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On the Brink of an Abyss

2 Comments / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog / Christopher Peppler

This article is about politics. Moreover, it is about South African politics, although the principles will apply to Christians living in any democratic country. The last time I wrote about our national situation we were at a distinct inflection point moving closer and closer to the edge of a Failed State abyss… and here we are again, teetering on the crumbling edge of that same abyss.

Politics is a word that describes the governance of a country, or any organised group for that matter. At a national, provincial, and municipal level, it is about the rules that prescribe how we all live together, the financial and administrative aspects of national life, and so on. It is a vitally important subject, yet so many Christians avoid it as somehow unchristian or irrelevant. Perhaps this is because Jesus did not teach anything directly related to politics or because church leaders have aligned themselves and their churches with particular political parties that have brought the Gospel into disrepute. Perhaps it is also because so many of today’s politicians are incompetent, corrupt, and self-serving.

Urgent Call to Action

In South Africa, we are balancing precariously on the rim of the Failed State abyss.

Our levels of corruption, brutal crime, unemployment, economic growth, resource management, and moral and ethical standards cannot get much worse. A liberation movement that ostensibly set out to free the majority of the population from the tyranny of the minority now governs us although they have never been adequately trained to do so.

In the main they are Marxists who have adopted some elements of capitalism in order to grow rich and powerful. Over three decades, they have attained this ignoble goal but in the process have left the people they govern in a generally worse condition than they were in under the previous regime. If we do not democratically remove this government from power in the soon-coming general elections, then almost everyone, except them, fears that we will plunge over the edge of the abyss into the horror of a Failed State. All citizens of South Africa, whether Christians or not, need to vote. However, time is so short that we need to do more than this: we need to get involved in ‘politics’ at one level or another. It is urgent!

What Did Jesus Say?

It is true that Jesus did not seem to concern himself with the politics of his day, but he did have something to say that points us in the right direction today. Peter and Paul then expanded on this in their letters.

Luke 20: 20-26 (Matthew 22 and Mark 12) records one of the best-known sayings of the Lord Jesus. The Pharisees tried to trap him by asking if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus asked for a Roman coin that bore Caesar’s image and said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. The Creator made man in his own image, and so Jesus was saying that humans should give themselves to God whose image we bare. However, Caesar’s image was on the coin and so they should give that to him. A brilliant response indeed, but we should not focus on his allusion to the image of God to the extent that we miss the implication that Jesus was endorsing the Roman governmental right to what it was due.

Paul wrote that ‘Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities…’ (Romans 13:1). He then explained why and added, ‘Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour’. (Romans 13:7). He also wrote to Titus instructing him to, ‘Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good.’ (Titus 3:1).

Peter’s teaching on the subject is probably the most succinct of all: ‘Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honour the king’. (1 Peter 2:13-17)

The Lord Jesus, Paul, and Peter were positively interacting with the subject of politics and by so doing were giving us direction as we too interact with the politics of our nation today.

We cannot claim to have a biblical attitude towards government without engaging with the politics of our nation. This holds true even more when our nation is on life-support, as it is now.

How we can Respond

Our political response to the urgency of our times is:

To pray. Paul wrote, ‘I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness’. (1 Timothy 2:1-2) So, we need to pray urgently and persistently.
To be good citizens. Good citizens do not overthrow by force. Good citizens vote! Good citizens abstain from violent revolt but they do not abstain from the democratic obligation to vote.
To be influencers. We all have circles of influence and can communicate positively with people who perhaps do not know what to do in our time of national distress. We can point them to Jesus, speak words of hope, help them to evaluate the options before them at this time, pray for them, and influence them by living out a Christian political resolve.

The Political Options Before Us

There are three ways set before us as we approach the 2024 elections:

Support, finance, and vote for the party currently in power that has proven itself over three decades to be dominated by corrupt, self-serving, law-breaking, and incompetent plunderers.
Support, finance, and vote for the more extreme parties that pose an even greater threat to our national life than does the ruling party.
Support, finance, and vote for the emerging multiparty coalition of opposition parties that in its charter appear more in line with biblical values and in the main consist of God-fearing non-Marxist people of integrity and goodwill.

Of the three options, I know that only the third will even come close to satisfying my need to be governed by men and women who most closely conform to biblical values, principles, and priorities. I also feel strongly that only the third option will lead us into a time of peace and general well-being.

Without such conditions, we will not be able to exist and thrive as people of the book, Christians, and Jesus-followers.

By the way, political parties cannot be Jesus-followers no matter what they call themselves because they do not have spiritual life. However, their individual members can be, and often are, Jesus-followers.

The Nascent Opposition Coalition

Seven political parties have recently met to agree on a way forward and will be opening membership to all parties prepared to subscribe fully to their shared mission and governing principles. The big idea is to form a coalition government in waiting. We will all then be able to vote for any member party in the knowledge that it will be part of the post-2024 government. Together they will act, from now through to the elections, to reach the millions of citizens who have stopped voting because of disillusionment and hopelessness, and the millions who have not ever voted.

They will need our prayers, support, involvement, and financial backing to do this. If they succeed then they will shortly rule our nation and we will have the opportunity of rebuilding a godly and prosperous society.

The new coalition government will govern in accordance with shared governing principles, which they list as a commitment to:

The South African Constitution, the rule of law, and equality before the law.
Decentralising power to the lowest effective level of government.
Accountable, transparent government with zero tolerance for corruption.
A capable government that spends public money efficiently to deliver quality services to all.
A caring government that puts people first and prioritises the poor.
An open market economy.
Policies guided by evidence that they produce positive results for society.
Redress our unjust past by promoting non-racialism and unity in our diversity.

In addition to these principles, they have established the following eight priorities:

Growing the economy and creating jobs.
Ending load shedding and achieving energy security.
Achieving law and order that combats crime, corruption, and drugs.
Ensuring quality education that delivers opportunities for all.
Delivering basic services to all through high-quality infrastructure.
Building a professional public service that delivers to all and ending cadre deployment.
Ensuring quality healthcare for all within a caring healthcare system.
Building a social relief framework for South African households living in poverty.

Now these principles and priorities are not uniquely Christian or biblical, but they do not contradict a biblical Christian view. We have to concede that Jesus-followers do not constitute the majority of citizens in our country and that constitutionally we are a secular state. I would dearly love to see our constitution changed back to its original preface, ‘In humble submission to almighty God, we the people of South Africa…’ and I believe that this might well be possible under the proposed coalition government. I also believe that if people of integrity, goodwill, and intelligence governed us, we would see many godly changes coming into our national life.

Read HERE for the contract signed by the seven founding parties to the Multi-Party Charter for South Africa.

Our Involvement

You might be tempted to think that all we need to do is pitch up at the voting station and make our marks against a coalition partner organisation. However, it may not even get that far, or it may not be as effective as hoped for, if we do not act now.

Each of us needs to pray for and support the coalition and we may even need to volunteer our services and financial support to the political party of our choice within the coalition. How are they going to reach the millions of non-voters without our help? How are they going to withstand the fury of the godless without our prayer and encouragement?

The matter is urgent, the times are critical and every one of us needs to arise from our complacency or fear-induced slumber and act! May Almighty God give us resolve, perseverance, and success. May He have mercy on us!

“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things. No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider’s web Whoever eats their eggs will die and when one is broken, an adder is hatched. Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands. Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways. The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace.

So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead. We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves. We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away.

For our offences are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offences are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against the LORD, turning our backs on our God, fomenting oppression and revolt, uttering lies our hearts have conceived. So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey

The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak. According to what they have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes; he will repay the islands their due. From the west, men will fear the name of the LORD, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the LORD drives along.

“The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD”.

Isaiah 59:1-20.

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Changing Values

2 Comments / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog / Christopher Peppler

Anyone with eyes, ears, and two or more brain cells knows that societal values are changing. However, perhaps fewer realise just how fast the changes are taking place, and even fewer appreciate the implications and outworking of this phenomenon.

NORC, at the University of Chicago, recently conducted a poll that revealed some insight into the current values of those living in the United States of America. Here are some of the results:

Changing values table

The question asked was, ‘How important are each of the values to you personally?

Changing values chart Now, there are a few things to note here:

Firstly, note the little N=1,019 at the bottom left of the table indicates that just over 1,000 people were polled. The statisticians give the survey a margin of error of just 4.1% at the 95% confidence level. However, bear in mind that the responses of 1,000 people represent a population of about 335,000,000.
Secondly, all of the responses seem positive – 94% hold that hard work is an important personal value and even a majority (60%) claim that religion is important to them. However, all of these results simply mean that a number of people SAY that certain values are important to them, but behaviours and priorities are the true evidence of value. For instance, Religion was given a ‘very important’ rating of 39 yet 60% of the same responders attend a religious service less than twice a year and half of those never go at all! This is a far better indicator of the true importance of Religion to those polled.
Thirdly, the numbers give no indication of generational bias. We have all heard the comparisons between Baby-boomers (Those born between 1946 and 1964), Millennials (Those born between 1981 and 1996), and the succeeding Z generation. There is a lot of research showing that these generations generally have significantly different values. I am a 75 years old baby-boomer, and in my opinion, belief in God should be the highest value and marriage should rate higher than money, in the ‘Very Important’ column. However, I know that the average Millennial would probably disagree with me on this.
Lastly, those polled were Americans and not Africans, Europeans, or Asians. There was a time when American values greatly influenced the values of the average South African, but that day has passed. However, I would be surprised if a poll taken among the middle and upper-income classes in the RSA would differ much from the USA poll.

Change

The differences over time in personal values show up most clearly in the comparisons between yearly surveys in the ‘Very Important’ responses.

For instance, 25 years ago having children was very important to 59% of responders, but in 2023 it is just 30% (no wonder that the USA population is declining). Community involvement dropped from 47% to 27% but the importance of money rose from 31% to 43%. Patriotism dropped from 70% to 38% and Religion dropped from 62% to 39%.

Now I am going to refrain from making value judgements about the average American or Millennials in general, but it must be obvious that values have changed in ways that a follower of Jesus should not approve. But, what are Jesus-based values?

The Values Jesus Taught and Lived

There are many religious people around, fewer church attendees, and even fewer Jesus-followers. To try to persuade the majority of people in today’s society that Jesus’ values should be their values is probably futile.

However, this article is by a Jesus-follower and written for Jesus-followers, and so my position is that what Jesus taught and lived is what we should teach and live. So here are some of his values: Justice, Mercy, Faith and Faithfulness, Love for God and each other, Truth, Service, and so on.

He taught compassion and dignity, but not the ‘Tolerance’ valued as of third highest importance in the poll. In today’s Western cultures, WOKE folk have redefined tolerance as ‘acceptance and affirmation in all circumstances’. Jesus was selfless and taught selflessness, yet 91% of those polled rated ‘self-fulfilment’ as important. The only kind of patriotism Jesus taught was to God and his kingdom yet 73% of poll respondents regard national patriotism as important.

That may be all well and good for us Jesus-followers, but rather unimpressive for those who do not regard the Lord Jesus as God incarnate. For them, the question that determines values is “Is it good for me?” with a few adding, “And is it good for society?” Well, history alone should give the answer to that! What has happened to people and nations who looked only to serve their own wants? What has happened to civilisations that lost their sense of gender distinctions, morals, ethical standards, and so on? What of nations today that are dominated by godlessness and self-serving manipulation of others? The historical record reveals the obvious truth that such people and nations pass ignobly into a dark eternity leaving behind little of enduring value.

I heard a highly-ranked politician in South Africa stating in public that democracy was just about majority votes and had nothing to do with ethics and accountability!

Wasn’t it one of the founding fathers of the US Constitution who observed that democracy would only work if citizens were law-abiding and of goodwill and sound ethics? (I searched unsuccessfully to validate this statement, so here is a chance for you to straighten me out). True democracy is not just ‘rule by majority vote’, it is a value-driven way of living in community.

Society Changes but Do Values Change?

The commonly held belief is that while ‘principles’ remain over time, ‘values’ may not. After all, people sometimes change their values. This must be true if we define a value as a personal judgment of what is important in life. However, it comes down to the old debate about Absolutes versus Relatives. Postmoderns generally believe that truth is relative, changing, and individualistic. Bible-believing Christians, on the other hand, hold that truth is God-given and absolute. I go a step further in affirming that Truth is not just an idea, it is a person… The Lord Jesus Christ (I have written a whole book about this, which you can find HERE). Values, like truth itself, are absolute if viewed as originating from the same source as truth,

God himself. Jesus, God the Son, came to Earth to, among other vital things, reveal himself, his truth, his values, and his priorities. There is no indication in his teachings and example that the values he espoused were generation or circumstance dependent. His way is the way for all people at all times and in all circumstances.

The Best We Can Do

Bearing all of this in mind, the best thing we can do for our families, our societies, and ourselves is to teach and model the values that Jesus embodied and taught, and not the transient values of our time or society. As I have stated so often, it is all about Jesus… it all comes down to Jesus… life, truth, values, priorities, morals, ethics, and everything else. This constitutes the moral and ethical light of our world and the Lord Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:!2)

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TruthTalks: A Nation reborn in a day?

1 Comment / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog, Podcast, TruthTalks / TITW Admin

A Nation reborn banner

On the 22nd April 2017, over one million people converged on a farm just outside Bloemfontein to interceded for the nation of South Africa. This TruthTalk is an account and evaluation of this momentous event.

Things in South Africa have already started changing!

The Q&A session that follows the audio presentation deals with some issues which arise when we consider a gathering of this nature. We explore to what extent churches and individual Christians should be involved in politics, our role in national affairs, and our responsibility to speak truth to power.

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The worm has been turned

20 Comments / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog, Special Message / Christopher Peppler

We have come to a moment of destiny for South Africa.

We stand at a crossroads with one path leading to dictatorship and national destruction, and the other to the realisation of the dream of a democratic, non-racial, and prosperous country. We have, and we continue to intercede fervently for God to intervene…

…and I believe that He has, and He is, and He will!

I wrote this article in November 2016, after the courts had ordered that the Public Protector’s State Capture report be released. As I wrote it I was conscious of the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, but when I had completed the task I had a strong check in my spirit that I should not publish it just then. I had a sense that the timing was not right and that it lacked an essential element of redemption and hope. But, now I feel the time is right.

To combat darkness, we must all shine whatever light we have. This starts by speaking out into our circles of influence. This comment is my little light beam.

This article is addressed to South African Christians but applies in part to many nations at this time.

The ‘worm’, in Shakespeare’s quaint saying ‘the worm has turned’, refers to the ancient, fire-spewing dragon of myth and fairy lore. In our nation, South Africa, the dragon has not turned of his own choice, but because of the efforts of hundreds of brave saint Georges. The bravest of all dragon slayers is our erstwhile Public Protector but in her wake has risen a legion of true freedom fighters. And as the swords of truth and integrity rise high to strike, we look and observe with surprise that the dragon is actually just a worm after all.

I am convinced that we will look back on the 2nd November 2016 as the day the worm was turned. On that day the judges of the Supreme Court issued an order that the Public Protector’s ‘state capture’ report be immediately made public, and between every page crawled the maggots of corruption! Crooked business men, corrupt politicians, leaders of state-owned entities, and assorted other wigglers. The report does not so much reveal the danger of state capture but rather documents the critical evidence that the state has already been captured. Men and woman of ill will, greedy disposition, and misdirected loyalty sit snugly under every key rock in the formal garden of our state.

But light is now shining brightly on the areas of corruption. Paul wrote ‘Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible’ (Ephesians 5:11-14). The rocks are being turned over one by one and the light is shining brightly on the worms beneath. And what do worms do when exposed to light? They wiggle – and what a wiggling we are now witnessing! Barefaced lying, inane excuses, arrogant and angry claims that the Public Protector’s report is incorrect, biased and riddled with ‘gossip’… wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.

We delude ourselves if we think that the number one worm will line up all his invertebrates behind him and slither off into the sunset. On the contrary, he will wiggle all the more, rage against white economic colonialism, disparage those wise and seasoned men and woman within his own party, and dig in as deeply as he can into the mud of control, manipulation, lies, and arrogant recalcitrance.

And all the while our economy is strangling and is gasping for breath, the horde of angry and disillusioned unemployed men and woman is growing to record highs, while the rating agencies are poised to downgrade our nation to junk status. But our leaders simply blame the rating agencies of being unfair and biased against emerging economies and bluster about creating their own rating agency, despite the lunacy of the notion. The next generation of thought leaders are either throwing stones at university security officers in their violent demands for free education or struggling to be able to write their examinations and qualify. All the while, provincial governments and state-owned entities are exposed as chalking up tens of billions of unauthorised expenditures, to the extent that the entire higher education bill could have been paid from the corruption and wastage alone. The power utility CEO brags about how clever he has been in keeping the nation supplied with electricity when everyone knows that the failing economy has reduced the demand for power considerably. Then the Public Protector reveals that this CEO is under scrutiny for mismanagement at best and blatant corruption at worst. His response is to cry crocodile tears, literally, and then resign – problem solved… not! The head of the National Prosecuting Authority tries to have the Minister of Finance arrested on trumped-up charges and at the same time, he does nothing about obeying a court order to reinstate the over 700 charges against the State President. And so it goes, a painful and pathetic litany of moral and ethical failure, greed, and arrogance, followed by exposure, denial, and a total lack of accountability.

What is to be done? Can we afford, and I mean that literally, to wait until the process of successive elections slowly changes the balance of power in our nation? Will we have a nation worthy of the name left by then? Or can we justify and risk civil unrest, revolt, and a coup? I shudder at both of these alternatives!

As passionate believers in the ability of Almighty God to change reality, we can ask Him to intervene. We can acknowledge that we have probably been given the government we deserve but we can say, with painful sincerity, that we have learned our lessons, and that we commit ourselves to a just, lawful, moral, ethical, and godly system of government and society. We can plead with God to send revival to His church, to remove the evil from our structures of power, and to give us another chance. Then we need to submit ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit as to what actions we should undertake to follow our words of protest.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
and his glory appears over you”.
Isaiah 60:1-2

In the early hours of Friday the 31st March 2017, the president of South Africa made his big move to grab power over the country from the hands of the ruling party. Without consulting his leaders, he announced a massive cabinet reshuffle designed to achieve three tactical objectives; to place his sycophants in the remaining cabinet posts not yet personally loyal to him, to secure a greater number of parliamentary seats that he could count on, and to capture the national treasury. In a flagrant display of arrogance and contempt for his party and the people of the land, he fired the most efficient minister in his cabinet on the grounds that he was improving efficiency and effectiveness. His flimsy and unpublicised excuse for axing the minister of finance was a ridiculously inept and incomprehensible ‘Intelligence report’ claiming that the minister was engaged in treasonous activity. Yesterday one of the three major rating agencies degraded South Africa to junk status and a second will follow suite by the end of the week. As I write this, our markets have not yet opened but I am expecting a disastrous fall in the value of the Rand. However, despite the deepening darkness let me switch on the light of hope.

On Monday 27th March the Revival Prayer Meeting of our local church met as usual. Unsurprisingly, the major focus of our prayers was intercession for our nation. We prayed that God would step in and dramatically intervene and we acknowledged our dependence on Him. One prayer went as follows;

‘Please Lord, just as you sent an angel to confront Balaam will you not stand before our president with your hand up and say, ‘Enough! Stop! Be silent”’.Before the meeting ended we had a deep sense that there were thousands of groups of Christians all across our land interceding just as we were.

The next day a grand old stalwart of the liberation movement died and the day after that was laid to rest. At his funeral, former president Kgalema Motlanthe read out Ahmed Kathrada’s message from the grave, that Jacob Zuma should step down for the sake of the nation. This funeral service signalled a great intervention by Almighty God because it initiated waves of response and resolve that are now washing over the nation like ever-expanding ripples in a pond.

I believe that over the next few weeks we are going to witness, and even participate in, the decisive ‘turning of the worm’ and the start of a new era for our nation. There is more drama to come and I anticipate brazen and desperate attempts by the Zuma faction to stay in power. But, I do believe that God is acting on behalf of righteousness and that soon, very soon, we will be praising His name for another great miracle in our land.

The Lord Jesus had remarkably little to say to the political rulers of His time, but what he said to Herod is so appropriate. Luke 13:31-32 ‘At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’…” Perhaps we could paraphrase this and apply it to our times and situation with these words; “Go tell that worm, ‘I will drive out the demons and heal this land and her people, and surely I will accomplish my goal’”.

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Hate speech & religious liberty

1 Comment / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog, Podcast, TruthTalks / Christopher Peppler

Hate speech image

Chaos reigned in parliament before the South African president’s latest state of the nation address.

The Chief Whip of the opposition rose to state why his party could not remain to listen to the president, but the ruling party benches drowned him out with a loud and angry chorus of “racist”. Is this an acceptable expression or is it a form of hate speech?

Just weeks ago a crowd of gay activists gathered outside the largest church in Soweto to protest a recent sermon censoring homosexuality. Was such a sermon ‘hate speech’, or was the protest an attempt to curtail religious liberty?

Gay ‘rights’ are a contentious issue in many countries around the world but in South Africa activists are gaining traction and attention by aligning themselves as victims of hate speech. Two things appear to me to have sponsored the current emphasis on ‘hate speech’:

A number of racially prejudicial remarks in the social media, and,
The ruling party’s opportunism in using this as an election campaign theme.

What then are gay rights, hate speech, and freedom of religion and expression, and how do these function together? I am neither a lawyer nor a lawmaker but as a Christian thought-leader, I do have opinions on these important issues.

In 2013 the Freedom of Expression Institute published ‘Hate speech and freedom of expression’ and I am drawing on this as a primary source for this article. Our Constitution with its Bill of Rights is the foundation for all rights and freedoms in South Africa. In 2000 parliament passed the ‘equality bill’ and there are two other concerning draconian bills nearing finalisation, but all such acts of parliament must conform to the provisions of the national constitution.

So what does the constitution state concerning these matters?

It states that Freedom of Expression cannot extend to expressions that enlist, among other things, ‘advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion and that constitutes incitement to cause harm’. The two parts of this are advocacy of hatred and incitement to cause harm. In terms of this, preaching against the practice of homosexuality surely cannot be anything other than a form of free expression. Section 15 of the Bill of Rights protects freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, or opinion. Therefore, a preacher is within his rights to state what he believes the Bible teaches and to voice his opinion based on this belief. But, it is one thing to preach on a biblical interpretation of a practice and quite another to make damaging statements concerning the individuals or groups that are deemed to violate the preacher’s beliefs.

At present I know of no officially accepted definition of hate speech but the following serves well: ’speech or expression which is capable of instilling or inciting hatred of, or prejudice towards, a person or group of people on a specified ground including race, nationality, ethnicity, country of origin, ethno-religious identity, religion, sexuality, gender identity or gender.’ Once again, the key phrase is ’speech or expression which is capable of instilling or inciting hatred of, or prejudice towards, a person or group of people’.

Surely we, as Christians, can and should separate our strongly held opinions of what we consider to be unbiblical practices from derogatory, insulting and demeaning personal or group references?

The national constitution also gives us the right to freedom of association and so we can stipulate membership criteria of our church associations and so on, based on our biblical beliefs and not on our prejudice against individuals.

Jesus said, “Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council…” (Matthew 5:22 ESV). It is wrong to insult other people or to incite others to be insulting, however, the Lord Jesus used the expression “I tell you the truth” countless times and we are called to emulate Him as truth-tellers. But, the truth we tell must be a thoughtful, love-inspired, and Jesus-centred interpretation of the Bible. “God hates you” or any expression of that is biblically untrue. On the other hand, “What you are doing is unbiblical and I cannot accept it” is surely acceptable and not hateful.

We are in for interesting and troubling times because broader and more activist-inspired definitions of religious liberty and hate speech are emerging all the time and are at the point of being enshrined in legislation.

It will probably take years and much money to challenge and overturn these official bills, and during that time, Christian leaders will no doubt suffer persecution. There is no way of avoiding this in the short to medium term. Hebrews 12:14 states, ’Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord’. The scriptures instruct us to live in peace AND to be holy, separated to God, so short of compromise there is no persecution-free resolution to this tension.

GotQuestions.org has made this statement that I endorse;

Our goal is to speak the truth in love. We do not hate Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Catholics, Mormons, or Jehovah’s Witnesses. Rather, we simply believe that these groups are making some serious theological and biblical errors. We do not hate homosexuals, adulterers, pornographers, transsexuals, or fornicators. Rather, we simply believe that those who commit such acts are making immoral and ungodly decisions. Telling someone that he/she is in the wrong is not hateful. In reality, refusing to tell someone the truth is what is truly hateful. Declaring the speaking of truth, presented respectfully, to be hate speech, is, in fact, the ultimate demonstration of hate.

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