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Recent events involving leaders and members of the controversial Seven Angels Ministry in Engcobo, Eastern Cape, have brought into sharp focus the lingering debate about state regulation of religious practice.
The proposal to regulate religious practices emerged from the CRL Rights Commission’s investigation into the errant behaviour of some churches and their leaders.
The commission was concerned about “commercialisation of religion and non-compliance with the law” in most churches that were probed.
It was concerned about “rogue priests” who masquerade as prophets, coaxing congregants to eat grass or snakes, or exposing them to harmful substances such as the insecticide Doom as part of “spiritual healing”.
To deal with this abnormal behaviour, the commission proposed that Parliament adopt legislation to ensure “peer review mechanisms, registration of religious and traditional healers’ institutions, clearance and registration of religious practitioners and workers”.
In established democracies, the common practice is that the state remain secular and allow the church to exist independently.
Our Constitution’s drafters had the foresight to include freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights and to recognise it as a fundamental human right.
It is enough that the church, as an institution, is subject to the country’s laws like any other legal institution. Extra regulation by the state will only stifle freedom of religion and thus violate one of the fundamental rights in our Constitution.
Of course, commercialisation of religion and abuse of people’s belief systems must be frowned upon by all sane members of society.
Where religious leaders have been flouting the law or engaging in nefarious activities in the name of the church, the law must take its course.
We cannot have a society that thrives on the vulnerability of poor people through false prophecies and rogue religious malfeasance.
Equally, regulation proposals that seek to grant the state too much power and control over religious practice is an unhealthy dose of authoritarianism.
To have the state establish “its own controlled bodies over various religions, special powers to license religious practitioners, defining the criteria to which a religion must conform to be recognised and powers to regulate, control and discipline members” is equal to creating a state religion.
Our legal regime is sufficiently competent to deal with the transgressions the commission has identified and many other potential illegal acts.
Perhaps we should take a leaf from the Americans who have been debating the separation of the state from the church since the 17th century.
Its 18th president Ulysses Grant declared in 1875: “Let us labour for the security of free thought, free speech, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments and equal rights and privileges for all men, irrespective of nationality, colour, or religion, leave the matter of religious teaching to the family altar, the church and the private school, supported entirely by private contribution. Keep church and state forever separate.”
By introducing regulations, government would be reintroducing the old hand of authoritarianism and apartheid-style meddling into the constitutionally guaranteed rights of citizens.
As democrats, we have an opportunity once again to debate this issue and settle it once and for all in manner that should not compromise the ideals of our Constitution.
We must strive for a freer and more democratic society, outside the shackles of stringent regulation.
Radebe is a founder of the Revelation Church of God
