The Straitstimes Singapore reported both young and old S’poreans and PR’s had attended a colorful Pink Dot 2017 at the Speaker’s Corner, Hong Lim Park. But older gay S’poreans were rare indeed at the event.

Apart from the few old time activist straight alies, it was a young pink dot who put on the Rainbow lights in the night display. Those over 45 were absent by enlarge. So it was a picnic outing for young S’poreans, the Y and Z generations.

The Ang Mohs were in fully air conditioned pubs nearby seeing the live feeds. So Google, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and the likes were nearby and attended in the spirit but hardly a stone throw away at the nearby Chinatown Pubs, Boat Quay and Clark Quay.

The barricades and entry checks did not stop younger S’poreans because they had overcome a much greater barrier to accept themselves and to come out of the closet in their teenage. Hence, Pink Dot 2017 becomes a celebration of their right and freedom to love for the many years ahead left in their youth and young adult life. Pink Dot becomes a celebration of coming out with the rainbow lighted banner brightly displayed for all to see.

The Pink Dot 2017 was held close to the heart of Christianity in Singapore, St Andrews Cathedral. Part of Love Singapore by Lawrence Khong, it had insisted on its speaking rights against Pink Dot. But speaking rights do not extend to stealing rights. When the basic freedom and rights of others, the freedom to love and be loved are stolen from the least, this is injustice. Perpetuating harm will cause great harm in return to the churches’ standing.

The Christian Right has insisted that 377a remains a crime. They are making genuine love a crime. Yet not insisting that abortion, prostitution and adultery a crime. When the pharisees insisted on judgement under the law, something happened, their hidden sins increased like a white washed tomb. When the Jews said they were well able to abide by the law at Mt Sinai, the next day they committed abomination.

It is not freedom to do anything, but the same freedom to love between two straight people. Only when we preach the law, we will hide our sins, and in darkness, we have the freedom to do the things we wish not to be exposed. That was what happened in the Catholic church sexual abuse cases.

In Singapore, City Harvest had emphasised on the Ten Commandments and the love commandments, but all the time getting deeper into hidden sins. We are judged in the same manner as we had judged others. Therefore when the verdict came out on the CHC case, there was a strong public outcry. There is no way to abide by the commandments which were meant to reveal our sin and our need for a Saviour.

The celebration of the freedom to love for the young ones became a reminder of the freedom of love stolen for the oldies. As i sat there in the pink dot in the midst of a concert like atmosphere of young people, i came to lament a loss, of my loss and freedom to love stolen.

We can’t turn back the clock anymore. I met a good friend and commented how haggard he looked perhaps he had been in the sun a few days. Maybe subconsciously i was reflecting my own life, all wrinkled, thinning hairline, saging face, and tired looks.

The most angry and bitter people are not those sitting in the church pews wearing white, but those whose freedom to love has been stolen. Hence, they are often very demanding and critical. Some of my friends have lost everything, even their family and house through ugly divorce. Others are so closeted, trapped in a virtual jail, living in the condemnation cast on them by the church. For many, theirs lives, hopes and dreams are essentially over. We have every right to be angry for the deep loss in our heart.

I am reminded of an old Scripture in Song chorus taken from Isa 61.3

Put of the Garment of Praise, for the Spirit of heaviness, lift up your voice to God. Praise with the Spirit and with understanding, O magnify the Lord.

All you that mourn in Zion, I have authority. To appoint unto you in Zion, oil of joy that will set you free.

Lift up the hands now hang down, lift up the voice now still, give unto God continuous praise, sing forth from Zion’s hill

One of the most amazing paradox for the church of zion that is built on the Cross where our faith is based on Jesus Christ the Son of God dying and resurrecting on the 3rd day, is that when we loose everything but then placed our lost and mourning on the Cross at Mt Zion, we stand to gain what we have lost and more. In God’s grace, redemption flows because Jesus bore the penalty of those who had stolen from us.

It is Jesus Christ now at the right hand side of Father God in heaven who is given the authority in heaven to bring back our joy with an oil of joy that will set us free praising Jesus. When we give Jesus all our pain, sorrows and mourning, He will redeem all that we had lost.

The enemy, the devil, may have stolen our fredom to love and our heart in despair, but our redemption is in Christ Jesus, in the finished work of the Cross. It is found when despite all our heavy heart, we put on the garment praise, singing in tongues, praising God with thanksgiving.

Soon the curtain will dawn in our lives, and we will meet again somewhere in heaven. The greatest thing is to be still alive everyday and to give thanks God for each new day. What we have lost on earth will be nothing compared to the glory that awaits us in heaven.