In each issue of JOY! Magazine we feature an informative and important update from FOR SA – a legal advocacy organisation that is fighting on the frontlines (and often in the shadows) for our faith. We live in a country where our right to religious freedom is protected by our Constitution, yet is is evident that in South Africa, we are not immune to the global trend to erode this vital human right. We recently sat down with Michael Swain – the resilient Executive Director of FOR SA – to learn all about the effort and work that goes on behind the scenes…
Q FOR SA celebrated 9 years of fighting for faith and freedom. How did FOR SA start?
FOR SA was established in 2014 when a local Cape Town church was targeted by an atheist couple for their Biblical teachings. They were reported to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), who then wrote to tell the church to cease teaching the “offensive” scriptures, remove them from its teaching manuals, and send its pastors for “sensitisation training”. The elder and founder of that church, Andrew Selley, teamed up with Advocate Nadene Badenhorst to form Freedom of Religion South Africa (known as FOR SA) as a legal advocacy organisation to protect and promote the foundational democratic right to freedom of religion, granted by section 15 of the South African Constitution. They quickly discovered that the challenge to their church was, by no means, isolated. Indeed, it is symptomatic of a global trend to erode religious freedom and even to persecute and sanction people for their religious convictions and beliefs. FOR SA has been fighting on the front lines of the battle for faith and freedom ever since.
