly advise their congregation not to read the book or watch the movie - why because it promotes witchcraft! I found this out from my niece when she complained her mother refused to let her read the book or watch the movie.

More recently, we have the Da Vinci Code with its supposingly shocking and some say heretical view on the origin of Christ and His descendants.

Anyway, I have read the books and/or saw the movies (except for the Golden Compass) and am not persuaded by the arguments that these people have that there is anything prejudice against Christianity. At the end of the day, I think movie makers and authors are out to make money and the best way to make money is to court controversy. I doubt they have any hidden agenda other than that. The more the people protest, the more interest in the subject is generated and sales increases. So to all those who are making noise and passing judgement, lighten up and look at everything and take everything with a pinch of salt. May be this could also be a good time to test whether your faith can withstand this sort of propaganda (if there really is one in the first place).

To end, I let the reply from my friend who forwarded me the email on the Golden Compass says it all:

Quote:

"anyway, all these hype will only certainly do one thing, create awareness or attention (necessary or unnecessary is another story).....

i strongly believe what said in Romans 8:28.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose.

Can be a good conversation piece to start sharing the good news!" unquote

That's the spirit!

Christianity vs

Just a thought.

1. The Taoist and Buddhist consider anybody who holds a joss stick or pray at any festivals or temple as one of their own
2. A person born into a Indian or Muslim household automatically follow the main religion of the household
3. Some more for the Muslim - once a Muslim forever a Muslim even if a person want to disown his religion also cannot
4. A person who stop practising any of his religion or breach any of its rules is gladly welcomed back anytime
5. Dress shabbily at any of these places and you are still warmly welcomed and nobody bat an eyelid

But....

For the Christian, who are supposed to be the most evangelical people among the the major religious groups, they

1. You are not considered a Christian until you are 1) born again and 2) baptized
2. You may be born into a Christian family but still need to be baptized before being considered a Christian
3. The minute you stop doing 'Christianly' things like going to Church, you are marked as an 'backslider'
4. Breach its rules and some Christian communities even ostracize you!
5. Dress shabbily in Churches and see the frown. Worse still if they start treating you like a charity case.

Is it any wonder that society in general see Christianity as a religion only for the high and mighty.