It is time for the Church in South Africa to talk with one voice — against a “dangerous” push for legislation that would “violate our religious freedom and the autonomy of the Church to govern herself according to her convictions and beliefs”, says Advocate Nadene Badenhorst.
“Now, as you may know, the CRL Rights Commission is once again advocating for what effectively amounts to state regulation of religion,” says the former legal counsel for Freedom of Religion South Africa in a Facebook reel [see video] calling on Christians to “stand with us by signing the Dear South Africa petition opposing the CRL’s proposals”, You can respond to her call by visiting the DSA website and commenting on the draft regulatory framework for the Christian sector proposed by the CRL’s Section 22 Committee. DSA undertakes to send all comments posted on its platform to the Section 22 Committee. Christian critics of the framework reject the committee’s claim that they are merely proposing voluntary self regulation of the Christian sector, arguing that it proposes a legislative framework created by an Act of Parliament and would be implemented by a statutory council with legal authority.
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Badenhorst acknowledges that “there have been instances of abuse and criminal conduct in the religious space, and these must be dealt with decisively in terms of existing laws, but what we don’t need is legislation that gives the state control over the church and the way we choose to live out what we believe”.
She says that if the proposal is “left unchallenged, [it] will profoundly affect the religious freedom that we have enjoyed up until this point.”
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