One would think that a pastor would understand that saying “I’m sorry” is not the same as asking his flock to forgive him for sinning against them by misappropriating 35 million of their hard earned money. Hee and several cohorts were convicted of using church funds to make his wife a popstar. You can’t make this stuff up, brethren. According to Christian Today:
City Harvest Church’s pastor Kong Hee apologised to his congregation this weekend after the guilty verdict in his trial for fraud.
According to the Asia One news service, on Sunday morning Kong faced a crowded auditorium at the Suntec convention centre, bowed and said, “Pastor is sorry”. He had used the same words at a service on Saturday night.
Kong, his deputy pastor Tan Ye Peng, finance manager Sharon Tan and former finance manager Serina Wee, were found guilty with former board members John Lam and Chew Eng Han of misusing $17 million from the church’s building fund to further the music career of Kong’s wife Ho Yeow Sun, known as Sun Ho. A further $18.5 million was used to cover up the scheme through a complicated system of bond issues and ’round-tripping’ transactions in which the church used its own money to pay debt owed to it.