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02 February 2018
Public lecture focuses on diversity as foundation for equality
Prof Shaun de Freitas (Department of Public Law), Dr Mwiza Nkhatha (Postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Human Rights), Prof Iain Benson and Prof Jan Pretorius (Centre for Human Rights)

The Free State Centre for Human Rights at the University of the Free State (UFS) held a public lecture at the Bloemfontein Campus on 30 January 2018 titled Putting religion in brackets: the importance of diversity in the public square by Prof Iain T Benson, Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney, Australia, and, for the past seven years, extraordinary Professor of Law at the UFS.

Conflict between religion and modernity

According to Prof Benson, there have been attempts to exclude so-called old-fashioned ideas from modernity. He gave examples of political and moral objections to public money being spent on religious education by schools, and the prevalence of terminology that stigmatises alternative opinions that may be based on religion, such as “homophobia”. He also referred to an instance in which the accreditation of a Canadian Christian university was challenged because its covenant explicitly rejected certain practices, such as extramarital relationships and same-sex marriage – the objections centred on an institution with such views receiving public benefits.

The challenge of inclusion in a growing secular society
Last year, a South African court found that schools may not promote a single faith to the exclusion of others. “According to the constitution, we have the right to hold religious beliefs. However, there are limitations on religious practices. Each society must draw a line,” he said. In the South African case, he explained, “the court rejected a blanket exclusion of religion in schools. If religion is a right, how can it be voted out of existence?”

Prof Benson argued that the ideology of secularism, the separation of church and state, is making inroads into how we understand religion. If agnostic or atheist viewpoints are accepted in the public sphere, it should not mean that religious beliefs should be abolished. “A diversity of beliefs should be accommodated and every citizen, whether religious or not, may be a part of public life,” he said. He concluded by saying that we lived in a particularly difficult time for a religious believer in the public sphere.

News Archive

US embassy consolidates relations with the UFS
2009-05-21

 
Delegates from the American Embassy recently visited the University of the Free State (UFS) to strengthen relations and to offer assistance with regards to staff and student development on diversity issues. This was a continuation of the Fulbright scholarship agreement that the UFS has with the American Embassy. As part of this agreement two student leaders, Andries Moekoa (SRC Transformation) and Jamie Turkington (IRAWA editor), will go to the USA next month for six weeks. They will be placed, together with students from other countries, at universities with the same challenges as the UFS. During the visit of the delegates from the American Embassy they had meetings with the Student Representative Councils of the Qwaqwa Campus and the Main Campus, Student Affairs Management, as well as members of the Executive Committee of the Executive Management. Pictured from the left are: Prof Ezekiel Moraka (Vice-Rector: Student Affairs), Mr Andrew Passen (Consulate General: US Embassy), Prof Teuns Verschoor (Acting Rector and Vice-Chancellor), Dr Choice Makhetha (Acting Dean: Student Affairs) and Mr Steven Stark (Public Affairs Officer: US Embassy).
Photo: Stephen Collett

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