Monday, September 25, 2006New Zealand law may allow churches to ban homosexual clergy
By John McNeil of Challenge Weekly, New Zealand
Special to ASSIST News Service
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06090116.htmWELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND (ANS) -- Top lawyers have told the Human Rights Commission that churches are within their legal rights to ban homosexual ministers, according to Wellington’s Dominion Post newspaper.
It said gay rights groups are outraged that the Human Rights Act does not forbid churches from refusing to ordain homosexuals.
A Human Rights Commission paper says the exclusion is allowable, providing it can be "properly described as a matter of religious belief in the relevant church".The New Zealand Aids Foundation says it is gravely concerned that the commission believes there is no legal recourse for the gay community.
Presbyterian ministers meanwhile continued their condemnation of a nationwide slur campaign begun during the lead-up to this month's general assembly, which will vote on whether to exclude homosexuals from becoming ministers or church elders.
If adopted, the ruling would exclude anyone in a sexual relationship outside marriage, not ordained or inducted before 2004, when the vote was first passed.
About 500 assembly delegates, with addresses listed on the church database, were anonymously sent bumper stickers saying, "Gays are a cancer in our church, let's keep them out of leadership" and "Gays aren't welcome in our church, help us let New Zealand know".
Aids Foundation executive director Rachael Le Mesurier said she was shocked by the hate campaign. "The question we're asking today is how Christian is hate? Propagating such hatred of people who have equal human rights under New Zealand law is deeply immoral."
Commissioner Joy Liddicoat said that though legal opinions for the commission from QCs Ailsa Duffy and Colin Pidgeon and Professors Paul Rishworth, Margaret Bedggood and John Dawson varied in their approach to issues from the Human Rights Act, there was consensus about the result.
The commission's tribunal has upheld complaints from church employees regarding homosexual discrimination, but it was unclear whether clergy held employee status. She said some lawyers had argued that the ministers were not employed as it was "a calling".
There was also an exception, which permitted different treatment in relation to employment based on religious or ethical beliefs. But without a clergy complaint, the commission was unable to test the law, she said.
However, the commission was concerned about the situation. "We're certainly not backing away, or being obscure." The commission was saying there were limits on what it could do.