South African Christian News: Telling the God Stories of Africa
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development recently released the long-awaited and very controversial Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill. (The Bill is available for download at http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/invitations/invites.htm). In essence, the bill creates two new criminal offences in South African law, namely “hate crimes” and “hate […]
The CRL Rights Commission has granted a request by religious bodies for more time to respond to its controversial proposals on the regulation of religion. The CRL’s report on the “commercia isation” of religion was published on October 26 and religious bodies were given until November 18 to comment. The […]
While it is disturbed by apparent abuses within religious communities, the cure proposed by the CRL Rights Commission — to regulate religious bodies and licence religious practitioners — would be a thousand times worse than the described disease, says the Christian Citizenship Network of the Baptist Union of Southern Africa. Calling on the commission […]
Originally published in Christian Today. An evangelical Christian university in Canada has won a decision by the Appeal Court of British Columbia (BC) in favour of its ‘community covenant’ that bans its students from having sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage. The Appeal Court of BC yesterday released its decision […]
The Church in South Africa is facing a two-pronged onslaught to its mission to preach the gospel without interference from the State. This threat comes from the CRL Rights Commission and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. The CRL Rights Commission, which interviewed church ministers and religious leaders across […]
See Opinion by Ron Steele This week has seen the State proposing two pieces of legislation which arguably pose one of the greatest threats to religious freedom (including the autonomy of the Church to govern her own affairs) and free speech in South Africa yet! If we do not take […]
Originally published in World Watch Monitor. ‘Religious freedoms can counter violent extremism’ was the key message at a two-day global conference held at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) last week. The conference explored ways to build resilience against extremism and identified opportunities to work together. More than 50 […]
Originally published in The Gospel Herald. Christian bakers who lost their business after refusing to make a cake reading the phrase “Support Gay Marriage” have said their faith is stronger than ever despite ongoing legal woes. On Monday, Daniel and Amy McArthur, who run Ashers Baking Company in Belfast, lost […]
In last week’s Gateway News, we reported on the recent meeting with religious and traditional leaders to discuss the outcome of the CRL Rights Commission’s investigation into the ‘commercialisation’ of religion and abuse of people’s belief systems, and in particular the Commission’s proposed regulation of religion. At the meeting, the […]
On Tuesday (October 11), Freedom of Religion South Africa (FOR SA) joined 50+ religious and traditional leaders invited to a meeting at the CRL Rights Commission, to discuss the Commission’s findings and recommendations following its recent controversial investigation into the “commercialisation” of religion and abuse of people’s belief systems in […]