Rights group enters lesbian pastor debate

Pastor Ecclesia de Lange at the Cape High Court. Photo: Tracey Adams

Pastor Ecclesia de Lange at the Cape High Court. Photo: Tracey Adams

Published Sep 20, 2015

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Cape Town - Religious rights organisation Freedom of Religion (For SA) has entered the fray between lesbian minister Ecclesia de Lange and the Methodist Church, saying the court must appreciate the more than 2 000-year-old doctrinal position of the church.

The organisation’s Reverend Moss Ntlha said that it did not agree with De Lange’s claim that she had to choose between having a loving relationship with her partner and her calling as minister, saying that there were a number of churches in South Africa where she would be able to serve as a lesbian pastor.

“Contrary to what De Lange suggests, this is not a case where someone has been penalised for exercising her legal right. This is a case of someone who out of her own free will associated herself with a particular religious organisation in circumstances where she knew what the doctrines and rules of the organisation are, then of her own free will chose to act contrary to those doctrines and rules knowing full well that doing so would have consequences, and then complains when the organisation acts in terms of its rules,” he said in an affidavit filed at the Constitutional Court a week ago.

Ntlha is also the general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa.

De Lange claimed she had been unfairly dismissed from her ministry because of her sexual orientation after she told her congregation in December 2009 she was going to marry her female partner.

She was unsuccessful in the Western Cape High Court and also at the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Now she wants the Constitutional Court to give her the go-ahead to take the matter further.

For SA wants to intervene as amicus curiae (friend of the court) and says it is acting in the public interest.

According to Ntlha, it was the “earnest fear” of the churches and organisations which it represents that, should the doctrinal shield be pierced, “South Africa will effectively join the list of countries around the world where Christians are persecuted for their faith”.

Ntlha said it was inconceivable that in a matter of such importance there is presently no amicus curiae before the court.

For SA submitted that it was in the interests of justice that it be admitted as amicus curiae.

“As already explained above, in the event of the honourabQQe court granting De Lange’s application for leave to appeal (which I respectfully maintain it should not), it is not only the (Methodist Church) that stands to be affected by any decision by this honourable court on the merits of her appeal, but the majority of Christian churches as well as other religions in South Africa who hold to a similar religious conviction as the Methodist Church of SA on the issue of sexual orientation and same-sex marriage,” Ntlha said.

For SA submitted gay and lesbian people were no longer a disadvantaged group and said that Christians, on the other hand, were increasingly harassed and persecuted for their beliefs in South Africa.

 

In a statement For SA said the case involving De Lange was “undoubtedly the most important case concerning religious freedom and autonomy that has ever come before our courts.”

Weekend Argus

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