Bloemfontein - Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng is correct on religious elements in law, the Christian Democratic Party said on Friday.
“The CDP offers its full support to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng for his statement made in defence of incorporating religious principles into the law-making process,” CDP leader Theunis Botha said.
Mogoeng was giving recognition to the positive influence Christianity had had in forming civilisations.
“This influence has over the last number of decades come under attack by liberal secular humanists who have sought to replace the Christian value system with their own secular value system,” he said in a statement.
“Little good has come out of the decline of religion and the increase in secularism.”
He was referring to recent comments by Mogoeng this week which caused a stir. The chief justice said he believed South Africans could only become a better people if religion was allowed to influence the laws that governed their daily lives, starting with the Constitution.
He was delivering a speech titled “Law and Religion in Africa Ä The Quest for the Common Good in Pluralistic Societies”.
He said South Africans had chosen to use law as an instrument of peace and stability and used it commendably, bringing about, for example, recognition of previously unrecognised marriages.
“A great deal of benefit stands to be derived from a realisation of the profound similarity of purpose sought to be achieved by religion and the law,” he said.
Sapa