The Skeptical Optimist

I’ve been following the events at AWARE, a women’s organisation in Singapore that champions gender equality, with great interest. Basically, for all you non-Singaporean readers of my blog, AWARE was an all-inclusive women’s organisation that helped all women regardless of race, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Recently there was a “coup” where the veteran executive committee members were pushed out in elections by relative newcomers whom had joined in the past 3 months for the express purpose of staging what one could call a hostile takeover of the organisation. These new members who now control AWARE recently had a press conference where they stated that they had done so because they were unhappy with what they deemed the pro-homosexual stance of the previous leaders of AWARE. Many of the new members of the committee come from a conservative Christian church which believes among other things that homosexuals can be “reformed” and that women should be “subjugated” to their husbands who are the heads of the family.

(deep breath)

It’s very difficult to articulate how I feel about this without just ranting or becoming completely impartial. I shall state for the record that I am happily married, with 2 children and was brought up Catholic. However, I have many friends who are single, gay, unmarried with children, confused (nothing wrong with that) and have made life choices that would not be considered conventional ones. I care for all of them and refuse to pass any judgements on the decisions they have made. In fact, I find that it’s often these friends who are the most empathetic, tolerant and open to new ideas and challenges.

Back to the issue at hand, it’s one thing to hold conservative views on homosexuality and premarital sex because of your religious affliations – everyone has the right to their own opinion and everyone respects that. It’s even ok to air your views in public platforms or blogs. But it is not ok to stage a takeover of a secular organisation that has been a welcoming and understanding place for every woman, regardless of their life choices or sexual orientation. As ethicist Alex Serranti pointed out in a truly incisive essay, women who are faced with babies out of wedlock, rape victims, victims of gay-bashing, wives in abusive marriages, all turned to AWARE before knowing they would get non-judgemental help. Can this still happen with the new AWARE with its patently Christian agenda that is pro-abstinence, anti-abortion, anti-homosexual and pro-family.  (not to say I am anti-family or that anyone is, but families in abusive situations should not be allowed to continue). I’m afraid to say I’m not confident that this organisation can now represent my friend who is in a happy, stable gay relationship or my friend who recently had a baby out of wedlock, without passing some kind of biblical judgement on them.

Can a secular organisation be allowed to be taken over by a group of women openly declaring their religious leanings and openly admitting that it led them to stage this “coup”? I’m not sure how this saga ends, but it’s a sad thing if to further your own agenda you can’t set up your own organisation but have to take down the work of a veteran women’s rights NGO and turn it into a mouthpiece for your own beliefs. Civil society groups are secular and should be for everyone and include a plurality of views. They should be open, tolerant and not secretive, manipulative or manipulated.

Tags: aware, civil society, secular vs religious