Written by: Michael Swain, FOR SA Executive Director,
and Daniela Ellerbeck, FOR SA Legal Advisor
Article source: JOY! Magazine
Most South Africans do not think twice about our ability to live out our faith publicly. We are so used to enjoying our right to religious freedom that we often take it for granted. However, we would do well to look at the terrible levels of religious persecution that are taking place in other parts of the world to help us realise how blessed we are that our Constitution specifically guarantees and protects this precious right to religious freedom.
We enjoy much freedom in this country
Religious freedom is the right to believe in your heart whatever you want and to freely speak about and live out your beliefs. It is easy to see how, without religious freedom, you would be deprived of your human dignity because faith is an integral part of our individual existence. No one should ever be forced to choose between obeying the state or obeying God. We also would not have equality, freedom of expression, freedom of association, or freedom of assembly – or, as parents, the right to pass on our faith to our children. These rights and freedoms are all interwoven into the same fabric of religious freedom law, so if one strand is eroded, all the others are negatively impacted.
A strategy to erode our rights
Nevertheless, the current reality is that there is a consistent, well-organised, and well-funded global strategy to erode (and even eradicate) religious freedom rights that were formerly considered to be sacrosanct. Increasingly, government policy, laws, and court judgements favour secular, liberal views over conservative, religious views – which are increasingly seen as “fundamentalist” or “politically incorrect”.
This battle is on our doorstep
Secular ideologies, which are often diametrically opposed to Judeo-Christian conservative values, have brought this battle to our doorstep. In fact, Freedom of Religion South Africa (FOR SA) was formed in 2014 after the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) investigated – and sanctioned – a local church for preaching and teaching certain scriptures that they regarded as “offensive” and out of step with the Constitution.
Protecting your rights!
FOR SA works to protect the right to religious freedom so that we can remain free to believe what we choose, and to share and live out that belief publicly. FOR SA has protected religious freedom before government, parliament, chapter 9 institutions, and the courts. We are keenly aware that religious freedom rights – unless vigorously defended – can be all too easily lost. We are single-minded in our commitment to protect them, but we can only do so with your support through your prayers, your participation in the campaigns we promote, and your provision by making financial donations via the forsa.org.za website.
Thank you for joining the fight for faith and freedom for ourselves and – more importantly – for our children!
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Date published: 18/06/2023
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JOY! News is a Christian news portal that shares pre-published articles by writers around the world. Each article is sourced and linked to the origin, and each article is credited with the author’s name. Although we do publish many articles that have been written in-house by JOY! journalists, we do not exclusively create our own content. Any views or opinions presented on this website are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.
