The Society For Truth And Light

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The Society For Truth And Light (STL, Chinese: 明光社) is an organization with an official mission of "address[ing] social ethics, media behaviour, and sex culture in Hong Kong" from fundamentalist Christian point of view "to care the society and service people through research, monitoring, education and publishing."[1]

However it is being widely criticised due to it conservative stances on moral issues. During a heated public debate between the group and its opponents, the group is being labelled it as "moral terrorists" and "moral Taliban"[2] who attempt to "talibanize" the community.

Contents

[edit] History

The Society For Truth and Light was established in May 1997, led by Choi Chi-sum. The group positions itself as "conservative" and defines itself as the vanguard of upholding traditional values against the "trends of radical libertarianism, feminism and extreme individualism" in modern society.[citation needed] The society has opined on social problems concerning sex in recent years. For instance, one of its founders believes that it is immoral for women to wear bikinis;[3] while Choi Chi-Sum believe masturbation is immoral regardless of marital status.[4]

Under the slogan of encouraging active participation in social matters, a strategy utilized by Christian Rightists in United States, members of the group have participated in establishments such as the Obscene Articles Tribunal.[citation needed]

[edit] Relationship with the authorities

While itself registered as a charity and raised fund through charity channels, the group received funding from government departments such as the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA) of the Government of Hong Kong SAR, totaling HK$750,000 (approximately US$100,000) since 2001 [5] and raised suspicions from the public regarding the possible existence of "patron-client relationships" (Chinese: 利益輸送)[5].

During an interview by the Next Magazine in June 2007, the founder and chief executive of the group, Choi Chi-Sum, admitted that the TELA has channeled public funding to the group in order to generate complaints about "irresponsible media". This was done by encouraging schools students to lodge complaints using the standard complaint letter templates produced by the group[4].

[edit] Controversies

The Society For Truth And Light is criticized for utlising its relationship with the censorship authorities, such as the Broadcasting Authority and the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority, to pursue the organisation's goal and mission[5].

[edit] An Autumn's Tale

An Autumn's Tale (Chinese: 秋天的童話), an award-winning Hong Kong movie, has been repeatedly broadcast at full length on local television. In 2007, when it was again broadcast on TVB Jade Channel, a priest affiliated to The Society For Truth And Light lodged a complaint to the Broadcasting Authority about the "vulgar language" in the movie. He argued that the movie was broadcast at a time when parents will not be home to provide parental guidance. The Authority accepted his view and classified the film as "obscenic" based on this sole complain while receiving 177 counter-complaints on this decision.[6] TVB eventually yielded into pressure from the establishment and removed the scene containing vulgar language.

The ruling of the Broadcasting Authority provoked an outcry from the public, who called it 'stupid', 'complete absence of common sense', 'attacking the freedom of expression'[6]. In return, The Society For Truth And Light created a massive signatory campaign in which over 1000 persons wrote on standardised letter paper printed by the group to support the ruling by the Authority.

The Legislative Council later held a meeting to discuss the decision of the Authority. The Society For Truth And Light, along with other Christian fundamentalist groups, defended the decision of the Authority in the session. Despite the heavy lobbying effort by these groups,[7] the Council passed a motion on 'strongly urging Broadcasting Authority to withdraw its position',[8] even though the Broadcasting Authority refuses to back down.

[edit] RTHK TV documentary: Gay Lover

In the same compliant, the same Christian Priest made his case to the Broadcasting Authority about what he thought is a "biased" view of the TV documentary Gay Lover (Chinese: 同志．戀人). Produced by Radio Television Hong Kong, the show focused on the difficulties faced by homosexual couples as well as the issue of same-sex marriage in Hong Kong. The Broadcasting Authority ruled against RTHK[6], which provoked a public outcry and the Authority received 160 counter-compliants[6], who regarded the judgment unfair and made without considering common sense and interest of the public. The Legislative Council, in the same motion for An Autumn's Tale case, urging the Authority to withdraw the decision[8]. In response, the Society For Truth And Light initialized a signatory campaign in support of the decision by the Authority. The ruling itself is currently being looked over by a judicial review.

[edit] Gay rights

The Society For Truth And Light strongly opposes gay rights and same-sex marriage because it claims that the inborn immutability and discrimination claimed by the gay and pro-gay activists are "invalid". Other than the society's belief in the biblical norms which it explicitly denies, it claims there is support from related "scientific and social research". On course of consultation on legislation against discrimination on sexuality by Hong Kong Government, the group paid for frontpage advertisements on newspapers explaining their stance. The advertisements were signed by medical professionals who positioned themselves to be experts in the study of sexually transmitted diseases, they implied that there is a link between homosexuality and paedophilia. The Society For Truth And Light has paid for advertisement space in the front and second pages of various newspaper for 23 consecutive days,[9] amounting to an estimated cost of about $1 million Hong Kong dollars(approximately US$ 128,000). The proposed bill is then frozen by the government in respond "public sentiment".

The group consistently positions itself as a victim of reverse discrimination in the gay rights issue. The "reverse discrimination", in the group's context, means the right to discriminate against minority groups.

[edit] 'Human rights' education

In October 2005 the society won a contract to produce teaching materials for human rights education in schools. It was awarded by the Education Bureau (then Education and Manpower Bureau) of the Hong Kong SAR Government.[10]

The course itself attracted widespread criticism and protest, including a hunger strike by an expatriate teacher who was against the society's homophobic stances that were assimilated into the course content. Besides this the major criticism towards the course content include[10]

  • The misrepresentation of the concept of human rights - the course claimed human rights were not a "basic right and freedom to which all humans are entitled", but only as a goods/services that has to be "exchanged" by the fulfillment of "personal" or "religious" responsibility "towards family and the society". Per the course content claimed, those who do not fulfill these requirements (e.g. respect towards parents) have no right to "enjoy the benefit of human rights".
  • Course tutors were inexperienced and incapable to deliver the course, and they have no prior knowledge to the "human rights" concept prescript by this course.

[edit] Fund raising campaigns

According to the official papers submitted by the Society for the permission of public fund raising campaigns, it plans to raise a total of HK$13 million (approximately US$1.6 million) in year 2007, 70% of which will be spent on capital investments such as establishing new offices for the group while the remaining will finance the payroll of its staff and executives.[citation needed]

[edit] 8/24 court case on age of consent

In August 2005 the government lost the case Leung T C William Roy v. Secrertary For Justice, where the applicant had requested a judicial review by the High Court on the law related to age of consent on gay sex (which was being set to 21 at the time), on the ground that the provisions in Section 118, Crimes Ordinance is discrimatory and against both the Basic Law of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights.

However, under the intense pressure of several "pro-family" groups, including The Society of Truth and Light, the government has decided to appeal against the ruling on the grounds of "public health". Eventually the appeal was turned down by the Court of Appeal[11] and the government was ordered to pay the cost.

[edit] Chinese University Student Press incident

Main article: Chinese University Student Press
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[edit] G.O.D. Incident

G.O.D, a designer furniture chain retailer in the territory, was raided by Hong Kong Police in 1 November 2007 on suspicion of selling triad-related t-shirts. The T-shirts bear the Traditional Chinese character of fourteen (Chinese:拾肆, Roman numeric: 14) K (literally 14000), which was a parody to a local triad bearing a similar name but in Roman numeric characters. As stated by the police, the printing carried by these T-shirts were contravening the Section 151, Societies Ordanance.[12]

However, sales of the T-shirts went unnoticed since its debut in September 2007 and did not catch public attention until an interview involving The Society of Truth and Light on 31 October 2007, who accused G.O.D. of glorifying triads and imposing a "negative" impact on children.[13] The raid by the Hong Kong Police happened on the next day, right after the accusation by The Society of Truth and Light was published on Apple Daily.

18 persons, including the designer, owners and other retail staff on duty, were arrested and later bailed. This caused an outcry from the creative community describing it as a white terror which "brutally crushed the freedom of expression"[citation needed] as being granted by the Basic Law of Hong Kong.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chinese literal tranlation: "Mission of the Society, The Society For Truth and Light". The Society For Truth and Light. Retrieved on 3 November 2007.
  2. ^ 誰是道德塔利班？吳志森蔡志森吳敏倫關啟文同場交流 (Traditional Chinese). inmediahk.net. Retrieved on 28 August 2007.
  3. ^ 校長創明光社正道德風氣 (Traditional Chinese). Ming Pao. Retrieved on 19 July 2007.
  4. ^ a b 壹周刊: 性戰沙皇蔡志森 (literal translation: Next Media: Sex Czar Choi Chi-Sum) (Traditional Chinese). Next Magazine. Retrieved on 29 August 2007.
  5. ^ a b c 不送審《聖經》惹利益輸送之嫌 影視處被揭資助教會團體 (Traditional Chinese). Apple Daily. Retrieved on 6 November 2007.
  6. ^ a b c d 勒令剪《秋天》對白 打壓同志紀錄片 廣管局接177宗反投訴. Apple Daily. Retrieved on 3 November 2007.
  7. ^ 就「與香港電台編輯自主及廣播事務管理局作出懲處的尺度有關的事宜」的意見 明光社. Legislative Council. Retrieved on 3 November 2007.
  8. ^ a b [http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr06-07/english/counmtg/agenda/cmtg0328.htm Legislative Council Agenda, 28 March 2007]. Legislative Council. Retrieved on 6 November 2007.
  9. ^ Scanned copies of the advertisement on Ming Pao newspaper. Advertised between 25 July - 30 September 2005. The Society for Truth and Light official website. Retrieved on 30 August 2007.
  10. ^ a b Pearl Report - The Truth Of Truth Light Society, 4 December 2005, TVB Pearl Channel
  11. ^ High Court Judgement, Leung T C William Roy v. Secrertary For Justice (CACV317/2005), 20 September 2006.
  12. ^ G.O.D. forbid!. Yahoo! Hong Kong and The Standard. Retrieved on 2 November 2007.
  13. ^ 隔牆有耳：潮 Tee 明玩拾肆K. Apple Daily. Retrieved on 2 November 2007.

[edit] External links

List of Truth-Light Society Past Action

Languages