A Little Note On Freedom Of Religion From Your Friendly Neighborhood Witch

Here's a little note on freedom of religion, tolerance for diversity and equality for all in South Africa:

This little notice appeared in a local SA Newspaper in Afrikaans, although I am still waiting for someone to tell me which paper it appeared in.

 

Very charming - and I suppose were an occult group to post a similar ad about a course covering 'the evils of Christianity' (and I might be tempted to list a few), then it would be reported as hate speech (and the complaint would be taken in a very serious light - not dismissed by the Press Ombudsman or SA HRC as all complaints on such articles have been), or the ad wouldn't be posted by the paper in the first place because it might offend the 'mighty Christians'.

This is not fair, and it's not moral. This is slander in the form of false information about other religions being presented as fact, with Christianity being presented as some sort of antidote or cure-all solution to a list of crimes being associated with other religions such as Satanism, Paganism and Witchcraft.

Naturally, the organizers stand to make a substantial amount of money from the course as the 'faithful' will cough up R400 per person attending!

If there were any kind of actual moral code in South African media - as the SA Press Ombudsman claims there is - that is, one that were actually adhered to, then this should be a violation of that press code.

Yes, Christians can believe whatever the hell they want to - even if they choose to believe the garbage in that advertisement - but their religious freedom does not constitute a right to violate the religious freedom of other people, including Satanists, Pagans and Witches, by posting such items in public media and in public spaces. You cannot reconcile the protections for all people's religious freedoms as in the Constitution, with one group clearly being allowed to demonstrate a clear bias against other religious groups being targeted openly and publicly without any legal consequences.

Since the minority groups in question appear to have no legal recourse and are not taken seriously by the alleged 'watch dog groups' that are supposed to react to such complaints, it is very clear that the machinery that is supposed to handle the application of constitutional equality for all, are impaired, dysfunctional, biased against diversity, or broken.

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