No need to politicise a biblical debate

THE ARTICLE titled “Religious row over ancestors” (The Star, January 5) refers.

I find it odd that ANC chaplain-general Vukile Mehana would use the constitution as a defence to reflect on religious matters. Why focus on consitutional ethos instead of reflecting on what is biblical when addressing this sensitive issue.

If Reverend Kenneth Meshoe decides not to attend the ANC’S centenary celebration due to ’’fundamentalist Christian beliefs’’, so be it, even if it means he’s practising ‘‘religious intolerance in contravention of fundamentalist values and principles of Christianity’’, as Mehana puts it.

If the chaplain-general studies the Bible, he will find that Reverend Meshoe is not antiANC, but he’s practising what he believes to be biblical.

To quote a few scriptures from the Bible on invoking spirits or ancestors:

Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them. – Leviticus 19 verse 31);

There shall not be found among you anyone who… practises divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. – Deuteronomy 18 verse 10 to12.

We need to adequately respect other people’s religious beliefs without trying to impose our own for political gain. We need not politicise everything to the disadvantage of those who prefer to adhere to biblical principles.

We cannot expect Reverend Meshoe to attend a political gathering where God’s will and wishes will be abominated and blasphemed. The invoking of ancestors is blasphemy in the eyes of God and He will act in a way that will be to the detriment of this country.

Let’s practise religious tolerance and adhere to true biblical prescripts.

Westbury, Joburg