INTERNATIONAL CHURCH OF CHRIST
SCORES PARTIAL VICTORY

The International Church of Christ’s Singapore congregation, Central Christian Church, prevailed on one of five points in defamation suits filed against The New Paper; the Chinese-language evening paper, Lianhe Wanbao; and the Christian magazine, Impact.

In a Nov. 23, 1991, report, the newspapers called the group a cult. The CCC sought damages totaling $3.25 million (Singapore): $2.25 million from the editors of the two newspapers and $1 million from the magazine’s editor. Impact was named in the suit because it was used as a source by the two newspapers.

Justice Warren Khoo, who presided over the 18-day trial last July, threw out four of the five suits, saying the publications had been fair in their report. However, he said a front-page headline in The New Paper that read “2 Cults Exposed” amounted to sensationalism. He issued his ruling last November.

Khoo said that the defendants had failed to establish a basis for calling the CCC a cult. He said he found no evidence that the sect was a “half-crazed people” or a “secret organisation run by persons with an agenda” and that its members are permitted to leave the group if they desire.

The ICC had never sued one of its critics before. One ICC public document says: “How do you respond to critics who equate discipling with ‘mind control’ or ‘brain washing’? We try to respond with forbearance and love, for Christians have always been misunderstood and persecuted” (Media and Law, August 1, 1994).

Adrian van Leen, director of Concerned Christians Growth Ministries in Australia, was an expert witness called by the defense. Gordon Melton of The Institute for the Study of American Religion was the expert witness for the plaintiffs. Melton said the ICC is not a cult and further declined to label groups such as the People’s Temple (Jim Jones), the Church of Scientology, Japan’s Sum Supreme Truth, and several other sects as cults.

The amount for settlement of the defamatory headline will be determined later in a separate hearing.

—MKG

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