A netizen shared a flyer on faith-healing he received from Lighthouse Evangelism (LE) and said that he was surprised by the claims made in the flyer. The sheer number of illnesses which can be cured by attending the church’s miracle service is indeed a long one. He concluded that he will be a believer if amputees could grow their limbs after attending the miracle service.
Lighthouse Evangelism’s founder and senior pastor, Rony Tan, is also featured in the flyer. The flyer claimed that, “In 1975, God saved him (Tan) from a near death experience; and in 1979, he began proclaiming the full Gospel of salvation, healing and deliverance to multitudes both at home and abroad.”
In asking if anyone else received the flyer, the netizen said in jest:
“If this chap can really cure all the aliments mentioned in the flyer and more, Singapore should consider shutting down ALL our hospitals and medical schools and retrain all our doctors to be faith healers instead.
Maybe the whole world should be doing that.
Will the Health Promotion Board investigate such claims and verify? So maybe we need no more doctors and nurses and have no more complaints about labour shortage in this sector.
National Population Board take note too. He can also heal miscarriages. Your answer to our low birth rate?MAS take note. He can heal financial crisis too. You can probably sack your staff now. We have a ready remedy.
No need for medication. Just take vitamin F. No, not F for fake, but Faith!”
Checks on the church’s website (http://www.lighthouse.org.sg) show that LE takes their believe in miracle healing seriously. The church which is located in Tampines and Woodlands, has dedicated a weekend evening, every week, for its healing service. It also buses residents from various housing estates free of charge to their healing meetings (http://www.lighthouse.org.sg/busing.asp).
Listed on LE’s website are hundreds of testimonies of people who were healed by attending one of their weekly healing services. Those healed include simple ailments like headaches and toothaches and more complex ones like colour bindness, bipolar disorders and even autism.
In 2010, Pastor Tan earned the ire of some in the online community when video clips of him making insensitive comments about Buddhism went viral. It was reported that the Internal Security Department eventually called him up and told him that what he did was wrong.
Pastor Tan eventually posted an apology on the church’s website, promising to respect other faiths and ‘not ridicule them in any way, shape or fashion’.