Thousands from two church groups turn up in white, say organisers

SINGAPORE - Thousands of churchgoers from the Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) and the Love Singapore network of churches dressed in white on Sunday in support of a campaign to champion family values and to speak up against a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rally a day before.

The largest turnout was at FCBC, where almost all of the 6,400 members present wore white at its worship service at the Suntec Convention Centre, said a church spokesman.

At Bethesda (Bedok-Tampines) Church (BBTC) in Bedok, about 90 per cent of the 2,500 attendees wore white, said its senior pastor Daniel Foo.

They had done so to support a Wear White campaign that Muslim religious teacher Noor Deros launched on Saturday to promote traditional family values and protest against homosexuality. Mr Khong had pledged the support of the churches he leads, in an unprecedented cooperation of its kind by Christian and Muslim groups.

On Saturday, the annual Pink Dot event to support gay rights drew a record 26,000, despite religious groups voicing their opposition.

Mr Khong said at Sunday's FCBC church service: "We are wearing white today because we want to preserve purity in our homes. A family must come from a man as a father and a woman as a mother."

Despite the show of support at his own church, Mr Khong said there were also churches that could not get their members to wear white, and that one even had members who wanted to turn up dressed in pink.

A day before some Muslims had also worn white to mosques around Singapore in support of the Wear White campaign. Organisers said on Facebook on Sunday that the campaign had gone "much better than any of us expected".

They said they received reports from mosques across Singapore of Muslims dressed in white on Saturday for the special prayers to mark the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which started today.

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