Christian charity facing banishment by government regulators
WND.com 6 October 2017
Family First Comment: World famous in NZ – as international media start to cover our experience!
A Christian charity in New Zealand right now is fighting a battle more and more Christians may come to encounter as LGBT activists expand their influence around the globe – a government decision its belief in biblical marriage “cannot be determined to be for the public benefit.”
While Christian and conservative organizations in the United States faced harassment and targeting under the administration of Barack Obama, with deliberate delays in regulatory approval so they could operate, charities in New Zealand operate under a different legal structure.
There, they must be authorized by regulators, the government’s New Zealand Charities Board, or they simply are not allowed to operate. That is, without that approval they are not allowed to collect donations at all.
Officials at the Barnabas Fund, which works on behalf of persecuted Christians worldwide, explained when the first Charities Commission was set up in the United Kingdom, which was integral in establishing governments in New Zealand and Australia, in 1853, “its role was very simple – to ensure that when people gave money to a charity, that money was used for the purpose for which it was given.”
There, they must be authorized by regulators, the government’s New Zealand Charities Board, or they simply are not allowed to operate. That is, without that approval they are not allowed to collect donations at all.
Officials at the Barnabas Fund, which works on behalf of persecuted Christians worldwide, explained when the first Charities Commission was set up in the United Kingdom, which was integral in establishing governments in New Zealand and Australia, in 1853, “its role was very simple – to ensure that when people gave money to a charity, that money was used for the purpose for which it was given.”
“In those days everyone understood what a charitable purpose was – it was things like helping the poor, caring for the sick or spreading the Gospel. In fact in the nineteenth century more than three-quarters of all charities had a specifically Christian foundation,” the report said.
“However, in the last two decades laws have been passed in Australia, NZ and the UK which require charities to prove they provide a ‘public benefit.’ This has created a dangerous situation in all three countries where unelected individual civil servants at the charity regulator can effectively decide on their own what is/is not allowed to be a charity (and therefore allowed to collect donations).”
It’s the Family First NZ organization that has been fighting the attacks from the regulators.
It recently lodged a followup appeal with the Wellington High Court regarding the regulators attempts to shut it down.
“Family First has also successfully applied for an order that the board be restrained from deregistering Family First until the appeal is heard,” the group reported.
READ MORE: http://www.wnd.com/2017/10/christian-charity-facing-banishment-by-government-regulators/
“However, in the last two decades laws have been passed in Australia, NZ and the UK which require charities to prove they provide a ‘public benefit.’ This has created a dangerous situation in all three countries where unelected individual civil servants at the charity regulator can effectively decide on their own what is/is not allowed to be a charity (and therefore allowed to collect donations).”
It’s the Family First NZ organization that has been fighting the attacks from the regulators.
It recently lodged a followup appeal with the Wellington High Court regarding the regulators attempts to shut it down.
“Family First has also successfully applied for an order that the board be restrained from deregistering Family First until the appeal is heard,” the group reported.
READ MORE: http://www.wnd.com/2017/10/christian-charity-facing-banishment-by-government-regulators/
