Pierre De Vos teaches Constitutional law at the University of Cape Town Law Faculty, where he serves as deputy dean and as the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Constitutional Governance.

Last week two women who were turned away when they tried to book the Beloftebos Wedding Venue for their wedding reception, announced that they are taking the owners of the venue to the Equality Court. The owners of Beloftebos claim that they have a right to discriminate against same sex couples because their religious beliefs require them to do so. They are mistaken. This is why.

Christian privilege is deeply rooted in South African culture. Because Christian religion is the dominant religion in the country, Christian belief is sometimes treated as a social norm, and this produces unconscious or conscious attitudes and beliefs that advantage Christians over non-Christians.

Christian privilege manifests itself when Christians demand to define for themselves which laws they will obey and which not, and when they insist that they enjoy a special right (not afforded to non-Christians) to discriminate against LGBTQ people because they claim their religion does not recognise the equal dignity of LGBTQ people and thus requires them to discriminate against us.

In Christian Education South Africa v Minister of Education, the Constitutional Court rejected this view and thus rejected Christian privilege. In that case a group of Christian schools claimed that legislation prohibiting corporal punishment in schools unjustifiable infringed on their right to freedom of religion because Proverbs 13:24 of the Christian Bible say something like “spare the rod and spoil the child”. The highest court in the land disagreed, stating that while an open and democratic society that celebrates pluralism must try and accommodate different beliefs and practices, this does not give religion a free pass, as:

such a society can cohere only if all its participants accept that certain basic norms and standards are binding. Accordingly, believers cannot claim an automatic right to be exempted by their beliefs from the laws of the land.

Despite the clear principle set out above, the owners of Beloftebos (and their supporters) mistakenly continue to argue that the right to freedom of religion always (or at least usually) trumps the right not to be discriminated against, when the opposite is true. I have previously argued that the position taken by Geloftebos is an unethical and reactionary position that privileges the feelings and beliefs of some Christians over the dignity, well-being and safety of LGBTQ people. Read more via Constitutionally Speaking