A TikTok video of a young man who led the singing of Christian worship songs in several languages on Good Friday aboard an Easyjet plane went viral online, but all for the wrong reasons.
The 20-second clip titled “We are taking this flight over for Jesus!” has been viewed, commented on, and shared thousands of times. It shows a group of young people who had come from a humanitarian trip to Ukraine singing a Christian song of praise “How Great Is our God” while other passengers look decidedly uncomfortable.
https://www.tiktok.com/@jackjenszjr/video/7084616506868387114?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en
The group was led by Jonathan Neo, who is from Singapore.
The clip has gained many comments online, most of them negative, as netizens accused the group of “hijacking” people’s attention.
Even Christians were not in favour of the group’s action, with one writing, “As a person of faith, I implore you: Don’t do this… This kind of thing just turns people off.”
In Singapore, however, the actions of Mr Neo and his friends were defended by Mr Norman Ng, one of the pastors of 3:16 Church on Robinson Road.
“To see young Christians being unashamed and unapologetic about their faith, witnessing and ministering passionately is an answer to prayer that many have been praying for,” Mr Ng said on Apr 21 in a post on the church’s Facebook account.
The pastor observed that Singapore’s government is secular, and its society is multicultural and multi-religious.
“The beauty of this nation is not in the exclusion of religious practices and views but a neutral platform for the free exercise of all cultural diversities which are beautiful and valuable to a thriving culture,” he added.
He also wrote, “Regardless, people will disagree with Jon’s actions, especially on social media.”
Some commuters on his post held the same view as he does, but other netizens, many of whom profess to be Christians as well, expressed that they disagreed with the pastor.
Over a thousand netizens have dropped comments on his post, with a majority of them rejecting the points Mr Ng made.
/TISG