Church of Our Saviour accused of forcing people to convert to Christianity

A netizen has accused the Church of Our Saviour (COOS) of “unethically and forcefully converting people” to Christianity, after their Buddhist father was allegedly issued a conversion certificate even though he did not agree to convert.

Reddit user u/IamPsauL, who identifies as a “free thinker” and not “anti-Christian”, wrote on the Singapore subreddit that a member of the church issued the certificate to their father after coming to their house and talking to him about religion:

“My dad recently received a ‘Certificate’ from someone who is a christian from Church of our Saviour. Apparently, this person came over to my house a few times and talked to my dad on stuffs related to the religion. My dad isn’t interested in those talks though foolishly, he provided his name to this person.

“And voila, a certificate was issued as a result. He didn’t even agree to change his religion (He’s following Buddhism) and this person just issue a certificate claiming he’s a convert. This certificate can be googled and it is in mandarin, written with title: 重生证书”

Calling such actions “very unethical and disgusting,” the netizen shared a photo of the conversion certificate online:

The netizen added: “While we preach religious harmony, there are people like this walking around in our society preying on people whom might not be at the same mental level as them. Shame on them and their actions.”

This is not the first time the Church of Our Saviour has been in the news. Six members of the church, including “feminist mentor” Thio Su Mien, are among the nine individuals who orchestrated the controversial hijacking of gender equality advocacy group Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) almost a decade ago, in 2009.

The aggressive takeover of the group, which came to be known as the “AWARE saga”, involved a group of women (and some men) with strong anti-LGBT and right-wing Christian leanings. The new exco was eventually ousted after a vote of no confidence was passed at an extraordinary general meeting.

The Independent has contacted the Church of Our Saviour for comment on this latest incident. We will update this story once we receive a response.